“Indeed,” Szilard said. “No signals in, no signals out. You should know that being cut off is unspeakably claustrophobic for Special Forces; we’re so used to being in constant contact with each other through our BrainPals that dropping the signal is like losing any three of our senses.”
“I knew that,” I said. Jane had recounted to me the mission in which she and other Special Forces hunted Charles Boutin; Boutin had devised a way to cut off the BrainPal signal of the Special Forces, killing most of them and driving some of those who survived completely insane.
Szilard nodded. “Then you’ll understand how difficult something like this is, even for me. Honestly I have no idea how Sagan was able leave it behind when she married you.”
“There are other ways to connect with someone,” I said.
“If you say so,” Szilard said. “The fact I’m willing to do this should also communicate to you the seriousness of what I’m going to say to you.”
“All right,” I said. “I’m ready.”
“Roanoke is in serious trouble,” Szilard said. “We all are. The Colonial Union had anticipated that destroying the Conclave fleet would throw the Conclave into a civil war. That much was correct. Right now the Conclave is tearing itself apart. The races loyal to General Gau are squaring off against another faction who has found a leader in a member of the Arris race named Nerbros Eser. As it stands there’s only one thing that has kept these two factions of the Conclave from destroying each other entirely.”
“What’s that?” I said.
“The thing the Colonial Union didn’t anticipate,” Szilard said. “And that is that every single member race of the Conclave is now bent on destroying the Colonial Union. Not just containing the Colonial Union, as General Gau was content to do. They want to eradicate it completely.”
“Because we wiped out the fleet,” I said.
“That’s the proximate cause,” Szilard said. “The Colonial Union forgot that in attacking the fleet we weren’t only striking at the Conclave but at every member of the Conclave. The ships in the fleet were often the flagships for their races. We didn’t just destroy a fleet, we destroyed racial symbols. We kicked every single member race of the Conclave hard and square in the balls, Perry. They’re not going to forgive that. But beyond that we’re trying to use the destruction of the Conclave fleet as a rallying point for other unaffiliated races. We’re trying to get them to become our allies. And the Conclave members have decided that the best way to keep those races unaffiliated is to make an example out of the Colonial Union. All of it.”
“You don’t sound surprised,” I said.
“I’m not,” Szilard said. “When destroying the Conclave fleet was first considered, I had the Special Forces intelligence corps model out the consequences of that act. This was always the most likely result.”
“Why didn’t they listen?” I asked.
“Because the CDF models told the Colonial Union what it wanted to hear,” Szilard said. “And because at the end of the day the Colonial Union is going to place more weight on the intelligence generated by real humans than the intelligence created by the Frankenstein monsters it creates to do its dirty work.”
“Like destroy the Conclave fleet,” I said, recalling Lieutenant Stross.
“Yes,” Szilard said.
“If you believed this was going to be the result, you should have refused to do it,” I said. “You shouldn’t have let your soldiers destroy the fleet.”
Szilard shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If I were to have refused, I would have been replaced as the commander of Special Forces. Special Forces are no less ambitious and venal than any other sort of human being, Perry. I can think of three generals under me who would have been happy to take my job for the simple cost of following foolish orders.”
“But you followed foolish orders,” I said.
“I did,” Szilard said. “But I did so under my own terms. Part of which was helping to install you and Sagan as colony leaders at Roanoke.”
“You installed me,” I said. This was news to me.
“Well, actually, I installed Sagan,” Szilard said. “You were merely part of the package deal. It was acceptable because you seemed unlikely to fuck things up.”
“Nice to be valued,” I said.
“You did make it easier to suggest Sagan,” Szilard said. “I knew you had a history with General Rybicki. In all, you came in handy. But in point of fact neither you nor Sagan was the key to the equation. It was your daughter, Administrator Perry, who really matters here. Your daughter was the reason I chose the two of you to lead Roanoke.”
I tried to puzzle this one out. “Because of the Obin?” I asked.
“Because of the Obin,” Szilard agreed. “Because of the fact the Obin consider her something only a little short of a living god, thanks to their devotion to her true father, and the debatably beneficial boon of consciousness that he gave them.”