Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

She loosened her fists and smoothed her tunic down. Standing straight and proud she walked out of her cabin and started towards the conference room.

The force of her oath seemed to follow right behind her.

“Dobbs!”

The sound of her name brought her skidding to a halt on the landing. She almost overbalanced and had to clutch at the railing to keep her feet.

Yerusha pounded down the stairs behind her.

Dobbs stared at her as she came to a halt on the next stair up.

“I’m sorry,” Yerusha said, dragging in a long breath. “That was a bad call and it was mine. I’m really sorry.”

Dobbs forced herself to speak. “You couldn’t have known.”

“I could’ve guessed.” Yerusha shook her head. “It’s okay. We’ve got one option left. Come on.” She started down the stairs, beckoning Dobbs to follow.

Dobbs’ mind was filled to bursting with thousands of contradictory thoughts. She needed to clear it, but she didn’t seem to have the faculties for the job. Following Yerusha was a simple action. She could do this much, even while her internal world was tying itself into knots.

Yerusha trotted down three levels and stepped through a hatchway into a crowded corridor. Dobbs followed her while she zig-zagged between the crowds to an IBN outlet. She found an open privacy booth and motioned Dobbs to squeeze inside beside her. She jacked her pen into the lock. Once it verified her identity and account balances, the door slid shut. Yerusha sat in the one chair and Dobbs shuffled into the little space left behind it.

“What are you doing?” Dobbs asked as Yerusha began flicking through the menus to open a line.

“What we should have done in the first place.” Yerusha did not turn around. She kept her eyes locked on the desktop in front of her, watching her hands run through the commands. “My stock is pretty high with some of the crew at The Gate. I’m calling that tech, Kagan, and I’m going to get him to download the records of exactly what happened on The Farther Kingdom. With a few data-pointers, we can have the whole thing organized enough to transmit.”

“Transmit?” Dobbs felt the blood drain out of her cheeks. “Where to?”

Yerusha finally glanced behind her. “Everywhere. We’re going to broadcast who you are and what you did.”

“You can’t!” Dobbs blurted the words out. “You were standing there when I told Al Shei…”

“Dobbs, we’ve got it on record that you saved an entire planet. If we make this public, no single world will be able to make a move. You’ll be heroes. Free Home Titania won’t listen to me, but someone in one of the other Free Homes will pick up on the broadcast. They’ll give your people sanctuary. We can get this out in the open, and no one can stop us.” Her eyes were beginning to shine. “This is your chance, Dobbs. We send out the record of what happened on The Farther Kingdom, and Settled Space will see your kind are not dangerous, that you’re not separate from us at all, that you’ve saved us once and you’ll be able to do it again.”

“They’ll destroy us!” Dobbs feet backed her away from Yerusha, away from her bright eyes and the eager tone in her voice. “You can’t do this to us!” Her fingers scrabbled for the catch on the door. It slid back and she ran out into the main chamber.

They’ll destroy you even faster than the Guild will.

It wasn’t true. It wasn’t true. Yerusha just didn’t understand. She’d go back and explain. Al Shei was angry, but she wasn’t murderous. She’d let Dobbs go, hadn’t she? That was all the mercy Al Shei could offer right now. All Dobbs had to do was wait awhile and go back. That was all. Al Shei would let her back in. Yerusha would understand. Then she could…she could…

She remembered Al Shei’s granite eyes. She remembered Lipinski’s fear when she had told him she didn’t know where Flemming was, and Havelock’s face as he locked her into the hospital room. She remembered how eager Yerusha was to spread the news.

She bumped into somebody in the stairwell and nearly fell over. Stumbling and skidding on the stair treads, she kept on going.

Her world was gone. Everything she trusted and loved and depended on, and it had all turned away from her.

No. No. That isn’t it. What about Cohen? I can still go into the net, call Cohen and…

Except the Guild was watching the net, and Cohen wasn’t the only one who could follow a flight path. The Guild might be here already, waiting for her. They might be on their way to the Pasadena right now.

Her foot shot out from under her and she landed hard on the stairs. Her breath went out in a loud “whoof!” and pain bit into her back and neck. After blinking hard at the ceiling, Dobbs grabbed the railing and hauled herself into a sitting position, but she didn’t get up. She sat there, one hand on the railing and the other cradling her forehead.

There was nowhere to go. The Guild wanted to kill her. The Pasadena would never admit her again. Yerusha wanted to use her to prove the Freers had been right all along. There was nowhere to go. Everyone had thrown her out.

Except Curran. Curran had offered her a place to stay. Curran could stop Yerusha’s insane plan. He talked about freedom, a chance to be who she was. Who was she? Now that she wasn’t a Fool, she wasn’t anything. She wasn’t even really a refugee from Kerensk. What was left of Evelyn Dobbs now that she didn’t have anything to cover herself up with?

The confrontation must come. We should welcome it, Dobbs, because only after its over will we be able to make peace with them.

You have been lying to us for two hundred years! And now you are asking me to trust you?

Your body is going to be taken apart for the useable material, and you’re not going to be allowed to leave before they do it.

We can get this out in the open and no one can stop us.

You don’t have to go through this. You don’t have to be humiliated in front of your employers, you don’t have to face whatever the Guild is planning for you. Let me get you out of there.

Dobbs gripped the necklace around her throat.

No. No. There’s got to be something else I can do.

What? She asked herself harshly. What else are you going to do, Dobbs? Run away with Lipinski, maybe go back to Kerensk and set up house? Go on the gossip services after Yerusha’s little broadcast and talk about out-of-body experiences? The Guild has shut you out! Al Shei’s just kicked you out. What are you going to do? Huh?

What are you going to do?

She hauled on the necklace. The simulated jewels bit painfully into the back of her neck before the catch gave and the chain snapped free. She stared at the red and gold sparkle of it for a long moment before she tossed it onto the stairs. She trotted down to the next hatchway and walked out into the corridor without looking back.

The corridor was full to the brim with people, as Oberon’s corridors always were. Dobbs called on all her old training in physical control to avoid breaking into a run. The station was full of eyes and she did not want to be seen. Her throat kept swallowing, trying to feel the slight rub of her chain of office, which was not there. Would never be there again. She was not a Fool, but she would never be anything else.

She found a map on one curving wall and saw she’d blundered into one of the business modules. There was a bank outlet only a dozen yards down the corridor she was in. She threaded her way through the crowd. No one looked at her. That was good. It was good that nobody noticed one tiny, lost woman with her sore throat and eyes that were red from wanting to cry.

The bank outlet was almost full. Dobbs threaded her way between the desks and voices until she found an empty rental desk right next to back wall. She dropped into the chair and pulled out her pen. That and her box she had at least she had kept with her. She wrote DANE PRE-PAIDacross the desk’s main board.