The Last Colony

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, l 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 Zoe 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 no: 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 the,"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."

"He's still colony leader," I said.

"I don't care if you've crowned him King of Siam," Rybicki said. "He needs to go."

"Your call, Manfred," I said.

"I'll go," Trujillo said, standing up. "But you need to know this, General Rybicki. We know here how the Colonial Union has used us, played with our destiny and toyed with the lives of all of us. Our lives, the lives of our families and the lives of our children. If the Colonial Union doesn't defend us now, we'll know who really killed us. Not some other species and not the Conclave. The Colonial Union. Pure and simple."

"That's a nice speech, Trujillo," Rybicki said. "It doesn't make it true."

"General, at the moment, I wouldn't place you as an authority on truth," Trujillo said. He nodded to me and Jane and left before the general could retort.

"We're going to tell him everything you say to us," I said, after Trujillo left.

"Then you'll be treasonous as well as incompetent," Rybicki said, sitting at the desk. "I don't know what you two think you're doing, but whatever it is, it's insane. You," he looked up at Jane, "I know you know that encryption protocol had been compromised. You had to know that you were broadcasting your vulnerability. I can't even begin to fathom why you did it."

"I have my reasons," Jane said.

"Fine," Rybicki said. "Tell me."

"No," Jane said.

"Excuse me?" The general asked.

"I said no,' Jane said. "I don't trust you."

"Oh, that's rich," Rybicki said. "You've just painted a big fat target on your colony and I can't be trusted."

"There are a lot of things the Colonial Union did with Roanoke they didn't bother to tell us about," I said. "Turnabout is fair play."

"Christ," Rybicki said. "We're not in a goddamn schoolyard. You're gambling with the lives of these colonists."

"And this is different from what the CU did how?" I asked.

"Because you don't have the authority," Rybicki said. "You don't have the right."

"The Colonial Union has the right to gamble with the lives of these colonists?" I asked. "It has the right to place them in the path of an enemy military who means to destroy them? These aren't soldiers, General. They're civilians. Some of our people are religious pacifists. You made sure of that. The Colonial Union may have had the authority to put these people in harm's way. But it sure as hell didn't have the right."

"Have you ever heard of Coventry?" Rybicki said.

"The English city?" I asked.

Rybicki nodded. "In the Second World War, the British learned through intelligence that their enemies were going to bomb the town. They knew when it was going to happen. But if they evacuated the town they'd reveal that they knew the enemies' secret code, and they would lose their ability to listen in on the enemies' plans. For the good of all of Britain they let the bombing happen."

"You're saying Roanoke is the Colonial Union's Coventry," Jane said.

"I'm saying that we have an implacable enemy who wants us all dead," Rybicki said. "And that we have to look at what's best for humanity. All of humanity."

"This assumes that what the Colonial Union does is what's best for all of humanity," I said.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but what it does is better than what anyone else has planned for humanity," Rybicki said.

"But you don't think that what the Colonial Union is doing is what's best for all humanity," Jane said.

"I didn't say that," Rybicki said.

"You're thinking it," Jane said.

"You have no idea what I'm thinking," Rybicki said.

"I know precisely what you're thinking," Jane said. "I know you're here to tell us that the Colonial Union doesn't have ships or soldiers to defend us. I know you know that there are ships and soldiers for our defense but that they've been assigned to roles you find redundant or nonessential. I know you're supposed to deliver a convincing lie to us about that. That's why you're here personally, to give the lie a personal touch. And I know it disgusts you that you're being made to do this, but that it disgusts you even more that you've allowed yourself to do it."

Rybicki stared at Jane, mouth open. So did I.

"I know you think the Colonial Union is acting stupidly in sacrificing Roanoke to the Conclave. I know you know that there are already plans to use our loss for recruiting among the colonies. I know you think that recruiting from the colonies makes them more vulnerable to attack, not less, because now the Conclave will have a reason to target civilian populations in order to cut down the number of potential soldiers. I know you see this as an endgame for the Colonial Union. I know you think the Colonial Union will lose. I know you fear for me and John, for this colony, and for yourself, and for all of humanity. I know you think there's no way out."

