Authors: Christopher Nuttall
The food might have appeared crude, but there was plenty of it and it tasted surprisingly good. Glen helped himself to roast potatoes, vegetables and a helping of gravy, then tucked in when he realised that no one was waiting for a formal signal to start eating. The colonials seemed to eat well, he decided, as he took a second slice of meat. Or had they decided to go all out to welcome the Governor. It was hard to see her from his position, but it looked as though she was reluctantly eating a plateful. Windy, beside her, recorded everything.
“I understand that my daughter serves on your ship,” the officer said. “I trust that you find her conduct acceptable?”
Glen cursed himself under his breath. The officer had Sandy’s jaw and hair colour, even though there was something more feminine about her appearance. And they shared the same eyes ... he should have seen it at once. Instead, he’d been too focused on the Governor to notice that his dinner companion was his XO’s father.
Theo taught you to pay attention to seating arrangements
, he berated himself, angrily. He should have known better than to assume it was random. Even in the colonies, they wouldn't leave it to chance.
And you let the Governor distract you
.
“She is a fine officer and a credit to the Navy,” he said, unwilling to say much more anywhere near Windy. Her equipment was mil-grade, as Cynthia had pointed out when she’d stopped worrying about Sandy; she could record every conversation in the room and play it back for later analysis. No human mind could pay attention to so much at once, but there were commercially-available AIs that could isolate separate conversations for human inspection. “And I am fully satisfied with her conduct.”
“That is good,” General Mannerheim said. In his own way, he was as much a legend as Admiral Webster. Up close, there was a sense of bulky inevitability around him, as if he would get whatever he wanted, no matter what stood in his way. The Bulldozer, his crews called him, according to the files. “I trust that you will accept my dinner invitation?”
“I would be delighted,” Glen said, truthfully. It would be nice to hear from someone who wasn't a politician, in or out of uniform. “And I would be equally honoured to offer you a tour of
Dauntless
.”
The servants came back into the room, pushing empty trolleys in front of them. Glen noted another difference between the Federation’s elite and the colonials; where the Federation’s elite would ignore the servants completely, the colonials passed them their plates and actually
thanked
them for their service. Glen had to admit that they probably got better service, even though Theodore paid his house servants more than officers in the Navy were paid. Goodwill was often just as important as money.
He watched as the dirty plates were replaced by china bowls, each one containing a scoop of ice cream. It was a tiny portion compared to what was available on Earth, yet one taste convinced him that it was perfect. A blend of orange and lemon, he decided, mixed with cream and frozen into a solid mass. He hadn't realised that the colonies produced anything so tasty.
“It’s a very small operation,” the General commented, when Glen asked. “They only make a few dozen boxes a month. Nothing synthesised in it at all.”
“You should export it,” Glen said. It was rare for worlds to have truly unique products – and he was sure that the ice cream could be duplicated once the recipe got out – but it would certainly help Fairfax’s trade balance. “People would
love
to buy it.”
Or at least the cosmopolitans would, he thought, dryly. They bought everything, as long as it was fashionable; they’d even eaten foodstuffs from various alien homeworlds, convinced that merely eating it boosted their social status. There were dark rumours that they’d actually eaten Dragon eggs or flesh, although Glen doubted that was true. Even the most obsessed social climber would hesitate at eating the flesh of sentient creatures.
Even Theodore would balk
, he told himself.
And besides, there would be riots if it ever got out.
A dull tapping sound rang out through the room as he finished his ice cream. The Governor was tapping her spoon against the table, calling for silence. Glen concealed his amusement – normally, one tapped a knife against a goblet – and sat up straighter. He didn't think he was going to enjoy hearing whatever the Governor had to say, but he knew he had to pay attention. If nothing else, the speech and their reactions would probably be broadcast back home for media consumption.
Silence fell, slowly and rebelliously, as the governor stood up. The colonials probably didn't bother with after-dinner speeches, although they were a required part of social gatherings on Earth. Glen had once asked Theodore, when he’d been ten years old, if people were bribed with food to listen to the speeches. His brother had given one of his rare chuckles and then insisted that Glen attend the next few functions as a guest. Glen would have preferred to be grounded. The dinners might have been boring to an adult, but they were agony personified to a child.
“Many years ago,” the Governor said, “it was determined that human unity was the key to human survival. We had not been a united race in the past. We fought wars that slaughtered vast numbers of human beings hundreds of times. Even when we encountered our first alien race, we only really gave lip service to the importance of unity. We still bickered amongst ourselves rather than putting our petty arguments aside and facing the universe.
“It almost killed us all.
“When we first encountered the Dragons, we were consumed with the dispute between the People’s Republic of Zion and the United Taiwanese Stars. It was a petty dispute, but it looked as though those two power blocs were going to go to war. The Federation Navy was caught in the middle; the Federation Senate was paralysed, helpless to intervene. A minor star system that hardly anyone had heard of before the dispute materialised would become the catalyst of a colossal civil war. Because of this, we barely noticed when the
Santa Maria
was lost. Because of this, we ignored the threat the Dragons represented to our very existence.”
