Old Man's War Boxed Set 1 (98 page)

I turned back to the porthole. The Roanoke sky was fading to black around me.

“This is
your
ship,” General Rybicki said to me, motioning around the observation deck he’d just been led into. I had been waiting for him there.

“It is,” I said. “For now. You could say we’re leasing it. I think it’s originally Arrisian, which is some irony for you. It also explains the low ceilings.”

“So I should address you as Captain Perry?” Rybicki asked. “That’s a step down from your previous rank.”

“Actually, Jane’s the captain. I’m her nominal superior, but she’s in charge of the boat. I think that makes me a commodore. Which is a step up.”

“Commodore Perry,” Rybicki said. “Catchy. Not very original, I’m afraid.”

“I suppose not,” I said. I held up the PDA I had in my hand. “Jane called me as you were being led up here. She told me that it had been suggested to you that you might try killing me.”

“Christ,” Rybicki said. “I’d like to know how she knows these things.”

“I hope you’re not planning to go through with it,” I said. “It’s not that you couldn’t do it. You’re still CDF. You’re fast and strong enough to snap my neck before anyone could stop you. But you wouldn’t make it out of this room afterward. I don’t want you to die.”

“I appreciate that,” Rybicki said, dryly. Then, “No. I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to try to understand you.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” I said.

“You can start by telling me why you sent for
me
,” Rybicki said. “The Colonial Union has all sorts of diplomats. If the Conclave is going to start a parlay with the CU, that’s who should be here talking to you. So I’m wondering why you asked for me.”

“Because I felt I owed you an explanation,” I said.

“For what?” Rybicki said.

I motioned. “For this,” I said. “Why I’m here and not on Roanoke. Or anywhere in the Colonial Union.”

“I assumed it was because you didn’t want to be tried for treason,” Rybicki said.

“There is that,” I said. “But that’s not it. How are things in the Colonial Union?”

“You’re not seriously expecting me to tell you anything
here
,” Rybicki said.

“I mean very generally,” I said.

“They’re fine,” Rybicki said. “The Conclave attacks have stopped. Roanoke has been secured and we’ll be landing a second wave of colonists there within a month.”

“That’s ahead of schedule,” I said.

“We decided to move quickly there,” Rybicki said. “We’ll be massively fortifying its defenses as well.”

“Good,” I said. “A shame that couldn’t have happened earlier, before we were attacked.”

“Let’s not pretend we don’t know the whys and wherefores of that,” Rybicki said.

“How did the Colonial Union take our victory, incidentally?” I asked.

“It was naturally extremely pleased,” Rybicki said.

“Officially, at least,” I said.

“You know the Colonial Union,” Rybicki said. “The official story is the only story.”

“I know,” I said. “And that’s the reason for all of
this
.”

“I’m not following you,” Rybicki said.

“Just before our battle with Eser back on Roanoke, you said something to me,” I said. “You said that the Colonial Union more than anyone else was acting in the best interests of humanity.”

“I remember that,” Rybicki said.

“You were right,” I said. “Out of every government or species or intelligent race, the Colonial Union is the one that is the best at looking out for us. For humans. But I’ve come to doubt that the Colonial Union is doing that job
well
. Look how the Colonial Union treated us at Roanoke. It deceived us in the purpose of colony. It deceived us in the intent of the Conclave. It made us complicit in an act of war that could have destroyed the entire CU. And then it was willing to sacrifice us for the good of humanity. But none of the rest of humanity ever knew the whole story, did
they? The Colonial Union controls communication. Controls information. Now that Roanoke survived, the Colonial Union will never tell any of it. No one outside the CU power structure even knows the Conclave exists.
Still
.”

“The Colonial Union believed it was necessary to do it that way,” Rybicki said.

“I know,” I said. “And they’ve
always
believed it to be necessary to do it that way. You came from Earth, General. You remember how little we knew about out here. How little we knew about the Colonial Union. We signed up for a military we knew nothing about, whose goals we knew nothing of, because we didn’t want to die old and alone back at home. We knew that somehow we’d be made young again, and that was enough. It got us here. And that’s the Colonial Union way. To tell just enough to achieve a goal. Never more.”