Rybicki sat in silence for a long moment. "You seem to know a lot," he said, finally.

"I know enough," Jane said. "But now we need to hear all of this from you."

Rybicki looked over to me, and back to Jane, He sagged and shifted uncomfortably. "What can I tell you that you don't seem to know already?" he said. "The Colonial Union has nothing for you. I argued for them to give you something, anything"—he looked over to Jane to see if she would acknowledge the truth of this, but she only stared impassively—"but they've made the decision to hold the line at the more developed colonies. I was told it was a more strategic use of our military strength. I don't agree, but it's not an indefensible argument to make. Roanoke isn't the only newer colony left exposed."

"We're just the one that's known to be targeted," I said.

"I'm supposed to give you a reasonable story for the lack of defenses," Rybicki said. "The one I settled on was that your sending your plea for help with compromised encryption put our ships and soldiers at risk. This has the advantage of possibly being true"—he looked sharply at Jane when he said this—"but it's primarily a cover story. I didn't come just to give it a convincing touch. I came because I felt I owed it to you to say it to your faces."

"I don't know how to feel about the fact you're more comfortable lying to us up close than far away," I said.

Rybicki smiled a bitter smile. "In retrospect, it appears not to have been one of my best decisions." He turned back to Jane. "I still want to know how you knew all this."

"I have my sources," Jane said. "And you've told us what we need to know. The Colonial Union has cut us loose."

"It wasn't my decision," Rybicki said. "I don't think it's right."

"I know," Jane said. "But that doesn't really matter at this point."

Rybicki looked to me for a more sympathetic view. He didn't get one.

"What do you plan to do now?" he asked.

"We can't tell you," Jane said.

"Because you don't trust me," Rybicki said.

"Because the same source that lets me know what you're thinking will let someone else know what we're planning," Jane said. "We can't afford that."

"But you're planning something," Rybicki said. "You used a cracked encryption to send us a message. You wanted it to be read. You're trying to draw someone here."

"It's time for you to go, General," Jane said.

Rybicki blinked, unused to being dismissed. He got up and went to the door, turning back to us as he got to it. "Whatever you two are doing, I hope it works," he said. "I don't know how it will all turn out if you manage to save this colony. But it's got to be better than how it turns out if you don't." He left.

I turned to Jane. "You need to tell me how you did that," I said. "How you got that information. You didn't share that with me before."

"I didn't have it before," she said, and tapped her temple. "You told me that General Szilard said that he gave me the full range of command functions. One of those command functions, in the Special Forces at least, is the ability to read minds."

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Think about it," Jane said. "When you have a BrainPal, it learns to read your thoughts. That's how it works. Using it to read other people's thoughts is just a software issue. Generals in the Special Forces have access to their soldiers' thoughts, although Szilard told me most of the time it's not very useful, since people are thinking about pointless things. This time, it came in handy."

"So anyone who has a BrainPal can have their thoughts read," I said.

Jane nodded. "And now you know why I couldn't come to Phoenix Station with you. I didn't want to give anything away."

I motioned toward the door Rybicki had just stepped out of. "You just gave it away to him," I said.

"No," Jane said. "He doesn't know I've been enhanced. He's just wondering who on his staff leaked, and how it got to me."

"You're still reading his mind," I said.

"Haven't stopped since he landed,' Jane said. "Won't stop until he's gone."

"What's he thinking now?" I asked

"He's still thinking about how I knew that information," Jane said. "And he's thinking about us. He's hoping we succeed. That part wasn't a lie."

"Does he think we will?" I asked.

"Of course not,' Jane said.

The beam turrets focused on the incoming missiles and fired, but there were too many missies to focus on; the turrets went up in excessive blast that flung debris across the fields in which they were located, some distance from Croatoan.

"I'm getting a message," Jane said, to me and Trujillo. "It's an order to stop fighting and to prepare for a landing." She paused. "I'm being told that any further resistance will result in a complete carpet-bombing of the colony. I'm being asked to acknowledge the message. Failure to reply within about a minute will be taken as defiance and bombing will proceed."

