“What a farce,” he said sharply.
The Zzygou trading vessel hadn’t, of course, had any chance whatsoever. It either had no female aboard, or the female hadn’t been able to calm the crew down. It was amazing that they had even managed to destroy a few buildings.
But one fact remained—the Swarm and the Empire had already engaged in an armed conflict.
The door signal beeped.
“Open,” Alex ordered. He was getting ready to see Watson or Holmes, but it was Janet who entered the cabin.
Never since they’d met had Alex seen the Ebenian woman so content and aglow with such charm. Janet’s appearance couldn’t be described as beautiful, after all—five specializations had made her facial features too strange. But now she seemed to be radiating a light from within.
“Janet?” Alex went off to the bar, returned with a bottle of wine. Poured her a glassful.
“Thanks, that certainly won’t hurt. I just had a talk with our friend Holmes.” Janet lowered herself into an armchair. Looked sideways at the neuro-terminal that lay on the table. “You were having some fun?”
“A bit… So what did Holmes tell you?”
“That everyone is a suspect. But I…”—Janet gave a blinding smile, raised her glass in mock salutation—“am the prime suspect.”
“And that’s what made you so happy?”
Janet shook her head, regaining her seriousness for a brief moment.
“Not at all, Alex. I’m not prone to masochism. And I don’t find these accusations pleasant in the least. After all, I didn’t kill the Zzygou.”
For a few seconds, they were looking into each other’s eyes.
“Really and truly, I am not the one who killed her,” said Janet. “I have sworn an oath to you. What made me happy is something else.”
“What?”
“The war! The Zzygou won’t stop now. The Empire will have to engage in the war.”
“Janet Ruello,” said Alex slowly, “what you’re saying is monstrous. The war will cost the Empire billions of lives.”
“Oh, please.” Janet shook her head. “That’s complete nonsense. Our illustrious detective-spesh is of the same opinion as you, but he is wrong. The Zzygou will be defeated with little bloodshed.”
“But how the hell…?”
Janet gave him a puzzled look.
“You really don’t get it? Alex, my home planet hasn’t been demolished. Eben is sealed in an isolation field, but removing it is a matter of just a few minutes… if the Emperor gives the order.”
Alex gasped. And Janet continued calmly:
“Our planet cannot be measured by ordinary criteria. Trust me—I know. There, under the eggshell, the Church is still alive, and the patriarchs, as well as most of the fleet. New ships are still being built. New weapons are still being created. And our people feel no hatred for the Empire. If the field is removed, Eben will rejoin the Empire’s ranks. And believe me, there is still nothing in the galaxy to match the power of our Liturgy cruisers or our Anathema raiders! Your Emperor…”—Alex noticed this accidental—or was it deliberate?—slip of the tongue—“is only a little kid. But the Imperial Council has more than just idiots. If war becomes imminent, they will remove the quarantine from Eben. Then the Zzygou will be doomed. I’ve estimated… we will lose from five to fifteen planets before the fighting moves to Zzygou territory. Closer to five than to fifteen. And if the South-Sea lab on Eben has already finished working on the gluon net, the ships of the Others will burn upon exiting the hyper-channels.”
“Janet… do you understand what you’ve been saying?” Alex whispered. It was clear now what Edward had been hinting at. Earth really did have a super-weapon hidden away, a weapon everyone had long forgotten.
“I hope I’ve calmed you down!”
“Janet, you have just signed your own death sentence! Now you’re not only the prime suspect, but all the clues point to you!”
“But I didn’t kill the Zzygou,” she repeated stubbornly. “I had no idea her social status was so high. But… if my death serves to liberate Eben, I’m ready to die. By any means the Others may choose to devise.”
“Good Lord, Janet, what are you raving about?” Alex lunged toward her, grabbed her by the shoulders. “Even if Eben is liberated and the Zzygou defeated—what next?”
“We’ll see.”
“No need to see. I’ll tell you what will happen. If, with Eben’s help, the Empire manages to destroy one race, all the rest of them will prick up their ears. A common anti-human front will be formed… or a coalition. You don’t really think that the Empire will be able to stand up to the combined forces of ten alien races?”
“The races of the Others are disjointed. All have their bones to pick with one another.”
“Don’t worry, they’ll temporarily forget those. Eben, its ideology and politics, were at one point the cause of tension in the whole galaxy. Even the crazy Bronins had never made it their goal to purge all space of alien life forms. Eben as part of the Empire is the alarm signal for everyone!”
“So then, you think that a whole world, equal in power to the combined forces of Earth and Edem, should remain isolated for all eternity?” Janet spoke calmly, but dry bitterness broke through now and then in her voice. “Yes! I want it to be liberated! I dream of seeing my first-born again. I would like to go visit the graves of my parents and pay my respects to them, according to our custom. To see my old house… to visit my first teacher… to call on my first lover… You all consider Eben a cesspool of evil, when we’ve been humanity’s shield for hundreds of years! A weapons smithy, a military academy, a factory, and a base… everything the Empire needed. Do you know how beautiful Eben is? At least, those places where nature can still be found… We raped our own home planet, turned ourselves into soldiers… and all that we did for the sake of humanity! Because the Empire needed ships, ships, and more ships! And soldiers, and channel stations, and new kinds of armaments…”
Speshes were not prone to hysterics. But five specializations were probably too much for a human mind. Alex sensed that Janet was ready to burst into sobs.
How weird and absurd that was—here was a woman whose planet was used to scare little kids, whose profession was to torture the Others, and he couldn’t feel the socially prescribed condescending sympathy for her. He couldn’t, because he was ready to sign his name to every single word she had been saying.
Except that if Eben were to be liberated, a pan-galactic war would be unleashed.
“We became what humanity required,” Janet continued. “We were the Empire’s shield and its sword. And when we were no longer needed, they locked us away in a closet. To wait for better times.”