Jerry Pournelle - West of Honor

"Crapdoodle, has Irina been talking to everyone in Garrison? I don't need a convention of people to cheer me up."

"You don't, eh?" He made no move to leave. "Spit it out, Mister."

"You don't call captains 'mister.' "

He grinned. "No. Sorry. What's the problem, Hal? Finding out that things aren't as simple as you'd like them to be?"

"John, what the hell were we fighting for out there? What good do we do?"

He stretched a long arm toward the brandy bottle and poured for both of us. "We threw a gang of criminals out. Do you doubt that's what they were? Do you insist that the people we helped be saints?"

"But the women. And children. What will happen to them? And the governor's right, something's got to be done for the convicts. Poor bastards are sent here, and we can't just drown them."

"There's land to the west," Kathryn said. "They can have that. My grandfather had to start from the beginning. Why can't the new arrivals?"

"The governor's right about a lot of things," Falkenberg said. "Industry's got to come to Arrarat some day. Should it come just to make the Bronson family rich? At the expense of a bunch of farmers who bought their land with one hell of a lot of hard work and blood? Hal, if you're having second thoughts about the action here on Arrarat, what'll you do when the Fleet's ordered to do something completely raw?"

"I don't know. That's what bothers me."

"You asked what good we do," Falkenberg said. "We buy time. Back on Earth they're ready to start a war that won't end until billions are dead. The Fleet's the only thing preventing that. The only thing, Hal. Be as cynical about the CoDominium as you like. Be contemptuous of Grand Senator Bronson and his friends-yes, and most of his enemies too, damn it. But remember that the Fleet keeps the peace, and as long as we do Earth still lives. If the price of that is getting our hands dirty out here on the frontiers, then it's a price we have to pay. And while we're paying it, just once in a while we do something right. I think we did that here. For all that they've been vicious enough now that the battle's over, Wan Loo and his people aren't evil. I'd rather trust the future to them than to people who'd do-that." He took Kathryn's hand and turned it over in his. "We can't make things perfect, Hal. But we can for damn sure end some of the worst things people do to each other. If that's not enough, we have our own honor, even if our masters have none. The Fleet is our country, Hal, and it's an honorable fatherland." Then he laughed and drained his glass. "Talking's dry work. Pipe Major's learned three new tunes; come and hear them. You deserve a night in the club, and the drinks are on the battalion. You've friends here, and you haven't seen much of them."

He stood, the half smile still on his lips. "Good evening, Hal. Kathryn."

"You're going with him, aren't you?" Kathryn said when he'd closed the door.

"You know I don't care all that much for bagpipes-"

"Don't be flippant with me. He's offered you a place with his new regiment, and you're going to take it."

"I don't know. I've been thinking about it-"

"I know. I didn't before, but I do now. I watched you while he was talking. You're going."

"I guess I am. Will you come with me?"

"If you'll have me. Yes. I can't go back to the ranch. I'll have to sell it. I couldn't ever live there now. I'm not the same woman I was when this started."

"I'll always have doubts," I said. "I'll need-" I couldn't finish the thought, but I didn't have to. She came to me, and she wasn't trembling at all, not the way she'd been before anyway. I held her for a long time.

"We should go now," she said finally. "They'll be expecting you."

"But-"

"We've plenty of time, Hal. A long time."

As we left the room, Last Post sounded across the fort.