Christopher Nuttall - A Learning Experience

“Mariko would have done it,” Kevin said. “Or Charles. Or Vincent’s ghost would have risen from the grave to condemn you for committing genocide. Instead… you removed the guilty and gave their victims a chance to take the freedom they deserve.”

“Or plunge into civil war,” Steve said. “Saudi really doesn’t look good these days.”

Kevin smirked. “Fuck the bastards,” he said. “Now… my turn.”

He braced himself, then started to give a complete report of everything that had happened since they’d left Earth. Steve leaned forward, interested, when Kevin reached the section about the meeting with Friend and the deal to send human mercenaries to fight beside the aliens. They’d considered the possibility, ever since realising that humans had been abducted and turned into warriors by one alien race, but it was still an unpleasant surprise. Steve took a copy of the agreement, read through it very carefully, and then looked up.

“This is better than I expected,” he said. “Is there a sting in the tail?”

“As far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with any of the supplies or technical support they gave us,” Kevin said. He wasn’t blind to the implications of the aliens producing so much so quickly. From their point of view, it had to be a relatively small payment. “And we will progress much faster if we have help.”

He paused. “The terms and conditions are part of the agreement,” he added. “They’re not bad at all, at least from our point of view. I think they’re desperate.”

“It certainly looks that way,” Steve agreed. He looked up, suddenly. “But would the introduction of a handful of humans turn the tide? It sounds like the plot of a bad space opera.”

“It actually makes a certain kind of sense,” Kevin said. He’d downloaded texts on interstellar warfare from the alien database and read through them on the way home. “Their major planets are heavily defended, Steve. They have planet-based energy weapons, heavy force fields and plenty of other surprises. Taking the high orbitals would be tricky, to say the least; they’re forced to land troops and take out the planetary defence centres on the ground.”

He shivered, remembering some of the records they’d found on Ying. Invading a heavily-defended planet was incredibly difficult — and bloody. It made the greatest battles of the United States Marine Corps look like minor squabbles… which, from the alien point of view, he supposed they were. A race that counted hundreds of stars amid its empire wouldn’t be too impressed by either America or Japan. Why, even the British Empire at its height had only claimed a quarter of the world’s surface.

“But it also explains, I think, why we were left alone for so long,” he added. “The major powers in this part of the galaxy are involved in a long slow war.”

He’d read through the political notes too, although he had his doubts over how complete they actually were. One major power, backed by a far distant empire, was trying to dominate the rest of the sector, which seemed to be set to keep the wars going indefinitely. Kevin’s original thought — that the far-distant power had set out to create an endless war deliberately — seemed to have been right. As long as the minor powers were fighting, they weren’t threatening their far-distant power.

“Which leaves us with the problem of which side to support,” Steve mused.

Kevin slapped the table, hard. “Steve… these races… even the smallest of the interstellar powers is far more powerful than all of humanity put together,” he said. “Our best bet for survival, I think, is to ally ourselves with the side that hasn’t been force-cloning human tissue and use the time to build up our own position. We are, at best, a microstate. The major interstellar powers will laugh at us if we try to hold any pretensions to power.”

He shrugged. “Hell, the Horde has more starships than us.”

“I know,” Steve admitted.

Kevin sat back in his chair. “I propose we send them the mercenaries — or, rather, humans who are trained in observing and learning as much as possible from their surroundings,” he said. He’d spent a lot of time considering the practicalities on the flight home. “They come back to Earth for leave, we debrief them and learn everything they know. In the meantime, we use this the money we will be paid to build up our own forces. Eventually, we will be able to take the risk of stepping openly onto the galactic stage.”

Steve frowned. “There’s one problem with this,” he said. “Once the Varnar realise they’re facing human soldiers, and they will, they will attack Earth. Destroying our planet would cut off the supply of human troops.”

“That’s the risk we have to take,” Kevin said. He paused. “But we can use one of the ships we’re being sent to set up an isolated colony far beyond the edge of galactic civilisation. The human race will live on, even if Earth herself is destroyed. And we will come back for revenge one day.”

“I hope you’re right,” Steve said. He paused. “We could probably round up five thousand experienced soldiers, but if it’s going to be more than that we will need help from the planetary governments.”

Kevin nodded. “They’d want to have some involvement,” he agreed. “But I think we have very little choice.”

He stood. “There is some good news,” he admitted. “Between what we discovered on the trip out and the alien files we downloaded, we might be able to start mass production of human-built antigravity units within a year or two. And then the solar system would lie open in front of us.”

“The Mars Society will be delighted,” Steve commented. He grinned. “Assuming, of course, they stop arguing over the political structure of Mars to actually take note.”

Kevin smiled back. “Is Mars going to be one of the cantons?”

“I suspect we will end up with several cantons on Mars,” Steve said. “The real problem is dealing with the prisoners. Perhaps we can find them some hard labour on Mars.”

“I’m surprised you let them live,” Kevin commented.

“Oh, the ones who were truly guilty are dead,” Steve said. “As are the ones who committed foul crimes against their own people. But the others… finding them something to do is a little harder. Maybe we should just have them breaking rocks.”

“Good idea,” Kevin said. He smiled at the thought of fundamentalist clerics actually forced to work with their bare hands. “Make the bastards work for a living.”

Washington DC, USA

The Secret Service had objected, strongly, to someone teleporting into the White House, even with permission from the President. They’d compromised, eventually, with an agreement that Steve could teleport into the Treasury Department and walk though the underground tunnels to the White House without being seen by the protesters gathered outside the building. Steve couldn’t imagine why they honestly thought they were doing any good — he wasn’t about to stop the terraforming of Mars, no matter what they said — but the President had felt it was best to keep his visit low-key. And he was probably right.

It wasn’t the first White House, he knew. That building had been burned by the British during the War of 1812 and then replaced with the structure that had represented the heart of American government ever since. It was an impressive building, Steve had to admit, but it was grander than he felt the government should have wanted. Successive Presidents, each one almost a prisoner within the White House, would have developed delusions of grandeur, perhaps even dreams of absolute power. Perhaps a smaller building would have served the United States better.