“I’m aware of it,” I said. “I wasn’t aware from the information the Colonial Union gave me that it was part of the general’s personal psychological profile or of his military tactics.”
“There’s much you don’t know of the general,” Butcher said.
“I agree,” I said. “Which is why I chose to go with my own intuition of his character. But I seem to recall that the general noted that he had overseen three dozen of these colony removals before he got to Roanoke. If you have information about those incidents and how the general acted toward those colonies, that would be instructive regarding his honor and his position on cruelty. Do you have that information?”
“We have it,” Butcher said. “We are not at liberty to provide it to you, as you’ve been temporarily removed from your administrative position.”
“I understand,” I said. “Did you have any of this information before I was stripped of my administrative status?”
“Are you implying that the Colonial Union withheld information from you?” Berkeley asked.
“I’m not implying a thing,” I said. “I was asking a question. And my point was that in the absence of information provided to me by the Colonial Union, I have only my own judgment to guide me, to complement the information I have.” I looked directly at Szilard. “In my judgment, from what I know of the man, General Gau is honorable.”
Szilard considered this. “What would you have done, Administrator Perry, if Gau had appeared in your sky before the Colonial Union had its attack plan finalized?”
“Are you asking if I would have surrendered the colony?” I asked.
“I’m asking what you would have done,” Szilard said.
“I would have taken advantage of Gau’s offer,” I said. “I would have let him take the Roanoke colonists back to the Colonial Union.”
“So you would have surrendered the colony,” Butcher said.
“No,” I said. “I would have stayed behind to defend Roanoke. I suspect my wife would stay with me. Anyone else who wished to stay could stay.” With the exception of Zo?, I thought, although I didn’t like the scene of Zo? being dragged, kicking and screaming, to a transport by Hickory and Dickory.
“That’s a distinction without a difference,” Berkeley said. “There’s no colony without colonists.”
“I agree,” I said. “But one colonist is enough for the colony to stand, and one colonist is enough to die for the Colonial Union. My responsibility is to my colony and to my colonists. I would refuse to surrender the colony of Roanoke. I would also do everything in my power to keep the colonists alive. From a practical point of view, twenty-five hundred colonists are no more able to stand up to an entire fleet of warships than a single colonist would be. My death would be sufficient to make the point the CU would wish for me to make. If you think I would force every other Roanoke colonist to die to satisfy some arcane accounting of what defines the destruction of a colony, Colonel Berkeley, then you’re a goddamned fool.”
Berkeley looked as if he were ready to come over the table at me. Szilard sat there with the same damned inscrutable look he’d had through the entire inquiry.
“Well,” Butcher said, trying to get the inquiry back under control. “I think we’ve gotten everything we need from you, Administrator Perry. You are free to go and to await the resolution of our inquiry. You will not be allowed to leave Phoenix Station prior to the resolution. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” I said. “Do I need to find some sort of lodging?”
“I don’t expect it will take that long,” Butcher said.
“Understand that everything I’ve heard is off the record,” Trujillo said.
“At this point, I don’t know that I would trust information that is on the record,” I said.
Trujillo nodded. “Amen to that,” he said.
“What have you heard?” I said.
“It’s bad,” he said. “And it’s getting worse.”
Trujillo, Kranjic, Beata and I sat in my favorite commissary at Phoenix, the one with the truly spectacular burgers. We had all ordered one; the burgers cooled, neglected, as we talked in as secluded a corner as we could find.
“Define bad,” I said.
“There was a missile attack on Phoenix the other night,” Trujillo said.
“That’s not bad, that’s stupid,” I said. “Phoenix has the most advanced planetary defense grid of any of the human planets. You couldn’t get a missile larger than a marble past it.”
“Right,” Trujillo said. “And everyone knows it. There hasn’t been an attack of any size against Phoenix in over a hundred years. The attack wasn’t meant to be successful. It was meant to send a message that no human planet should be considered safe from retaliation. That’s a pretty big statement.”
I thought about this while I took a bite of my burger. “Presumably Phoenix wasn’t the only planet to get a missile attack,” I said.
“No,” Trujillo said. “My people tell me that all the colonies have been attacked.”