::God, no,:: Einstein said, and through the integration both Sagan and Jared felt her shudder.
::Where are you?:: Sagan asked.
::Um,:: Einstein said. ::Maybe you should come and see.::
A minute later Sagan and Jared were at the colony slaughterhouse.
::Fucking Rraey,:: Sagan said as they walked up. She turned to Einstein, who was waiting outside for her. ::They’re in here?::
::They’re here,:: Einstein said. ::In the cold room in the back.::
::All of them?:: Sagan asked.
::I think so. It’s hard to tell,:: Einstein said. ::They’re mostly in parts.::
The cold room was crammed with meat.
Special Forces soldiers gaped up at the skinned torsos on hooks. Barrels below the hooks were filled with offal. Limbs in various states of processing lay stacked on tables. On a separate table lay a collection of heads, skulls sawed open to extract the brains. Discarded heads rested in another barrel next to the table.
A small pile of unprocessed bodies was heaped under a tarp. Jared went to uncover it. Children lay underneath.
::Christ,:: Sagan said. She turned to Einstein. ::Get someone over to the colony administration offices,:: she said. ::Pull up any medical and genetic records you can find, and pictures of the colonists. We’re going to need them to identify people. Then get a couple of people to dig through trash cans.::
::What are we looking for?:: Einstein asked.
:: Scraps,:: Sagan said. ::Whoever the Rraey already ate.::
Jared heard Sagan give her orders as a buzz in his head. He crouched and stared, transfixed, at the pile of small bodies. At the top lay the body of a small girl, elfin features silent, relaxed and beautiful. He reached over and gently touched the girl’s cheek. It was ice-cold.
Unaccountably Jared felt a hard stab of grief. He turned away with a retching sob.
Daniel Harvey, who had found the cold room with Einstein, stood over Jared. ::First time,:: he said.
Jared looked up. ::What?:: he said.
Harvey motioned to the bodies with his head. ::This is the first time you’ve seen children. Am I right?::
::Yes,:: Jared said.
::This is how it happens with us,:: Harvey said. ::The first time we see colonists, they’re dead. The first time we see children, they’re dead. The first time we see an intelligent creature who isn’t human, it’s dead or trying to kill us, so we have to kill it. Then it’s dead. It took me months before I saw a live colonist. I’ve never seen a live child.::
Jared turned back to the pile. ::How old is this one?:: he asked.
::Shit, I don’t know,:: Harvey said, but looked anyway. ::I’d guess three or four years old. Five, tops. And you know what’s funny? She was older than both of us put together. She was older than both of us put together twice. It’s a fucked-up universe, my friend.::
Harvey wandered away. Jared stared at the little girl for another minute, then covered her and the pile with the tarp. He went looking for Sagan, who he found outside the colony’s administration building.
::Dirac,:: Sagan said as he approached. ::What do you think of your first mission?::
::I think it’s pretty awful,:: Jared said.
::That it is,:: Sagan said. “Do you know why we’re here? Why we’re out here at a wildcat settlement?” she asked him.
It took Jared a second to realize she had spoken the words out loud. “No,” he said, responding in kind.
“Because the leader of this settlement is the son of the Secretary of State for the Colonial Union,” Sagan said. “The dumb bastard wanted to prove to his mother that the Colonial Union regulations against wildcat settlements were an affront to civil rights.”
“Are they?” Jared asked.
Sagan looked over at Jared. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m just curious,” Jared said.
“Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t,” Sagan said. “But either way, the last place to prove that point would have been this planet. It’s been claimed by the Rraey for years, even if they didn’t have a settlement on it. I guess the asshole thought that because the CU beat the Rraey in the last war maybe they’d look the other way for fear of retaliation. Then ten days ago the spy satellite we put in over the planet got shot out of the sky by that cruiser we took out. It got a picture of the cruiser first. And here we are.”
“It’s a mess,” Jared said.
Sagan laughed mirthlessly. “Now I’ve got to go back into that fucking cold room and test corpses until I find the secretary’s son,” she said. “Then I’ll have the pleasure of telling her that the Rraey chopped up her son and his family for food.”
“His family?” Jared asked.
“Wife,” Sagan said, “and a daughter. Four years old.”
Jared shuddered violently, thinking of the girl on the pile. Sagan watched him intently. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Jared said. “It just seems a waste.”
“The wife and kid are a waste,” Sagan said. “The dumb bastard who brought them here got what he deserved.”