The Last Colony

by John Scalzi

  “You didn’t put it up for a vote,” said Marta Piro.

  “I didn’t have to,” I said. “I am still colony leader. Jane and I decided that this was the best thing to do. And it’s not like you would have said ‘yes,’ anyway.”

  “But it’s treason,” Trujillo repeated. “For real this time, John. This is more than coyly asking the general not to bring his fleet here. You’re interfering with the internal politics of the Conclave. There’s no way the Colonial Union is going to let you do this, especially when they’ve already hauled you up in front of an inquiry.”

  “I’ll take responsibility for my actions,” I said.

  “Yes, well, unfortunately, we will all have to take responsibility for them, too,” Marie Black said. “Unless you think the Colonial Union is going to assume you’ve been doing this all on your own.”

  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.

  “Zoë 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. “Zoë, 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 Zoë, 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 Zoë, 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 Zoë 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.

  “We’re asking you to do what you think is necessary,” I said. “Just as we have done.” I stood up; Jane followed. We walked outside of our office and into the Roanoke sunlight.

  “How long do you think it will take?” I asked Jane.

  “Not long,” Jane said. “I expect Marie Black will make sure of that.”

  “I want to thank you for not killing her,” I said. “It would have made the vote of confidence problematic.”

  “I did want to kill her, but not because she was wrong,” Jane said. “She’s right. We’re risking Zoë’s life. And she’s a child.”

  I walked over to my wife. “She’s almost as old as you are,” I said, rubbing her arm.

  Jane pulled away. “It’s not the same and you know it,” she said.

  “No, it’s not,” I said. “But Zoë’s old enough to understand what she’s doing. She’s lost people she’s cared for, just like you have. Just like I have. And she knows that she stands to lose a lot more. She chose to go. We gave her a choice.”

  “We gave her a false choice,” Jane said. “We stood in front of her and gave her the choice of risking her own life or risking the lives of everyone she knows, including ours. You can’t tell me that was a fair set of choices to give her.”

  “It’s not,” I said. “But those were the choices we had to give her.”

  “I hate this fucking universe,” Jane said, looking away. “I hate the Colonial Union. I hate the Conclave. I hate this colony. I hate all of it.”

  “How do you feel about me?” I asked.

  “Now is not a good time to ask,” Jane said. We sat and waited.

  A half hour later Savitri walked out of the administration office. Her eyes were red. “Well, there’s good news and bad news,” she said. “The good news is that you have ten days before they tell the CU that you’ve been talking to General Gau. You have Trujillo to thank for that.”

  “That’s something,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Savitri said. �
�The bad news is that you’re out. Both of you. Unanimous vote. I’m just the secretary. I couldn’t vote. Sorry.”

  “Who has the job now?” Jane asked.

  “Trujillo,” Savitri said. “Of course. Bastard started angling for the job before you two closed the door.”

  “He’s really not that bad,” I said.

  “I know,” Savitri said, and wiped her eyes. “I’m just trying to make you feel like I’ll miss you.”

  I smiled. “Well, I appreciate that.” I gave her a hug. She hugged me back fiercely, and then stepped back.

  “What now?” Savitri asked.

  “We have ten days,” I said. “Now we wait.”

  The ship knew the Roanoke defenses, or lack thereof, which is why it appeared in the sky on the other side of the planet, where the colony’s single defense satellite couldn’t see it. The ship let itself down gently into the atmosphere to avoid the heat and drama of reentry, and slowly crossed the longitudes of the globe, heading toward the colony. Before the ship crossed the defense satellite’s perceptual horizon, and the heat of its engines would be sensed by it, the ship cut them out, and began a long gravity-assisted glade toward the colony, its small mass supported by immense but whisper-thin electrically-generated wings. The ship fell, silently, toward its target, us.

  We saw it just as it finished its long glide and discarded its wings, switching over to maneuvering jets and flotation fields. The sudden plumes of heat and energy were caught by the satellite, which immediately sent a warning—too late, as it turned out, because by the time it had signaled, the ship had already maneuvered to land. The satellite sped telemetry to our beam turrets and warmed up its own beam defenses, which were now fully recharged.

  Jane, who was still in charge of colony defense, signaled for the satellite to stand down. The ship was now within colony borders, if not within the walls of Croatoan; if the satellite fired, the colony itself would be damaged. Jane likewise took the beam turrets offline; they too would end up causing more damage to the colony than the ship would.

  The ship landed; Jane and Trujillo and I walked out to meet it. As we walked a bay on the ship slid open. A passenger shot out from the bay, yelling and running at Jane, who prepared herself for the impact. Badly, as it turned out, because she and Zoë both tumbled to the ground. I went over to laugh at them; Jane grabbed an ankle and pulled me down to the pile. Trujillo stood at a prudent distance, so as not to get caught up in the mess.

