“Then what Harrison said is true,” Clarke said. “Except that you’re trying to tell me that he did it on her order.”
Nodding, Carter replied, “That’s about how it appears to me.” She paused, then said, “I want those responsible for the massacres to face justice for their crimes. They’re not going to do that in any court on this planet. I want to stop any more innocent Belters being killed, and ideally, I’d like Atlantis to have at least a chance of freedom.”
“They’ve got about a hundred and twenty in the Stadium,” Clarke said. “Not many more unaccounted for, but they’re under guard.” He paused, looked at her, and said, “Christ, they’re going to use them as human shields.”
“More than likely,” she replied.
The door slid open, and Falco stepped out, saying, “We can’t let this happen. We’ve got to find some way of getting them out of there.”
“Falco?” Clarke said. “I thought…”
“She was with the Belter pilots who attempted to fight us off when we arrived,” Carter interrupted. “We rescued her and a few others. The only Belters who survived the fighting up in orbit. Right now we’re on the same side. We’ve got to get those people out of there, to some place of safety, and we’ve got to do it right now, before someone decides to start taking revenge.”
“We might be past that,” Clarke said. “They’re setting up for trials right now. No information on just who is getting charged with what, not yet, but you can bet that will be coming, and soon.”
“No bet,” Falco replied. “That’s exactly what those terrorists were planning all along. I’m surprised you went along with them, Teddy. You didn’t strike me as the type.”
“Most of my friends were going to attempt this no matter what I did or said,” Clarke replied. “If it was going to happen, I was going to fight with them, and I ended up leading them into battle. Too many people died already.” He paused, and said, “It’s not as if the Belters were much better. Secret police, curfews, slave labor in all but name…”
“We’re not having this argument now,” Clarke said. “Bluntly, we don’t have the time for it. There’s an enemy force on the way. I presume that they’re on buggies, trucks…”
“Four of them. I don’t know how many people on board. I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t come in some sort of force, though. Say a dozen, at least, and well-armed, at that.” He paused, then added, “I have a horrible feeling that I know what you are planning.”
“Teddy,” Carter said, “Do you really think that the rebels are going to leave anyone alive to testify? There’s probably a very good reason that all of you have been left here for so long, rather than being taken back to base. It would only take a couple of hackers to go through the records, if that’s all they were thinking about.”
Shaking his head, Clarke replied, “I was really starting to believe in all of this, you know. I really thought that we might be able to make it happen, to make our independence stick.”
“It can’t work,” Falco pressed. She turned to Carter, and said, “Can you take them onto Avenger?”
“If we had to, but it’d push our life support systems to the limit, and then some. Though just getting into orbit would be a start.”
“We’ll need a shuttle, then,” she replied. “One of the big orbital ships. There must be a couple of dozen of them at the spaceport.”
“That’s the answer, then. We steal a shuttle from the spaceport, fly it into the stadium after disabling the aerial defenses, rescue the prisoners from an armed compound, and get them safely into orbit,” Carter said, a smile on her face. “At least we’ve got some sort of a plan now.”
“After a fashion, anyway,” Clarke said. “I suppose I should point out that we’ve got a lot of little problems we’ve got to get past before we can get to that stage. Not least of which is the fact that this shuttle can carry, what, twelve people, and that if we even attempt to ride it down onto the plain, or anywhere near Plato City, it’ll be shot down in seconds.”
“That’s not necessarily a problem,” she replied. “I think the rebels are about to provide us with some transport that should get us all the way to the target. Though I have the sneaky suspicion that it won’t be as easy as that. What we need right now is some sort of idea how long we’ve got until the Belter reinforcements arrive.” She turned to Falco, who shook her head.
“Dictionary definition of treason,” she replied.
“I think our war is on hold for a while,” Carter said. “Avenger isn’t going to fight here. You’ve offered us your parole. I’ll offer you mine. I need to know how long I’ve got to work with.” She paused, and added, “There’s nothing else coming in, Squadron Leader. No reinforcements from Earth. No outside help. Nothing at all. So I need…
“Four hours, roughly,” she said. “That’s what I was told. If this is a trick, then I’ll…”
“Good. That should be enough time.” Turning to Clarke, she said, “I think you might want to talk to your people. They need to know what’s coming their way…”
Nodding, he replied, “They’re not going to be involved in any of this. I’m sending them home. They can hide out until the dust settles.” He paused, then said, “I’ll stick, though. I owe those bastards a bit of payback. I guess we can’t have freedom. I’ll settle for justice.”
Chapter 20
There was a knock on the door, and Corrigan looked up from his desk to see Rojek and Dixon standing at the threshold, grim-faced, each of them holding a tablet in their hand.
“What’s gone wrong now?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Rojek said. “At least, not yet. You told us to find some way to protect Atlantis from the Belter attack, or at the very least to work out a way of making them not want to take the planet. I think we’ve done it.”
