Jane seemed genuinely angry; whether at me or the situation I couldn’t tell. I decided not to push it and turned toward Stross. “But now the Conclave thing is a growing concern.”
“It is,” Stross said. “For over two years now. The first thing it did was warn every species who wasn’t part of the Conclave not to colonize anymore.”
“Or what?” Zane asked.
“Or the Conclave would wipe out their new colonies,” Stross said. “That’s the reason for the switcharoo here. We led the Conclave to believe we were forming a colony and settling it on one world. But in fact we sent the colony to another world entirely. One that isn’t in the records or on the charts or that anyone knows about, other than a few very highly placed people. And me, because I’m here to tell you this. And now you. The Conclave was all set to attack Roanoke colony before you could even get your people on the ground. Now they can’t attack you because they can’t find you. It makes the Conclave look foolish and weak. And that makes us look better. That’s the thinking as I understand it.”
Now it was my turn to get angry. “So the Colonial Union is playing hide-and-seek with this Conclave,” I said. “That’s just jolly.”
“Jolly’s a word,” Stross said. “I don’t think it’ll be so jolly if they find you, though.”
“And how long is that going to take?” I asked. “If this is as much of a blow to the Conclave as you say, they’re going to come looking for us.”
“You’re right about that,” Stross said. “And when they find you, they’re going to wipe you out. So now it’s our job to make you hard to find. And I think this is the part you’re really not going to like.”
“Point number one,” I said, to the representatives of Roanoke colony. “No contact whatsoever between Roanoke colony and the rest of the Colonial Union.”
The table erupted into chaos.
Jane and I sat on either ends, waiting for the fracas to calm. It took a few minutes.
“That’s insane,” said Marie Black.
“I agree entirely,” I said. “But every time there’s a contact between Roanoke and any other colony world, it leaves a trail back to us. Spaceships have crews that number in the hundreds. It’s not realistic that none of those would talk to friends or spouses. And you all already know that people will be looking for us. Your former governments and your families and the press will all be looking for someone who can give them a clue to where we are. If anyone can point a finger back to us, this Conclave will find us.”
“What about the Magellan?” asked Lee Chen. “It’s going back.”
“Actually, no, it’s not,” I said. This news received a low gasp. I remembered the absolute fury in Captain Zane’s face when Stross told him this bit of information. Zane threatened to disobey the order; Stross reminded him he had no control over the ships engines, and that if he and the crew didn’t head to the surface with the rest of the colonists, they’d discover they had no control over life support, either. It was a fairly ugly moment.
It got worse when Stross told Zane the plan was to get rid of the Magellan by driving it right into the sun.
“The crew of the Magellan have families back in the CU,” said Hiram Yoder. “Spouses. Children.”
“They do,” I said. “That will give you an idea how serious this is.”
“Can we afford them?” asked Manfred Trujillo. “I’m not saying we refuse them. But the colony stores were meant for twenty-five hundred colonists. Now we’re adding, what, another two hundred?”
“Two hundred and six,” said Jane. “It’s not a problem. We shipped with half again as much food stores as are usual for a colony this size, and this world has plant and animal life we can eat. Hopefully.”
“How long will this isolation continue?” asked Black.
“Indefinitely,” I said. Another grumble. “Our survival depends on isolation. It’s just that simple. But in some ways that makes things easier. Seed colonies have to prepare for the next wave of colonists two or three years down the line. We don’t have to worry about that now. We can focus on what our needs are. That’ll make a difference.”
There was glum agreement to this. For the moment that was the best I could hope for.
“Point two,” I said, and tensed up for the backlash. “No use of technology that can give away the existence of our colony from space.”
This time they didn’t calm down after a few minutes.
“That’s utterly ridiculous,” said Paulo Gutierrez, eventually. “Anything that has a wireless connection is potentially detectible. All you have to do is sweep with a broad-spectrum signal. It’ll try to connect with anything and tell you what it finds.”
“I understand that,” I said.
“Our entire technology is wireless,” Gutierrez said. He held up his PDA. “Look at this. Not a single goddamned wired input. You couldn’t connect a wire to it if you tried. All our automated equipment in the cargo hold is wireless.”