“And you haven’t listened.”
“I’ve listened,” Tarsem said. “I have reasons not to agree.”
I gave Tarsem a look that expressed my disapproval, which he took without complaint. I continued. “She’s also right that if you lose a confidence vote, it could fracture the Conclave. You already have dozens of species wanting to bolt and either go it alone or form smaller alliances they think they will be able to control. If you give the Conclave an opportunity to crack, it will crack.”
“That’s independent of the Ocampo data.”
“But the Ocampo data feeds right into that,” I said. “It seemingly confirms that the humans can’t be trusted and that they mean us harm, the Colonial Union portion of humanity, in any event. If you try to bring Earth into the Conclave after this, Unli Hado will use that to suggest that you’re letting the enemy through the front door.”
“So we hold off on admitting Earth into the Conclave.”
“Then Hado hits you with leaving it available to the Colonial Union to retake. Make no mistake, Tarsem. Hado is going to use Earth against you no matter what you do. And if you take the unspeakable third option of attacking the Colonial Union without direct provocation, Hado will use your first military defeat as an opportunity for the confidence vote he’s looking for. Every option leads to the assembly voting to remove you. And when that happens it all falls apart.”
“This used to be easier,” Tarsem said. “Running the Conclave.”
“That’s because you were building it,” I said. “It’s easier to be the aspirational leader when the thing you’re building doesn’t exist. But now it exists, and you’re not aspirational anymore. Now you’re just the chief bureaucrat. Bureaucrats don’t inspire awe.”
“Do we have time to finesse this?”
“We might have had, if both the Colonial Union and the Earth weren’t sending full suites of diplomats for discussions,” I said. “Having one set of them would be bad enough. Having them both here, posturing over the Ocampo data, means that Hado and his partisans are going to have real live targets for their ire and might use that to push a confidence vote sooner than later. If you think they’re going to miss an opportunity to trim down your reputation, with real-life human diplomats, then you’ll be playing right into their hands.”
“Then tell me what you suggest,” Tarsem said.
“That you don’t see Ambassador Abumwe when she arrives. Turn her away publicly. That deprives Hado of the spectacle of the Colonial Union being received diplomatically.”
“And what about the new information they promised?”
“Leave that to me. Colonel Rigney and I can set up a meeting and I can get it then. All discreetly.”
“He won’t be happy.”
“We don’t need him to be happy,” I said. “We need him to understand the political landscape we’re working in. I can make him do that.”
“And the diplomats from Earth?”
“We’ll have to meet with them,” I said. “And as for Earth itself, we need to get it out of the reach of the Colonial Union without bringing it into the Conclave.”
Tarsem smiled. “I’m looking forward to hearing how this is going to happen,” he said.
“We have them ask for protection,” I said.
“Protection,” Tarsem said. “From whom?”
“From the Colonial Union, who attacked Earth Station,” I said.
“If it did.”
“It doesn’t matter if it did. It matters that Earth believes it’s a threat.”
Tarsem gave me a look that suggested a complicated response to this statement, but decided not to immediately follow it up. “So they ask for protection,” he said. “What does that solve?”
“It solves Unli Hado, for one,” I said. “Because the Earth doesn’t ask to join the Conclave, and it doesn’t stay vulnerable to the Colonial Union. And when it asks for protection, we’ll assign three of our member states to take up the guard.”
“Which three?”
“Two of them it doesn’t matter. Pick who you like. But the third—”
“The third is the Elpri,” Tarsem said.
“Yes,” I said. “And then Hado is trapped. His entire ploy is based on you being too soft on the humans. But now one branch of humanity is publicly rebuffed and the other is guarded by Hado’s own species. He said to me today that his sole concern is the unity of the Conclave; let’s hold him to his words, and let’s make him do it publicly. He’s trapped by his own posturing.”
“And you think the Earth will go along with this.”
“I think they believe we both have a common enemy, and they know they are defenseless without us,” I said. “The only thing we have to do is not make it look like we’re bottling them up, like they were under the Colonial Union.”
“Although that’s actually what you’re proposing we do.”
“These are the options at the moment.”