“Tell us,” Egan said.
“Before I do, a question for the two of you,” Abumwe said. “Are we agreed that the goal here is survival, not a win?”
“I don’t understand the question,” Egan said.
“I don’t believe that, Colonel,” Abumwe said, and stared fixedly at Egan. “I think you know very well what I mean. We four in this room can indulge in the luxury of being utterly honest with each other. So we don’t have to pretend that we don’t know that the Colonial Union, as it exists now, is headed for collapse. If we’re not destroyed by Equilibrium or the Conclave, we’ll tear ourselves apart. It’s already happening.
“We don’t have to pretend that we don’t know the structure and organization of the Colonial Union itself is unsupportable as it’s currently constructed. We don’t have to pretend that there’s any way we get the Earth back into the role it played for us before. We don’t have to pretend that we are not staring our extinction in the face. We don’t have to pretend that any petty victories or side goals are important right now. What matters is that we agree that what we do here now is for the survival of us, of humanity. Not the Colonial Union as it is now. But of our species. We four have to agree to this, or there is simply no point in continuing this meeting.”
Egan and Rigney looked at each other. “We agree,” Egan said.
“And this agreement will be supported how?” Abumwe said. “If we are agreed that we are talking about survival, are we also agreed that we do what it takes to allow survival to happen?”
“Ambassador Abumwe,” Rigney said. “Tell us your plan. We’ll tell you how we can make it happen.”
“Very well,” Abumwe said.
* * *
“Thank you for attending this meeting,” Abumwe said, to the representatives of the nine colonies who were planning, in what they believed to be secret, to announce their independence.
“‘Attend,’ hell,” said Harilal Dwivedi, the representative from Huckleberry. “We were just about dragged out of our beds and forced to be here.” Several of the other representatives nodded in agreement.
“I do apologize,” Abumwe said. “Unfortunately time is of the essence. I am Ambassador Ode Abumwe.”
“Why are we here, Ambassador?” asked Neida Calderon, of Umbria.
“Representative Calderon, if you would look around at who else is here among you, I think you will have a good idea why you are here.”
The low-level muttering and complaining cut off abruptly. Abumwe was now very definitely the focus of all their attention.
“Yes, we know,” Abumwe said.
“Of course you know,” Dwivedi spat. He was clearly of the “when cornered, attack” school of rhetoric. “You have the prime minister of Khartoum in custody. I can’t imagine what you’ve done to him.”
Abumwe nodded to me. I went to a side door in the State Department conference room we were in and opened it. “Come on in,” I said.
Masahiko Okada walked out and sat down at the table with the representatives. They stared at him like he had three heads.
“Any more surprises, Ambassador Abumwe?” Calderon asked, after she stopped staring at Okada.
“In the interest of saving us all time, allow me to be brief,” Abumwe said.
“Please do,” Calderon said.
“Each of your worlds is planning to jointly announce your independence from the Colonial Union. The fact that each of you is in this room right now should indicate our awareness of your plans. We are also aware that each of your governments has been in discussion, either individually or severally, with an entity called Equilibrium, which has shared information with you and has, we believe, offered each of you protection against the Colonial Union when you declare your independence.”
Dwivedi opened his mouth to speak; Abumwe hit him with a hard stare. “This is not the moment to offer up excuses or rationalizations either for your desire for your independence or your fraternization with Equilibrium. We don’t have time for it, and quite bluntly at the moment we don’t care.”
Dwivedi closed his mouth, clearly annoyed.
“Equilibrium has been deceiving each of your governments,” Abumwe continued, and motioned to Okada. “In a moment Minister Okada here will detail to you how Equilibrium deceived him and his government and attacked a Colonial Defense Forces ship with the intent to pin the blame—and the punishment—on Khartoum and its government, for the purpose of galvanizing your governments into action. Not for your purposes, representatives. Not for the freedom you believe you seek. But for its own agenda, of which your planets and their fates are mere stepping-stones.
“With that in mind, the Colonial Union is making a request of each of you.”
“Let me guess,” Calderon said. “You don’t want us to declare our independence from the Colonial Union.”