"What do you think?" I asked Jane.

"We're as ready as we're going to be for this," Jane said.

"Manfred?" I said.

"We're ready," fie said. "And I hope to God this works."

"Kranjic? Beata?" I turned back to where Jann Kranjic and

Beata stood, the two of them fully decked out in reporter gear. Beata nodded; Kranjic gave a thumbs-up.

"Tell them that we acknowledge their message and that we are ceasing fire," I said, to Jane. "Tell them we look forward to their arrival to discuss terms of surrender."

"Done," Jane said, a moment later. I turned to Savitri, who was standing next to Beata. "You're on," I said.

"Great," Savitri said, in an entirely unconvincing tone of voice.

"You'll be fine," I said.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," she said.

"I'm afraid I left the bucket back at the office," I said.

"I'll just throw up on your boots," Savitri said.

"Seriously," I said. "Are you ready to do this, Savitri?"

She nodded. "I'm ready," she said. "Let's do it."

We all went to our positions.

Some time later a light in the sky resolved itself into two troop transports. The transports hovered over Croatoan for some small amount of time before landing a klick away in an unsown field. The field had originally been sown; we had plowed under the early seedlings. We'd planned on troop transports and we hoped to convince them to land in a particular spot by making it more appealing than other places. It worked. In the back of my head I imagined Jane smiling grimly. Jane would have been cautious about landing in the one agricultural field that didn't have plants sticking out of it, but that's one of the reasons we did it. I would have been cautious, too, when I was leading troops. Basic military competence was going to matter here, and this was our first clue as to what sort of fight we had on our hands.

I took my binoculars and peered through. The transports had opened and soldiers were piling out of the bays. They were compact, mottled and thickly skinned; Arrisian, all of them, like their leader. This was another way this invasion force differed from General

Gau's fleet. Gau spread the responsibility for his incursions among the entire Conclave; Eser was saving the glory of this attack for his own people.

The soldiers formed into platoons; three platoons, thirty or thirty-five soldiers each. About a hundred overall. Eser was definitely feeling cocky. But then, the one hundred soldiers on the ground were an illusion; no doubt Eser had a few hundred more back on his ship, not to mention that the ship itself was capable of blasting the colony from orbit. On the ground or above, Eser had more than enough firepower to kill us all several times over. Most of the Arrisian soldiers slung the standard Arrisian automatic rifle, a slug-thrower known for its velocity, accuracy and high rate of fire. Two soldiers in each platoon carried shoulder-mounted missile launchers; given the incursion, this looked like they were going to be for show more than anything else. No beam weapons or flamethrowers as far as I could see.

Now came Eser, flanked by an honor guard. Eser was dressed in Arrisian military gear, a bit of show because he'd never served, but I suppose if you're going to try to show up a general in a military mission, you'd best dress for the part. Eser's limbs were thicker and the fiber tufts around his eyestalks were darker than those of his soldiers; he was older and more out of shape than those who were serving him. But inasmuch as I could figure out any emotion from his alien head, he seemed pretty pleased with himself. He stood in front of his soldiers, gesticulating; it looked like he was giving a speech.

Asshole. He was only a klick awa)', motionless over flat ground. If I or Jane hac the right rifle, we could have taken the top of his head clean off. Then we might be dead, because then his soldiers and his ship would flatten the colony. But it would be fun while it lasted. It was moot; we didn't have the right kind of rifle, and anyway, no matter what happened, we wanted Eser alive at the end of it. Killing him was not in the cards. Alas.

While Eser talked, his guard was actively scanning the environment, looking for threats. I hoped that Jane, in her position, was making note of that; not everyone in this little adventure was entirely inccmpetent. I wistfully wished I could tell her to make a note of it, but we were in radio silence; we didn't want to give away the game before it had begun.

Eser finally stopped with his talk and the whole company of soldiers began to walk across the field toward the road that linked the farm to Croatoan. A squad of soldiers took the lead, looking for threat and movement; the rest moved in formation but without much discipline. No one expected much resistance.

