John Scalzi - The Last Colony

"Turn around," Jane said. I turned. Savitri was there. I turned back to Jane, but she had walked away for a moment.

"Everything okay?" Savitri asked, watching Jane walk off.

"If I knew I would tell you," I said. I waited for a snappy comeback from Savitri. It didn't come, which in itself told me about Savitri's frame of mind. "Has anyone noticed our planet problem?" I asked her.

"I don't think so," Savitri said. "Most people are like you— sorry—and they don't actually know what the planet looks like. Now, your absence has been noted. Yours and all the colony reps' as well. But no one seems to think there's anything sinister about it. You people are supposed to meet and talk about the colony, after all. I do know Kranjic is looking for you, but I think he's just looking for a quote from you about the celebration and the skip."

"Okay," I said.

"Anytime you want to tell me what else is going on, that would be fine, too," Savitri said. I started to give a rote, flip response and froze when I saw the look in her eye. "Soon, Savitri," I said. "I promise. We just have a couple things to work out."

"All right, boss," Savitri said. She relaxed just a little.

"Do me a favor," I said. "Track down Hickory or Dickory for me. I need to talk to them about something."

"You think they know something about this?" Savitri asked.

"I know they know something about this," I said. "I just need to find out how much they know. Tell them to meet me in my quarters later."

"Will do," Savitri said. "I'll find Zoe. They're always within a thirty-meter radius of her. I think it's beginning to annoy her, too. Seems they make her new boyfriend nervous."

"This would be that Enzo kid," I said.

"That's the one," Savitri said. "Nice boy."

"When we land I think I'll have Hickory and Dickory take him for a nice long walk," I said.

"I think it's interesting that in the middle of a crisis you can still think of ways to hamstring a boy sweet on your daughter," Savitri said. "In a twisted way it's almost admirable."

I grinned. Savitri grinned back, which was my hope and intent. "One has to have priorities," I said. Savitri rolled her eyes and left.

A few minutes later Jane reappeared, carrying two cups. She handed one to me. "Tea," she said. "Peace offering."

"Thanks," I said, taking it.

Jane motioned toward the door, where the colony reps were. "Any news?"

"Nothing," I said. "I haven't even been listening in."

"Do you have any plan for what you're going to do if they decide our plan is full of crap?" Jane asked.

"I'm glad you asked," I said. "I haven't the slightest idea what to do then."

"Thinking ahead, I see," Jane said, and sipped her tea.

"Don't sass me," I said. "That's Savitri's job."

"Look. Here comes Kranjic," Jane said, motioning down the hall, where the reporter had appeared, Beata as ever in tow. "If you want, I could just take him out for you."

"But that would leave Beata a widow," I said.

"I don't think she would mind," Jane said.

"We'll let him live for now," I said.

"Perry, Sagan," Kranjic said. "Look, I know I'm not your favorite person, but do you think you might give me a line or two about the skip? I promise I'll make you look nice."

The door to the conference room opened, and Trujillo looked out.

"Hold on, Jann," I said to Kranjic. "I'll have something for you in a minute." Jane and I went back into the conference room; I heard Kranjic give an audible sigh before we closed the door.

I turned to the colonist reps. "Well?" I asked.

"There wasn't much to discuss," Trujillo said. "We've decided that for now, at least, we should do as the Colonial Union suggested."

"Okay, good," I said. "Thank you."

"What we want to know from you now is what we should tell our people," Trujillo said.

"Tell them the truth," Jane said. "All of it."

"You were just saying how the CU has been deceiving us," I said to Trujillo. "Let's not go down the same road."

"You want us to tell them everything," Trujillo said.

"Everything," I said. "Hold that thought." I opened the door and called Kranjic. He and Beata entered the room. "Start with him," I said, gesturing to Kranjic.

They all looked at him.

"So," Kranjic said. "What's up?"

"The Magellan's crew will be the last people down," I said to Jane. I had just come back from a logistics meeting with Zane and Stross; Jane and Savitri had been busy reprioritizing the colony's equipment based on our new situation. But for the moment, it was

just me, Jane and Babar, who as a dog was happily resistant to the stress around him. "After they're down, Stross will set the Magellan to drive itself into the sun. No muss, no fuss, no sign of us."

"What's going to happen to Stross?" Jane said. She wasn't looking at me; she sat at the stateroom table, tapping it gently.

"He said he was going to 'hang out," " I said. Jane looked up at me quizzically. I shrugged. "He's adapted to live in space," I said. "That's what hes going to do. Hs said his doctorate research would keep him busy until someone came to get him."

"He thinks someone is coming to get him," Jane said. "That's optimism for you."

"It's nice someone has optimism," I said. "Although Stross didn't really seem to be the pessimist type."

"Yeah," Jane said. Her tapping changed rhythm. "What about the Obin?"

"Oh, well," I said, remembering my earlier conversation with Hickory and Dickory. "That. Seems the two of them know all about the Conclave, but were forbidden from sharing the information because we didn't know anything about them. Basically, not unlike some spouses of mine I could name."

"I'm not going to apologize for that," Jane said. "It was part of the deal I made to be with you and Zoe. It seemed fair at the time."

"I'm not asking you to apologize," I said, as gently as I could. "I'm just frustrated. From what I read in the files Stross gave us this Conclave has hundreds of races in it. It's the single largest organization in the history of the universe as far as I can see. It's been coming together for decades, since back when I was on Earth. And I learned about its existence only now. I don't know how that's possible."

"You weren't meant to know," Jane said.

"This is something that spans all of our known space," I said. "You can't hide something like this,"

"Of course you can," Jane said, and her tapping suddenly stopped. "The Colonial Union does it all the time. Think about how colonies communicate. They can't talk to each other directly; there's too much space between them. They have to compile their communication and send it in spaceships from one colony to another. The Colonial Union controls all ship travel in human space. All information bottlenecks into the Colonial Union. When you control communication, you can hide anything you want."

"I don't think that's really true," I said. "Sooner or later, everything leaks. Back on Earth—" Jane suddenly snorted. "What?" I asked.

"You," Jane said. " 'Back on Earth.' If any place in human space can be described as profoundly ignorant, it's Earth." She motioned her hand, encompassing the room. "How much of any of this did you know about, back on Earth? Think back. You and every other CDF recruit signed up completely ignorant of how things are out here. You didn't even know how they were going to make it possible for you to fight. The Colonial Union keeps Earth isolated, John. No communication with the rest of the human worlds. No information either way. The Colonial Union doesn't just hide the rest of the universe from Earth. It hides Earth from the rest of the universe."

"It's humanity's home," I said. "Of course the CU wants to keep its profile low."

"For fuck's sake," Jane said, genuinely irritated. "You can't possibly be so stupid as to believe that. The CU doesn't hide Earth because it has sentimental value. The CU hides Earth because it's a resource. It's a factory that spits out an endless supply of colonists and soldiers, none of whom has the smallest idea what's out here. Because it's not in the Colonial Union's interest to have them know. So they don't. You didn't. You were just as ignorant as the rest of them. So don't tell me you can't hide these things. The surprising thing isn't that the Colonial Union hid the Conclave from you. The surprising thing is that it's telling you about it at all."