Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 (81 page)

“I’m still waiting to hear how any of this makes my colony so important,” orenThen said.

“The Conclave Agreement says that those races who are members of the Conclave may not hold new worlds for themselves; they colonize
the worlds they discover but other Conclave members will colonize, too,” Gau said. “The agreement also says that when the Conclave finds a planet colonized by a non-Conclave species after the Agreement, it takes that planet for the Conclave. No one gets to colonize unless it’s through the Conclave. We warned non-Conclave species about this.”

“I remember,” orenThen said. “I was chosen to lead this colony not long after you said this.”

“And yet you colonized,” Gau said.

“The Conclave was not a sure thing, General,” orenThen said. “Despite your sense of destiny, you still could have failed.”

“Fair enough,” Gau said. “But I didn’t fail. Now the Conclave exists, and now we have to enforce the Agreement. Several dozen colonies founded after the Agreement was created. Including this one.”

“Now I see,” orenThen said. “We’re the first in a series of conquests for the glory of the Conclave.”

“No,” Gau said. “Not conquests. I keep telling you this. I’m hoping for something else entirely.”

“And what would that be?” orenThen asked.

“For you to leave on your own,” Gau said.

OrenThen stared at Gau. “Old friend, you have entirely lost your mind,” he said.

“Listen, Chan,” Gau said, urgently. “There is a reason it starts here. I
know
you. I know where your loyalties lie—with your people, not with your ataFuey and his policy of racial suicide. The Conclave will
not
allow the Whaid to colonize. It’s as simple as that. You will be held to the planets you had before the Agreement. No more. And from those few planets, you will see the rest of space fill up without you. You will be
isolated
—no trade and no travel to any other worlds. You will be contained, my friend. And contained, you will wither and die. You know the Conclave can do this. You know
I
can do this.”

OrenThen said nothing. Gau continued. “I can’t make the ataFuey change his mind. But you can help me show others that the Conclave would rather work through peace. Give up your
colony. Convince your colonists to leave. You can return to your home world. I promise safe passage.”

“You know that’s an empty offer,” orenThen said. “If we abandon this colony we’ll be branded as traitors. All of us.”

“Then join the Conclave, Chan,” Gau said. “Not the Whaid.
You
. You and your colonists. The Conclave’s first colony world is about to open to emigrants. Your colonists can be among them. You can still be the first to a new world. You can still be colonists.”

“And you would get the public relations coup of not massacring a colony’s worth of people,” orenThen said.

“Yes,” Gau said. “Of course. That’s part of it. It will be easier to convince other colonies to leave their worlds if they can see that I spared you on this one. Avoiding bloodshed here can help us avoid bloodshed other places. You’ll save more lives than those of your colonists.”

“That’s part of it, you said,” orenThen said. “What’s the other part?”

“I don’t want you to die,” Gau said.

“You mean you don’t want to kill me,” orenThen said.

“That’s right,” Gau said.

“But you
will
,” orenThen pressed. “Me and every one of my colonists.”

“Yes,” Gau said.

OrenThen snorted. “Sometimes I really wish you didn’t always mean what you say.”

“I can’t help it,” Gau said.

“You never could,” orenThen said. “It’s part of what passes for your charm.”

Gau said nothing, and looked toward the stars, which were beginning to show in the darkening sky. OrenThen followed his gaze. “Looking for your ship?”

“Found it,” Gau said, and pointed upward. “The
Gentle Star
. You remember it.”

“I do,” orenThen said. “It was small and old back when I first met you. I’m surprised you still command from it.”

“One of the nice things about running the universe is that you’re allowed your affectations,” Gau said.

OrenThen motioned back toward Gau’s platoon. “If memory serves, you’ve got about enough space on the
Gentle
for a small company of soldiers. I don’t doubt that’s enough to do the job here. But if you’re determined to make a statement, it seems underwhelming.”

“First it’s overkill, and now it’s underwhelming,” Gau said.

“
Your
being here is overkill,” orenThen said. “It’s your soldiers we’re talking about now.”

