Нэнси Кресс - Terran Tomorrow

“Why?”

Because I don’t trust you, you bastard. Something is going on at Fort Hood that looks a lot like a military coup, with you as the leader of a South American–style junta .

“The Return is a diplomatic vessel, sir. It does not belong to us, and its use is predicated on the consent of the leader of the World expedition, Dr. Ka^graa. Turning it over to Fort Hood would have violated international law.”

“You do not get to make that decision, Colonel. Was your second in command, Major Duncan, a part of these acts?”

“No, sir.”

“Was she aware of the raid before it was carried out?”

“No, sir.” Another lie.

“You are hereby relieved of your command, Colonel Jenner, and are under arrest for actions that may have aided and abetted the enemy.”

A stretch to get treason out of falsifying information, but Strople could make it stick. After all, there was no one above him to dispute the charge.

Strople added, “I wish to speak with Major Duncan.”

“She is at the base, sir, and I am at the signal station. I thought it advisable for her to remain at base in case my FiVee was taken out by New America on my way here or back.”

“You’re going to wish it had been, Colonel. That would be better than what’s going to happen to you now. The signal station personnel must have been involved in directing the spaceship.”

“Information Tech Specialist David DeFord aided me. Lieutenant Li was overpowered and restrained.”

“Where is Li now?”

“Here, and still captive, sir.”

“You will release him at once, and he will arrange for me to speak to Major Duncan. Specialist DeFord is also under arrest. Who else is with you at the station? Identify yourself.”

Goldman stepped forward. “Captain James Goldman, sir.”

“Did you have prior knowledge of Colonel Jenner’s deceiving HQ about the capabilities of the spaceship?”

“No, sir.”

“Did anyone else know?”

“I have no knowledge of anyone, sir.”

Jason said, “General, no one else knew. The decision was mine. Everyone else acted on my orders, assuming that I had received them from you.”

“No one else was involved in this conspiracy?”

So now it had become a conspiracy. “No, sir.”

“Uh-huh. Captain Goldman, you will take custody of both Colonel Jenner and Specialist DeFord, relieve them of their weapons, and immediately transport them to base. There you will imprison both until further orders concerning their courts martial. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Goldman said.

“Lieutenant Li, you will remain at the signal station. Contact your perimeter patrol at the base and arrange for me to speak to Major Duncan as soon as she can be transported to the signal station.”

When the farce had finished, all the actors playing their parts, Jason turned from the console. Li, Goldman, DeFord. Plus Duncan, Hillson, and the perimeter soldier on duty, Laura DeSoto, a lifer who was also a member of J Squad. And, of course, Jason himself. Benjamin Franklin had famously written that two people can keep a secret as long as one of them was dead. This was seven people. He trusted every one of them.

In the Army that Jason had joined, this cabal would not have been possible. Personnel, information, legal documents, orders all had flowed across the country—across the world —in rapid, verifiable, closely surveilled streams. But this was not the Army that Jason had joined. This was the army of nineteenth-century isolated forts, of twentieth-century cabals and juntas, of a stray and damaged spaceship, of an enemy on American soil made up of Americans with no police to stop them from seizing whatever they wished.

I have violated my oath as an officer in the United States Army. Except—he did not believe that. Now his duty to his country lay in preserving the scientists at Monterey Base and the diplomatic mission from World, so that together they could find a solution to what had destroyed the old Army along with everything else.

The penalty for treason in wartime was death.

But maybe there wouldn’t be any court-martial. Maybe the order would come later today to summarily execute Jason and DeFord. If so, nobody but the seven of them would hear it.

“Jim,” Jason said to Goldman, “we’re returning now to base.”

Belok^ sat up on a pallet, in a row of pallets divided by inadequate curtains. La^vor crouched beside him, holding his huge hand. The boy blinked his large dark eyes, looking dazed. Zack hung back as Claire knelt on the floor beside the rumpled blankets.

“Belok^? Kar^ judil¡?”

La^vor spoke rapidly in World; Zack couldn’t tell if Claire understood her. Claire listened to Belok^’s chest, shone a small light into his eyes, tested his reflexes. Belok^ said nothing, but the skin between his eyes wrinkled slightly.

La^vor stroked her brother’s hand. It seemed to Zack that Belok^ was gathering himself, trying to pit his challenged, mostly wordless mind against circumstances. He looked slowly around the cubicle, then directly at Claire, at La^vor, at Zack. Some emotion moved in the depths of his eyes.

Zack felt the hairs on his arms prickle.

La^vor went on murmuring to her brother.

Belok^ stood up. He staggered, stiff with not moving for so long, and Zack saw how thin his arms had become in his coma. La^vor jumped up and let him lean on her. From his great height he looked down at her upturned face. “La^vor,” he said slowly.

She answered in World, something reassuring. Zack braced himself. Now Belok^ would say the name of his dead brother, Glamet^vor¡, and she would have to tell him that the only other pillar holding up Belok^’s universe was dead.

Belok^ looked all around once again. Then, haltingly, he said something in World: something of several words, something that might have been an entire sentence, something he had never been able to say before. Then a second entire sentence.

And none of the other three, frozen by surprise, managed to say anything at all, until Zack said in a voice that didn’t even sound like his own: “Caitlin.”

Caitlin had not woken, nor Susan, nor any of the other v-comas. When Zack had finished checking, he returned to Belok^’s cubicle. The boy was sitting up, broad back against the wall, while a clutch of medical personnel peered at him from the corridor. Claire said, “La^vor, kar^… I mean, hee^kan… no… we need Jane for this!”

Zack said, “I’ll go get Ka^graa. He can’t translate like Jane, but he’s the best we’ve got. Besides, he’s the head of the World expedition.”

“No, he’s not,” Claire said crossly. “But go get him anyway.”

Zack didn’t want to leave. In the corridor, a young Army nurse, Josie Somebody, hovered at the edge of the silent crowd. He said, “Please go find Dr. Ka^graa and bring him here. Right away.”

An expression of distaste flitted across the girl’s face. But she said, “Okay,” and walked off. A soldier rounded a corner of the corridor and said something to her, but she shook her head and moved on. Zack returned to Belok^.

He was still speaking, fluently and without hesitation.

Claire, who’d rocked back on her heels, looked as if she’d been hit with a two-by-four. La^vor was weeping. Zack got out, “What is he saying?”

Claire said, “He’s hungry.”

“Is that all?”

“I can only get a few words, but mostly, yes, it seems to be that he’s hungry. Also that he wants to see Glamet^vor¡. She hasn’t told him yet. But, Zack, it’s not what he’s saying… it’s that he’s talking so much and so easily.”

“I know.” And then, “Colin Jenner and the others…”