“I don’t always agree with the Colonial Union’s methods,” Rybicki said. “You know I disagreed with the CU’s plan to cut Roanoke loose. But I’m not sure I’m following you. It would have been disastrous if the Conclave had known of our plans for Roanoke. The Conclave wants to keep humanity boxed up, Perry. It still does. If we don’t fight, the rest of the universe gets filled up without us. Humanity dies.”

“You’re confusing humanity with the Colonial Union,” I said. “The Conclave wants to keep the Colonial Union boxed up, because the Colonial Union refuses to join it. But the Colonial Union is not humanity.”

“It’s a distinction without a difference,” Rybicki said.

“True enough,” I said. I pointed out the curving window of the observation deck. “You saw the other ships here as you arrived,” I said.

“Yes,” Rybicki said. “I didn’t count them all, but I’m guessing there are four hundred and twelve.”

“Close,” I said. “Four hundred and thirteen, including this one. Which, incidentally, I’ve named the
Roanoke
.”

“Wonderful,” Rybicki said. “The fleet that attacks our next colony world will have an ironic tinge to it.”

“The Colonial Union is still planning to colonize, then,” I said.

“I’m not going to comment about that to you,” Rybicki said.

“If or when the Conclave and the Colonial Union square off again, this ship won’t be part of it,” I said. “This is a trade ship. So are all the other ships in this fleet. Every ship in this fleet is carrying goods from the race whose ship it is. This took a lot of doing, you should know. It took a couple of months before every race signed on to this. General Gau had to twist a few arms, or whatever. It’s easier to get some races to give a warship than a cargo ship filled with goodies.”

“If a fleet of warships isn’t going to convince the Colonial Union to join the Conclave, I doubt a fleet of trade ships is going to do it either,” Rybicki said.

“I think you’re right about that,” I said, and raised my PDA. “Jane, you can skip now.”

“What?” Rybicki said. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I told you,” I said. “I’m explaining myself to you.”

The
Roanoke
had been floating in space, a prudent distance from any gravity well that might interfere with her Skip Drive. Now Jane gave the order to engage the drive. We punched a hole through space-time and landed somewhere else.

From the observation deck, the difference was not great: One moment we were looking at a random field of stars, and the next, we were looking at another random field of stars. Until we began to see the patterns.

“Look,” I said, pointing. “Orion. Taurus. Perseus. Cassiopeia.”

“Oh my God,” Rybicki said, whispering the words.

The
Roanoke
turned on its axis, and the stars faded out, replaced
by the immense glowing orb of a planet, blue and green and white.

“Welcome home, General,” I said.

“Earth,” Rybicki said, and anything he meant to say after that was lost in his need to stare at the world he left behind.

“You were wrong, General,” I said.

It took a second for Rybicki to shake himself out of his reverie. “What?” he said. “Wrong about what?”

“Coventry,” I said. “I looked it up. The British knew there was an attack coming. You were right about that. But they didn’t know where it would strike. The British didn’t sacrifice Coventry. And the Colonial Union shouldn’t have been willing to sacrifice Roanoke.”

“Why are we here?” Rybicki asked.

“You said it, General,” I said. “The Colonial Union will never join the Conclave. But maybe Earth might.”

“You’re going to take Earth into the Conclave,” Rybicki said.

“No,” I said. “We’re going to offer it a choice. We’re going to offer it gifts from each world of the Conclave. And then I’m going to offer it my gift.”

“Your gift,” Rybicki said.

“The truth,” I said. “All of it. About the Colonial Union and about the Conclave and about what happens when we leave our homeworld and come out to the universe. The Colonial Union is free to run its worlds however it wants, General. But
this
world gets to decide for its own. Humanity and the Colonial Union aren’t going to be interchangeable anymore. Not after today.”

Rybicki looked at me. “You don’t have the authority to do this,” he said. “To make this decision for all these people.”

“I may not have the authority,” I said. “But I have the right.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Rybicki said.

“I think I do,” I said. “I’m changing the world.”

