Steven Kent - The Clone Empire

I asked myself if I still loved Ava, and I had no answer. Whatever I once felt for her, it was the closest I had ever come to love. And now? I told myself that I would get over her the same way I had with so many other girls. She was just more scrub, I told myself, but I didn’t believe it.

The guards stayed out of my way as I entered the building. They did their best imitation of the sentinel statues in a giant cathedral, eyes straight ahead, standing silent and stiff. Maybe they knew me by reputation. Perhaps one or two of them had been at the girls’ dorm.

I did not need to introduce myself to the man at the reception desk. He greeted me by name and called Doctorow’s office to let them know that I had arrived. A few moments later, an aide came to escort me in.

Ellery Doctorow, former Right Reverend, former Army chaplain, and former colonel, had gone grand. He had an office the size of a small parade ground. His floor had a foot of black marble running like a border around two-inch-thick carpet. Bookshelves and paintings lined the walls. In the center of this opulence, Doctorow had an oak-and-mahogany desk that looked large enough to use as a landing pad.

As I entered the office, Doctorow met me at the door and shook my hand. Not even a second passed before he noticed the breakage on my face. How could he miss it? My right eye was a purple goose egg. I had multiple bruises on my jaw, a badly swollen cheek, and cuts on my lips. I saw disapproval in the way his eyes narrowed. He pursed his lips, but he said nothing.

“General Harris, I am glad you came,” he said as he shook my hand.

“I had the impression attendance was mandatory,” I said.

“Oh please,” he said as he led me toward a set of chairs. “You have twenty-two hundred fighting Marines and enough weapons to destroy this planet three times over. You don’t take orders from me, and we both know it.”

He sat down behind his fortress of a desk. I sat in the wood-and-leather seat in front of the desk.

“The planetary council rejected your proposal, General. We won’t be joining your empire,” he said. “We would like you and your Marines to leave Terraneau as soon as possible.” He did not say this in an angry fashion or in a demeaning way. If anything, he sounded serene.

“Are we making way for the Unified Authority?” I asked, though I already knew what he would say.

“No. When and if they contact us, we will give them the same answer we gave you. Terraneau is a neutral planet.”

“I see,” I said.

“A few council members felt we should join the Unified Authority,” he confessed. He sounded so specking magnanimous, it was a bit surreal. Here he was telling me, “Thanks for rescuing us from the aliens, now close the door on your way out,” but he managed to convey this in the comforting voice of a father telling his son about the facts of life.

“They wanted to join the Unified Authority?” I asked, hardly believing my ears. The Unified Authority had abandoned these people. We saved them, and they still preferred the U.A. to us.

“After we discussed the issues, there was a nearly unanimous vote to remain neutral. In the meantime, we all agreed that we wanted you and your Marines to leave our planet.

“I’ve always been up-front with you, Harris. You and your Marines and your warships represent nothing but a threat to us. I mean, look at you. You’ve been here one night, and what happened?”

“I was attacked,” I said.

“By my people?” Doctorow asked. He sounded concerned.

“No,” I admitted.

He said nothing. He did not need to say anything; I had already made his point.

“So you’re done with us?” I asked. “That’s it.”

“What are you looking for, General? Do you want me to thank you for rescuing us?”

“We also restored your power and fixed your roads,” I said. “The Corps of Engineers is military, too.”

That shut him up for a half of a second. “I wanted to speak with you about that. As we discussed before, we would like you to leave your engineers here, on Terraneau. We could use their help for another year or two.”

It was hard not to smile, but I managed it. “You certainly have a set of balls on you,” I said.

“General, there is no cause for profanity,” Doctorow said, and this time he showed no signs of embarrassment for saying it.

“You don’t want me around, but you want me to leave my engineers.”

“Engineers aren’t trained killers. They pose no threat to our goals. Engineers don’t carry guns.

“Harris, you and your men and the whole military way …You bring trouble on yourselves. Look at you. You’re like a lightning rod. You attract violence.”

“That’s a bit simplistic,” I said. “We didn’t bring the aliens.”

“Yes you did. They came back when you arrived.”

“They never left. They were always here, always destroying the planet, you just didn’t know it.”

“Have you had a look at yourself in the mirror this morning? Your face is covered with bruises,” he said. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. You were attacked. I understand that, but what happened to the men who attacked you?”

“One man,” I said.

“Where is he now?” Doctorow asked. “Is he dead? Did you kill him?”

“Dead, but I didn’t kill him,” I said. I hated this. The bastard had put me on the defensive.

“You didn’t kill him, but he’s still dead,” Doctorow said. “That is why we don’t want you or your kind on our planet.”

“How will you protect yourselves?” I asked.

“Protect ourselves from what? With you and your Marines off the planet, we won’t need to defend ourselves. Without you, we’ll be safe.”

“What happens when the Unified Authority arrives?” I asked.

“With you gone, they won’t have any reason to come here. We’re not at war with them.”

“Do you think they will respect your sovereignty?” Actually, I was pretty sure they would. They’d given up colonizing years ago.

“Yes, I believe they will. Look, we don’t want you here. I really don’t see that there is anything else for us to discuss.”

“What happens if the aliens come back?” I asked.

It was my ace in the hole, but I had played it too often, and I knew it. This time Doctorow was ready for it. “That’s a possibility, I suppose,” he said. “Personally, I am less concerned about that possibility than I am about getting you and your men off my planet.”

“You didn’t feel that way when we chased them away,” I said.

“If you recall, we did feel that way. We asked you to go away. I’m glad you ignored our request, but we didn’t want you here in the first place. And now, General Harris, it is time for you to leave.”

I stared at him angrily, he returned my gaze, looking calm and smug, neither of us willing to look away.

“We’ll leave,” I said, “but we are taking our engineers with us.”

“Have you asked them what they want?” Doctorow asked. “I have. I took the liberty of speaking with Lieutenant Mars last night.”

“You ran an end run to my engineers?” I asked, barely able to contain my anger. Why the speck had I come back to Terraneau? My girlfriend left me, an assassin nearly beat me to death, now this bastard was kicking me off the planet. “Have you spoken with anyone else? Perhaps you want my pilot.”

“I spoke with Ava this morning,” Doctorow volunteered.

“You spoke with Ava.” I muttered.

“She wants to stay,” he said.

“I saw her last night,” I said. “I got the same feeling.”

Doctorow’s composure never wavered throughout the interview. My temper flared. I became sullen. I wanted to kill the bastard. My emotions betrayed me and made Doctorow look all the more prescient.