by David Liss
“Yes, it says that right here,” Junup said, still reading the text. “Apparently your presence was a nonnegotiable term for your government. Well, I suppose we must endure it.”
“He is a harmless primitive, Director,” Ardov said.
I waved my hand between the two of them. “You know you both come from the same world, right?”
“He has not been enlightened by the wisdom of the Confederation,” Ardov said. “He is no less primitive than you.”
“Thank you, Ardov,” Junup said, almost kindly. He turned to Villainic. “I now know why you are here, but I still don’t care. When I speak to the others, if there is anything you don’t understand, please do not in any way express your confusion. Allow me to pretend you don’t exist.”
Villainic treated us to some more bowing and then took his seat.
Junup folded his hands. “We seem to have ourselves a situation, don’t we?”
Colonel Rage leaned forward. “How about you spare us the smug posturing and get to the point. If you want us to acknowledge that you hold all the cards, and that we’re in your power, then I’ll go ahead and do that now. It’ll save you some of your precious time.”
Ardov snickered. I never much liked a snickering Ardov, but he had only become more impressed with himself as Junup’s lapdog—or cat, or whatever.
Junup cocked his head. “Very good. It is true. Whatever fate we choose for you, you will have to endure it. I shall not get into debates with you about who is responsible for this current impasse. The human children have been unwilling to acknowledge their culpability in the past, and I doubt they will be willing to do so now.”
“I do not see that you have been quick to acknowledge blame either,” Charles observed.
Ardov began to step forward, like he was going to power-shove Charles through a wall, but Junup held up a staying hand, commanding his minion to be at peace. It was right out of the bad-guy manual.
“In the end,” Junup explained, “it does not matter if you admit to wrongdoing or deny it. Either way, you are accused of terrible crimes. The investigation into your guilt will be time-consuming and not in the best interests of the Confederation. The end result will quite possibly lead to jail time for most of you. The best possible outcome, after years of inquiry and detention, will likely be exile.”
“Director Ghli Wixxix offered our worlds the chance to reapply for Confederation membership,” I said.
“Perhaps you recall destroying the ship on which Director Ghli Wixxix was traveling,” Junup said. “Bargains proposed by her administration were voided the moment you caused her to explode. I know it is your inclination to reveal private conversations to data collectors and thus turn every encounter into a bargaining session, but there is no prize at the end of this one, Mr. Reynolds. Your people will either be exiled from this station or detained indefinitely in its prison. There is no third possibility. Except, of course, for you in particular.” He leveled his large brown eyes at me. “The Phandic Empire still seeks to put you on trial for your crimes. Delivering you to the Phands would make a generous opening move in our upcoming peace negotiations.”
“So, you’re dealing with the Phands now?” I asked.
“We have never believed in isolation,” he said, looking smug.
“Is that how Nora Price got out of prison?” I asked. “Because you don’t believe in isolation.”
“It was a simple prisoner exchange,” Junup told me. He didn’t appear to be even slightly embarrassed. Handing over traitors to the enemy seemed to be business as usual for him. “It is all very regular.”
“I don’t see how regular it is for you to free someone who betrayed my planet,” I said.
“I didn’t,” Junup assured me. “The prisoner exchange was approved by Ghli Wixxix. You see, you are always looking to put people in categories—good and evil and so forth. The truth is always more complicated than we might like. Life is full of compromise.”
I knew that politicians often did things that were pretty unsavory because they were looking at the bigger picture, but I still hated that they’d let Nora Price go. Still, Ghli Wixxix was supposed to be on the right side of things, so I could only hope she’d gotten something important in return.
“Now,” Junup said, “are you done challenging me, or should I proceed to initiate another prisoner exchange? I can only imagine what they would trade for Ezekiel Reynolds.”
“You’ve made your point,” Colonel Rage growled. “I acknowledged that you had the upper hand when we began. But you still want something from us, or you wouldn’t be here, so let’s get to the point.”
“Very well,” Junup said. “I should prefer that an inquiry into the Kind Disposition not drag out indefinitely in the public sphere. While I do not believe that anyone in Confederation government has anything to hide, these sorts of debates tend to lead to inevitable doubts and theories of complicity. This is a time of transition in the Confederation, and I take over for my predecessor under difficult circumstances. If the only eyewitnesses to the destruction of this ship—the very beings accused of being complicit in its destruction—were to disappear, a thorough investigation would be impossible, and the matter would have to be dropped.”
“You want us gone,” the colonel said.
“Correct. I can arrange a way off the station and back to the squalor of your home planets. You would no longer be my problem, and I would no longer be yours. Does this sound appealing to you?”
I’d come here hoping to get the ball rolling so Earth could become a member of an advanced and peaceful galactic civilization, but that prospect was pretty much off the table. This morning, an offer to call it quits and get everyone off the station would have sounded pretty good, but Dr. Roop needed me to go to the Forbidden Zone, and I’d promised him I would do it. I needed to find a way to get everyone home and also help Dr. Roop.
“I think we’re all interested,” Mi Sun said.
The colonel was about to say something, but Alice cut him off. “What’s the catch?”
