by John Scalzi
“You will understand, Lieutenant, if I’m not convinced that this fact does anything for me at all.”
“Of course.” I stood up. “Just understand that it can. If you want it to. In the meantime, give consideration to what I’ve asked for. Let me know when you’re ready to talk.” I started for the door.
“Aren’t you going to put that back on me?” Tvann said, pointing to the shock collar on the table.
“You can put it back on if you want,” I said. “But I wouldn’t if I were you.” I opened the door, leaving Tvann to stare at the collar on the table.
* * *
“Are you going to kill us?” Specialist Ketrin Se Lau asked me. The two of us were in the same room I had previously been in with Tvann. The room had been reset. Lau was not wearing the shock collar; he’d never been given one.
“Lieutenant Lee promised you that we wouldn’t, if her report to me is accurate,” I said.
“That was her. You are someone new.”
“Do you think we’re going to kill you, Ketrin?” I asked.
“Humans aren’t well known for being kind to their enemies,” Lau said.
“No, I suppose not,” I admitted. “No, Specialist Lau. We’re not planning to kill you, or Commander Tvann.” I watched as relief spilled over the Rraey’s body. “In fact, what we’re hoping to do, after all of this is done, is to return you to your government.”
“When?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s going to be a while,” I said. “We have to get to the end of this current conflict. In the meantime you’re going to be our guest.”
“You mean prisoner.”
“Well, yes,” I said. “But within that framework, there’s a lot of latitude for how you are treated.”
“I don’t know anything important,” Lau said. “I’m a specialist. I was only told specific things about my own job.”
“We know that you don’t know anything above your pay grade,” I said. “We don’t expect you to know the secret plans of Equilibrium.”
“Then what can I tell you that I didn’t already tell your Lieutenant Lee?”
“I’m interested not so much in what you know as I am in what you’ve heard. Rumors and speculation and things like that. We’re both soldiers, Ketrin. Although we’re different species I think we probably share one thing in common: Our jobs are boring most of the time, so we spend a lot of time bullshitting with our friends. I’m interested in the bullshit.”
“I don’t know that word, but I think I know what it means.”
“‘Bullshit’? Yes, I think you probably do. I’m also interested in you, Ketrin.”
“How so?”
“Your experience with Equilibrium,” I said. “Beginning with the very simple question of: How did you get involved with them in the first place?”
“That’s your fault,” Lau said. “Humans, not you specifically. Our wars with you went poorly for us, particularly after the Obin, who had been our allies, turned on us. When that happened we lost planets and lost power, and our military shrank. Many former soldiers were out of work. I was one of them.”
“There are other lines of work.”
“Lieutenant, when we lost planets, we had an influx of people to our remaining worlds. There were no jobs to be had. You and the Obin didn’t just shrink our military. You killed our economy. I’m originally from a colony planet named Fuigh. We don’t have that planet anymore. I was relocated to Bulni. Jobs there mostly went to native Bulnians.”
“Got it.”
“So when I was approached by a former commander of mine about Equilibrium, I didn’t spend any time thinking about it. I was being offered a job and a chance to use my skills. The pay was excellent. And I got to leave Bulni, which I hated.”
“I understand that.”
“If you are planning to attack any planet of ours, let me suggest Bulni first.”
I grinned. “It’s not on our agenda at the moment, but I’ll keep it in mind. How long have you been with the Equilibrium?”
“I don’t know your time measurements.”
“Tell me in your years, I’ll make the adjustments.”
“About six years, then.”
“Which is about five of ours. Which is a long time.”
“It was steady work.”
“Right,” I said. “My point is that we only started learning about Equilibrium very recently. It’s a long time for your organization to be flying under our radar.”
“Maybe you’re not very good at intelligence.”
“That might be it,” I allowed. “But I like to think there’s something more to it than that.”
Specialist Lau did the Rraey equivalent of a shrug. “The organization was always small and focused and decentralized until very recently. For the first couple of years I didn’t even know there was a larger organization. I only worked with my team.”
“So you thought you were a mercenary.”
“Yes.”
“Being a mercenary didn’t bother you.”
“I liked being able to eat. And like I said I didn’t have very many other options.”
“So you thought you were a mercenary, but then you found out about the rest of Equilibrium.”
“Yes.”
“No thoughts about your team suddenly being made part of a larger organization.”
“Not really,” Lau said. “Mercenary companies are like any other company. Sometimes they work with other companies. Sometimes they merge with them. I was being paid on time and working with the same group of people, so it was all the same to me.”
“And what about the philosophical aims of the Equilibrium? What did you think about them?”
“I was fine with them. I’m still fine with them. Lieutenant, the Colonial Union is our enemy, and the Conclave won’t allow us to colonize, even on the planets we lost and want to retake. The two of you have made life very difficult for us. I don’t mind returning the favor.”
“All right.”
“But you have to understand that at the level I work at, we don’t really get into the philosophy of the organization. Do you, sir? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the ethics and philosophy of the Colonial Union and what it does?”
“Actually, I do,” I said, and smiled. “But overthinking things is a hobby of mine. I’m the first to admit I’m weird.”
