The Price of Freedom

by William R. Forstchen

  Blair shook his head. "What could the Border Worlds possibly gain from attacking the Confederation, Admiral?"

  "How am I to know what goes on in a criminal's mind?" Tolwyn replied. "Perhaps they thought they could slice off some of our systems while we were weak. Perhaps they thought their bio-convergence weapon would turn the tide."

  Blair pounced. "Bio-convergence, Admiral? How did you know the plague bombs dropped on Telamon were bio-convergence?"

  Tolwyns eyes narrowed. "Don't badger me, Colonel. I'm not on trial, here. I've read the reports, of course."

  "What reports, Admiral?" Taggart interjected. "If you have data relevant to this attack, it is your duty to turn it over to the oversight committee. This is something that affects the whole Confederation."

  "Et tu, Paladin," Tolwyn whispered. He straightened his collar, then stood defiant. "Whatever data I have gleaned is so superficial that I didn't deem disclosure necessary."

  "I see," Blair replied. "What about the Black Lance pilots? Did you deem disclosure about them unnecessary, too? Or did the fact that they were products of your genetic enhancement program seem unnecessary to report?'

  Tolwyn shrugged. "The GE program was stopped long ago."

  "Was it?" Blair challenged. "What about that loose cannon, Seether?"

  Tolwyn met his eye, his own expression tight with anger and something more. He whispered. "He is more of a warrior than you will ever be, Colonel. He is excellence personified—"

  Blair smiled. "He's dead excellence, then, Admiral. I killed him."

  Tolwyn blanched and rocked back on his heels.

  Blair turned back to the Assembly. "At his speech to his troops—his Black Lance troops—Admiral Tolwyn stated his belief that our victory was a fluke, a lucky break. He is worried the Kilrathi, or worse, will be back—and that we won't be ready. He proposes to fix that by 'fixing' us, by tinkering with our genes."

  Blair leaned forward, half-turning towards Tolwyn. 'The bio-convergence plagues start the process by clearing out the dead-weight DNA, leaving behind the acceptable samples. It doesn't matter to him how many billions die along the way—well, they weren't worthy anyway. He wants us to be more like the Kilrathi, bred to conflict and war."

  "And why not?" Tolwyn snapped. "One on one, a Kilrathi can break a human. We're pathetic and weak, hardly the stuff to rule even our pathetic corner of the galaxy. There are things beyond the Kilrathi, things that make them look like school yard bullies!" His face mottled with rage and he slammed one fist on the podium. "And after our fluke win, we sit back on our heels, getting fat and lazy, while the next enemy marches toward us!"

  He sneered up at the gallery. "Look at us. We're falling apart, crumbling now that we have nothing to measure ourselves against. We were at our best when fighting the Kilrathi. Then we had goals, we had focus. Now, we've grown whiny and complacent and confused."

  He looked up at the ranks, stabbing his finger at individual Senators, slipping into the familiar lines of his speeches to his troops. "Who'll protect your planet from the next race that wishes to dominate us? Who can tell where this threat will come from? Or when? We must be ready. We must continue to upgrade our capabilities, our weapons, even ourselves."

  Blair frowned, hating himself even as he opened his mouth to speak. "Does that include tinkering with our DNA?"

  "Yes! A few must always be sacrificed to make way for the future…" He stopped and stared at Blair, his angry face becoming horrified as he realized Blair had goaded him into a lapse.

  Tolwyn looked up into the silent, stunned galleries. "Understand," he said, "it was necessary. Sacrifices had to be made. We must be ready…"

  Blair, heartsick, looked at his feet. "I think we've heard enough."

  Taggart gestured to a pair of guards who stepped up behind Tolwyn. The admiral, his head high, looked first at Taggart, then at Blair. Blair met his eye, and saw only sorrow. "I had to," Tolwyn said quietly. "We were so close to losing the last one. And the next will be worse. I grieved for every one of them, but it had to be done."

  His features seemed to be on the point of dissolving as he scanned his audience who sat silent, enraptured by the fall.

  "You don't know what I had to do," he sighed. "How many of you looked into the eyes of green kids, twenty and straight out of fleet school, and sent them to their death and knew that tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow after that you'll send more of them out to die, while bastards like you," and he pointed up at the gallery, "grow fat and rich on the dead. I watched them die so you could live. I was there at the beginning of the war and remember the warnings, and you didn't listen, and billions died. I begged you not to sign the truce agreement, and billions died."

  He lowered his head. "And billions died," he whispered.

