This Hollow Union

by John Scalzi

  “And that’s me.”

  “It has been since the moment of the general’s death. All we have to do now is make it known.”

  “I have some people I need to see,” I said. “And there are people you need to see too.”

  “I can guess who you want to see,” Oi said.

  “I’m sure you can.”

  “Do you still want my resignation?”

  “If at the end of this sur I’m still in a position to accept it, no,” I said. “And if I’m not, I’ll assume it’s because we’re in the same airlock, waiting to be pushed out into space by whoever is.”

  * * *

  “I question your right to call us here,” Unli Hado said. “You are not General Gau. And the general did not leave instruction for passing on leadership of the Conclave to you. If anyone should be the leader of the Conclave now, it is Chancellor Lause.”

  Hado sat in the conference room next to Tarsem’s public office, along with Lause, Prulin Horteen, Ohn Sca, and Oi.

  “It’s a fair point,” I said, and turned to Lause. “Chancellor?”

  “I’m leader of the Grand Assembly, not the leader of the Conclave,” she said. “I neither want nor can accept that position.”

  “You’re a coward,” Hado said.

  “No,” Lause said. “But I’m not a fool, either. The Conclave has just lost its leader, Unli, and it’s lost it to assassination. Are you so blinded by your own ambition that you don’t realize that anyone claiming the general’s title will look like the assassin’s employer?”

  Hado flung an arm at me. “And she won’t?”

  “No, I won’t,” I said. “Not if we come to terms now.”

  “I repeat: I question your right to call us here,” Hado said.

  “Oi,” I said.

  “Representative Hado, I have it on very excellent information that you are the one who authorized the assassination of General Gau,” Oi said. “Evidence from the Abumwe report combined with my own agents’ intelligence gathering lays it squarely at your door. Within the sur I expect that you will be arrested for treason and that a comprehensive report will show the Elpri government was providing logistical and material support not only for the assassination but for Equilibrium in general.”

  Hado stared, disbelieving. “That’s a lie!”

  “Don’t protest too much, Hado,” Horteen said.

  Oi turned to her. “Prulin Horteen, I have evidence that you offered material support to Representative Hado for the assassination, and that your recent rhetoric about purging nations you deemed traitorous to the Conclave is a feint to draw attention from your own involvement.”

  “What?” Horteen said.

  “Representative Sca, your government’s collusion with Hado’s assassination of the general and with Equilibrium in general is exhaustively documented as well,” Oi said.

  “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Sca said.

  “I do,” Hado said, turning to me. “This is a beheading of anyone who is in a position to oppose you.”

  “No,” I said. “It’s a precautionary measure against a trio of representatives who are a material threat to the unity of the Conclave at the moment of her greatest instability. Any of the three of you could shatter the Conclave, by your own ambition, by your own greed, or by your own stupidity. We are not four serti past the assassination of our leader. The Grand Assembly is in chaos. The representatives are utterly terrified. And if Vnac Oi had the three of you arrested on charges of assassination and conspiracy, I could have you all on the other side of an airlock by the end of the sur and no one would do anything but congratulate me on my decisiveness. I might even get a commendation from the chancellor for it.”

  “Indeed you might,” Lause said. It was instructive to watch the reaction of Hado, Sca, and Horteen to that comment.

  “And when the evidence eventually shows that the accusation was a flat-out lie?” Hado asked. “Because it will. Both Ocampo’s and Abumwe’s reports are out there for everyone to see and compare.”

  “Representative Hado, I’m deeply insulted,” Oi said. “You apparently have so little faith in my ability to manipulate data to tell precisely the story I want it to tell.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” Sca said. “If this was your plan, why didn’t you just have us arrested?”

  “I didn’t say it was my plan,” I said. “It was my rebuttal to Representative Hado’s questioning of my right to call you all here. I trust I’ve made it clear that at the moment right is not the correct frame of reference. I have the power to call you here. As I have the power to condemn you to death. I hope we understand each other.”

  “You want to make an example of us, then,” Hado said.

  “What I want, Representative Hado, is to save the Conclave,” I said. “And offer you three the chance to increase your power and influence while doing so.”

  “By throwing us out of an airlock?” Horteen said.

  “I have a better idea,” I said. “And it is precisely this simple. Representative Horteen, you and Representative Hado have significant power bases among assembly members. They don’t overlap. You two are to come to Chancellor Lause and together declare that for the good of the Conclave you ask that I take on the leadership role of the Conclave. Representative Sca, you will second that proposal. Horteen and Hado will deliver their blocs for the vote, Lause will take care of the rest, and Oi will handle any stragglers. This will happen tomorrow, by mid-sur.”

  “And if it doesn’t?” Hado asked.

  “Then you three will have a meeting with an airlock,” Oi said.

  Hado glanced over at Oi and then turned back to me. “You didn’t have to threaten us,” he said. “You could have just asked.”

  “Representative Hado, we’ve been doing so well being bracingly honest with each other,” I said. “Let’s not ruin it now.”

  “General Gau would never have negotiated with us this way,” Horteen said.