Junup leaned forward and glowered at her. “I beg your pardon.”
“Come on,” she said. “It can’t be that simple. I know how you operate.”
I noticed that Tamret was glowering at Alice, but I had no idea if she was annoyed by the interruption or irritated that the role of disruptive female had gone to someone else.
“Young lady, you have seen very little since your illegal boarding of our ship,” Junup said with a sneer. “I find it unlikely that you know much at all.”
“I’ve seen enough to doubt that you’d simply give us what we want without expecting something in return. So let’s hear it.”
“Whatever agreement Ghli Wixxix made with these savages, it didn’t include her,” Ardov said. “I can remove her.”
Junup did his evil-dude hand raise again. “You are moderately perceptive,” he said to Alice, “for a member of so undeveloped a species. As it happens, I will need a show of good faith before I can trust you with my plan for your departure.”
Alice looked around the room. “Told you,” she said triumphantly.
Junup sighed. “In two days you will have an interview with Boridi op Xylliac, who now serves as chief justice of the Xeno-Affairs Judicial Council. My replacement, in other words.” He paused and adopted a listening pose, like he wanted us to tell him that no one could ever replace him.
“Surely a successor, not a replacement,” volunteered Villainic.
We all groaned.
“He seemed to want to hear it,” Villainic said apologetically.
“The chief justice will be responsible for the major inquiry into the events onboard the Kind Disposition. He wanted a preliminary and less formal fact-finding session, though everything you say will be considered part of the public record. When you meet with him, I would prefer it if you would take as much responsibility for the destruction of the ship as you can—barring any admission of criminal activity. That would require your arrest, which I admit
would be pleasant, but I understand that you have no motivation to deliver yourselves into prison. You must hint that you made mistakes, showed poor judgment, and acted in ways that resulted—without your intention—in the destruction of the ship. Make no mention of the preposterous allegation of a mutiny against the captain or illegal activity by the Movement for Peace. I suggest you play it up as a misunderstanding precipitated by failure of leadership on Captain Hyi’s part. Also, I would like you to mention my nephew’s heroic efforts to save the ship.”
None of us said anything for a moment.
“You are asking us to let you, quite literally, get away with murder,” the colonel said, his voice quiet.
“I am guilty of nothing,” Junup snapped. “Your shuttle caused a missile to strike the Kind Disposition. That is beyond dispute. What happened up until that event is uncertain. I do not understand all the details, and neither do you. All I am asking is that you emphasize that uncertainty rather than speculate.”
“While hanging Hyi out to dry,” the colonel said. As a military man, he clearly didn’t like the idea of the blame being pinned on a dead officer who, as near as we could tell, had done nothing wrong.
“He won’t mind,” Junup said, “and the truth is, your testimony will sow doubt, but nothing more. It will raise lines of inquiry, but you will be gone and unable to answer additional questions.”
“And if we do not take this offer?” Charles asked.
“Then the hearings will continue, and I guarantee you will end up in prison. That means all of you. This is part of a plot you put together before you left the station last time, and the Ish-hi and the Rarels were in on it too. The only one of you who won’t be spending the rest of his life in our prison system will be Zeke, who will enjoy the honorable tradition of Phandic legal system.”
“But that’s not just!” Villainic said. “Tamret and I weren’t there! Why should we suffer for their actions?”
“Good to know you’re a team player, mate,” Steve said.
“I suppose,” Junup said, “a deal could be struck for those of you not from Earth if you can provide testimony that will help us understand the character of those who committed these terrible crimes against the Confederation.”
So, to get home, they would have to testify against us. Villainic didn’t seem to me the sort of guy who would be able to resist that kind of pressure.
As if to prove my point, Villainic said, “I don’t know anything, but I can assure you I will cooperate in any way I can.”
Junup’s nose twitched and his goaty mouth stretched. A smile, perhaps. “I thought you might feel that way.”
The colonel sighed. “All right. I think we get the picture. For the sake of argument, let’s say we go along with your plan. How does it work?”
“After you have performed adequately when being interviewed by Boridi op Xylliac, then I shall arrange for you to make your way off-station. There is a transport shuttle housed near the landing pad marked ‘Diplomatic Transport.’ That being”—he pointed at Tamret—“will use her computer skills to bypass its security locks and also change its identification code to avoid notice by the traffic drones. You will then make your way to the main starport, where you will find a ship docked in bay 343-585-087. You will take this ship and no other.” He leveled his gaze at Steve. “There will be the illusion of pursuit, but it’s a fast ship, and you’ll have enough of a lead that you will be able to tunnel out before we can overtake you.”
“You plan to stage our escape,” Mi Sun said, stating the obvious.
“It is best for everyone, I think. That ship’s navigation computer will contain coordinates for your worlds. You may bring your friends to Rarel and Ish-hi and then return to Earth.”
Colonel Rage, I observed, was doing his best to act neutral, like this wasn’t the best possible deal he could have hoped for. “How do we know we can trust you?”
“Because I want you gone more than I want you punished,” Junup said.
“So you plan to let us take a ship, and keep it,” the colonel prodded.
