John Scalzi - The Last Colony

"Hmmmph," Savitri said. She went over to give Trujillo a hug, then jerked a thumb at me. "If things don't work out with this guy, I may come crawling back for my old job."

"It's yours," Trujillo said.

"Excellent," Savitri said. "Because if the last year has taught me anything, it's to have a backup plan." She gave Trujillo another quick hug. "I'm going to go collect Zoe, she said to me. "As soon as you're in the shuttle, we're ready."

"Thanks, Savitri," I said. "I'll be there in a minute. See you then." She squeezed my shoulder and walked off.

"Have you said good-bye to everyone you want to?" Trujillo asked.

"I'm doing it now," I said.

Minutes later our shuttle was in the sky, heading toward the Gentle Star. Zoe was crying silently, patting Babar and missing her friends. Jane, sitting next to her, gathered her in a hug. I looked out the porthole as I left behind another world.

"How do you feel?" Jane asked me.

"Sad," I said. "I wanted this to be my world. Our world. Our home. But it wasn't. It's not"

"I'm sorry," Jane said.

"Don't be," I said. I turned and smiled at her. "I'm glad we came. I'm just sad it wasn't to stay."

I turned back to the porthole. The Roanoke sky was fading to black around me.

"This is your ship," General Rybicki said to me, motioning around the observation deck he'd just been led into. I had been waiting for him there.

"It is," I said. "For now. You could say we're leasing it. I think it's originally Arrisian, which is some irony for you. It also explains the low ceilings."

"So I should address you as Captain Perry?" Rybicki asked. "That's a step down from your previous rank."

"Actually, Jane's the captain. I'm her nominal superior, but she's in charge of the boat. I think that makes me a commodore. Which is a step up."

"Commodore Perry," Rybicki said. "Catchy. Not very original, I'm afraid."

"I suppose not," I said. I held up the PDA I had in my hand. "Jane called me as you were being led up here. She told me that it had been suggested to you that you might try killing me."

"Christ," Rybicki said. "I'd like to know how she knows these things."

'I hope you're not planning to go through with it," I said. "It's not that you couldn't do it. You're still CDF. You're fast and strong enough to snap my neck before anyone could stop you. But you wouldn't make it out of this room afterward. I don't want you to die."

"I appreciate that," Rybicki said, dryly. Then, "No. I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to try to understand you."

"I'm glad to hear it," I said.

"You can start by telling me why you sent for me," Rybicki said. "The Colonial Union has all sorts of diplomats. If the Conclave is going to start a parlay with the CU, that's who should be here talking to you. So I'm wondering why you asked for me."

"Because I felt I owed you an explanation," I said.

"For what?" Rybicki said.

I motioned. "For this," I said. "Why I'm here and not on Roanoke. Or anywhere in the Colonial Union."

"I assumed it was because you didn't want to be tried for treason," Rybicki said.

'There is that," I said. "But that's not it. How are things in the Colonial Union?"

"You're not seriously expecting me to tell you anything here," Rybicki said.

"I mean very generally," I said.

"They're fine," Rybicki said. "The Conclave attacks have stopped. Roanoke has been secured and we'll be landing a second wave of colonists there within a month."

"That's aheac of schedule," I said.

"We decided to move quickly there," Rybicki said. "We'll be massively fortifying its defenses as well."

"Good," I said. "A shame that couldn't have happened earlier, before we were attacked."

"Let's not pretend we don't know the whys and wherefores of that," Rybicki said.

"How did the Colonial Union take our victory, incidentally?" I asked.

"It was naturally extremely pleased," Rybicki said.

"Officially, at least," I said.

"You know the Colonial Union," Rybicki said. "The official story is the only story."

"I know," I said. "And that's the reason for all of this."

"I'm not following you," Rybicki said.

"Just before our battle with Eser back on Roanoke, you said something to me," I said. "You said that the Colonial Union more than anyone else was acting in the best interests of humanity."

"I remember that," Rybicki said.

"You were right," I said. "Out of every government or species or intelligent race, the Colonial Union is the one that is the best at looking out for us. For humans. But I've come to doubt that the Colonial Union is doing that job well. Look how the Colonial Union treated us at Roanoke. It deceived us in the purpose of colony. It deceived us in the intent of the Conclave. It made us complicit in an act of war that could have destroyed the entire CU. And then it was willing to sacrifice us for the good of humanity. But none of the rest of humanity ever knew the whole story did they? The Colonial Union controls communication. Controls information. Now that Roanoke survived, the Colonial Union will never tell any of it. No one outside the CU power structure even knows the Conclave exists. Still."

"The Colonial Union believed it was necessary to do it that way," Rybicki said.

"I know," I said. "And they've always believed it to be necessary to do it that way. You came from Earth, General. You remember how little we knew about out here. How little we knew about the Colonial Union. We signed up for a military we knew nothing about, whose goals we knew nothing of, because we didn't want to die old and alone back at home. We knew that somehow we'd be made young again, and that was enough. It got us here. And that's the Colonial Union way. To tell just enough to achieve a goal. Never more."

"I don't always agree with the Colonial Union's methods," Rybicki said. "You know I disgreed with the CU's plan to cut Roanoke loose. But I'm not sure I'm following you. It would have been disastrous if the Conclave had known of our plans for Roanoke. The Conclave wants to keep humanity boxed up, Perry. It still does. If we don't fight, the rest of the universe gets filled up without us. Humanity dies."

"You're confusing humanity with the Colonial Union," I said. "The Conclave wants to keep the Colonial Union boxed up, because the Colonial Union refuses to join it. But the Colonial Union is not humanity."

"It's a distinction without a difference," Rybicki said.

"True enough," I said. I pointed out the curving window of the observation deck. "You saw the other ships here as you arrived," I said.

"Yes," Rybicki said. "I didn't count them all, but I'm guessing there are four hundred and twelve."

"Close," I said. "Four hundred and thirteen, including this one. Which, incidentally, I've named the Roanoke."

"Wonderful," Rybicki said. "The flee: that attacks our next colony world will have an ironic tinge to it."

"The Colonial Union is still planning to colonize, then," I said.

"I'm not going to comment about that to you," Rybicki said.

"If or when the Conclave and the Colonial Union square off again, this ship won't be part of it," I said. "This is a trade ship. So are all the other ships in this fleet. Every ship in this fleet is carrying goods from the race whose ship it is. This took a lot of doing, you should know. It took a couple of months before every race signed on to this. General Gau had to twist a few arms, or whatever. It's easier to get some races to give a warship than a cargo ship filled with goodies."

"If a fleet of warships isn't going to convince the Colonial Union to join the Conclave, I doubt a fleet of trade ships is going to do it either," Rybicki said.

"I think you're right about that," I said, and raised my PDA. "Jane, you can skip row."

"What?" Rybicki said. "What the hell are you doing?"