Nor would they find any on the road to Croatoan. The entire colony was awake and aware of the invasion, of course, but we warned them all to stay in their homes or in their shelters and not to engage while the soldiers passed into Croatoan. We wanted them to play the part of the cowed and frightened colonists they were supposed to be. For some of them, this wasn't going to be a problem; for others it was going to take effort. The former group we wanted to be safe as possible; the latter group we wanted contained. We gave them tasks for later, if there was a later.

No doubt the forward squad were scanning the surroundings with infrared and heat sensors, looking for sneak attacks. All they would find are colonists up and at their windows, staring into the darkness as the soldiers marched by. I could see in my binoculars that at least a couple of colonists stood on their porches to see the soldiers. Mennonites. They were pacifists, but they sure as hell weren't scared of anything.

Croatoan remained as it was when we had begun: a modern-day take on the Roman legion camp, still ringed by two sets of cargo containers. Most of the colonists who had lived there had long abandoned it for homes and farms of their own, but a few people continued to live there, including me and Jane and Zoe, and several permanent buildings stood where the tents used to be. The recreation area at the center of the camp still remained, in front of a lane that passed along it and behind the administration building. In the center of the recreadon area stood Savitri, alone. She would be the first human the Ariisian soldiers and Eser would see; the only one, hopefully, that they would see.

I could see Savitri from where I was. The early morning was not cold, but she was clearly shivering.

The first of the Arrisian soldiers reached the perimeter of Croa-toan and called a halt to the march as they examined the surroundings to be sure they weren't walking into a trap. This took several minutes, but eventually they were satisfied that there was nothing there that could harm them. They restarted the march and the Arrisian soldier tromped in, piling up in the recreation center, keeping a wary eye on Savitri, who stood there, silent and now shivering only a little. In a very short amount of time all the soldiers were within the cargo container-lined borders of Croatoan.

Eser came up through the ranks with his guard and stood before Savitri. He motioned for a translator device.

"I am Nerbros Eser," he said.

"I'm Savitri Guntupalli," Savitri said.

"You're the leader of this colony," Eser said.

"No," Savitri said.

Eser'3 eyestalks jiggled at this. "Where are this colony's leaders?" he asked.

"They're busy," Savitri said. "That's why they sent me out to talk to you."

"And who are you?" Eser said.

"I'm the secretary," Savitri said.

Eser's eyestalks extended angrily and almost banged together. "I have the power to level this entire colony, and its leader sends his secretary to meet me," he said. Clearly any hint of magnanimity Eser may have been planning in victory was flying right out the window.

"Well, they did give me a message for you," Savitri said.

"They did," Eser said.

"Yes," Savitri said. "I was told to tell you that if you and your troops were willing to get back into your ships and just go back where you came from, we'd be happy to let you live."

Eser goggled and then emitted a high screee, the Arrisian noise for amusement. Most of his soldiers screed along with him; it was like a convention of angry bees. Then he stopped his scree and stalked right up to Savitri, who like the star she is, didn't even flinch.

"I was planning to let most of your colonists survive," Eser said. "I was going to have this colony's leaders executed for the crimes against the Conclave, when they helped the Colonial Union ambush our fleet. But I was going to spare your colonists. You are tempting me to change my mind on that."

"So, that's a no, then," Savitri said, staring directly into his eyestalks.

Eser stepped back, and turned to one of his guards. "Kill her," he said. "Then let's get to work."

The guard raised his weapon, sighted in on Savitri's torso, and tapped the trigger panel on his rifle.

The rifle exploded, shearing vertically in the plane perpendicular to the rifle's firing mechanism and sending a vertical planar array of energy directly upward. The guard's eyestalks intersected that plane and were severed; he fell screaming in pain, clutching what remained of his stalks.

Eser looked again at Savitri, confused.

"You should have left when you had the chance," Savitri said.

There was a bang as Jane kicked open the door of the administration building, the nanomesh suit that hid her body heat covered by standard Department of Colonization police armor, same as the others of us in our little squad. In her arms was something that was not standard Department of Colonization issue: A flamethrower.

