The End of All Things #2: This Hollow Union (8 page)

I glanced over to Oi, who glanced back. I knew it was enjoying the dressing-down Hado was getting from a representative of the species he hated the most.

“How arrogant of you to assume so much about me in these few ditu, Ambassador,” Hado said.

“I didn’t,” Abumwe said. “We have a file on you.” She turned to Sca. “And on you. And on every diplomat for every nation we know has a representative in Equilibrium, including our own. It’s all in the report.”

“I’d like to return to this report,” Tarsem said.

“Of course,” Abumwe replied.

“The existence of this report implied that you have a spy in Equilibrium, and have had for some time. Which makes me curious as to why you chose now to give us this information, if this group has represented a threat to both of us.”

“Again I ask permission to be blunt.”

“Ambassador Abumwe, at this point I cannot imagine you being otherwise.”

“If Equilibrium had never done its own data dump, we never would have shared this,” Abumwe said. “We would have been happy to take the information and shape it, and Equilibrium, to our own needs. I reiterate that we are not sharing this information to be friendly, General.”

“Understood.”

“But as to our spy, the fact of the matter is that we didn’t have a spy. Equilibrium made an error and took a hostage it couldn’t control. That hostage was smarter than his captors. He stole their data and one of their ships and brought both to us.”

“Out of loyalty to the Colonial Union?”

“No,” Harry Wilson said. “Mostly because Equilibrium pissed him off.”

“Before we commit to trusting this information, perhaps we should consider the source,” Hado said. “Where is this so-called source of yours?”

“As it happens, he’s the pilot of the
Chandler,
” Abumwe said.

Hado turned to Tarsem. “Then I move he is brought here for questioning.”

“It’s not that simple,” Wilson said.

“Why?” Hado said, to Wilson. “Is he somehow
incapable
of taking a shuttle ride?”

Wilson smiled at this for some reason.

*   *   *

“General Gau, Councilor Sorvalh, Representative Hado, and Ms. Lowen, allow me to introduce to you Rafe Daquin, pilot of the
Chandler.
” Wilson motioned to the box on the bridge of the
Chandler,
in which a human brain had been placed.

“This seems familiar,” I said, to Wilson, as I stared into the box.

“I thought you might think so,” he said.

“Who did this to him?” Hado asked.

“Sir?” Wilson said.

“Removing brains from skulls is a thing the Colonial Union does,” Hado said. “It’s notorious for it.”

“Are you asking me if the Colonial Union did this?”

“Yes, although honestly I wouldn’t expect you to answer truthfully if it had,” Hado said.

“You could ask him,” Wilson said.

“Pardon?”

“You could ask Rafe,” Wilson said.

“Yes, you could,” a voice said, through speakers. “I’m literally right here.”

“All right,” Lowen said. “Mr. Daquin, who did this to you?”

“Put my brain in a box? That would be the group calling itself Equilibrium, Ms. Lowen,” Daquin said.

“Why did they do it?” Tarsem asked.

“Partly to trim down the number of working parts they needed to run the ship,” Daquin said. “Partly to make sure I stayed in their control. They assumed that I would do anything they wanted if they promised to give me back my body.”

“Why didn’t you?” Tarsem asked.

“Because I figured that they didn’t have any intention of ever giving it back.”

“But the Colonial Union could give you another body,” Hado said. “They haven’t. They’re using you like this Equilibrium group had.”

“They’re growing me a new body as we speak,” Daquin said. “It’ll be ready soon. But Harry here asked me if I wouldn’t mind being a part of the
Chandler
’s crew for a bit, especially for trips like these, where people might need convincing that Equilibrium is a thing and not just a convenient cover story for the Colonial Union.”

“If this is real,” Hado said.

“Get some scientists over here to test me if you like,” Daquin said. “I like company.”

“It still doesn’t prove anything,” Hado said, turning to Tarsem. “We’re being asked to believe this unfortunate creature isn’t being coerced into saying these reports are his. We can’t believe that someone in his position can be expected to say anything but what his captors want him to.”

“Captors,” Daquin said, and the derision was hard to miss. “Seriously, who is this guy?”

