Heart of the Nebula (45 page)

“
Well, what would you
suggest?” James asked.

Again, the room fell silent. Someone in the
back raised a hand.

“
Yes?”

“
Just because they aren’t
responding to our transmissions doesn’t mean that they can’t
receive them,” the officer said. “We could try to persuade them to
negotiate that way.”

The chief engineer shook
his head. “I doubt that’s going to work—the
Lady of Karduna
has been pleading
with them almost non-stop since the hostage crisis
began.”

“
But it’s the only option
we’ve got.”

James clenched his fist and resisted the
urge to slam it against the nearest bulkhead. What did these people
expect of him? That he had the magic answer that would solve all
their problems? He couldn’t help but think that Sara would have
been better suited for this—diplomacy was her area of expertise,
after all. Instead, they had turned to him, a warrior, to somehow
make peace.

“
Let’s prepare the
countermeasures just in case,” he said. “As for sending them a
message, let’s order the
Lady of
Karduna
to stop with their attempts to hail
them. From now on, every transmission we send will come from this
ship, the
Chiran Spirit.
Understand?”

“
Yes, sir,” the officers
chorused.

Mary raised a hand.

“
What message do we send
them, sir?”

“
I don’t know yet,” James
admitted, “but I’ll work on it. If any of you have any suggestions,
let me know.”

“
May I suggest that we move
quickly on this, Commander,” Carlson said. “At our present course,
we have only three days before the distance between us and the
rebels is too great to send the hostages back.”

James took a long breath. “Thank you,
Captain.”

Three days to war.

* * * * *

Deirdre rested her chin on her hands and
glanced across the table at the star-filled window on the far side
of the study hall. Half a dozen young men crowded the library’s
computer terminal, chattering excitedly in hushed tones, while the
printer kiosk hummed furiously as it serviced a growing line of
patrons. The library had gotten a lot busier of late, with mounting
excitement over their impending arrival. Even though the noise made
it difficult for her to concentrate, she enjoyed being around other
people. If it got to be too much for her, she could always escape
among the shelves of titles waiting to be recycled.

As she returned to her screen, a hand came
to rest on her shoulder. She looked up and saw James standing over
her.

“
Oh,” she said, a little
surprised. “I didn’t know you were coming down here. You need my
help?”

He nodded. “Is there somewhere more private
we can go?”

It’s a good thing most of
these people don’t know James by sight,
she
thought to herself as she rose to her feet. Once it became common
knowledge who he was, there’d be no peace for him anywhere on the
ship.

She led him out into the main hall and
through a door marked AUTHORIZED STAFF ONLY. Her study was at the
far back of the hall, behind a cozy section of honeycombed
cubicles. The small administrative staff buzzed back and forth, too
busy to pay either of them any mind. She guided James into her
study and motioned for him to sit down.

“
What’s up?” she asked,
sitting cross-legged on the desk as the door hissed shut behind
them.

“
It’s the hostage crisis,”
said James. “We have three days before it blows up into a war, and
the only thing we can do is hail them repeatedly and hope that they
listen. Since you’re the ship’s historian, I was hoping you’d have
some insight on what we could say to persuade them to do the right
thing.”

Deirdre frowned and scratched her chin. “I
see. Well, I don’t know if I have any insight, but I can run over
the history with you and see if anything comes to mind.”

“
That would be
great.”

She slipped off of the desk and knelt in
front of the keyboard. The lights in the room dimmed as she toggled
the holoscreen display, bringing up a timeline of the voyage from
the departure at Zeta Nabat to the present time.

“
The roots of the crisis
began about twenty standard years after you and the other colonists
went down into cryo,” she said. “That’s when the first two rebel
ships cut off all communication with us.”

“
I see,” he said,
nodding.

“
At that time, we had
regular contact with the
Good Hope
Flier.
For five years, we tried regularly
to hail the rebel ships, always with no response. After that, we
gave up, but the
Good Hope Flier
kept trying to reestablish contact until they were
successful.”

James toggled the view and zoomed in to a
diagram showing the seven ships’ positions relative to each other
for the majority of the voyage. “So that’s how they switched
sides,” he muttered.

“
Right. They made contact
about three years before.”

“
But they didn’t relay any
of their communications with the rebel ships to us, did they?”
James asked.

“
No. That was one of the
reasons our relations went sour.”

He stared at the screen, his hand on his
chin. “What happened right before that?”

Deirdre leaned down over
the keyboard and brought the timeline back up again, this time
zooming in to the five year period before the
Good Hope Flier
broke off all
communication. “They were undergoing major restructuring of their
ship,” she said. “Nothing unusual—we all went through phases like
that as our population grew. If I remember right, they were
debating a measure that would impose severe birth
restrictions.”

“
Did they pass
it?”

She shrugged. “They never
told us. We only know that was an issue because they asked us a lot
of detailed questions about our own policies. Here on the
Chiran Spirit
, we just
switched to different bunk-sharing arrangements as the population
grew. The
Lady of Karduna,
however, has had strict population controls almost
since the moment we made contact with them.”

“
Lars would have hated
that,” James muttered.

“
What?”

“
Nothing,” he said. “So you
think the
Good Hope Flier
defected to the rebels over the birth control
issue?”

“
Probably not,” she
admitted, “but whatever their reason for switching sides, they
never made it clear to us.”

“
Then what is this crisis
about?”