Out the window another ship popped into view. I raised my PDA; on the screen was a simple representation of Earth. Around
the glowing circle dots appeared, singly, doubly, in groups and in constellations. And when they all arrived, they began broadcasting, all of them, a message of welcome, in as many human languages as could receive them, and a stream of data, unencrypted, catching up Earth on decades of history and technology. The truth, as near as I could tell it. My gift to the world that had been my home, and which I hoped would be again.

I didn’t recognize him at first. Partly this was because of where I was seeing him. It was odd enough that I would be on the steps of the U.S. House of Representatives; to see him there was entirely unexpected. It was also partly because he looked rather older than I remembered him being. And partly because he wasn’t green.

“General Szilard,” I said. “This is a surprise.”

“It was intended to be,” he said.

“You look different,” I said.

“Yes, well,” Szilard said. “Now that the Colonial Union has to deal with human governments here on Earth, one of the things we’ve discovered is that the politicians here don’t take us very seriously if we look like we usually do.”

“It’s not easy being green,” I said.

“Indeed not,” Szilard said. “So I’ve made myself look older and pinker. It seems to be working.”

“I assume you’re not telling them that you’re not old enough to rent a car,” I said.

“I don’t see the need to confuse them any more than they are,” Szilard said. “Do you have a minute? There are things to say.”

“I’m done with my testifying for today,” I said. “I have time.”

Szilard looked around me in an exaggerated fashion. “Where’s your mob of reporters?”

“Oh,
that
,” I said. “General Gau’s testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. I was just talking to a House agricultural subcommittee. There was a single public access camera there and that was it. It’s been months since anyone bothered to follow me around, anyway. Aliens are more interesting.”

“How the mighty have fallen,” Szilard said.

“I don’t mind,” I said. “It was nice to be on magazine covers for a while, but it gets old. Do you want to walk?”

“By all means,” Szilard said. We set off in the direction of the Mall. Occasionally someone would glance my way—off magazine covers or not, I was still all-too-recognizable—but residents of D.C. were proudly jaded regarding famous politicians, which I now suppose I was, for lack of a better term.

“If you don’t mind me asking, General,” I said, “why are you here?”

“I’m lobbying senators today,” Szilard said. “The U.S. moratorium on CDF recruiting is a problem. The U.S. always accounted for the bulk of our recruits. This was why it was never a problem when other countries forbade their citizens from signing up; their contributions were trivial. But without the U.S. we’re not meeting recruitment goals, especially now that so many other countries also have recruiting moratoriums.”

“I know about the moratorium,” I said. “I’m asking why
you
.”

“I seem to be good at speaking the politicians’ language,” Szilard said. “Apparently there’s an advantage around here to being mildly socially retarded, and that’s the Special Forces for sure.”

“Do you think you’ll get the moratorium lifted?” I asked.

Szilard shrugged. “It’s complicated,” he said. “Everything’s complicated because at the end of the day the Colonial Union has kept Earth in the dark for so long. You came along and told
everyone here how much they’ve been missing out on. They’re angry. The question is whether they’re ultimately angry enough to side with the Conclave instead of other humans.”

“When’s the vote?” I said.

“Three weeks,” Szilard said.

“Should be interesting,” I said.

“I understand there’s a curse about living in interesting times,” Szilard said.

We walked silently for a few minutes.

“What I’m saying to you now comes from me alone,” Szilard said. “So we’re clear on that.”

“All right,” I said.

“First, I want to thank you,” he said. “I never thought I’d ever get to visit Earth. If you hadn’t completely fucked up the Colonial Union’s way of doing things, I never would have. So thanks for that.”

I found it very difficult to hide my amusement. “You’re welcome,” I said.

“Second, I need to apologize to you.”

“You need to apologize to Jane, General,” I said. “She’s the one you altered.”

“I altered her, but I used you both,” Szilard said.

“You said you did it to keep humanity alive,” I said. “I’m not thrilled about being used by you or anyone else, but at least I have more sympathy for your goal.”

“I wasn’t entirely honest with you,” Szilard said. “Yes, I worried about the Colonial Union causing the eradication of the human race. Trying to stop that was my primary goal. But I had another goal as well. A selfish goal.”