“My job was to manage communications,” Lau said. “I spent most of my time thinking about my immediate tasks and the people I was working with. I’m not a great thinker, Lieutenant.”
“This mission,” I said. “It was with the same group you’ve been with since the beginning.”
“No. The team I was part of was mostly wiped out when the Chandler attacked Equilibrium headquarters. I survived because I had been temporarily assigned to another team to train some new recruits. After that attack I stayed with that team, which Commander Tvann led. That’s the team you obliterated.”
“I’m sorry for the loss of your friends.”
“Thank you. It’s kind of you to say, even if I doubt you’re entirely sincere.”
“I have to say you’re more forthcoming than Commander Tvann has been.”
“I have a lot fewer secrets to keep,” Lau said. “And I don’t want to die.”
“I know Tvann was not happy with you that you were willing to talk with us. That he tried to attack you to shut you up.”
“Like I said, he has more secrets to keep than I do.”
“I suspect he’s unhappy with the level of loyalty you’re showing.”
Lau barked out a Rraey laugh at this. “You said it yourself, Lieutenant. I’m a mercenary. I have been since the moment Equilibrium hired me. Equilibrium pays well, but right now I can’t spend a single coin of what they pay me. You, on the other hand, can kill me. I value my life more than all the money in the world.”
“That’s a very practical point of view, Ketrin.”
“I was hoping you might appreciate it, Lieutenant.”
“I do, very much. And I think you’ll find that my superiors will appreciate it too.”
“I was hoping that you would say that. Remember, there’s only so much I know. I won’t withhold anything but there are limits to my knowledge.”
“Like I said, I’m interested in other things from you than I am from Commander Tvann. I think you’ll be very useful.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Lau said. “I do have one request for the moment.”
“What is it?”
“Lunch.”
* * *
“Do you know who I am?” Masahiko Okada asked, with just the right amount of outrage to his voice. The same room again, but a slightly different cast of characters. Okada was sitting at the table. I was standing against the wall near the door. The question was not directed at me but at the person sitting directly across from him.
“You’re Masahiko Okada,” said Ode Abumwe, Colonial Union ambassador, and also, my boss.
“Precisely,” Okada said. “And you know my position.”
“Yes I do,” Abumwe said. “You’re a Colonial Union prisoner of war.”
“I’m prime minister of Khartoum!” Okada said, voice shaking.
“No,” Abumwe said. “No, you are not. You may have been, but that was before you acted in open rebellion against the Colonial Union. That was before you ordered ships to attack a Colonial Defense Forces vessel. That was before you ordered ground-based weapons to blast individual CDF soldiers out of the sky. Whatever you were before, Mr. Okada, right now you are a traitor, and a murderer, and a prisoner of war. Nothing more than that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Okada said. “We declared independence from the Colonial Union, that’s all.”
“You declared independence from the Colonial Union and then hid in a secret location,” Abumwe said. “Which surely suggests you knew the Colonial Union would respond to your independence and would send forces to retrieve you. And when we did, we were attacked. Not by Khartoumians, Mr. Okada. By others entirely.”
“I didn’t authorize any attack.”
Abumwe sighed audibly at this.
“I want to speak to Secretary of State Galeano. When she finds out what you and your Colonial Defense Force stooges have done to me, you’ll be lucky just to be fired.”
“Mr. Okada.”
“Prime Minister Okada.”
“Mr. Okada,” Abumwe repeated, and I could see the mottled rage rising up Okada’s neck and face, “you appear to be under the impression that by sheer force of personality, you will change your circumstances at the moment. That you will, by issuing demands in that stentorian campaign voice of yours, cow me to your will. You misunderstand my role here, Mr. Okada. I am not the one keeping you from returning to your previous, exalted status. I am the one that is keeping you from being turned into a floating brain in a transparent column of nutrient broth.”
The mottled flush of Okada’s cheeks disappeared, followed by something rather paler. “Excuse me?” he said.
“You heard me, Mr. Okada,” Abumwe said. “You declared your planet independent of the Colonial Union, which was enough to have you labeled a traitor. For that alone you would be looking at the rest of your life in a Colonial Union prison, if they didn’t simply decide to execute you. But then you also attacked Colonial Defense forces. And the CDF doesn’t forgive the deaths of its people. It especially won’t forgive them when it’s clear that you, the prime minister of an entire planet, planned and coordinated the attack with enemies of the Colonial Union.
“The CDF won’t kill you for that, Mr. Okada. What they will do is strip your brain out of your head and let it lie in isolation—horrible, endless isolation—until you tell them every single thing you know. And then when you’re done, you’ll be sent back into that endless isolation.”
Okada’s eyes flickered up to me. I stared back at him, impassive. I knew what my role in the room was, which was to be the silent avatar of every horrible thing the Colonial Defense Forces would do to Okada. It would be an inappropriate time for me to note my own personal objection to the brain removal tactic, which I found frankly criminal.