“I take it this isn’t something I’m going to like,” Corrigan replied. “Sit down.” As they took their seats, he said, “I’ve been going over the military options, and none of them are particularly promising. Even if I was willing to sacrifice Avenger to the cause, there’s no way to win. It might cost them time, it might hurt them a little, but they’re going to retake Atlantis. Unless you’ve come up with some sort of miracle.”
“More like a nightmare, but we’ve got an idea,” Dixon said. “The only reason they want Atlantis is for the mineral resources on the surface. That’s their key interest in the planet.”
“Not to mention the propaganda implications,” Corrigan replied. “I don’t see they can risk letting one of their worlds simply walk away. Too many other settlements might get the same idea, and they’d end up putting out brushfires all over the galaxy.”
“Actually, we don’t think so,” Novak said. “They’ve got a total blackout on all communications. Nobody knows the details of what happened here. My guess is that nobody ever will, at least not until it doesn’t matter anymore. In theory, of course, we could spread the word, but that might reveal some rather unfortunate facts. It would probably do a lot more harm than good.”
“Granted, but even so, it’s bound to spread, sooner or later,” Corrigan said. He paused, then added, “You’re talking about a conspiracy between both sides to keep what happens here quiet.”
Nodding, Dixon said, “That’s what we’re talking about. Though it doesn’t have to be anything formal, of course. It just has to be in the interests of both sides to keep the fate of Atlantis a secret, for a while.”
“Once the war is over, of course, it won’t matter,” Rojek added.
“I’m really not going to like this, am I,” Corrigan said.
“Neither do I,” Dixon replied, “but we simply can’t think of another alternative with anywhere near these odds of success.”
“Then just what is your alternative,” Corrigan said. “I don’t see it.”
“Consider that a testament to your highly-refined sense of morality, Commander,” Rojek said. “I’m afraid it’s all really very simple. The only reason the Belters want Atl
antis is because of the mineral deposits. So we ensure they can’t get at them. Not for a long time, anyway.”
Corrigan’s eyes widened, and he replied, “Just what are you saying?”
“We destroy them,” he said.
“That’s what I thought you meant.”
Dixon glanced at Rojek, then said, “From a purely technical standpoint, it’s well within our capabilities to pull this off. We’ve got control of the orbital defense network, and the design incorporates features meant for planetary bombardment. The missiles are nuclear-tipped, and it wouldn’t take much to make the modifications required to make them dirty.”
“Dirty nukes,” Corrigan yelled, leaping to his feet. “You want me to order the bombardment of the planet with dirty nuclear weapons?”
“The fallout will not spread far, not to any inhabited regions,” Dixon replied. “There’s no life on the planet that we didn’t bring with us, and those areas are already pretty toxic. We’d just make them, well, more so. Enough that it wouldn’t be possible to exploit them for years. Maybe decades.”
“Atlantis is a mature settlement. All the best veins are being exploited right now, and the rest aren’t anywhere near sufficient to justify an attack on this sort of scale.” Rojek paused, then continued, “In addition, all of the targets are currently abandoned, or have only skeleton garrisons. There’d be plenty of warning, plenty of time for them to get out of the line of fire. We’re not talking about powerful explosives.”
“Just, what, a dozen Hiroshima-level blasts?”
“All of the major settlements are safe, Bill,” Rojek said. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear. I know that you are looking for a miracle, but I’m very much afraid that we’re all out of miracles. From where I sit, this isn’t merely the best option. It’s the only option.”
“Taking Atlantis will hurt, bad,” Dixon replied. “Setting up an orbital blockade will be far easier. Our best guess is that they’ll content themselves with knocking out the orbital defense network and leaving a guardship behind to keep an eye on the situation. Ajax, maybe. They won’t invade the planet, they won’t send down a garrison. Why would they? It will make a lot more sense for them to just let Atlantis wither on the vine.”
“Can you imagine what the Belters will say…,” Corrigan began, before shaking his head. “No, they won’t say a word, will they.”
“Not a chance,” Dixon said. “They’d be admitting that Atlantis has managed to liberate itself. They’ll keep the secret if we do. The most they might say is that our forces have managed to disrupt the shipments of ore, but they’ll probably do that anyway. Hell, it’s the truth, after all.”
Corrigan looked at the two of them, and said, “That’s the best we’ve got? That’s the best idea you can come up with?”
“It’s all we’ve got that works,” Dixon said. “On the positive side, it will effectively deny the resources of Atlantis to the enemy, whilst giving the local population a chance to resolve their differences. Once the war is over, the winner will move in and help clean up the mess.”
“As a bonus,” Rojek added, “only the three of us need to know just what happened here, in detail. We can set this up to make it look like the rebels did it themselves, or the Belters. Certainly enough doubt and uncertainty to prevent any investigation determining the truth of the matter. And given that the satellites will almost certainly be destroyed in the near future, there’s no realistic way that anything can be proven.”
