John Scalzi - The Android's Dream

"No," Fixer said. "But it's true."

"Do you seriously expect me to believe you?" Javna said.

"You could double-check my story with the Nidu," Fixer said. "I'm sure they'll be happy to admit they're planning to torpedo a cruise liner filled with UNE civilians."

Three minutes later, Javna and Fixer were in Jim Heffer's office. Fixer repeated his message.

"Isn't this convenient," Heffer muttered, looking up at Javna. "And just a few hours before you and I are supposed to be on our way to Nidu for the coronation ceremony."

"It's no coincidence," Javna said. "They grab the girl and get her to Nidu before there's time to do anything about it. The coronation ceremony starts late, but it finishes nonetheless. And there's another wrinkle."

"I can't wait to hear what it is," Heffer said.

"Robin Baker's no longer a UNE citizen," Javna said. "We disenfranchised her to make her her own sovereign species and to keep the Nidu from having an excuse to break our treaties. But it also means that if they grab her and use her for the ceremony we have no legal way to protect her. We have no treaties with the woman."

"The Nidu would still be violating their CC charter," Heffer said.

"Not if they declared war on her first," Javna said.

Heffer chuckled ruefully. "Nidu declaring war on a single person. Good lord."

"It's idiotic but it's legal," Javna said.

"We can't signal the Neverland," Heffer said.

"It's in n-space," Javna said.

"At the very least we can warn Nidu not to board her," Heffer said.

"We could," Javna said. "But how do we enforce it? Chagfun is a minor Nidu colony. We have no presence there. They could torpedo the Neverland and we'd never be able to confirm it. If they hit her hard enough, everything would simply burn up in the atmosphere."

"How long until the Neverland reaches Chagfun?" Heffer asked.

"I have no idea," Javna said.

"Here," Fixer said, fishing out a piece of paper. "It's the Never-land's itinerary."

Heffer took it and looked at it. "The Neverland jumped into n-space less than a half hour ago," he said. "You couldn't have come by an hour earlier?"

"I'm just the messenger," Fixer said. "Please don't shoot me."

"She's not due in at Chagfun until the day after tomorrow," Heffer said, and tapped his desk for a moment. "Come on, you two," he said. "We're going to the Pentagon."

At the Pentagon, Bob Pope ignored Heffer to zero in on Javna. "You know Dave Phipps has gone missing," he said.

"I didn't," Javna said. "When did this happen?"

"The day he had lunch with you," Pope said, and then pointed at Heffer. "After our little meeting with the president about the Nidu destroyers I tried to reach Dave and got nothing. He's been out since with no word."

"He told me that he needed to close down a couple of projects," Javna said, "relating to our little interdepartmental power struggle."

Pope opened his mouth to refute Javna, then shut it and looked at Heffer. "We're all friends today," he said, as a statement, not a question.

"Whatever you say, Bob," Heffer said.

"We contracted out to a team suggested to us by Jean Schroeder." It was Heffer's turn to open his mouth; Pope put up his hand. "I know. Friends, Jim. Schroeder has gone missing. The team we were using—what's left of it since the Arlington Mall incident—has gone missing, too. I'm pretty sure Dave went to see Schroeder the night he disappeared."

"So Phipps is with Schroeder and his team," Heffer said.

"I can't believe Dave would do that," Pope said.

"I have to side with Secretary Pope," Javna said. "When I talked with Phipps he said things had gone too far. He sounded like he was wrapping things up, not getting ready to run."

"If he's not with Schroeder, then where is he?" Heffer said.

Pope looked at Javna. "You know what I think," he said.

"You think he's dead," Javna said. "You two put together a team to kill Harry and Robin Baker and when Phipps decided to have them take the fall, they killed him instead."

"Bob, whatever happened to Phipps, I'm sorry to hear it," Heffer said. "But at the moment we have another problem." Heffer had Fixer repeat his warning about the Neverland.

"Who gave you this information?" Pope asked Fixer.

"The same people who saved me when one of the members of your 'team' tried to eat me," Fixer said. "I realize I don't count here, but I'm personally inclined to believe them."

"What do you think?" Pope said, to Heffer.

"We can't ignore it," Heffer said. "The Nidu have already tried every legal avenue to get Robin Baker. She's a critical part of the coronation ceremony. I think this information makes sense. I think they're going to try for her and to hell with anyone who gets in their way."

"Dropping a UNE ship into Nidu space is awfully close to war, Jim," Pope said.

"The Nidu firing on a civilian ship is already an act of war," Heffer said. "If nothing else, Nidu won't be able to hide what they're doing from us or the CC."

"If you're wrong on this, I'm taking you down with me," Pope said.

"If I'm wrong on this, you won't need to take me down with you," Heffer said. "I'll go willingly."

Pope jabbed a button on his desk; the windows in his office went opaque and the room became noticeably dimmer. Pope pointed at Fixer. "You wait outside." Fixer nodded and headed to the door. When he was gone, Pope poked a second button. A projector above his desk came to life and displayed a dimensional map of the space that contained the Earth, her colonies, and other local star systems.

"Display Chagfun," Pope said. A star near the top of the display glowed brightly. "All right," Pope said. "The closest colony we have to Chagfun is Breton Colony, here." Pope reached in to touch a star; the display flickered and reset to show an Earthlike globe. "List UNE ships at Breton," Pope said.

There were three. "The James Madison, the Winston Churchill, and the British Columbia," Pope said. "The Madison and the Churchill can't help us. Their jump engines are too weak to get to Chagfun in time. But the British Columbia." Pope touched the name in the floating list; the screen flickered again and generated an image of the British Columbia and a catalogue of its stats. "Yes, the 'Britcee' could do it. If she gets under way in the next hour, she can be there right around the time the Neverland arrives. It's going to be close, though."

"What are you going to do, Bob?" Heffer asked.

"First, I'm going to get Admiral Nakamura on the comm and tell him that if he doesn't get the 'Britcee' on the move in fifty minutes, he can have his resignation on my desk ten minutes after that," Pope said. "Then I'm going to take your little friend on the other side of the door and haul him over to the Oval Office so I can explain why I've committed a UNE battle cruiser to a combat mission without the president's approval. Then if I still have a job I believe I'm going to have a stiff drink. Aren't you going to the Nidu coronation, Jim?"

"I am," Heffer said, and signaled to Javna. "We both are. We're leaving in a couple of hours."

"Well, that"s excellent," Pope said. "You'll be there to explain to the Nidu why we've started a war with them. And I'm glad. After today, I may be out of a job, but the two of you are likely to be prisoners of war. I'd rather have it that way than the other way around. Now if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to play Russian roulette with our planet's future with the bullet you've so thoughtfully provided. I hope you don't mind if I don't see you out."

A bullet whined past Brian's ear. He flinched.

"Realistic, isn't it?" Andrea Hayter-Ross said.

The table at which the two of them sat floated serenely over the vast Pajmhi plain. Around Brian erupted the sights and sounds of war The bursts of gunfire, the wet smacking sounds of rounds striking human or Nidu flesh, the screams of both species as its members fell to the plain writhing, their blood—both red—oozing, spurting, and flowing into the ground. Brian gripped the table; he knew intellectually that the table was actually not floating over the plain, and that what he was seeing was a computer simulation, but that didn't stop him from feeling dizzy or uncertain of the stability of his seat.