John Scalzi - The Last Colony

Jane, who was still in charge of colony defense, signaled for the satellite to stand down. The ship was now within colony borders, if not within the walls of Croatoan; if the satellite fired, the colony itself would be damaged. Jane likewise took the beam turrets offline; they too would end up causing more damage to the colony than the ship would.

The ship landed; Jane and Trujillo and I walked out to meet it. As we walked a bay on the ship slid open. A passenger shot out from the bay, yelling and running at Jane, who prepared herself for the impact. Badly, as it turned out, because she and Zoe' both tumbled to the ground. I went over to laugh at them; Jane grabbed an ankle and pulled me down to the pile. Trujillo stood at a prudent distance, so as not to get caught up in the mess.

"It took you long enough," I said to Zoe, after I finally detan-gled myself. "Another day and a half, and your mom and I would be headed to Phoenix on a treason charge."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," Zoe' said. "I'm just glad to see you." She grabbed me in another hug.

"Zoe," Jane said. "You saw General Gau."

"Saw him?" Zoe said. "We were there for the assassination attempt."

"You what?" Jane and I said simultaneously.

Zoe held up her hands, placatingly. "Survived it," she said. "As you can see."

I looked over to Jane. "I think I just wet myself," I said.

"I'm fine," Zoe said. "It wasn't that bad, really."

"You know, even fcr a teenager, you might be a bit blase about this," I said. Zoe grinned. I hugged her again, even more tightly.

"And the general?" Jane said.

"Survived it too," Zoe said. "And not just survived it. Came out of it furious. He's using the attempt to call people on the carpet. To demand their loyalty to him."

"To him?" I said. "That doesn't sound like him. He said to me that the Conclave wasn't an empire. If he's demanding loyalty it sounds like he's making himself an emperor." f

"Some of his closest advisers did just try to murder him," Zoe said. "He could use some personal loyalty right now."

"I can't argue that," I said.

"But it's not over," Zoe said. "That's why I came back. There's still a group of planets holding out. They're led by someone named Eser. Nerbros Eser. They've been the ones attacking the Colonial Union, he said."

"Right," I said, remembering what General Szilard had said about Eser.

"General Gau gave me a message for you," Zoe said. "He says that Eser is coming here. Soon. Eser wants to take Roanoke because the general couldn't. Taking Roanoke gives him leverage, the general said. A way to shew he's more able to lead the Conclave."

"Of course," I said. "Everyone else is using Roanoke as a pawn. Why not this asshole?"

"If this Eser is attacking the Colonial Union at large, then he's not going to have any trouble finishing us off," Trujillo said. He was still keeping his distance from the pile.

"The general said that his information says that Eser doesn't plan to hit us from space," Zoe said. "He wants to land here, to take Roanoke with troops. The general said he would use just enough to take the colony. Sort of the opposite of what the general did with his fleet. To make a point. There's more in the files the general gave me."

"So it will be a small attack force," I said. Zoe nodded.

"Unless he's coming with just himself and a couple of friends, we're still going to have a problem," Trujillo said, and nodded toward me and Jane. "You two are the only ones with any real military training. Even with our ground defenses, we won't last long against real soldiers."

Jane was about to respond, but Zoe beat her to it. "I've thought of that," she said.

Trujillo appeared to stifle a grin. "You have," he said.

Zoe turned serious. "Mr. Trujillo, your daughter is my best friend in the world," she said. "I don't want her to die. I don't want you to die. I'm in a position to help. Please don't condescend to me."

Trujillo straightened up. "I apologize, Zoe," he said. "I meant no disrespect. It's just I wasn't expecting you to have a plan."

"And neither was I," I said.

"You remember a long time ago I complained that being an object of worship for an entire race of people wasn't even good enough to get me out of homework," Zoe said.

"Vaguely," I said.

"Well, while I was away I decided to find out what it was actually good for," Zoe said.

"I still don't get it," I said.

Zoe' took my hand, and then reached out to Jane for hers. "Come on," she said. "Hickory and Dickory are still inside the ship. They're keeping an eye on something for me. I want to show it to you."

"What is it?" Jane asked.

"It's a surprise," Zoe said. "But I think you're going to like it."

Jane woke me up by pushing me out of bed.

"What the hell?" I said, groggily, from the floor.

"The satellite feed just went down," she said. Jane was up, l grabbed a pair of high-powered binoculars from the dresser, and went outside. I woke up quick and followed her.

"What do you see?" I said.

"The satellite's gone," she said. "There's a ship not too far from where the satellite should be."

"This Eser is not one for subtlety," I said.

"He doesn't think he has to be," Jane said. "It wouldn't suit his purposes anyway."

"Are we ready for this?" I said.

"It doesn't matter if we're ready," Jane said, and dropped her binoculars to look at me. "It's time."

To be fair, after Zoe returned, we let the Department of Colonization know that we believed we were under imminent threat of attack and that our defenses against such an attack were almost nil. We begged for more support. What we got was a visit from General Rybicki.

"You two must have swallowed a handful of pills," Rybicki said, without preamble, when he walked into the administrator's office. "I'm beginning to be sorry I suggested you for colony leaders."

"We're no: the colony leaders anymore," I said, and pointed at Manfred Trujillo, who was seated behind my former desk. "He is."

This threw Rybicki off stride; he looked at Trujillo. "You have no authorization to be colony leader."

"The colonists would disagree with you," Trujillo said.

"The colonists don't get a vote," Rybicki said.

"They'd disagree with you on that, too," Trujillo said.

"Then the,"ve swallowed stupid pills along with you three," Rybicki said, and turned back to me and Jane. "What the hell is going on here?"

"I thought our message to the Department of Colonization was pretty clear," I said. "We have reason to believe we're about to be attacked, and those who are going to attack us are planning to wipe us out. We need defenses or we're going to die."

"You sent the message in the clear," Rybicki said. "Anyone could have picked it up."

"It was encrypted," I said. "Military encryption."

"It was encrypted with a protocol that's compromised," Rybicki said. "It's been compromised for years." He looked up at Jane. "You of all people should have known that, Sagan. You're responsible for this colony's safety. You know which encryption to use."

Jane said nothing.

"So you're saying that now anyone who cares to hear knows we're vulnerable," I said.

"I'm saying that you might as well have taped bacon to your head and walked into a tiger pit," Rybicki said.

"Then all the more reason for the Colonial Union to defend us," Trujillo said.

Rybicki glanced back over to Trujillo. "I'm not talking anymore with him around," he said. "It doesn't matter what sort of cozy agreement you have going here, the fact of the matter is you two are on the hook for the colony, not him. It's time to get serious, and what we need to talk about is classified. He doesn't rate."

"He's still colony leader," I said.