“I was hoping not to use any of them,” Gau said. “And that you would listen to reason. That being the case, there wouldn’t be a need to bring any more.”

“And if I don’t listen to ‘reason’?” orenThen said. “You could take this colony with a company, General. But we can make you pay for it. Some of my people were soldiers. All of them are tough. Some of your soldiers would be buried with us.”

“I know,” Gau said. “But it was never my plan to use my soldiers. If you won’t listen to reason—or the pleadings of an old friend—I have another plan in mind.”

“Which is?” orenThen asked.

“I’ll show you,” Gau said, and looked back toward his platoon. One of the soldiers came forward; Gau nodded to him. The soldier saluted and began speaking into a communications device. Gau returned his attention to orenThen.

“Since you once lobbied your own government to join the Conclave—and failed, through no fault of your own—I’m sure you can appreciate it when I tell you that it’s nothing short of miraculous that the Conclave exists at all,” Gau said. “There are four hundred and twelve races within the Conclave, each of them with their own plans and agendas, all of which had to be taken into consideration as the Conclave came into being. Even now the Conclave is a fragile thing. There are factions and alliances. Some races joined the Conclave thinking they could bide their time before taking it over. Others joined
thinking the Conclave would be a free ride to colonization, with nothing else expected from them. I’ve had to make them
all
understand that the Conclave means security for all of them, and expects responsibility from all of them. And those races who didn’t join the Conclave have to learn that what the Conclave does—all of its members do.”

“So you’re here in the name of all the Conclave races,” orenThen said.

“That’s not what I mean,” Gau said.

“You’ve lost me again, General,” orenThen said.

“Look,” Gau said, and pointed toward his ship again. “You can see the
Gentle
?”

“Yes,” orenThen said.

“Tell me what else you see,” Gau said.

“I see stars,” orenThen said. “What else am I supposed to be seeing?”

“Keep watching,” Gau said.

A moment later a point of light appeared in the sky, near the
Gentle
. Then another, and another.

“More ships,” orenThen said.

“Yes,” Gau said.

“How many?” orenThen asked.

“Keep watching,” Gau said.

The ships winked in, singly, then in pairs and triplets, then in constellations.

“So many,” orenThen said, after some time.

“Keep watching,” Gau said.

OrenThen waited until he was sure no more ships were coming before he turned again to look at Gau, who was still looking into the sky.

“There are four hundred and twelve ships in your sky,” Gau said. “One ship from every member race of the Conclave. This is the fleet with which we will visit every world that was colonized, without authorization, after the Agreement.” Gau turned again and looked for his
lieutenant, whom he could barely see in the gloom. Gau gave his lieutenant a second nod. The soldier spoke in his communicator again.

From each ship in the sky, a beam of coherent light stabbed into the colony on the riverbank, blanketing the colony in white. OrenThen let out an agonized, bursting cry.

“Spotlights, Chan,” Gau said. “Only spotlights.”

It took a few moments before orenThen could respond. “Spotlights,” he said, finally. “But only for the moment, correct?”

“At my order, every ship in the fleet will refocus its beam,” Gau said. “Your colony will be destroyed, and every member race of the Conclave will have a hand in it. This is how it has to be done. Security for all, responsibility from all. And no race can say it did not agree to the cost.”

“I wish I’d killed you when I first saw you here,” orenThen said. “Us standing here talking about sunsets when you had this waiting for me. You and your damned Conclave.”

Gau spread his arms, opening himself. “Kill me, Chan. It won’t save this colony. It won’t stop the Conclave, either. Nothing you can do will stop the Conclave from taking this planet, or the next, or the next. The Conclave is four hundred peoples. Every race who fights against it fights alone. The Whaid. The Rraey. The Fran. The Humans. All of the others who have started colonies since the Agreement. If nothing else, it’s a matter of numbers. We have more. One race against one other race is one thing. One race against four hundred is quite another. All it will take is time.”

