“It was a pretense,” Gau said. “The human has no petition, but information pertaining to which one of you intends to assassinate me.”
This naturally got a stir in the chamber. “It is a human!” said Wert Ninung, a Dwaer. “No disrespect, General, but the humans recently destroyed the entire Conclave fleet. Any information they would share with you should be regarded as highly suspect, to say the least.”
“I agree with this entirely, Ninung,” Gau said. “Which is why when it was provided to me I did what any sensible person would have done and had my security people check the information thoroughly. I regret to say that the information was good. And now I must deal with the fact that one of my advisors—someone who was privy to all my plans for the Conclave—has conspired against me.”
“I don’t understand,” said a Ghlagh whose name, if I could remember correctly, was Lernin Il. I wasn’t entirely sure, however; Gau’s security people had given me dossiers on Gau’s circle of advisors only a few hours before the meeting, and given everything else I needed to do to prepare, I had barely had time to skim.
“What don’t you understand, Lernin?” asked General Gau.
“If you know which of us is the traitor, why hasn’t your security detail already dealt with them?” Il asked. “This could be done without exposing you to an unnecessary risk. Given your position you don’t need to take any more risks than are absolutely necessary.”
“We are not talking about some random killer, Il,” the general said. “Look around you. How long have we known each other? How hard have each of us worked to create this great Conclave of races? We have seen more of each other over time than we have seen of our spouses and children. Would any of you have accepted it if I were to make one of you disappear over a vague charge of treason? Would that not seem to each of you that I was losing my grip and creating scapegoats? No, Il. We have come too far and done too much for that. Even this would-be assassin deserves better courtesy than that.”
“What do you intend to do, then?” asked Il.
“I will ask the traitor in this room to come forward,” he said. “It’s not too late to right this wrong.”
“Are you offering this assassin amnesty?” asked some creature whose name I just did not remember (or, given how it spoke, I suspect I could not actually pronounce, even if I did remember it).
“No,” Gau said. “This person is not acting alone. They are part of a conspiracy that threatens what all of us have worked for.” Gau gestured to me. “My human friend here has given me a few names, but that is not enough. For the security of the Conclave we need to know more. And to show all the members of the Conclave that treason cannot be tolerated, my assassin must answer for what they have done to this point. What I do offer is this: That they will be treated fairly and with dignity. That they will serve their term of punishment with some measure of comfort. That their family and loved ones will not be punished or held responsible, unless they themselves are conspirators. And that their crime will not be made known publicly. Every one outside this room will know only that this conspirator has retired from service. There will be punishment. There must be punishment. But there will not be the punishment of history.”
“I want to know where this human got its information,” said Wert Ninung.
Gau nodded to me. “This information ultimately comes from the Colonial Union’s Special Forces division,” I said.
“The same group that spearheaded the destruction of the Conclave fleet,” Wert said. “Not especially trustworthy.”
“Councilor Wert,” I said, “how do you think the Special Forces were able to locate every one of the ships of your fleet? The only time it assembles is when it removes a colony. Locating four hundred ships among the tens of thousands that each race alone has at its disposal was an unheard of feat of military intelligence. After that, do you doubt that the Special Forces had difficulty coming up with a single name?”
Wert actually growled at me. I thought that was rude.
“I have already told you that I have had the information checked out,” General Gau said. “There is no doubt it is accurate. That is not under discussion. What is under discussion is how the assassin will choose to be discovered. I repeat: The assassin is in this room, right now, among us. If they will come forward now, and share information on their other conspirators, their treatment will be generous, light and secret. The offer is in front of you now. I beg you, as an old friend, to take it. Come forward now.”
No one in the room moved. General Gau stared at each of his advisors, directly and in the eye, for several seconds each. None of them took so much as a step forward.
“Very well,” General Gau said. “We do this the hard way, then.”