Роберт Бюттнер: Orphan's Journey

“Creating freedom for people can’t be wrong. Even if some people create wrong out of freedom.”

She half-smiles at the kid next to her.

I point at his raised hand, and he says, “Maybe the war was right for Bren. And for the Union. But on a galactic scale, since the Expulsion we haven’t seen the end of war. Soldiers are still dying.”

“‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’ The chips attribute that quote to Plato. It’s still true twenty-five hundred years after Plato died. The lesson you’re here to learn is this: Never waste the life of any soldier you command.”

He nods.

I say, “Even if you learn that lesson, you’ll hate it. Command is an orphan’s journey.”

The kids milk question time for twenty minutes more, then the applause from the infantry gonnabes in the back rows shakes the Omnifoam floor tiles.

As I step offstage, Jude grasps my elbow and steers us toward an exit.

Jude’s a Zoomie now. A better pilot than his father, they say. On invasion morning Jude’s buoyant Eternads helped him swim to another boat when that rhind shattered his own. In the melee on the landing beach, Jude caught on with another unit, moved inland, and was captured in the first battle of the campaign. Jude doesn’t speak about his captivity much. It changed him. Since Bren, too much else has changed, too. Jude and I have grown apart in too many ways. But we still follow orders, and we still have each other.

He shakes his head. “You gave the same speech last year. They still applaud.”

“They applaud because I talk so long that the Commandant cancels PT. What’s your hurry?”

Jude slides back his Zoomie-blue uniform sleeve, to show me the red-flashing screen on his wrist ’Puter. “Orders. We lift on next hour’s Fleet Orbital. You won’t believe what the Slugs just did. Want to hear where we go next?”

I shake my head. “Just so we go together.”

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my editor, Devi Pillai, and to Orbit’s publishing director, Tim Holman, for support and wisdom in making Orphan’s Journey, and the series that surrounds it, possible. Thanks also to Hilary Powers for thoughtful copyediting; to Calvin Chu for a cover that pops; to Alex Lencicki for telling the world about it all; to Jennifer Flax for all things great and small; and to everyone at Orbit for their energy and great work.

Thanks also to the readers, whose enthusiastic feedback makes it easy to keep writing.

Finally, thanks also to Winifred Golden, agent par excellence, and, always, thanks to Mary Beth and the kids for putting up with me.

ROBERT BUETTNER is a former Military Intelligence Officer, National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology and has published in the field of Natural Resources Law. He lives in Georgia. His Web site is www.RobertBuettner.com.