He nodded to Paola Gaddis, who was the other human I’d seen, the one who supervised the installation of the weapons systems. She nodded back at him.
“My colleague here represents the interests of several governments of Earth,” Ocampo said. “She will be happy to tell you all the ways those governments are not even remotely concerned about the Colonial Union’s interests. In the end, the Colonial Union is not humanity. It is merely a government. When the Colonial Union falls, and it will, then the Earth might finally take up the mantle of leading the former worlds of the CU. Or those worlds might form other unions. Humanity will survive. Humanity will continue as part of the new equilibrium.”
“Humanity, perhaps,” Ake Bae said. “But I was speaking of you in particular, Secretary Ocampo. You and your own endgame, which is different from that of the Equilibrium.”
Ocampo smiled again, picked up his PDA from the table. The video feed got momentarily wavy, trying to stabilize the image while being lifted. “You know what this is, Ake Bae.”
“It’s a personal data assistant, I believe,” Ake Bae said.
“It is,” Ocampo said. “And it contains nearly all of the last decade of data from the Colonial Union State Department and the Colonial Defense Forces. Nearly every confidential file and report on the CU’s doings and conflicts. Everything they don’t want known, or would want swept under the carpet. Every double-cross of an ally, completed or intended. Every military action on one of its own worlds. Every assassination. Every ‘disappearance.’ All of it true. All of it verifiable. All of it hugely damaging to the Colonial Union.”
“The data you promised us to help us plan our strategy for our next phase,” Ake Bae said.
“No,” Ocampo said. “Not the next phase. The last phase.” He shook the PDA for emphasis, and the video got woozy again. “Understand that every piece of data from the Colonial Union is accurate and verifiable. It all happened. And so it will serve as cover for what I will add to it.”
“What will you add?” asked Dho.
“All of our operations,” Ocampo said. “Every ship we’ve commandeered, human and Conclave. Every agitation we’ve spearheaded on Colonial Union and Conclave worlds. Every attack, up to and including the destruction of Earth Station. All of it altered, to make it look as if it happened under the aegis of the Colonial Union and the Colonial Defense forces. All verified by both my security hash and the security hash of my former boss, the current secretary of state.”
“And how did you get that?” asked Paola Gaddis.
“The weakest part of any security and verification scheme is the people who use it,” Ocampo said.
Right then I nearly paused the video to savor the rich irony of that statement, all things considered.
“And the fact they trust the people they’ve known for years as friends and allies,” Ocampo continued, oblivious to my scorn. “Secretary Galeano is no pushover, but she has a soft spot for loyalty. I earned her trust long ago. I’ve never done anything that would cause her to doubt it.”
“Except this,” Gaddis pointed to the PDA. “And everything else you’ve done for Equilibrium.”
“I’m not going to suggest Galeano will ever forgive me,” Ocampo said. “She won’t. I like to think that in time she’ll recognize the necessity.”
“She won’t,” Gaddis said. Ocampo shrugged.
“This does not explain why this would be the last phase,” Ake Bae said, bringing the discussion back around. “It just makes the Colonial Union culpable for our actions.”
“No,” Gaddis said, before Ocampo could speak. “The Earth already believes the Colonial Union made the attack on Earth Station, to cripple us and to keep us dependent. Getting confirmation would mean a state of war between us.”
“Which would force the hand of the Conclave,” Ocampo said.
“Right,” Gaddis said. “Right now it’s playing nice with Earth but still keeping us at arm’s length because it doesn’t want to antagonize the Colonial Union. But if the CU’s verifiably responsible for the destruction of Earth Station, as shown by its own documents, it all falls by the wayside. The Conclave will invite the Earth to join.”
“Which will antagonize those of us who don’t want the humans in the Conclave,” said Utur Nove. “No offense,” he said, to Gaddis.
“None taken,” she said. “And that’s what we want, anyway. The division will weaken the Conclave, just as the Colonial Union decides that it’s a material threat and moves to destroy it.”