  I glanced over at Hado for this. “Yes, he would have,” Hado said, to Horteen. “He simply would have had Sorvalh here to cover for him.”

  “The general is no longer with us,” I said.

  “Pity,” Hado said.

  “It is,” I said. “How ironic, Representative Hado, that it took you until this very moment to recognize his value.”

  “Do we have a deal?” Oi asked.

  “Do we have a choice?” Hado replied.

  “You said this would increase our power,” Horteen said. “I haven’t heard the part where that happens.”

  “This is how,” I said. “After the present crisis is over, and the stability of the Conclave is no longer in question, I will announce the formation of a task force to create and establish a succession plan for the leader of the Conclave, so that we have no more crises like the one we are now conspiring to avoid today. I will name the three of you, with the chancellor, to head the task force, and give you free reign to create the process, with only one condition: that the next leader of the Conclave must come from the Grand Assembly.”

  “Interesting,” Horteen said.

  “I thought you might see it that way,” I said. Already I could see both Horteen and Hado starting to think how they could use such a task force to their own advantage. “Please note that this process will be for after I retire.”

  “But you do plan to retire,” Hado said.

  “Yes. Not soon, to be clear. But soon enough.”

  “And in the meantime you will still have this threat over our heads,” Sca said.

  “No,” I said. “The threat dies when the Grand Assembly elects me leader of the Conclave, tomorrow.”

  “But only then,” Oi said.

  “And who do you place the blame on then, I wonder?” Hado asked. “For the death of the general?”

  I felt a pang in that moment, for my friend and against my own conscience, for having to use his death so opportunistically. “Let that be my concern for now, Representative Hado.”

&
nbsp; “As you wish, Councilor,” he said, and stood to rise, as did the others. “But it’s not ‘councilor’ anymore, is it? What do we call you now?”

  “I’ll let you decide,” I said. “Tomorrow.”

  They exited, except for Oi. I slumped, exhausted.

  “Well done,” Oi said to me.

  “It was a basic threatening,” I said, weakly. “Nothing I haven’t done before.”

  “Possibly higher stakes this time.”

  “Yes, possibly,” I said. “Thank you for coaching Lause for me.”

  “It might interest you to know I didn’t, really,” Oi said. “When I met with her I just asked her if she would follow your lead. Do you know what she said?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “She said, ‘For the Conclave, I will.’ And there you have it.”

  “Do you believe her?”

  “I think she knows stability is the key to her keeping her job.”

  “And the other three?” I asked. “Do you think they’ll keep the deal?”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Oi said. “One of the nice things about my line of work is that people who don’t know much about it have an infinite capacity to believe that I can do anything, including fabricate incriminating evidence out of thin air.”

  “And don’t you?”

  “It’s not infinite,” Oi said. I smiled at this. “In any event they don’t need to know that we were bluffing blind. And by the time they figure it out, it will be far too late. You have my assurance of that, Councilor.”

  “Thank you, Vnac,” I said. “Now, would you send in our next two visitors.”

  Oi nodded and made its way to the antechamber, where the principals of my next meeting waited.

  “Ambassador Abumwe, Ambassador Lowen,” I said, as the two humans entered. “Thank you both for seeing me at such short notice.”

  “Councilor Sorvalh, please accept my condolences,” Lowen said. “And the condolences of the governments I represent. This is a terrible day.”

  “Condolences from me and the Colonial Union as well,” Abumwe said.

  “Thank you both,” I said, and motioned to the table. “Please sit.”

  They sat. Oi positioned itself in a corner, to observe. I stood, considering my two guests.

  “Is everything all right, Councilor?” Lowen asked.

  “Yes,” I said, and smiled, slightly. “I apologize, ambassadors. I am trying to decide how to say what I have to say next.”

  “You told me earlier that you prize truthfulness,” Abumwe said. “In spite of the environment in which we work. Perhaps at this moment truthfulness would be even more useful than usual.”

  “All right,” I said. “Then here it is: By this time tomorrow I will be the ruler of the Conclave. The deal has already been made. It’s not a role I would have asked for but it’s one I need to take, for the stability of the Conclave.”

  “Understood,” Abumwe said. Lowen nodded.

  “One consequence of today’s events is that the members of the Conclave will be looking to place blame for the assassination of General Gau. Time will eventually provide an answer but that won’t stop the drive for a target in the short term. There are fundamentally two choices here: place blame internally, on a nation or nations within the Conclave, or place it externally.”

  “I can see where this is going,” Abumwe said.

  “You’re not wrong, I imagine,” I said. “But please let me finish. Understand, both of you, that at this very moment I have one priority: to keep the Conclave intact. There is nothing else that comes close to that goal. At this moment, this means I cannot allow internal doubt, internal accusation, or internal blame, even if it is correct to do so.”

  “So you will blame us,” Lowen said. “We humans.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Officially.”

  “What does that mean?” Abumwe asked.

  “It means that for the moment, the official response of the Conclave is to privilege the Ocampo report over your report. It means that we officially assume that the Colonial Union intends malicious action against the Conclave. It means that it is under suspicion with regard to the death of General Tarsem Gau. It means that although we will not declare that a state of war exists between our two governments, any future provocation from the Colonial Union will be met with the harshest appropriate response.”