Jane motioned Savitri back; Savitri didn't need to be told twice. From in front of Jane came the sound of Arrisian screams as panicked soldiers tried to shoot her, only to have their rifles shear and erupt violently in their arms. Jane walked right up to the soldiers, who had begun to wheel back in fear, and poured fire into their midst.

"What is this?' I asked Zoe, when she directed us into the shuttle to look at whatever it was she wanted us to look at. Whatever it was, it was the size of a baby elephant Hickory and Dickory stood next to it; Jane went to it and started to examine the control panel on one side.

"It's my present to the colony," Zoe said. "It's a sapper field."

"Zapper field," I said.

"No, sapper," Zoe said. "With a ssss."

"What does it do?" I asked.

Zoe turned to Hickory. "Tell him," she said.

"The sapper field channels kinetic energy," Hickory said. "Redirects the energv upward or any other direction the user chooses and uses the redirected energy to feed the field itself. The user can define at what level the energy is redirected, over a range of parameters."

"You need to explain this to me like I'm an idiot," I said. "Because clearly lam."

"It stops bullets," Jane said, still looking at the panel.

"Come again?" I said.

"This thing generates a field that will suck the energy out of any object that goes faster than a certain speed," Jane said. She looked at Hickory. "That's right, isn't it."

"Velocity is one of the parameters a user may define," Hickory said. "Other parameters can include energy output over a specified time or temperature."

"So we program it to stop bullets or grenades, and it will do it," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said. "Although it works better with physical objects than with energetic ones."

"Works better with bullets than with beams," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said.

"When we define the power levels, anything under that power level retains its energy," Jane said. "We could tune it to stop a bullet but let an arrow fly."

"If the energy of the arrow is below the threshold you define, yes," Hickory said.

"This has possibilities," I said.

"I told you you would like it," Zoe said.

"This is the best present you ever got me, sweetheart," I said. Zoe grinned.

"You should know that this field is of very limited duration," Hickory said. "The power source here is small and will only last a few minutes, depending on the size of the field you generate."

"If we use it to cover Croatoan, how long would it last?" I asked.

"About seven minutes," Jane said. She had figured out the control panel.

"Real possibilities," I said. I turned back to Zoe. "So how did you manage to get the Obin to give us this?" I asked.

"First I reasoned, then I bargained, then I pleaded," Zoe said. "And then I threw a tantrum."

"A tantrum, you say," I said.

"Don't look at me like that," Zoe' said. "The Obin are incredibly sensitive to my emotions. You know that. And the idea of every person I love and care about being killed is something I could get emotional about pretty easily. And on top of every other argument I made, it worked. So don't give me grief for it, ninety-year-old dad. While Hickory and Dickory and I were with General Gau, other Obin got this for us."

I glanced back at Hickory. "I thought you said you weren't allowed to help us, because of your treaty with the Colonial Union."

"I regret to say that Zoe has made a small error in her explanation," Hickory said. "The sapper field is not our technology. It is far too advanced for that. It is Consu."

Jane and I looked at each other. Consu technology was generally breathtakingly advanced over the technology of other species, including our own, and the Consu never parted lightly with any technology they possessed.

"The Consu gave this to you?" I asked.

"They gave it to you, in point of fact," Hickory said.

"And how did they know about us?" I asked.

"In an encounter with some of our fellow Obin, the topic came up in conversation, and the Consu were moved to spontaneously offer you this gift," Hickory said.

I remembered once, not long after I met Jane, that she and I needed to ask the Consu some questions. The cost of answering those questions was one dead Special Forces soldier and three mutilated ones. I had a hard time imagining the "conversation" that resulted in the Consu parting with a piece of technology like this one.

"So the Obin have nothing to do with this gift," I said.

"Other than transporting it here at the request of your daughter, no," Hickory said.

"We must thank the Consu at some point," I said. "I don't believe that they expect to be thanked," Hickory said. "Hickory, have you ever lied to me?" I asked. "I do not believe you are aware of me or any Obin ever lying to you," Hickory said.

