I eyed Marie Black. “Just out of curiosity, Marie, what do you think the CU is going to do? Send CDF troops here to arrest me and Jane? Personally I think that would be fine. Then at least there’d be a military presence here if we’re attacked. The only other option would be that they hang us out to dry, and you know what? That’s what’s happening already.”
I looked around the table. “I think we need to reemphasize again a salient fact that keeps getting overlooked, here: We are completely, entirely and utterly on our own. Our value to the Colonial Union now is in our demise, to rally the other colonies to join in the fight with their own citizens and treasuries. I don’t mind being a symbol for the rest of the Colonial Union, but I don’t want to have to die for the privilege. I don’t want any of you to have to die for the privilege, either.”
Trujillo looked over to Jane. “You agree with all of this,” he said to her.
“John got his information from my former commanding officer,” Jane said. “I have issues to settle with him on a personal level. I don’t doubt the information is good.”
“But does he have an agenda?” Trujillo asked.
“Of course he has an agenda,” Jane said. “He wants to keep the rest of the universe from stomping on us like we’re fucking bugs. I thought he made that pretty clear.”
That put a pause to Trujillo. “I mean does he have an agenda we don’t see,” he said, finally.
“I doubt it,” Jane said. “Special Forces are pretty straightforward. We’re sneaky when it’s necessary, but when it comes to it, we come at you straight on.”
“Which makes him the first,” I said. “The Colonial Union hasn’t dealt with us honestly in any of this.”
“They didn’t have a choice,” Lee Chen said.
“Don’t give me that,” I said. “We’re too far along in this to swallow that one whole anymore. Yes, the CU was playing a deep game with the Conclave, and it didn’t bother to tell us pawns what the game was. But now the CU is playing a new game and it’s dependent on us being taken off the board.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Marta Piro said.
“We know we have no defenses,” Trujillo said. “And we know where we stand in the line to get more. Regardless of the reasons, John’s right. We’re up against it.”
“I still want to know how you can live with sending your daughter to negotiate with this General Gau,” Marie Black said.
“It made sense,” Jane said.
“I don’t see how,” Black said.
“Zo? is traveling with the Obin,” Jane said. “The Obin are not actively hostile with the Conclave. General Gau will receive the Obin, where he could not receive a Colonial ship.”
“Even if we could somehow get a Colonial ship, which we can’t,” I said.
“Neither John nor I can leave the colony without our absence being noted by both the Colonial Union and our own settlers,” Jane said. “Zo?, on the other hand, has a special relationship with the Obin. Her leaving the planet at the Obin’s insistence was something the Colonial Union would expect.”
“There’s another advantage, too,” I said. Heads swiveled to me. “Even if I or Jane could have made the trip, there’d be no reason for Gau to accept our information as genuine or in earnest. The leaders of colonies have sacrificed themselves before. But with Zo?, we’re giving Gau more than information.”
“You’re giving him a hostage,” Trujillo said.
“Yes,” I said.
“You’re playing a risky game,” Trujillo said.
“This isn’t a game,” I said. “We had to make sure we were heard. And it’s a calculated risk. The Obin are with Zo?, and I don’t think they’ll stand idly by if Gau does anything stupid.”
“You’re still risking her life,” Black said. “You’re risking her life and she’s only a child.”
“If she stayed here, she would have died like the rest of us,” Jane said. “By going, she’ll live, and she gives us a chance to survive. We did the right thing.”
Marie Black opened her mouth to respond. “You need to think very hard about the next thing you say concerning my daughter,” Jane said. Black closed her mouth with an audible clack.
“You’ve set this course of action without us,” Lol Gerber said. “But you’re telling us now. I’d like to know the reason why.”
“We sent Zo? because we thought it was necessary,” I said. “That was our decision to make, and we made it. But Marie is right: You are going to have to live with consequences of our actions. We had to tell you. If Marie’s any indication, some of you have lost confidence in us. Right now you need leaders you feel you can trust. We’ve told you what we’ve done and why. One of the consequences of our actions is that now you need to vote on whether you want us to lead the colony any further.”
“The Colonial Union won’t accept anyone new,” Marta Piro said.
“I think that depends on what you tell them,” I said. “If you tell them we’ve been consorting with the enemy, I’m guessing they’d approve the change.”
“So you’re also asking us whether or not to turn you in to the Colonial Union,” Trujillo said.