  “It took you long enough,” I said to Zoë, after I finally detangled myself. “Another day and a half, and your mom and I would be headed to Phoenix on a treason charge.”

  “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” Zoë said. “I’m just glad to see you.” She grabbed me in another hug.

  “Zoë,” Jane said. “You saw General Gau.”

  “Saw him?” Zoë said. “We were there for the assassination attempt.”

  “You what?” Jane and I said simultaneously.

  Zoë held up her hands, placatingly. “Survived it,” she said. “As you can see.”

  I looked over to Jane. “I think I just wet myself,” I said.

  “I’m fine,” Zoë said. “It wasn’t that bad, really.”

  “You know, even for a teenager, you might be a bit blasé about this,” I said. Zoë grinned. I hugged her again, even more tightly.

  “And the general?” Jane said.

  “Survived it too,” Zoë said. “And not just survived it. Came out of it furious. He’s using the attempt to call people on the carpet. To demand their loyalty to him.”

  “To him?” I said. “That doesn’t sound like him. He said to me that the Conclave wasn’t an empire. If he’s demanding loyalty, it sounds like he’s making himself an emperor.”

  “Some of his closest advisers did just try to murder him,” Zoë said. “He could use some personal loyalty right now.”

  “I can’t argue that,” I said.

  “But it’s not over,” Zoë said. “That’s why I came back. There’s still a group of planets holding out. They’re led by someone named Eser. Nerbros Eser. They’ve been the ones attacking the Colonial Union, he said.”

  “Right,” I said, remembering what General Szilard had said about Eser.

  “General Gau gave me a message for you,” Zoë said. “He says that Eser is coming here. Soon. Eser wants to take Roanoke because the general couldn’t. Taking Roanoke gives him leverage, the general said. A way to show he’s more able to lead the Conclave.”

  “Of course,” I said. “Everyone else is using Roanoke as a pawn. Why not this asshole?”

  “If this Eser is attacking the Colonial Union at large, then he’s not going to have any trouble finishing us off,” Trujillo said. He was still keeping his distance from the pile.

  “The general said that his information says that Eser doesn’t plan to hit us from space,” Zoë said. “He wants to land here, to take Roanoke with troops. The general said he would use just enough to take the colony. Sort of the opposite of what the general did with his fleet. To make a point. There’s more in the files the general gave me.”

  “So it will be a small attack force,” I said. Zoë nodded.

  “Unless he’s coming with just himself and a couple of friends, we’re still going to have a problem,” Trujillo said, and nodded toward me and Jane. “You two are the only ones with any real military training. Even with our ground defenses, we won’t last long against real soldiers.”

  Jane was about to respond, but Zoë beat her to it. “I’ve thought of that,” she said.

  Trujillo appeared to stifle a grin. “You have,” he said.

  Zoë turned serious. “Mr. Trujillo, your daughter is my best friend in the world,” she said. “I don’t want her to die. I don’t want you to die. I’m in a position to help. Please don’t condescend to me.”

  Trujillo straightened up. “I apologize, Zoë,” he said. “I meant no disrespect. It’s just I wasn’t expecting you to have a plan.”

  “And neither was I,” I said.

  “You remember a long time ago I complained that being an object of worship for an entire race of people wasn’t even good enough to get me out of homework,” Zoë said.

  “Vaguely,” I said.

  “Well, while I was away I decided to find out what it was actually good for,” Zoë said.

  “I still don’t get it,” I said.

  Zoë took my hand, and then reached out to Jane for hers. “Come on,” she said. “Hickory and Dickory are still inside the ship. They’re keeping an eye on something for me. I want to show it to you.”

  “What is it?” Jane asked.

  “It’s a surprise,” Zoë said. “But I think you’re going to like it.”

  FOURTEEN

  Jane woke me up by pushing me out of bed.

  “What the hell?” I said, groggily, from the floor.

  “The satellite feed just went down,” she said. Jane was up, grabbed a pair of high-powered binoculars from the dresser, and went outside. I woke up quick and followed her.

  “What do you see?” I said.

  “The satellite’s gone,” she said. “There’s a ship not too far from where the satellite should be.”

  “This Eser is not one for subtlety,” I said.

  “He doesn’t think he has to be,” Jane said. “It wouldn’t suit his purposes anyway.”

  “Are we ready for this?” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter if we’re ready,” Jane said, and dropped her binoculars to look at me. “It’s time.”

  To be fair, after Zoë returned, we let the Department of Colonization know that we believed we were under imminent threat of attack and that our defenses against such an attack were almost nil. We begged for more support. What we got was a visit from General Rybicki.

  “You two must have swallowed a handful of pills,” Rybicki said, without preamble, when he walked into the administrator’s office. “I’m beginning to be sorry I suggested you for colony leaders.�
��

  “We’re not the colony leaders anymore,” I said, and pointed at Manfred Trujillo, who was seated behind my former desk. “He is.”

  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.”