This threw Rybicki off stride; he looked at Trujillo. “You have no authorization to be colony leader.”
“The colonists would disagree with you,” Trujillo said.
“The colonists don’t get a vote,” Rybicki said.
“They’d disagree with you on that, too,” Trujillo said.
“Then they’ve swallowed stupid pills along with you three,” Rybicki said, and turned back to me and Jane. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I thought our message to the Department of Colonization was pretty clear,” I said. “We have reason to believe we’re about to be attacked, and those who are going to attack us are planning to wipe us out. We need defenses or we’re going to die.”
“You sent the message in the clear,” Rybicki said. “Anyone could have picked it up.”
“It was encrypted,” I said. “Military encryption.”
“It was encrypted with a protocol that’s compromised,” Rybicki said. “It’s been compromised for years.” He looked up at Jane. “You of all people should have known that, Sagan. You’re responsible for this colony’s safety. You know which encryption to use.”
Jane said nothing.
“So you’re saying that now anyone who cares to hear knows we’re vulnerable,” I said.
“I’m saying that you might as well have taped bacon to your head and walked into a tiger pit,” Rybicki said.
“Then all the more reason for the Colonial Union to defend us,” Trujillo said.
Rybicki glanced back over to Trujillo. “I’m not talking anymore with him around,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what sort of cozy agreement you have going here, the fact of the matter is you two are on the hook for the colony, not him. It’s time to get serious, and what we need to talk about is classified. He doesn’t rate.”
“He’s still colony leader,” I said.
“I don’t care if you’ve crowned him King of Siam,” Rybicki said. “He needs to go.”
“Your call, Manfred,” I said.
“I’ll go,” Trujillo said, standing up. “But you need to know this, General Rybicki. We know here how the Colonial Union has used us, played with our destiny and toyed with the lives of all of us. Our lives, the lives of our families and the lives of our children. If the Colonial Union doesn’t defend us now, we’ll know who really killed us. Not some other species and not the Conclave. The Colonial Union. Pure and simple.”
“That’s a nice speech, Trujillo,” Rybicki said. “It doesn’t make it true.”
“General, at the moment, I wouldn’t place you as an authority on truth,” Trujillo said. He nodded to me and Jane and left before the general could retort.
“We’re going to tell him everything you say to us,” I said, after Trujillo left.
“Then you’ll be treasonous as well as incompetent,” Rybicki said, sitting at the desk. “I don’t know what you two think you’re doing, but whatever it is, it’s insane. You,” he looked up at Jane, “I know you know that encryption protocol had been compromised. You had to know that you were broadcasting your vulnerability. I can’t even begin to fathom why you did it.”
“I have my reasons,” Jane said.
“Fine,” Rybicki said. “Tell me.”
“No,” Jane said.
“Excuse me?” The general asked.
“I said no,” Jane said. “I don’t trust you.”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Rybicki said. “You’ve just painted a big fat target on your colony and I can’t be trusted.”
“There are a lot of things the Colonial Union did with Roanoke they didn’t bother to tell us about,” I said. “Turnabout is fair play.”
“Christ,” Rybicki said. “We’re not in a goddamn schoolyard. You’re gambling with the lives of these colonists.”
“And this is different from what the CU did how?” I asked.
“Because you don’t have the authority,” Rybicki said. “You don’t have the right.”
“The Colonial Union has the right to gamble with the lives of these colonists?” I asked. “It has the right to place them in the path of an enemy military who means to destroy them? These aren’t soldiers, General. They’re civilians. Some of our people are religious pacifists. You made sure of that. The Colonial Union may have had the authority to put these people in harm’s way. But it sure as hell didn’t have the right.”
“Have you ever heard of Coventry?” Rybicki said.
“The English city?” I asked.
Rybicki nodded. “In the Second World War, the British learned through intelligence that their enemies were going to bomb the town. They knew when it was going to happen. But if they evacuated the town they’d reveal that they knew the enemies’ secret code, and they would lose their ability to listen in on the enemies’ plans. For the good of all of Britain they let the bombing happen.”
“You’re saying Roanoke is the Colonial Union’s Coventry,” Jane said.
“I’m saying that we have an implacable enemy who wants us all dead,” Rybicki said. “And that we have to look at what’s best for humanity. All of humanity.”