The explosion of the Kristina Marie did more than destroy the ship and much of Khartoum Station; it coincided with the harvest of Khartoum’s hogfruit, a native delicacy that was one of Khartoum’s major exports. Hogfruit spoiled quickly after ripening (it got its name from the fact Khartoum’s settlers fed the overripe fruit to their pigs, who were the only ones who would eat them at that point), so Khartoum had invested heavily to be able to harvest and ship for export its hogfruit crop within days of ripening, via Khartoum Station. The Kristina Marie was only one of a hundred Colonial Union trade ships above Khartoum, awaiting its share of the fruit.
With Khartoum Station down, the streamlined distribution system for the hogfruit ground into disarray. Ships dispatched shuttles to Khartoum itself to try to pack in as many crates of the fruit as possible, but this led to confusion on the ground in terms of which hogfruit producers had priority in shipping their product, and which trade ships had priority in receiving them. Fruit had to be unpacked from storage containers and repacked into shuttles; there were not nearly enough cargo men for the job. The vast majority of hogfruit rotted in its containers, delivering a major shock to the Khartoum economy, which would be compounded in the long term by the need to rebuild Khartoum Station—the economic lifeline for other exports as well—and bolster the defenses of Khartoum from further attack.
Before the Kristina Marie docked at Khartoum Station, it transmitted its identification, cargo manifest and recent itinerary as part of the standard security “handshake.” The records showed that two stops previous, the Kristina Marie had traded at Quii, the homeworld of the Qui, one of the Colonial Union’s few allies. It had docked next to a ship of Ylan registry, the Ylan being members of the Conclave. Forensic analysis of the explosion left no doubt that it was intentionally triggered and not an accidental breach of the engine core. From Phoenix came the order that no trade ship that had visited a nonhuman world in the last year was to approach a space station without a thorough scan and inspection. Hundreds of trade ships floated in space, their cargo unpacked and crews quarantined in the original Venetian sense of the word, awaiting the eradication of a different sort of plague.
The Kristina Marie had been sabotaged and sent on its way, to the place where its destruction could have the most impact, not just in deaths but in paralyzing the economy of the Colonial Union. It worked brilliantly.
The Roanoke Council didn’t react well to the news that I had sent Zo? to deliver a message to General Gau.
“We need to discuss your treason problem,” Manfred Trujillo said to me.
“I don’t have a problem with treason,” I said. “I can stop anytime.” I looked around the table at the rest of the Council members. The little joke didn’t go over well.
“Goddamn it, Perry,” Lee Chen said, angrier than I’d ever seen him. “The Conclave is planning to kill us, and you’re passing notes to its leader?”
“And you’ve used your daughter to do it,” Marie Black said, disgust creeping into her voice. “You’ve sent your only child to our enemy.”
I glanced over at Jane and Savitri, both of whom nodded to me. We knew this was going to come up; we had discussed how best to handle it when it did.
“No, I didn’t,” I said. “We have enemies and lots of them, but General Gau isn’t one of them.” I told them of my conversation with General Szilard of the Special Forces, and his warning of the assassination attempt on Gau. “Gau has promised us that he wouldn’t attack Roanoke,” I said. “If he dies, there’s nothing between us and whoever wants to kill us.”
“There’s nothing between us and them now,” Lee Chen said. “Or did you miss the attack on us a couple of weeks back?”
“I didn’t miss it,” I said. “And I suspect it would have been much worse if Gau didn’t have at least some control over the Conclave. If he knows about this assassination attempt he can use it to get back control of the rest of the Conclave. And then we’ll be safe. Or at least safer. I decided it was worth it to take the risk to let him know.”
“You didn’t put it up for a vote,” said Marta Piro.
“I didn’t have to,” I said. “I am still colony leader. Jane and I decided that this was the best thing to do. And it’s not like you would have said ‘yes,’ anyway.”
“But it’s treason,” Trujillo repeated. “For real this time, John. This is more than coyly asking the general not to bring his fleet here. You’re interfering with the internal politics of the Conclave. There’s no way the Colonial Union is going to let you do this, especially when they’ve already hauled you up in front of an inquiry.”
“I’ll take responsibility for my actions,” I said.
“Yes, well, unfortunately, we will all have to take responsibility for them, too,” Marie Black said. “Unless you think the Colonial Union is going to assume you’ve been doing this all on your own.”