“The rebels will scream that we did it,” Dixon said, “but if you watch the feeds from the surface, they’re doing that anyway right now. Apparently, we are responsible for the death of President Bellini. McBride’s work, I presume. He’s working on the assumption that the Belters will be moving in and taking power again in a week or so. The occupation they’d inflict upon them will make the previous regime look like a friendly old schoolteacher.”
“That’s another point,” Rojek said. “This way, the death toll is as close to zero as we can manage. Frankly, the only way we actually end up killing someone over this is if they decide to stay on one of the targets, which in my book, is more tantamount to suicide. They’ll know the missiles are coming, and there’s nothing they can do to stop them. The ground defenses are designed to hold back an invasion, not a missile strike.”
“If the Belters attack, invade, then hundreds of people will die. Maybe thousands. And as many will be thrown into work camps for the duration of the war. I have to think that wiping out a few isolated, unmanned installations is a better alternative,” Dixon pressed.
Corrigan sat back down on his chair, folded his hands together, and said, “You’re forgetting something critical. This isn’t just something that is going to affect the local population today. The whole wealth of their planet, the resource deposits they’re counting on to establish a stable and successful economy, is in the areas you propose to destroy. We might save them in the present, but it’ll be at the expense of their future.”
“They’ve got to live long enough to see it,” Rojek said. “I don’t see any way they can pull it off. Besides, this isn’t permanent. Our best calculations indicate that the mines will be usable again, using robotic systems, in ten to twenty years, and then…”
“The war will be over, one way or another, long before then,” replied Corrigan. “And we have our own resource deposits that the winner will exploit instead. Or they’ll be a new wave of exploration, and somewhere better will be found, one without all of the human baggage of Atlantis.” He paused, then said, “It was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.”
“Commander?” Dixon asked.
“Something from an older war, long ago, during the Nationalist era. I’ve known the quote for years, but I never thought I’d end up living it.”
“They’ve crossed the Rubicon, Commander. And they blew up the bridge that might have led them back when the Resident died. The only hope they had was some sort of a deal with the peace faction, and even that would have provided independence in name only.”
“Can they survive under orbital blockade?”
“They seem to think so,” Dixon said. “They know their planet and their economy better than we do, presumably. If they are confident that they can make this work, then I suppose we don’t have much choice other than to believe them. You want my opinion? They can manage for six months. After that, it starts to get tricky, but they ought to be able to last out until the end of the war, and come to some sort of understanding with the victors.”
“Assuming, of course, that they can work out something they have left that they can bargain with,” Corrigan replied.
“We didn’t make this mess, skipper,” Dixon said. “We’re just the poor bastards who have to come up with some sort of a way to make it right. We’re playing for time. I admit that. I’ll even admit that this way probably guarantees that Atlantis will never actually gain its independence, that it will become a footnote to history at best, is actually abandoned at worst, but there just aren’t that many alternatives on the table right now.”
“I suppose we could do as McBride suggested,” Rojek added. “Set up the defense network, take anyone on board we think is worth saving, then just head for the far stars. That’s the other alternative, right now.” He paused, then said, “We can’t win a battle. Not with the resources we’ve got. Earth isn’t going to commit any forces to help. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t get here in time. You know that, Bill.”
Dixon looked at him, and said, “There really isn’t any other choice.”
Corrigan paused for a long, long moment, his eyes a million light-years distant, struggling to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the decision they were discussing. The ramifications of the bombardment would be felt for decades to come, the actions they were about to take affecting the destiny of a world.
Or the actions they failed to take. Dixon was right.
There was no other choice. They’d been left with nothing at all.
>
He looked up at the two men, and said, “I will want absolute verification that there is nobody on those mines when the missiles hit, and that the fallout will not get within twenty miles of an inhabited settlement. We will provide full warning of the missile bombardment, though without assuming responsibility for the attack. That’s something we three get to take to our graves. How long will it take to make the necessary preparations?”
“Two, three hours,” Dixon said. “It’s all remote, though. I don’t have to actually go out to any of the satellites. Just sneak in some programming modifications throw the back doors I found in the software.” He grinned, then said, “Good hackers, those Russians.”
“Get to work,” Corrigan said. “And move as quickly as you can. I want to be ready to open fire the moment the Belters arrive.”
“Wait a minute,” Rojek replied. “You’re going to wait until…”
“Can you think of a better time?” Corrigan asked. “Major, if we’re going to do this damn dreadful thing, we’re going to do it right. This way everyone on the surface will blame it on the Belters, and they’ll never prove it one way or another. When we win this war, and we will win this war, we’re going to have to work with these people.” He looked at them, and added, “One more thing. To hell with rational politics, to hell with trade deals. When this is all over, we’re going to personally see to it that all the damage we’re about to do is either repaired or mitigated. I’ve got to look at myself in the mirror, and when I hit that button, that’s going to get pretty damn hard to do.”
“Agreed,” Rojek said.
After a moment, Dixon nodded, and said, “Agreed.”
“Good.” He looked at the clock, then said, “Get moving, and fast. The Belters could be here any minute. Any word from the surface?”
“Nothing since the shuttle landed,” Dixon said.
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