From the mutterings from the crowd the answer was clear but Mosur had to pipe up.
“So you’re saying we should trust you?”
“Yes,” Edmund said. “With more than that. We’ll establish a fleet base somewhere in the islands, probably near the Bimi chain. We’ll rotate through our finest soldiers, the Blood Lords, Herzer is one, to guard your children. We’ll establish a power shield so that if New Destiny strikes, the children will be shielded. Face it, we’re the good guys. I know well what horrors are possible in war. But we guard against them. All of our beliefs, all of our philosophy, say that if we undertake this trust, we will guard it with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. And there are only two choices, us or New Destiny.”
As he said this shadows began to fall over the reef and a pod of orcas passed over the square. They started to circle and the largest detached himself and drifted over the gathering.
“So, landie, you say that our brethren should trust you tailless landsmen, do you?” the orca said, drifting to a stop. He paused and rolled one eye at Bruce the Black. “Etool Shanol,” the orca said, bowing slightly. “Ambassador from New Destiny.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Herzer muttered.
“We had a ship with us, carrying provisions to help you in your need,” the orca continued. “But it was brutally waylaid by a ship from the so-called Freedom Coalition and burned, killing everyone on board.”
“I’m sure that they approached the, effectively unarmed, carrier with parley flag flying and all good intentions,” Edmund replied, dryly. “I’m sure they didn’t simply open fire as soon as they were in range.”
“We are on a mission of peace,” Shanol replied. “Why ever would they attack your craft? So you see the lies that the Freedom Coalition spreads,” he said, pulsing the sonar loudly. “They ask you to trust them; I suppose they ask for your support. While all that New Destiny asks is that you remain neutral. We have no need of your support; we orcas as well as other sentients of the ocean support New Destiny. As its name implies, it is the destiny of the world for it to grow and prosper. Peacefully, if possible. But the so called Freedom Coalition has thus far prevented it, attacking our leaders at the last peaceful meeting of the Council, so in fear of the historical inevitability of New Destiny that they stooped to violence. They always stoop to violence.”
“If the triumph of New Destiny was so inevitable,” Edmund replied, “Celine would not have introduced deadly poisons into the meeting. Nor would Paul be attacking us at every turn, building an invasion fleet, gathering forces on his coast. You could just sit back and let historical inevitability take its toll.”
“The people of Norau suffer under their tyrannical rule of an hereditary aristocracy, Duke Edmund,” the orca replied, nastily. “It is the duty of New Destiny to free them from their feudal bondage.”
“The people of Norau voted upon the constitution,” Edmund replied, tiredly. “Groups that have joined since have joined through plebiscites. We do not conscript soldiers, Change people horribly. We do not refer to the Changed as ‘abominations.’ ”
“So you say, Duke Edmund, but I do not see these people here. I see a duke and his family.”
“I am one of those ‘people,’ ” Herzer responded, hotly. “I chose that life over yours, because I’ve seen the evil that comes wherever New Destiny touches! I will fight you with every ounce of my strength. With my last breath, I will curse you!”
“Ah, yes,” the orca replied, smiling as only an orca can smile. “His family and his chosen lapdog. I trust that Mistress Daneh is recovering from her ordeal.”
Herzer was halfway across the square before he felt arms holding him back. He struggled for a moment then shook them off and paused, panting.
“You finny bastard,” the lieutenant replied. “If it’s the last thing I do I’ll see your bird-picked carcass floating on the surface.”
“So you see the inherent peacefulness of the Freedom Coalition,” Shanol replied to the group. “We send peaceful orcas, water dwellers, like you. And an unarmed freighter that is brutally waylaid and sunk. The Coalition sends an armed carrier, a general, and his hot-headed young lieutenant, a lieutenant that has been a party to crimes against his own people.”
This time, Herzer was able to ignore the jibe.
“My demons are my own, fish-face,” he said. “But at least I control them, not let them run at the head of the pack.”
“Pod, young man, pod,” the orca sighed. “So, you see the truth of the choice. The violent philosophies of the Freedom Coalition, whose stated aim is to take over the world and rule it as they see fit. Or simple neutrality and protection from them by aid of New Destiny.”
“Yes, we can see it clearly enough,” Jason replied. “Gentle lies in the mouth of the predators upon dolphins and whales or the simple truths spoken by people who have shown themselves to be our friends.”
“You may believe who you wish, Jason Farseeker,” the orca replied, calmly. “But we are simple eaters of fish, just as you are. Perhaps we do not survive on sea plum, but, then again, who would, given the choice?”
There was a chuckle from the crowd and Edmund looked around and shook his head.
“Bruce and I have been discussing history,” Edmund said. “I remember other groups, as should he, who, in their time, claimed ‘inevitability.’ The strange thing about all such groups, the Nazis, the Communists, the Wahabbists, the Melcon AI, is that, in every single case, those who lived under their benign leadership suffered untold hardships. The Nazis disliked various groups within their control and they were marched to slave labor and gas chambers, killing nearly ten million all told. The Communists believed that things should go a certain way, that things should be done as they commanded, and in their blindness, and often quite open-eyed, they killed nearly a hundred million people before true historical inevitability dragged them off their thrones. And everyone knows the story of the AI wars; it is far too grim to repeat. Yet, in every case, the side that claimed inevitability was brought to the ground. By free peoples, going open-eyed to their deaths, aware that they were doing so so that their children, and grandchildren,” he added, looking at Bruce, “would not suffer the fates of those lucky individuals caught in the clutches of ‘historical inevitability.’ ”
“Yet, you speak of untold hardships,” the orca replied. “How many died in Norau, Duke? Far more died in the Dying Time than in Ropasa. Because the leaders in Ropasa saw the need for a firm hand and ensured that their people were fit to survive. The people of Ropasa did not starve by roadsides, desperately searching for succor.”
“Strangely enough,” Edmund said, dryly, “I remember those days. And I seem to recall that New Destiny had a far higher energy budget than the Freedom Coalition. Something about illicit access to the terraforming project power budgets. An access, I might add, that Herzer and I had a hand in ending, preventing the project from total energy drain. But by the time they were done they had taken more than half the power out of the core, putting the project back by over two hundred years.”
There was a mutter from the crowd at that. Even in the years after the Fall the Wolf 359 Terraforming Project was remembered, like a good dream at the end of the night. If there was anything to look forward to it was that at the end of the war they, or their children or their grandchildren, could continue the millennia-long project to create a new, livable, planet.