  Eyes shining he looked back up.

  "Next time we will all be dead." He looked back at the guards, who stood ready with their hands on their sidearms. He made a tiny half-bow and walked out between them, his head held high.

  Taggart looked up into the silent, packed ranks of the gallery. "Now," he said, clearing his throat, "we will take a single binding vote. The Assembly Master moves that we resolve to end this undeclared war against the Border Worlds, that we stand down Confed forces in the Border Worlds area and remove them to Confed bases, and to establish a Joint Commission with the Border Worlders to resolve disputes. I also move that we close down any remaining Black Projects and launch an investigation." He rapped his gavel on his podium.

  "Senators, you have ten minutes to lock in your decision. The tote board will record your votes. I will cast the deciding vote if it is a tie."

  Blair turned away, feeling only sadness.

  He looked up, realizing that Paladin was talking to him. "Colonel Blair," he said, softly. "You must clear the rostrum during the vote."

  Blair nodded and walked towards the cloakroom door, where the guards had escorted Tolwyn.

  He stood in the back of the room, awaiting the decision. The tally, when it finally came, was one-hundred thirty for and twenty-two against.

  He looked at Eisen. The captain took his hand. "We did it, Colonel." His smile faded as they both looked to where Tolwyn had been led away.

  "But at what cost?" Blair asked. "But at what cost?"

  Chapter Fifteen

  Blair sat, ignoring the courtroom buzz, as Tolwyn entered through the prisoners door. Flanked by armed Marines and resplendent in his full-dress uniform, he marched forward to stand in the dock and hear his fate. Five stern-faced judges looked down from their high seats. Admiral Harriett's seat was filled by a newcomer to the court. Harnett had suicided rather than face arrest.

  The presiding judge cleared his voice. Blair felt a heavy sense of expectation permeate the room. The trial had been long and sensational, and had generated much embarrassment for the Fleet. Taggart had insisted the military clean its laundry in public, paving the way for full freedom of the press. The room stilled as the presiding judge unfolded a printout.

  "Fleet Admiral Geoffrey Tolywn, this court regrets to inform you that it finds you guilty on the principle charges of conspiracy to commit genocide against Telamon, the ordering of same, and fifteen lesser felonies.

  "As punishment for your heinous acts you shall be taken from this place and stripped of your rank, and thence to a cell where you shall spend the rest of your natural life without hope or opportunity for parole. Have you anything to say?"

  Tolwyn shook his head once, a firm "no" that matched his grim expression. A guard took him by the arm and led him towards the small door.

  Blair looked up at him as he passed. Tolwyn stopped and faced him. Blair stood. Their gazes met. Blair searched Tolwyns eyes.

  "The end has to justify the means," Tolwyn said. "I gave you the means to an end, to survival, and you rejected it. You have condemned all humanity."

  Blair felt his throat close when he tried to speak. Tolwyn nodded to his guards and led them away, proud and unbowed.

  Marshall p
ut his hand on Blair's shoulder. "Ready, Colonel? Admiral Eisen and Paladin want to see us."

  Blair, still saddened by Tolwyn's fall, dipped his head once. They turned away and left the courtroom.

  The admiral waited for them with drinks on the sideboard. "I thought you could use these," he said as Blair and Maniac entered. Maniac gratefully accepted a drink. Blair demurred, then went to stare out the window. Titan's terraforming had progressed well. They now had a real atmosphere and real flowering plants. He picked at one of the blooms, inhaling its deep, rich scent.

  "How do you feel?" Eisen asked.

  "Whatever he might have fallen to," Blair said, 'lie was a great man. He saw so much, understood so much, that I can't understand how he could be led astray."

  "I don't think he was, Chris," Eisen replied. "In a sense, it was vintage Tolwyn—to look beyond the moment and seize the main chance. He forgot that those were people."

  They turned back towards the main group.

  Eisen made a noise in his throat, commanding the officers' attention. He removed an envelope from his tunic. "Colonel, this is for you."

  Blair took the envelope and opened it. "To all who see these…" He looked up at Taggart, eyebrows raised, and continued reading. "Know ye that reposing special Trust and Confidence in Christopher Blair, we do appoint him to the grade of Brigadier General…" He shook his head. "You must be kidding."

  "Hell no, son," Paladin replied, "we hae already gi'en ye all th' medals we hae. There isna' else we caen do for ye, except tae promote ye."

  "Oh, this is just great!" Maniac stormed.