Dierdre shrugged. “What is any civil crisis
about? Things have changed a lot since your time. The old ways are
gone, and for most of us, the universe is no bigger than our own
ship. Maybe the rebels just don’t see themselves as a part of the
group anymore and want to strike out on their own.”

“
If that’s true,” said
James, “then they aren’t just holding those diplomats hostage, but
all of the people frozen in cryo.”

“
I suppose.”

Without warning, he slammed his fist against
the bulkhead, making Deirdre jump.

“
Dammit! Why did you people
have to go and screw things up just before we arrived? The whole
point in coming to Chira was to escape and start over someplace
where we could all be safe. Why did you have to shatter that
peace?”

For several moments, Deirdre said nothing.
It was hard to know what to say after an outburst like that. James
buried his head in his hands and groaned.

“
I’m sorry,” he said. “I
know it’s not your fault, but why did everything I worked so hard
for have to fall apart like this?”

Deirdre put a comforting hand on his
shoulder. “It didn’t fall apart, James—not completely. We had
almost four generations of peace because of you, and after we
arrive at Chira, we’ll have many long years of peace, as well.”

“
But it all comes to an end
eventually. Wherever there are sheep, there will always be
wolves.”

She frowned. “Wolves?”

“
Earth creatures,” he
explained, looking up at her. “Back when Earth was a wild planet,
our ancestors were at the mercy of the wilderness. They kept flocks
of sheep for wool and meat, but the wolves would hunt and kill
them.”

“
That’s fascinating,” said
Deirdre. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the old Earth archives, but
I’ve never come across anything like this.”

“
Lars and I used to argue
about it,” said James. “I tried to convince him that most people
are like sheep: docile herd animals, unable or unwilling to defend
themselves. He thought that the people aren’t like sheep at all,
but can take care of themselves so long as they are free. He didn’t
account for the wolves, though—the thugs and criminals, murderers
and rapists, warlords and pirates who would eat everyone else alive
if they got the chance.”

Deirdre nodded, entranced. This was a
discussion that James had actually had with her great-grandfather,
Lars? She felt as if she had stumbled across a hidden gem buried in
some forgotten historical document, except that this wasn’t a
book—this was real.

“
In any case,” James
continued, “to protect their sheep, our ancestors captured some of
the wolves and domesticated them. They became sheepdogs—animals
just as vicious and dangerous as the wolves, but bred to serve the
needs of the sheep. That’s me.”

“
A sheepdog,” Deirdre
mused. “More like a wolf than a sheep.”

“
Exactly.”

A thought occurred to her, making her sit up
straight. “What if the people in the rebel ships don’t know that
you’re a sheepdog? What if they’re afraid you’re one of the
wolves?”

James frowned. “Why would they think
that?”

“
I don’t know, but what if
they do? They would see you as a threat—they would cut themselves
off and put as much distance between them and you as
possible.”

“
I guess,” said James,
clearly stunned by what she was saying. “But wouldn’t that make
conflict inevitable?”

“
From the histories I’ve
read, most wars seem to feel inevitable to those who get caught up
in them,” Deirdre answered. “It’s very rare that wars happen
because of the decisions of a single person. Usually, there’s some
misunderstanding between the two groups that leads to a conflict,
and from that conflict, both sides escalate until there’s nothing
to do except fight it out.”

“
That sounds about right,”
said James. He stood up and started to pace. “But if that’s true,
then… I’m the escalation?”

“
I don’t know,” said
Deirdre. “But you are the single most important figure in all of
our history. You’re a legend to us, James—and anyone who doesn’t
see you as a hero almost certainly sees you as a
villain.”

“
Stars of Earth,” James
muttered. “I think you’re right.”

* * * * *

For the next forty-eight
hours, James tried almost non-stop to make contact with the rebel
ships. He transmitted message after message, pleading with
the
Good Hope Flier
to release the hostages. Each time he recorded a new message,
though, Deirdre’s words came back to haunt him. And each time they
waited for a response, none came—just as she’d
predicted.

“
I know you see me as a
threat,” he said for the fifth or sixth transmission on the second
day—it was getting hard to keep count. “I don’t know why, but I
want you to know that we don’t have to be enemies. Things have
changed a lot in the last few decades. I know that, and I can
accept that.” He took a deep breath. “When we left Zeta Nabat, we
were one community—one people. I still hope that we can find a way
to stick together. If we can’t, though, and you would rather split
away from us to form your own community, then I ask you in the
strongest possible terms to release the hostages and return them to
the
Lady of Karduna.
The Chira system is large enough to share. Please, release the
hostages, and let there be peace between us.”

The rebels had altered their course to head
for the second planet in the system, a water-rich hot Neptune with
several rocky moons. The planet looked hostile and foreboding, but
the magnetic field protected most of the moons from the worst of
the solar radiation. With proper heat shielding, they could
probably build a fairly decent outpost, perhaps even one to rival
the main colony in time.

By the time the second day had all but come
to a close, James was an absolute wreck. His arms trembled from
exhaustion, and his eyes refused to stay open for any length of
time. His body ached to lie down, but he forced himself to stay
awake.

“
Better get some rest,
Commander,” said Carlson. “We’re going to need you in a few
hours.”

“
But the
hostages—”

Carlson put a gentle but firm hand on his
shoulder. “You’ve done all you can do. There’s a spare bunkroom on
this level for the command crew. Let me show you to it.”

The bunk was barely more than a slot in the
wall and was two inches too short for James to extend his legs, but
he didn’t care. Almost the moment his face hit the mattress pad, he
fell asleep.