“If you say this is what it says, I’m going to believe you,” Gretchen said. “I’m not actually finding verbs here.”
I pulled up another document. “Here, this is about a Conclave leader named Nerbros Eser. He’s General Gau’s main competition for leadership of the Conclave now. Gau still doesn’t want to attack the Colonial Union directly, even though we just destroyed his fleet. He still thinks the Conclave is strong enough to keep doing what it’s been doing. But this Eser guy thinks the Conclave should just wipe us out. The Colonial Union. And especially us here on Roanoke. Just to make the point that you don’t mess with the Conclave. The two of them are fighting over control of the Conclave right now.”
“Okay,” Gretchen said. “But I still don’t know what any of this means, Zo?. Speak not-hyper-ese to me. You’re losing me.”
I stopped and took a breath. Gretchen was right. I’d spent most of the last day reading these documents, drinking coffee, and not sleeping; I was not at the peak of my communication skills. So I tried again.
“The whole point of founding Roanoke colony was to start a war,” I said.
“It looks like it worked,” Gretchen said.
“No,” I said. “It was supposed to start a war within the Conclave. Blowing up their fleet was supposed to tear the Conclave apart from the inside. It would end the threat of this huge coalition of alien races and bring things back to the way it was before, when every race was fighting every other race. We trigger a civil war, and then we sweep in while they’re all fighting and scoop up the worlds we want and come out of it all stronger than before—maybe too strong for any one race or even a small group of races to square off against. That was the plan.”
“But you’re telling me it didn’t work that way,” Gretchen said.
“Right,” I said. “We blew up the fleet and got the Conclave members fighting, but who they’re fighting is us. The reason we didn’t like the Conclave is that it was four hundred against one, the one being us. Well, now it’s still four hundred against one, except now no one’s listening to the one guy who was keeping them from engaging in total war against us.”
“Us here on Roanoke,” Gretchen said.
“Us everywhere,” I said. “The Colonial Union. Humans. Us. This is happening now,” I said. “Colonial Union worlds are being attacked. Not just the new colony worlds, the ones that usually get attacked. Even the established colonies—the ones that haven’t been attacked in decades—are getting hit. And unless General Gau gets them all back in line, these attacks are going to keep happening. They’re going to get worse.”
“I think you need a new hobby,” Gretchen said, handing me back my PDA. “Your new one here is really depressing.”
“I’m not trying to scare you,” I said. “I thought you would want to know about all this.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Gretchen said. “You need to tell your parents. Or my dad. Someone who actually knows what to do about all this.”
“They already know,” I said. “I heard John and Jane talking about it last night after he got back from Phoenix Station. Everyone there knows the colonies are under attack. No one’s reporting it—the Colonial Union has a lockdown on the news—but everyone’s talking about it.”
“What does that leave for Roanoke?” Gretchen said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I know we don’t have a lot of pull right now.”
“So we’re all going to die,” Gretchen said. “Well. Gee. Thanks, Zo?. I’m really glad to know it.”
“It’s not that bad yet,” I said. “Our parents are working on it. They’ll figure it out. We’re not all going to die.”
“Well, you’re not going to die, at least,” Gretchen said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“If things really go swirling, the Obin will swoop in and take you out of here,” Gretchen said. “Although if all of the Colonial Union is really under attack, I’m not sure where you’re going to end up going. But the point is, you have an escape route. The rest of us don’t.”
I stared at Gretchen. “That’s incredibly unfair,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere, Gretchen.”
“Why?” Gretchen said. “I’m not angry at you that you have a way out, Zo?. I’m envious. I’ve been through one attack. Just one missile got through and it didn’t even explode properly, and it still did incredible damage and killed someone I care about and everyone in his family. When they come for us for real, we don’t have a chance.”
“You still have your training,” I said.