  "Major," Taggart replied, "there's an envelope for yae too." He held it out to Marshall, who ripped it open and scanned the pages. "Colonel," he said wonderingly, "full colonel?"

  "They confirmed your treasonous rank," Taggart said, grinning, "yae auld sod, though heavens knows yae don't deserve it. Read on, there's more."

  Maniac scanned the sheets. "Command school… The Kiev …" He looked up. "I'm getting a carrier?'

  "A light carrier, actually," Taggart replied. "You'll have the task of policing the border."

  Blair grinned knowingly at Maniacs beatific smile. Marshall had finally gotten his coveted independent command.

  "Ye'll best read on yaerself, General Blair," Taggart said.

  Blair flipped the page and read. "I'm supposed to take over the Confed fleet in the Border Worlds?"

  "Yes," Paladin replied. "Your commission's to work with the locals in tracking down the real privateers in the region, as well as any of Tolwyn's blackguards that might have slipped off. It's a way of mending some fences with our neighbors."

  Blair felt his good mood drain away at the mention of Tolwyn. Paladin caught the change in his expression. "Yes, it's a shame what Geoff fell to. Regardless of the provocation, nothing justifies what he was about."

  Blair shook his head. "Genetic engineering to breed super soldiers. Destroying the population of a whole world. I still can't believe that happened and that Tolwyn was a part of it."

  "Yes," Paladin agreed, "the worst of it is that path's been trod before. Forced genetics, death camps, all that Geoff was willin' to accept. And for what? That which makes us human, he'd have sacrificed first."

  Blair closed his eyes as Marshall chimed in. The newly minted colonel sounded almost diffident. 'There are darker things out there than the Kilrathi. Admi… Tolwyn showed us that. There will be war again, and maybe we won't win this one. Does that mean that we'll go the way so many other races did, crushed after taking their first steps into space?"

  He looked at Blair and Eisen. "What if 'Crazy Geoff was right? What if we do need something like what he wanted to survive? Can we, as humanity, survive and stiD be human?"

  Blair thought a long moment. "Yes," he said, pausing to choose his words carefully. "It is in our very humanity, our ability to adapt and overcome… and our 'killer angel' instincts, in the way we can hold a sword in one hand while reaching out with the other, that our true strength lies. Tolwyn would have made us individually more powerful, while weakening our compassion. I believe that his way offered more harm than good."

  Eisen looked at his watch. "General Blair, I think you had best get going. You'll be taking the Intrepid out to the frontier area, courtesy of Captain Garibaldi." He laughed. "We've agreed to fix his plumbing and enough of the quarters to give you your own VIP berth. You'd best get going though, there isn't much time to waste." Blair set his drink down and shook both their hands. "Until next time," he said, and departed.

  Geoffrey Tolwyn stood on the chair in his cell, contemplating his failure. He had pushed The Plan too quickly, he saw that now. He should have waited, bided his time. He hadn't realized until it was too late that the entire race need not be brought up to genetic standard. Steel spears had wooden shafts and were they not still lethal? The populace as a whole could remain the dregs so long as the fighting elite came from GE stock. It wasn't an ideal solution, of course, but it was workable.

  He shook his head fractionally. Some GE elements remained at large, hidden away where no one could interfere. Nonetheless, through his haste, he had brought the project down. He could abide defeat, he could even abide failure when he had done his best, but he could not abide knowing his own mistakes had led to his removal before The Plan was self-sustaining.

  He could abide anything, except knowing that he'd killed his race. He deserved the same punishment his miscalculation would visit on them. He stepped off the edge of the chair. The knotted and braided bed sheet closed about his throat, snapping his neck. As death released his grip, the Senatorial Medal of Honor which he had won for the defense of Earth, and the pips he had once worn as a newly commissioned ensign, fell from his hand.

  Blair stepped into his newly refurbished cabin. The smells of fresh sealant and paint permeated the room. He cued the lightbar and saw a neat bed, a desk with a workstation, and a sofa and chair group.

  He swung around as the inner door opened. Velina Sosa, her hair down and her uniform collar unbuttoned, stepped into the main room of the cabin. She carried a bottle and a pair of glasses. He noticed distractedly that she had captains bars on her shoulders.

  "Admiral Richards says that you'll need a Border Worlds liaison officer," she said, as she set the glasses down on the table. "He thought I might stand in."

  Blair took a long look at her, and saw her smile. He felt himself smiling in return. "I'd like that," he replied. "I'd like that a lot." She smiled, her dimples showing.

  He had a feeling this tour was starting out well, very well indeed.