Jack Campbell - Guardian

“We didn’t—” the Alliance officer began hotly.

“ No! I believe you! Our government lied to us about everything! Why the hell wouldn’t they have lied about that as well?”

She spun on her heel and stumbled back to the other shuttle pilots.

Geary glanced at Desjani, trying to judge her reaction, but Tanya wasn’t revealing anything this time. “What’s your impression?” he asked.

Desjani shrugged. “If she’s faking her feelings about the Syndicate Worlds, she’s a great actor.”

“I noticed that. When she talked about the, uh, snakes, it sounded like she had personally slit a few of their throats.”

“Why did they fight?” Desjani said in a low, angry voice. “They hated the Syndicate Worlds, they hated those snakes. What the hell were they fighting for? Why the hell did they kill so many people when they hated their own government?”

“I don’t know.” Or did he? “We know they thought they were defending their own people from us.”

“By attacking us?” Desjani asked, her tone now savage.

“They’d been told we were the aggressors. I’m not saying they were right, Tanya. I’m not saying they should have fought. Their own efforts kept alive the Syndicate Worlds that they hated. It was stupid. But they must have thought they were doing the only thing they could.”

“As long as you’re not excusing them,” she muttered.

“I lost a lot, too, Tanya.”

She sat silent for a minute, then nodded. “You did. Well, if I have to choose between former Syndics who now hate the Syndicate Worlds, or others like the Syndicate Worlds, the enigmas, and the Kicks, I guess I can give the ex-Syndics a chance.”

On Haboob ’s loading dock, the turnover process must have been completed. The eighteen former prisoners who were leaving walked slowly in their own tight group toward the hatches leading to the shuttles.

And then the other three hundred fifteen former prisoners surged after them en masse, crying out a babble of pleas and shouts. The Marine guards, taken totally by surprise, jolted into motion, trying to stop the sudden mob with yells and threats. The doctors and technicians from both sides, as startled as the Marines, milled about, their own movements and cries adding to the confusion.

“What the hell is going on?” Geary demanded.

It took a couple of long minutes before the Marines, assisted by extra personnel who had been standing by in case they were needed, corralled the agitated former prisoners and shouted them into a tight group, shivering and whimpering but otherwise quiet. With the situation calmed enough, Dr. Nasr spoke to Geary over the bevy of voices in the loading area. “Admiral, we have a situation.”

“I noticed,” Geary snapped, trying not to sound too angry. “What’s the problem? Did the eighteen who were going to leave decide not to stay at Midway?”

“No, Admiral. We’re still trying to sort things out, but as far as I can determine, now they all want to get off and stay at Midway.”

“All?” Geary repeated.

“Yes. All three hundred thirty-three of them.”

Geary heard a thudding sound and glanced over the see that Tanya, looking pained, had slapped her palm against her forehead.

He felt the same way. “How many times did we already ask them if they wanted to stay here?”

Dr. Nasr came as close to rolling his eyes as a senior medical officer could. “On the record, with official refusals? Twenty times, Admiral. But they changed their minds when they saw the others going. They want to stay together. They want to go home. This isn’t home for the other three-hundred-odd former prisoners, but it’s a lot closer to their previous homes than Varandal or any other point in Alliance space. And we are Alliance. We frighten them.”

“We frighten them?” Desjani asked, incredulous. “Do they think Syndic CEOs are warm and cuddly? Did they hear that shuttle pilot talking about snakes?”

“Syndic CEOs, the entire Syndic system, is the devil they know. And they know from hearing that pilot that the snakes are gone from Midway. The pilot is one of them. They believed her where they would not believe us. Faced with separation from those who have been part of their group for decades, they decided to stay together rather than risk the unknowns of the Alliance.”

“Doctor,” Geary growled, “Midway only agreed to take eighteen.”

“We’re talking to the representatives from Midway, Admiral.” In the wide-view image, Geary could see the civilian specialists and fleet physicians on Haboob speaking, arguing, debating, and, in general, looking as frustrated as he himself felt, while the panicky former prisoners of the enigmas wailed and clamored in the background. “They seem willing to take the others, and their freighter has the capacity though it will be crowded, but they need high-level approval.”

Which would take nearly five hours since the planet where President Iceni and General Drakon were located was currently about two and a half light-hours from where the Alliance fleet was orbiting. “Damn.”

Tanya was wisely saying nothing, letting him burn off steam before he spoke again.

“All right,” Geary finally said. “Should we send the former prisoners back to their rooms while we wait to hear from the authorities on Midway?”

“No!” Dr. Nasr protested. “If they’re panicky now, sending them to their rooms as if we’re keeping all of them would just add fuel to the fire.”

“All right,” Geary repeated, trying to sound much calmer than he felt. “Hold them all there on the loading dock. Tell the Midway people to get off a message immediately asking their superiors if they can take all of the liberated prisoners. Have the officer in charge of the loading dock arrange for food and water for everyone who needs it and keep the guards in place.”

“Yes, Admiral. I will pass on those instructions.”

As Dr. Nasr went to work on his end, Geary shook his head in frustration at the images from Haboob , where the assembled former prisoners were now crying and holding on to each other. “I know they’re emotional wrecks because of their long confinement by the enigmas, but did they have to make this difficult by changing their minds at the last moment?”

“Like you told me,” Tanya said. “They’re wrecks. You have spotted the bright side here, right?”

“There’s a bright side?” Geary asked, glumly surveying the slowly subsiding mess aboard Haboob .

“Hell, yes, there’s a bright side. If we dump them all here, they’ll be Midway’s problem from now on. We’ll be free of worrying about them.”

He paused, then felt a smile appear on his face. “That’s true. I wasn’t looking forward to trying to protect them from Alliance researchers and media vultures once we got back. We’ll have freed them and taken them home. The honorable and the right thing to do. Hooray for us. What are you doing?”

“Research.” Tanya continued tapping some of her controls, zooming a virtual sound pickup in on the Alliance officers who had spoken with the shuttle pilot. “This is a recording from just before our many freed prisoners decided to freak out on us. I want to know what these officers thought of their conversation with that former Syndic.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know the answer, and I want to find out, Admiral, sir.” She finished entering her commands. The officers had all been muttering or speaking in low voices, which would normally have made it hard to sort out the conversations they were having with each other. However, the sound systems automatically analyzed everything and broke out each voice digitally, producing a series of phrases that could be heard clearly by Geary and Desjani.