“The only reason you haven’t already been prepared for this operation is because I, as a courtesy owed to your former station, am offering you a choice,” Abumwe continued. “Tell me everything you know, now. No hesitation, no omission, no lies. Start with your deal with Equilibrium. Share it all, and you will stay you. Or don’t.”
“I didn’t authorize that attack,” Okada began.
Abumwe shoved up from her seat, a look of genuine disgust on her face.
“Wait!” Okada held up a hand, imploringly. Abumwe paused. “We had a deal with Equilibrium, yes. But it was only for defense if and only if the Colonial Union attacked Khartoum itself. A major attack. A single CDF ship in orbit wouldn’t have triggered it.”
“But you hid yourself,” I said. “You and your cabinet.”
“We’re not stupid,” Okada spat at me. “We knew you would come for us. We hid to delay you finding us, and to keep you from destroying infrastructure and creating civilian casualties when you went looking for us.” He turned back to Abumwe. “We always knew we were going to be captured. We knew you would send a single ship for us, because we all know how the Colonial Union like to imply that it only takes a single ship to deal with any internal problem. We wanted to be captured. Our plan was civil disobedience. To act as an inspiration for the other colony worlds who were planning to declare their independence as well.”
“Civil disobedience doesn’t usually include calling in outside forces to act as muscle,” I said.
“It’s one thing for me and my cabinet to participate in civil disobedience,” Okada said. “It’s another thing to leave three hundred sixty million people defenseless against the Colonial Union. Our deal with Equilibrium was defense and deterrence, not aggression.”
“And yet they attacked anyway,” Abumwe said, sitting down again.
“Not on my orders,” Okada said. “The first I knew of it was when your soldiers blasted their way into our bunker and dragged me out.”
Abumwe looked at me. I shrugged.
“I am telling the truth!” Okada protested. “I don’t want my brain in a goddamned tube, all right? I was misled by Equilibrium. By Commander Tvann. He told me his role was deterrence only. Encouraged us to declare independence before the other colonies to set the example—and to make them aware that Equilibrium would protect them like it was protecting us. To encourage every colony to break free of the Colonial Union.”
“So why did Commander Tvann do it?” Abumwe asked. “Why did he attack?”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“We have and we will again. But right now I’m asking you. Speculate.”
Okada laughed bitterly. “Obviously because whatever plans Equilibrium has, they deviate substantially from our own. What they are, I cannot even begin to tell you. All I know, Ambassador, is that I was used. I was used. My government was used. My planet was used. And now all of us are going to pay for it.”
Abumwe stood up again, less dramatically this time.
“What’s going to happen now?” Okada asked.
“We’ll make sure you stay intact,” Abumwe said.
“That’s not what I meant. I meant, what’s going to happen to Khartoum. What is the Colonial Union going to do to my planet. To my people.”
“I don’t know, Minister Okada,” Abumwe said. I wondered if he noticed that she gave him his honorific the one time he gave thought to those he was supposed to represent, and not just himself.
* * *
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Abumwe said to her current brain trust, which at the moment was Hillary Drollet, her assistant; Neva Balla, the captain of the Chandler; my friend Hart Schmidt; and me. All of us were crammed into that same small room. “It won’t be long before Equilibrium discovers that their attack has failed.”
“I don’t think it did
,” I said.
“How do you figure?” Balla said, to me. “The Tubingen isn’t entirely destroyed. The two ships attacking it were. The Rraey attack on our soldiers was likewise countered and the Rraey eliminated, except for our two prisoners. And Khartoum isn’t independent. If anything it’s just signed up for more direct Colonial Union oversight. There are twenty CDF ships on the way here now to make that point.”
I pointed at her for emphasis. “But, see, that’s the victory condition.”
“Explain yourself, Lieutenant,” Abumwe said to me.
“What does Equilibrium want?” I asked the room. “It wants to destabilize and destroy the Colonial Union. And the Conclave, too, but let’s focus on us for a minute.”
“Right,” Balla said. “And they failed. Khartoum is still in the Colonial Union. It didn’t destroy the Colonial Union.”
“It’s not just destroy. It’s also destabilize,” I said. “The CDF is sending ships not just to deal with the Tubingen’s survivors, but to exert control over a rebellious planet. You said twenty ships, Captain.”
“That’s right.”
“When was the last time the Colonial Union committed that number of CDF ships to a colonial world that wasn’t directly under attack by another species?”
“You’re the one with the computer in your head,” Balla said. “You tell us.”
“It hasn’t happened in over a century,” I said.
“We’ve never had the level of uprisings we’re seeing now,” Hart said, to me. He looked around the room. “Harry and I talked to Lieutenant Lee, who led that Tubingen platoon to get the prime minister. She said that all of her previous recent missions were either stopping rebellions on Colonial Union planets or containing them if they’d already begun. That’s new. That’s different.”
“This goes to my point,” I said. “The Colonial Union is already destabilizing. Bringing in twenty ships won’t help.”
“I don’t know about that,” Balla said. “I think no one on Khartoum is going to start anything anytime soon.”
“But the audience here isn’t just Khartoum,” Abumwe said, to Balla, and then looked at me. “That’s what you’re going to say next, isn’t it.”