She paused, looking around the chamber. “There were other disputes,” she continued. “All of them took our attention from the
real
threat. Colonies wanted independence – or at least autonomy. Power blocs wanted to establish other colonies; the Federation Navy needed to patrol space and eradicate pirates in neutral zones. We barely noticed that the Dragons were drawing up their plans against us, right up until the moment we flew into their trap. Because of our lack of unity, we came close to losing the war.”
There was a certain amount of truth in what she said, Glen knew. The Federation had noted that its technology was superior to that possessed by the Dragons – and assumed that it would always remain that way. But it hadn’t; the Dragons might have been weak in the pure sciences, but when given a problem to solve their scientists had worked wonders. By the time the war broke out, their technology was actually more advanced in places than human tech. And yes, disunity had played a role in the Federation’s inattention.
“There was no grand plan to abandon the Fairfax Cluster,” the Governor said. Glen heard a hiss of indrawn breath from the representatives. “The situation was dire. In order to preserve the Federation Navy intact, the Bottleneck had to be abandoned. The decision was not made lightly, but it had to be made. We took as many refugees as we could as we withdrew from the outer worlds, while delaying the Dragons until we could meet and stop their main fleets. There was, quite simply, no other choice. If we had stood and fought, we would have lost everything.
“We understand that you see it as a betrayal. We understand that you believe that we wrote you off, that we abandoned you – and we do not blame you for being angry. But what we did was the only thing we could do. We were delighted to discover that you had survived, even prospered – and to welcome you to the grand offensive that ended the war. A whole new universe beckons us now.
“But unity is still important.
“My purpose in being here, in serving as your Governor, is to reintegrate the Fairfax Cluster into the Federation. We cannot allow the disunity that threatened human survival, not any longer, nor can we tolerate too many departures from the Federation Code. The Federation can provide you with supplies you desperately need, both for yourself and the alien populations. It can and it will go a long way to convince you that you will not be abandoned or penalised. But it cannot permit disunity.”
Glen scowled. He would have bet good money that Theodore – or one of his PR staff – had written most of the speech, blending together truth with the best possible spin on events ... and concluding with what was, in effect, an ultimatum. Admittedly, there had been no consequences or other threats attached, but it was unlikely that anyone in the chamber had misinterpreted her words. The Fairfax Cluster would be rejoining the Federation, like it or not.
His implants twitched, reporting a sudden increase in message traffic in the room. It was considered rude to use implants to talk in public, at least in the Federation, but it allowed the assembled representatives a chance to coordinate their response. Maybe they already had a response lined up, yet it would need to be fine-tuned to respond to the Governor’s precise words.
He looked up as the President rose to his feet. “Those are fine words, Madam Governor,” he said, politely. There was no edge in his voice, just a hint of bitter amusement. “But I am afraid that they do not address the true scale of the rift between the Bottleneck Republic and the Federation. You may indeed have had no choice, militarily speaking, to pull back and abandon us to the Dragons. But your post-war actions show a lack of concern for our position – and our fears – that suggests that the Federation has learned nothing from the war.
“We were forced to fight to defend ourselves because there was no alternative. It was fight or be enslaved. Every man, woman and child in the Bottleneck Republic was on the front lines, no matter where they were. Even those furthest from the border were in constant peril, as enemy raiding parties sought to strike behind our lines. The occupied worlds were pushed into a violent insurgency in hopes of making the Dragons bleed before the human populations were completely wiped out. Every single one of us was in this war up to our necks.
“And then the war came to an end.
“We are not ungrateful for the Federation’s recovery and the massive offensive that ended the war. However, the scars of war have not yet faded – and they won’t, as long as we are unable to address all of the problems caused by the fighting. You say that we shouldn't be building up our military; we have asked for assistance from the Federation and it has not been granted. You say that we should be providing food and clothing for the aliens who remain on our worlds; we simply don’t have the resources to feed and clothe our own people, let alone aliens who were often part of the enemy occupation force. You want us to live by your laws, laws that we had no hand in writing, without offering us any benefits in exchange.
“Nor do we trust you to keep our interests in mind. You have done nothing about the chaos along the border, or the ever-present risk that one of the Dragon warlords will eventually build up his military and restart the war. No, you care about the interests of the Core Worlds, worlds that were barely touched by the war. You know nothing about the true state of affairs out here – and yet you expect us to embrace your judgement?”
“Our new government was hard won,” he concluded. “We will not simply allow ourselves to merge back into the Federation until we have proof that you will take us seriously and respond to our concerns.”
The Governor’s jaw worked for a long moment as she stood up. “We are already attending to one concern,” she said. “I have brought six freighters of supplies with me for the alien refugees, supplies that will save you from having to feed them yourselves ...”
Glen winced as angry shouting broke out within the chamber. As he’d expected, none of the colonials were happy about the convoy. The Governor ducked sharply as someone hurled a fruit at her head, her security staff moving forward to protect her. Glen hesitated, fighting the urge to climb under the table and hide. None of Theodore’s dinner parties had ever ended in a near riot ...
He swore as an emergency alert downloaded itself into his implant. An attack on a colony on the edge of the Fairfax Cluster, specifically targeted on the alien refugee camp ...it looked as if someone had decided to take action personally.