  “It means you’re using us as a scapegoat,” Abumwe said.

  “I’m not entirely familiar with that term but I can guess what it means. And yes.”

  “You understand that the Equilibrium group will use this as an excuse to make attacks that appear to be from the Colonial Union.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then you understand what my next concern will be,” Abumwe said.

  I nodded at Lowen. “Perhaps you wish to have further discussion on this topic privately. Ambassador Lowen does not need to be read in for this part.”

  “It’s too late for that now, don’t you think.”

  “All right,” I said. “You know I have a back channel open to the Colonial Union. Director Oi here,” I nodded to Vnac, “will be keeper of that channel. If the Colonial Union is genuinely interested in avoiding a war with us, Ambassador, then it will consider continuing the free sharing of information between us. It won’t change the Conclave’s official position on the Colonial Union for now. Unofficially it will help me keep the warmongers in the Grand Assembly in line. We understand each other, I trust.”

  “And what about Earth?” Lowen asked.

  “I can’t give the Colonial Union the slightest provocation or excuse for an attack,” I said, turning to her. “Or allow any other group to use such as cover for attack. I am withdrawing our diplomats from Earth and expelling yours from Conclave headquarters. Existing agreements on trade and lend-lease ships will be followed to their precise letter and no more. Don’t expect any further for the time being.”

  “That puts you in a bad position with us in respect to the Colonial Union,” Lowen said. “Without your trade and material support, a number of our governments will start to look favorably at the CU again.”

  “I don’t have any choice in the matter,” I said. “Until things are settled I can’t allow humanity to be a distraction to the Conclave.” I turned to Abumwe. “With that said, let it be known that if the Colonial Union takes any hostile action against the Earth, the Conclave will assume the Colonial Union is doing so in order to build up its military and colonial populations, with the intent of attacking the Conclave and setting up new colonies. I don’t think I have to tell you what our response will be.”

  “We have no intention of attacking the Earth,” Abumwe said.

  “Attacking the Earth again,” I said. “Our official point of view, Ambassador. For now.”

  “I can’t say that I’m happy with this choice.”

  “I don’t need you to be happy with it, Ambassador. I would like for you to understand why it’s necessary.”

  Abumwe turned to Lowen. “And you? What’s going to be the Earth’s official position on Equilibrium?”

  “I couldn’t tell you,” Lowen said. “We only just found out it existed. Or that you allege that it does exist. I’ll take your information back to Earth with me, of course, and share it. You can expect a high amount of skepticism.”

  “I understand. But if I may ask, what do you think, Ambassador Lowen? Privately.”

  Lowen looked at me before continuing. “I would very much like to believe the Colonial Union had nothing to do with the destruction of Earth Station. I would very much like to believe that it means us no harm. But I don’t know if we can trust the Colonial Union, Ambassador. As much as I would like to. I don’t see it happening.”

  “Perhaps we’ll find a way to earn it,” Abumwe said.

  “I know a way you can start,” Lowen said.

  “Tell me.”

  “My ship blew up,” Lowen said. “And I’ve just been told that we can’t stay here to wait for another one
to arrive. I could use a ride home.”

  * * *

  “The humans are off?” I asked Oi, as it came up to me. I was in the Lalan park. I was taking my last few minutes of peace in what was likely to be a very long time.

  “A serti ago,” it said. “The Chandler was rather crowded, as I understand it. They are going to Earth first to drop off Lowen and her team. Then I understand they are back to Phoenix Station.”

  “Understood.”

  “Not necessarily a very good idea to let them spend more time together,” Oi said. “The two varieties of human. Our people have a hard enough time making a distinction between them.”

  “I’m not sure we had a choice,” I said. “We needed them all away, sooner than later.”

  “We found it, by the way,” Oi said. “The weapon that attacked the Odhiambo.”

  “What was it?”

  “A very interesting new toy. A particle beam weapon, heavily cloaked in material that scatters electromagnetic radiation. We literally ran into it, otherwise we wouldn’t have found it. The weapon had no particular manufacturing marks on it but my analysts guessed it might be human manufacture.”

  “The Colonial Union?”

  “Or these Equilibrium people, borrowing their designs. We’ll figure it out, but at the moment your guess is as good as mine. We figure either it was skipped in just before the Odhiambo, or it’s been sitting out there for a while, waiting for a target.”

  “Are you looking for more of them?”

  “We are now,” Oi said. “You’ll understand when I say they’re hard to find. When you’re elected leader you might authorize some more resources to the task.”

  “Indeed. And, how is the vote going?”

  “It’s going uneventfully,” Oi said. “You will be elected leader of the Conclave in just a few ditu, I expect. It would have been done sooner but some of the representatives can’t vote without making a speech.”

  “How hard did you have to work to change minds?”

  “Not as hard as I might have in any other circumstance,” Oi said. “People are still in shock about the general. They know who you were to him. Many of them are voting for you as a final way to honor him.”

  “That’s a sentiment that would amuse Tarsem,” I said.