OrenThen turned away from Gau and toward his colony, bathed in light. “I’ll tell you something,” orenThen said to Gau. “You might find it ironic. When I was chosen to lead this colony, I warned the ataFuey that you would come for it. You and the entire Conclave. He told me that the Conclave would never form and that you were a fool for trying, and that I had been a fool for ever listening to you. There were too many races ever to agree to anything, much less a grand alliance. And
that the enemies of the Conclave were working too hard to fail. He said the Humans would stop you if no one else did. He thought highly of their ability to set everyone against each other without getting involved themselves.”

“He wasn’t far wrong,” Gau said. “But the Humans overreached. They always do. The opposition they created to counter the Conclave fell apart. Most of
those
races are now more concerned about the Humans than they are about us. By the time the Conclave gets to the Humans, there may not be many of them left.”

“You could have gone after the Humans first,” orenThen said.

“In time,” Gau said.

“Let me put it another way,” orenThen said. “You didn’t have to come
here
first.”

“
You
were here,” Gau said. “You have a history with the Conclave. You have a history with me. Anywhere else and there would be no question that this would begin with destruction. Here you and I have a chance for something else. Something that will matter beyond this moment and this colony.”

“You’ve put a lot on me,” orenThen said. “And on my people.”

“I have,” Gau said. “I’m sorry, old friend. I couldn’t see any other way. I saw a chance to show people that the Conclave wants peace, and I had to take it. It’s a lot to ask of you. But I
am
asking you, Chan. Help me. Help me save your people, not destroy them. Help me build peace in our part of space. I beg this of you.”

“You beg me?” orenThen said, his voice rising. He advanced on Gau. “You have
four hundred and twelve
battleships pointing their weapons at my colony and you beg me to help you build
peace
? Fah. Your words mean nothing,
old friend
. You come here, peddling that friendship, and in return for it ask me to exchange my colony, my loyalty, my identity. Everything I have. At the end of a gun. To help you provide the
illusion
of peace. The
illusion
that what you do here is something other than simple, raw conquest. You dangle the lives of my colonists in front of me, and tell me to choose between making them traitors or killing
them all. And then you suggest to me that you’re
compassionate
. You can go to hell, General.” OrenThen turned and stalked away, putting distance between himself and Gau.

“That’s your decision, then,” Gau said, some time later.

“No,” orenThen said, still facing away from the general. “It’s not a decision I can make on my own. I need time to talk to my people, to let them know what their choices are.”

“How much time do you need?” Gau said.

“The nights here are long,” orenThen said. “Give me this one.”

“It’s yours,” Gau said. OrenThen nodded and began to walk away.

“Chan,” Gau began, walking toward the Whaid. OrenThen stopped and held up one of his massive paws to silence the general. Then he turned and held out his paws to Gau, who took them.

“I remember meeting you, you know,” orenThen said. “I was there when the old ataFuey received the invitation to meet with you and every other race who would come to that damned cold rock of a moon you so grandly called neutral ground. I remember you standing at that podium, saying welcome in all the languages you could croak, and for the first time sharing your idea of the Conclave with us. And I remember turning to the ataFuey, and telling him that without a doubt, you were absolutely and totally madhouse insane.”

Gau laughed.

“And then afterward you met with us, as you met with every embassy there who would hear you,” orenThen said. “And I remember you trying to convince us that the Conclave was something we wanted to be a part of. I remember you winning me over.”

“Because I wasn’t truly madhouse insane,” Gau said.

“Oh, no, General. You were,” orenThen said. “Entirely and completely. But you were also
right
. And I remember thinking to myself, what if this mad general actually pulls it off? I tried to imagine it—our part of space, at peace. And I
couldn’t
. It was like a white wall of stone in front of me, keeping me from seeing it. And that’s when I knew
I
would fight for the Conclave. I couldn’t see the peace it would bring. I couldn’t even
imagine it. All I knew was that I wanted it. And I knew that if anyone could bring it into being, it would be this mad general. I believed it.” OrenThen let go of the general’s hands. “It’s so long ago now,” he said.

“My old friend,” Gau said.

“Old friend,” orenThen agreed. “Old indeed. And now I must go. I’m glad to have seen you again, Tarsem. I truly am. These are not the circumstances I would have chosen, of course.”