"No," I said. "I don't believe I am."

At the rear of the Arrisian column, soldiers scrambled in retreat, back toward the gate of the colony, where Manfred Trujillo waited, sitting at the controls of a cargo lorry we'd stripped down and tinkered with for the purposes of acceleration. The lorry had sat at the side of a close field, quiet and with Trujillo hunkered down until the soldiers had completely entered into Croatoan. Then he powered the lorry's battery packs and slowly crept it along the road, waiting for the screams that would be his signal to put the pedal to the metal.

When Trujillo saw the plumes of Jane's flamethrower, he accelerated hard toward the gate opening of Croatoan. As he passed through the gates he threw on the lorry's floodlights, stunning a trio of fleeing Arrisian soldiers into immobility. These soldiers were the first to be knocked out of their mortality by the massive hurtling truck; more than a dozen others followed as Trujillo plowed through the ranks. Trujillo turned left at the road in front of the town square, sideswiping two more Arrisian soldiers, and prepared to make another run.

As Trujillo's lorry passed through Croatoan's gates, Hickory hit the button to close the gates shut and then it and Dickory both unsheathed a pair of wickedly long knives and prepared to meet the Arrisian soldiers who had the misfortune to run into them. The Arrisian soldiers were out of their wits with confusion as to how a milk run of a military mission could have turned into a massacre—of them—but unfortunately for them both Hickory and Dickory were in full possession of their wits, were good with knives and had turned off their emotional implants so that they could slaughter with efficiency.

By this time Jane had also started in with knives, having burned through her flamethrower fuel at the expense of nearly a platoon's worth of Arrisian soldiers. Jane dispatched some of the more grievously burnt soldiers and then turned her attention to those that were still standing, or, actually, running. They ran fast but Jane, modified as she was, ran faster. Jane had researched the Ar-risians, their armaments, their armor and their weaknesses. It happened that Arrisian military body armor was vulnerable at the side joins; a sufficiently thin knife could slip in and sever one of the major arteries that ran bilaterally down the Arrisian body. As I watched I saw Jane exploit that knowledge, reaching out to grab a fleeing Arrisian soldier, yanking him back, sinking her knife into his side armor and leaving him to sag away his life, and then reaching out to the next fleeing soldier, without breaking stride.

I was in awe of my wife. And I understood now why General Szilard didn't apologize for what he had done for her. Her strength and speed and pitilessness was going to save us as a colony.

Behind Jane a quartet of Arrisian soldiers had sufficiently calmed themselves to begin to think tactically once more and had begun to slink toward her, guns abandoned, knives out. This is where I, stationed on top of the inside track of the cargo containers, came in handy: I was air support. I took my compound bow, nocked an arrow and shot it into the neck of the forward-most of the soldiers; not a good thing as I was aiming for the one behind him. The solider pawed at the arrow before falling forward; the other three broke into a sprint but not before I shot another one in the foot, once more not good because I was aiming for its head.

He went down with a screee; Jane turned at the sound, and then headed toward him to deal with him.

I looked for the other two among the buildings but didn't see them, and then heard a clang. I looked down to see that one of the soldiers was climbing up on the cargo container, the trash bin he had jumped on to get up to where I was clattering away on the ground. I nocked another arrow and shot at him; the arrow struck right in front of him. Clearly the bow was not meant to be my weapon. There was no time to string another arrow; the soldier was up on the cargo container and headed toward me, knife out, screaming something. I had the sinking suspicion I killed someone he really cared about. I grabbed for my own knife and as I did so, the Arrisian attacked, covering the distance between us in an astoundingly short time. I went down; my knife flew off the side of the cargo container.

I rolled with the Arrisian's attack and kicked him off me, scrambling to the side and out of his way. He was on me again instantly, stabbing me in the shoulder and meeting the police armor there. He readied to stab me again; I grabbed an eyestalk and yanked it hard. He scrambled away, squealing and grabbing at the eyestalk, backing up toward the edge. Both my knife and bow were too far away to get to. Fuck it, I thought, and launched myself at the Arrisian. We both flew off the side of the cargo container; as we fell I jammed my arm into his neck. We landed, me on top of him, my arm crushing his windpipe or whatever the equivalent was for him. My arm throbbed in pain; I doubted I would be using that arm productively for a while.