“Representative Hado has a point,” I said. “You’re a brain in a box, Mr. Daquin. We have no assurance that you aren’t being used.”

“Do you want to tell them, Harry, or should I?” Daquin asked.

“For obvious reasons, you should,” Harry said.

“General Gau, Councilor Sorvalh, you’re aware that your director of intelligence tried to hack into the
Chandler
’s systems when we arrived, yes?” Daquin asked.

“We, we knew that,” I said.

“Of course you did. You know what Director Oi found, right?”

“Oi said it was a picture of someone showing their posterior.”

“Yup, that’s called ‘mooning,’” Daquin said. “I did that, Councilor. Not the mooning, for obvious reasons. But I put the picture where Director Oi would find it. I did that because I don’t only pilot this ship, I
am
this ship. It is entirely and completely under my control. The
Chandler
has crew and they run operations—you can ask Captain Balla if you like, to confirm this—but ultimately they have only as much control over the ship as I allow them. Because this ship is me. And I choose to help. Without my cooperation, the only way the Colonial Union can control this ship is to destroy it. And I’d destroy it myself before that could happen.”

“You still need sustenance, I assume,” Tarsem said. “Your ship still needs energy. You have to rely on the Colonial Union for that.”

“Do I?” Daquin said. “General, if I were to ask you for asylum right now, would you give it to me?”

“Yes,” Tarsem said.

“And I assume you wouldn’t let me starve.”

“No,”

“Then you’ve just invalidated your own assertion.”

“But you still need the Colonial Union to get your body back,” Lowen said.

“To grow a new one, you mean.”

“Yes.”

“Ms. Lowen, there’s a door to your left. When the ship was built, it was the captain’s ready room. Go ahead and open it.”

Lowen found the door and opened it. “Oh my god,” she said. She opened the door fully so the rest of us could see.

Inside was a container with a human body in it.

“That’s me,” Daquin said. “Or will be me, anyway, once it’s done growing and once I decide to put myself into it. Representative Hado, you can have your scientists check its DNA against the DNA in my brain here. It checks out. But the point is that no, the Colonial Union isn’t holding my body hostage. It’s not holding
me
hostage. It’s not coercing me. Now, you can still believe it or not, but at this point, if you don’t believe me, it’s not because we haven’t made an effort to make it easy for you to believe.”

“Mr. Daquin,” I said.

“Yes, Councilor Sorvalh.”

“You were the one piloting during the rescue of the diplomats.”

“Yes, I was,” Daquin said. “We have two other pilots, but I was the one at the helm for that.”

“I know a pilot who called it an amazing piece of piloting, and wants to buy you several drinks to commemorate it.”

“Tell your pilot friend I accept, in theory,” Daquin said. “The actual drinking part will have to wait.”

*   *   *

“Are you happy?” I asked Tarsem, when he and I were again alone in his office.

“Happy?” he said. “What an odd question.”

“I mean did everything you plan for the day happen.”

“All I planned for was to have Abumwe give her speech, and that wasn’t even
my
plan,” Tarsem said. “That was yours. So I suppose I should ask you if
you’re
happy.”

“Not yet,” I said.

“Why not?” Tarsem said. “Abumwe’s speech entirely disrupted the momentum Unli Hado and his partisans had in pushing a no confidence vote. The fact I assured Hado and Sca that I don’t consider them traitors doesn’t mean their reputations aren’t irretrievably destroyed. Even if they stay on as representatives.”

“I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy seeing Hado get crushed today,” I said. “That vainglorious martinet deserved the thumping. But now we have the somewhat larger problem that both the Elpri and the Eyr have been smeared with the accusation of, if not treason, then treachery of the worst sort. And you know they’re not going to be the only nations who harbor members of this Equilibrium group. Vnac is sifting through the data right now.”

“You’re worried about what’s going to come out in the sifting.”

