“Again we come to my alleged treason,” Hado said.
“No, not treason, Representative Hado,” Abumwe said. “Allow me to give you the compliment of assuming you are too intelligent for that. No, I imagine you, or someone like you, will position yourself as the savior of the Conclave, someone to rescue it from the shadow of itself that it’s become. And if you can’t get enough other members to come along, then perhaps you’ll break away, with a few other like-minded nations, and call yourself the New Conclave or something. And after that, it won’t take long. Because while you are too intelligent to commit treason, Representative Hado, I sense that you are not nearly intelligent enough to realize how your ambitions outweigh your ability to keep four hundred species together. Once again, bluntly: You’re not good enough, sir. Only one person in this room is.”
I glanced over to Oi, who glanced back. I knew it was enjoying the dressing-down Hado was getting from a representative of the species he hated the most.
“How arrogant of you to assume so much about me in these few ditu, Ambassador,” Hado said.
“I didn’t,” Abumwe said. “We have a file on you.” She turned to Sca. “And on you. And on every diplomat for every nation we know has a representative in Equilibrium, including our own. It’s all in the report.”
“I’d like to return to this report,” Tarsem said.
“Of course,” Abumwe replied.
“The existence of this report implied that you have a spy in Equilibrium, and have had for some time. Which makes me curious as to why you chose now to give us this information, if this group has represented a threat to both of us.”
“Again I ask permission to be blunt.”
“Ambassador Abumwe, at this point I cannot imagine you being otherwise.”
“If Equilibrium had never done its own data dump, we never would have shared this,” Abumwe said. “We would have been happy to take the information and shape it, and Equilibrium, to our own needs. I reiterate that we are not sharing this information to be friendly, General.”
“Understood.”
“But as to our spy, the fact of the matter is that we didn’t have a spy. Equilibrium made an error and took a hostage it couldn’t control. That hostage was smarter than his captors. He stole their data and one of their ships and brought both to us.”
“Out of loyalty to the Colonial Union?”
“No,” Harry Wilson said. “Mostly because Equilibrium pissed him off.”
“Before we commit to trusting this information, perhaps we should consider the source,” Hado said. “Where is this so-called source of yours?”
“As it happens, he’s the pilot of the Chandler,” Abumwe said.
Hado turned to Tarsem. “Then I move he is brought here for questioning.”
“It’s not that simple,” Wilson said.
“Why?” Hado said, to Wilson. “Is he somehow incapable of taking a shuttle ride?”
Wilson smiled at this for some reason.
* * *
“General Gau, Councilor Sorvalh, Representative Hado, and Ms. Lowen, allow me to introduce to you Rafe Daquin, pilot of the Chandler.” Wilson motioned to the box on the bridge of the Chandler, in which a human brain had been placed.
“This seems familiar,” I said, to Wilson, as I stared into the box.
“I thought you might think so,” he said.
“Who did this to him?” Hado asked.
“Sir?” Wilson said.
“Removing brains from skulls is a thing the Colonial Union does,” Hado said. “It’s notorious for it.”
“Are you asking me if the Colonial Union did this?”
“Yes, although honestly I wouldn’t expect you to answer truthfully if it had,” Hado said.
“You could ask him,” Wilson said.
“Pardon?”
“You could ask Rafe,” Wilson said.
“Yes, you could,” a voice said, through speakers. “I’m literally right here.”
“All right,” Lowen said. “Mr. Daquin, who did this to you?”
“Put my brain in a box? That would be the group calling itself Equilibrium, Ms. Lowen,” Daquin said.
“Why did they do it?” Tarsem asked.
“Partly to trim down the number of working parts they needed to run the ship,” Daquin said. “Partly to make sure I stayed in their control. They assumed that I would do anything they wanted if they promised to give me back my body.”
“Why didn’t you?” Tarsem asked.
“Because I figured that they didn’t have any intention of ever giving it back.”
“But the Colonial Union could give you another body,” Hado said. “They haven’t. They’re using you like this Equilibrium group did.”
“They’re growing me a new body as we speak,” Daquin said. “It’ll be ready soon. But Harry here asked me if I wouldn’t mind being a part of the Chandler’s crew for a bit, especially for trips like these, where people might need convincing that Equilibrium is a thing and not just a convenient cover story for the Colonial Union.”
“If this is real,” Hado said.