I rolled off the dead Arrisian and looked up; a shadow was hovering up on the cargo container. It was Kranjic; he and Beata were using their cameras to record the battle.

"You alive?" he asked.

"Apparently," I said.

"Look, could you do that again?" he said. I missed most of it."

I flipped him the middle finger; I couldn't see his face but I suspected he was grinning. 'Throw me down my knife and bow," I said. I glanced at my watch. We had another minute and a half to go before we dropped the shield. Kranjic handed down my weapons, and I stalked through the streets, trying to pick off soldiers until I ran out of arrows, and then kept out of their way until time ran out.

Thirty seconds before the shield dropped. Hickory opened the gates of the village and he and Dickory stepped away to let the survivors of the attack flood out in retreat. The couple dozen or so remaining soldiers didn't stop to wonder how the gate had opened; they got the hell out and hroke toward their transports stationed a klick in the distance. The last of these soldiers cleared the gate as we dropped the field. Eser and his remaining guard were midway in this pack, the guard rudely pushing his charge along. He still had his rifle; most left their rifles behind, having seen what happened to those who had used them in the village, and assuming they were now entirely useless. I picked up one, as I followed them out; Jane picked up one of the missile launchers. Kranjic and Beata hopped down from the cargo containers and followed; Kranjic bounding ahead and disappearing in the darkness, Beata keeping time with Jane and I.

The retreating Arrisian soldiers were making two assumptions as they retreated. The first was that bullets had no currency on Roanoke. The second was that the terrain they were retreating across was the same as the terrain they had marched in on. Both of these assumptions were wrong, as the Arrisians discovered when the automatic turret defenses along the retreat path opened fire on them, cutting them down in precise bursts controlled by Jane, who electronically signed off on each target with her BrainPal before they opened fire. Jane didn't want to shoot Eser by accident. The portable turrets had been placed by the colonists after the Arrisians had been shut in Croatoan; they had pulled them out of holes they had dug and covered. Jane had mercilessly drilled the colonists who placed the turrets so they could move them and placed them in the space of just a few minutes. It worked; only one turret was unusable because it was pointing in the wrong direction.

By this time those few remaining Arrisian soldiers with their rifles began to fire them out of desperation and seemed surprised when they worked. Two of them dropped to the ground and began to fire in our direction, to give their compatriots time to get to the transports. I felt a round whistle past before I heard it; I likewise dropped to the ground. Jane turned the turrets on these two Arrisians and made short work of them.

Shortly only Eser and his guard remained, save for the pilots of the two transports, both of whom had fired up their engines and were preparing to get the hell out of Dodge. Jane steadied the shoulder-mounted missile, warned us to hit the deck (I was still there) and fired her missile at the closest transport. The missile blasted past Eser and his guard, causing both to dive to the ground, and slammed into the transport's bay, bathing the interior of the shuttle in explosive flame. The second pilot decided he'd had enough and launched; he got fifty meters up before his transport was struck by not one but two missiles, launched by Hickory and Dickory, respectively. The impacts crushed the transport's engines and sent it careening downward into the woods, tearing trees from the ground with a wrenching, woody sound before crashing with a shattering roar somewhere out of sight.

Eser's guard kept his charge down and stayed low himself, firing in an attempt to take some of us with him when he went.

Jane looked down at me. "That rifle have ammunition?" she asked.

"I hope so," I said.

She dropped the shoulder rocket. "Make enough noise to keep him down," she said. "Don't actually shoot at him.''

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She stripped out of her police gear, revealing the skintight, matte black nanomesh underneath. "Getting close,'' she said, and moved away. She quickly became next to invisible in the dark. I fired at random intervals and stayed low; the guard wasn't hitting me, but it was a matter of centimeters.

There was a surprised grunt in the distance, and then a rather louder scree, which stopped soon enough.

