“Well, it worked,” Debbie said. “I have nightmares about that overlord whenever I forget to skip the intro and mistakenly catch a glimpse of him—it, I mean.”
“Once again, I’m afraid the Graham Cracker over there is talking directly out of his ass,” Shin told us. “We have no idea if they’re cephalopods or not. That’s just a best guess, based on their current habitat. In reality, we don’t know if they’re carbon-based, or if they’re even indigenous to Europa.” He smiled at Debbie. “Don’t worry,” he said. “The overlord is made up. He was invented by Chaos Terrain to give the enemy a face—a villainous, slightly humanoid alien that humanity could rally against! Like Ming the Merciless or Darth Vader or Zod or—”
“I get the idea,” Debbie said. She shook her head. “For some reason, not knowing what they look like at all is even more terrifying.”
Whoadie and Milo both nodded. I glanced at my father again, but he was studying my face, as if trying to gauge my reaction to what I was hearing.
“Do you believe any of this stuff, General?” Debbie asked him. He hesitated a moment and exchanged looks with Graham before finally breaking his silence.
“I’m far more skeptical about those rumors than Graham,” he said. “However, I don’t entirely agree with Shin’s straightforward assessment of things either.” He glanced at me. “We’ve all had our share of arguments about this—with Admiral Vance, as well. We all interpret the limited data we have in a drastically different way.” He smiled faintly. “Part of being human, I guess.”
“You didn’t answer the question, General,” Whoadie pointed out. “What do you believe?”
“Yes, General,” Shin said. His tone was suddenly derisive. “Why don’t you be honest and tell them the truth. Tell your son the truth—about your ‘theory.’ That should really give morale an added boost around here, just before Zero Hour!”
Shin dropped his silverware onto his plate with a loud clatter, got up from the table, and walked out of the mess hall. My father watched him go.
Graham shrugged and continued eating. “The three of us have been arguing this subject for years,” he said. “Our differences in opinion were bound to come to a head today.”
“Shin’s just under an enormous amount of stress right now,” my father said. “We all are.”
“What was he talking about?” I asked. “About your theory?”
My father sighed and glanced at the others, who were all watching him intently—including Graham.
“Nearly everyone in the EDA at the command level agrees with Graham, in that the Europans’ behavior and tactics over the past forty-two years raise a lot of questions—at least from a human perspective.” He shook his head. “The problem is that no one has ever been able to agree on how to interpret them. Most of the people in command—people like Admiral Vance—lost interest in trying to communicate with the Europans after they began sending drones here to attack us.”
“Damn straight!” I said. “They declared war on us.”
“True,” he said. “But what if the Europans waited until now to attack because they have a hidden motive—one we still can’t ascertain? Maybe we’ve misinterpreted their actions? Or maybe they’ve misinterpreted ours?”
“What the fuck is there to misinterpret?” I heard myself ask. “They’re coming to kill us all, just like they’ve been promising to do since before any of us were born. The time for negotiating has passed, don’t you think?”
My father shrugged. He looked cornered. “I don’t know, Son,” he said. “Maybe.”
I got to my feet, knocking over my chair with a clatter.
“Maybe? Did you say maybe?”
“Calm down, Zack,” my father said. “Let’s talk this through—”
“I’ve heard enough talk, General!” I said. “Shin is right. You’re supposed to be leading us into battle and inspiring us! Not—not dumping all of your own fear on us!”
My accusation seemed to detonate on his face like a bomb. His features began to contort, but I turned my back on him so I wouldn’t have to see the rest of his reaction.
I walked out of there as fast as I could without looking back.
When I finally stopped walking a few minutes later, I realized I was lost. So I pulled up the interactive map of the base on my QComm and used it to locate the nearest turbo elevator. I rode it down to the habitation level and then returned to where the living quarters were located. When I reached my room, I pressed my palm to the onyx panel beside the door and it slid open. The lights came on as I stepped inside.