“As you are a primitive, militaristic species,” he answered, “one that should never have been offered Confederation membership in the first place, I have no doubt you are already salivating at the prospect of reverse engineering our technology. Please know that the ship and all its components will have been treated with a corrosive nanite agent. Exactly fifteen standard days from the moment you fire up the engines, these nanites will begin taking that ship apart, molecule by molecule. Within six hours of that, the ship will have vanished. I am giving you no gifts, Colonel. Except, of course, freedom.”
Colonel Rage leaned forward. “This is a lot to chew over. We’re going to have to consider your offer, Interim Director. Let me propose a counter—”
Junup stood, interrupting the colonel. “I’m not here to negotiate. I have set forth my requirements and my rewards. You may either accept this generous proposal, or you can be punished. I will not belittle myself by quibbling over details with savages.”
Junup turned and allowed us to enjoy his cape fluttering as he walked out of the room. Ardov followed him but paused briefly at the door. He turned back and grinned at us—at me—and was gone.
Steve almost leaped out of his chair. “What a load of—”
The colonel held up his hand. “I don’t think we should discuss this matter in this room. Let’s take a walk, shall we?”
• • •
We sat in a circle on the front lawn. Tamret’s face was a mask of misery, but everyone looked grim in their own way. Everyone but Villainic, that is, who seemed to find the prospect of returning home delightful.
“I’m not sure what there is to discuss,” Mi Sun said. “We wanted to escape, and this is our chance.”
“The problem,” Alice said, “is that if we do that, we’re helping Junup. We’re giving him what he wants.”
“I hate that,” Mi Sun said, “but the game is rigged. We’re going to lose if we stay.”
There was nothing I liked about Junup’s offer. Dr. Roop needed me to go to the Forbidden Zone, and I meant to try. If there was a chance to help him—which meant helping the Confederation and all of our home planets—I meant to take it. But that wasn’t the only reason I was against this deal.
“He killed Nayana,” I said. “He killed Urch.”
“Sometimes you have to walk away,” the colonel said. “I don’t like it any better than you do, but we’re out of our depth here. Getting everyone landed in prison isn’t going to bring your friends back.”
“I, too, wish we could punish him for what he’s done,” Charles said, “but beyond that, I don’t believe we can accept that everything will be as he claims. What if the ship isn’t where it is supposed to be, or if it is rigged to explode? How do we know he will provide what he says he will?”
“I believe him because his scheme works for him,” the colonel said. “This is the perfect solution. He gets rid of us, and the fact that we’ve hightailed it out of here makes us look guilty. I’m trying to think how he might be planning on double-crossing us, but I don’t see that he has anything to gain by doing that. The sooner we’re nothing but a memory, the better off he is, and if we leave in a way that makes us look bad, he comes out smelling like a rose.”
“Then you want to do this?” Mi Sun asked.
“Not exactly,” the colonel said. “I don’t like this degrading-ship business. Makes me nervous, and takes away our advantage. I didn’t come all the way out here to leave empty-handed.”
“Junup did not appear open to negotiation,” Charles said. “His is the only deal on the table.”
“Then maybe we should help ourselves to something on another table.” The colonel looked at Steve. “You’re the ship thief?”
“That’s right, mate.”
“Any interest in stealing two ships?”
Everyone stared at the colonel.
“The only thing we need from the ship he’s giving us is the coordin
ates to our worlds. What if we take two ships and then rendezvous? Whoever is on the one Junup left for us will transfer over to the ship that isn’t going to degrade.”
“That’s one way to handle it,” Steve said. “Another is to program Junup’s ship to fly off on its own. It’ll look like we’ve taken it, but we’ll just be on another one.”
“But it has the navigation information we need,” Mi Sun said.
Tamret leaned in to Villainic and whispered something in his ear. He nodded at her.
“I can get that before we leave,” Tamret said.
I stared at her, not because of what she’d proposed, but because I hadn’t heard her say so many words since she’d first arrived. She was almost smiling now, and the vaguest hint of the old Tamret was visible, if only for an instant.
“I like that plan,” the colonel said with a grin. “You kids are good. While all eyes are on that other ship, we’ll quietly slip out unnoticed.”
“There’s something else we need to talk about,” I said. I looked around to make sure no one was watching us. I was still worried that our conversations might not be private, but Smelly had said it would know if we were being monitored, and I had no choice but to believe it. “Dr. Roop got in touch with me. I went to go see him.”
This got everyone’s attention, even Colonel Rage, who had not met Dr. Roop but had certainly heard a great deal about him.
“He took a huge risk by meeting with me,” I said, “and he made it clear that we have to pursue Director Ghli Wixxix’s plan. We have to find the Hidden Fortress and get that skill tree. He’s counting on us.”
“Forgive me,” said Villainic, “but I am not familiar with either this Dr. Roop or this fortress you speak of.”
“The director didn’t provide us with a plan,” the colonel said, ignoring Villainic. “She told us her goal. We never discussed mission parameters or security concerns or anything else we would need before going into an unknown and hostile environment. I’d love to get ahold of this skill tree she mentioned—it could give Earth the advantage we need—but I’m not going blind into an engagement, and certainly not when you young people are my responsibility.”