"All clear," Jane said. I popped up and headed toward her. She was standing over the body of the guard, the guard's former weapon in her hand, trained on Eser, who lay cowering on the ground.

"He's weaponless," Jane said, and handed me the translation device she apparently took off him. "Here. You get to talk to him."

I took the device and bent down. "Hi there," I said. You're all going to die," Eser said. "I have a ship above you right now. It has more soldiers in it. They will come down and hunt all of you. And then my ship will blast every bit of this colony to dust."

"Is that so," I said.

"Yes," said Eser.

"I see I have to be the one to break this to you, then," I said. "Your ship's not there anymore."

"You're lying," Eser said.

"Not really," I said. "The thing is, when you took out our satellite with your ship, that meant the satellite couldn't signal a skip drone we had out there. That drone was programmed to skip only if it didn't receive a signal. Where it went, there were some skip-capable missiles waiting. Those missiles popped into Roanoke space, found your ship and killed it."

"Where did the missiles come from?" Eser demanded.

"It's difficult to say," I said. "The missiles were of Nouri manufacture. And you know the Nouri. They'll sell to just about anyone."

Eser sat there and glowered. "I don't believe you," he finally said.

I turned to Jane. "He doesn't believe me," I said.

Jane flipped me something. "It's his communicator," she said.

I handed it to him. "Call your ship," I said.

Several minutes and some very angry screees later, Eser flung his communicator into the dirt. "Why haven't you just killed me?" he asked. "You've killed everyone else."

"You were told that if you left all of your soldiers would live," I said.

"By your secretary," Eser spat.

"Actually, she's not my secretary anymore," I said.

"Answer my question," Eser said.

"You're worth more to us alive than dead," I said. "We have someone who is quite interested in keeping you alive. And we were led to believe that turning you over to him in that condition would be useful to us."

"General Gau," Eser said.

"Right you are," I said. "I don't know what Gau has planned for you, but after an assassination attempt and a play to take over the Conclave, I can't imagine it will be very pleasant."

"Perhaps we—" Eser began.

"Let's not even pretend we are going to have that conversation," I said. "You don't get to go from planning to kill everyone on the planet to cutting a deal with me."

"General Gau has," Eser said.

"Very nice," I said. "The difference is that I don't believe you ever planned to spare any of my colonists, while Gau went out of his way to assure that they could be spared. It matters. Now. What's going to happen is that I'm going to hand this translation device over to my wife here, and she's going to tell you what to do. You're going to listen tc her, because if you don't, she won't kill you but you'll probably wish she had. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Eser said

"Good," I said, and stood up to hand the translation to Jane. "Jam him into that cargo hold we use for a jail."

"Way ahead of you," Jane said.

"We still have the skip drone set up to deliver a message to General Gau?" I asked.

"We do," Jane said. "I'll send it once I get Eser squared away. What do we want to tell the Colonial Union?'

"I haven't the slightest idea," I said. "I suppose when they haven't gotten any skip drones for a couple of days that they'll realize something has happened. And then they'll be pissed off we're still here. I'm inclined at the moment to say 'screw them.'"

"That's not a real plan," Jane said.

"I know, but that's what I've got at the moment," I said. "In other news, holy shit. We pulled this off."

"We pulled it off because our enemy was arrogant and incompetent," Jane said.

"We pulled it off because we had you," I said. "You planned it. You pulled it off. You made it work. And as much as I hate to say this to you, your being a fully-functional Special Forces soldier made a difference."

"I know it has," Jane said. "I'm not ready to think about that yet."

In the distance we heard someone crying.

"That sounds like Beata," Jane said. I took off toward the sound of the crying, leaving Jane to deal with Eser. I found Beata a couple hundred meters later, hunched over someone.

It was Kranjic. Two of the Arrisians' bullets had hit him, in the collarbone and in the chest. Blood had soaked out into the ground beneath him.

"You dumb son of a bitch," Beata said, holding Kranjic's hand. "You always had to chase a story."

She leaned over to kiss his forehead, and to close his eyes.