“No,” I said. “I’m worried that you’re going to get accused of using it to start picking off political opponents, including entire nations. As much as I liked seeing Hado shut down, it didn’t help that the Elpri, of all people, are one of the two peoples called out by name in Abumwe’s report. No matter if Vnac clears her entire report—no matter if all of it is unimpeachably true—there will still be those who will see it only as a chance for you to settle scores at a moment when you were vulnerable.”

“You ordered Oi to release the data to avoid that.”

“I ordered it to release the data so it didn’t look like you were colluding with the Colonial Union,” I said. “That problem is solved. The other problem remains.”

“What do you suggest?”

“I think you need to address this directly and personally and on the floor of the Grand Assembly.”

“And what would you have me say there?”

“What you said to Hado and Sca,” I said. “Only writ larger. Encompassing nations, not diplomats.”

“We’re going to find traitors,” Tarsem said.

“Yes, but they are people. Individuals.”

“Individuals who might be able to persuade their governments to leave the Conclave.”

“All the more reason to make it clear that the actions of a misguided few don’t reflect on the people as a whole.”

“You think this will work.”

“I think it’s better than encouraging our members to start accusing each other of undermining the Conclave. That road goes nowhere we want to go.”

“How committed are you to this idea?” Tarsem asked. “Presuming the Colonial Union isn’t running a long con on us, which is a thing you’ve begged me to consider and so I shall, it’s possible that entire member state governments
are
working to end the Conclave. We’ve had attempts before. We’d be allowing them to get away with it.”

“No. We’d be offering them a way to step back from the abyss before we tumble into it.”

“That’s an optimistic way of looking at it.”

“It’s not optimistic at all. It’s giving us more time to deal with the problem.”

“And if we have no more time?”

“Then we deal with the problem now,” I said. “But I think everyone is beginning to realize just how close the abyss is at the moment. Very few people actually want to go in.”

“You are optimistic, then,” Tarsem said. “Because at the moment I think there are still a few who think the abyss sounds like a very good idea.”

“That’s why I want you to convince them otherwise.”

“I appreciate your faith in my abilities.”

“It’s not faith,” I said. “It’s trust.”

PART FOUR

“Which news do you want first?” Vnac Oi asked me. I was in its office again, the first meeting of the sur.

“You have good news?” I asked.

“No,” Oi said. “But some of the news is less objectively bad than the rest.”

“Then by all means let us begin with that.”

“We’re done with the first pass of semantic and data mining of the Abumwe report,” Oi said. “And we’ve cross-referenced with information we have in our own databases. The very short version is that the data are less problematic than the data in the Ocampo report.”

“‘Less problematic.’”

“It means there are fewer obvious untruths compared to, and contradictions with, our own data set.”

“So you’re saying the Colonial Union, in a refreshing change of circumstances, is actually telling us the truth.”

“I never said ‘truth,’” Oi said. “I said there were fewer untruths that we can immediately see. And even if they are largely telling the truth, which is something we still have to ascertain, the truth in itself is not necessarily a positive thing. What they are telling the truth
about
—what information they are sharing with us—is just as relevant. When Abumwe shared this with us what I really wanted to know is what she
wasn’t
sharing.”

“I need to know whether you think this Equilibrium group exists and is the threat Abumwe says it is.”

“Yes to the first, and inconclusive to the second. We need a couple more passes through the data to be sure. But here is the thing about that, Councilor.”

“I am imagining this is where the less good news graduates into the bad news,” I said.

“You are correct, because right now
it does not matter
whether the Abumwe information is true or not,” Oi said. “The general is correct that the Colonial Union and Abumwe dropped a bomb into our lap—a bomb you suggest we let her set off, I will remind you—and now all the chatter I’m hearing is our members triangulating toward it or away from it. We’ve introduced chaos into the usual mix of ambition and venality we lovingly call the Grand Assembly. Before, we had two primary groups in the chamber: those generally drifting away from the Conclave and those generally supporting it. Right now my analysts have identified six distinct emerging philosophical groups. Some of these believe the Ocampo report and some believe the Abumwe, and then there are some who don’t care about the truth value of either but merely whether they can be used as tools to settle political scores. The group that especially worries me at the moment is the one my analysts are calling the ‘purgers.’ You can guess what the purgers want to do.”