“What did you do to him?” Warhurst demanded.
“What did…he do to himself?” the alien replied. “We fear…he was not…ready for…enlightenment within the Sentient Sea.”
“Enlightenment?” Garroway said. “Is that what they call it?”
Norris was still screaming, his mind blasted, utterly gone.
Eight days later Garroway lay at the edge of the jungle with Kat Vinita, relaxing after their last bout of lovemaking. He and Kat had become close these past weeks, very close, though he doubted the arrangement would become permanent. How could it, when they had no idea where they would be deployed next, or if they would be deployed together?
Besides, there was still Lynnley, somewhere out there among those stars.
Hell. Was what he felt for Lynnley nostalgia for a distant friend? Or something more? It was impossible to tell. He’d changed so much.
“There’s Sol,” Kat said, pointing. “The Relief Expedition must be along that line of sight too.”
“That’s what they say,” Garroway replied. “Another five months and they’ll be here.”
She laughed and snuggled closer in his arms. “I wonder if when they get here they’ll approve of our…solution?”
He smiled and lightly stroked her breast. “I doubt it. From what Hanson and Carleton told the brass, PanTerra was set to keep the Ishtaran humans in what amounted to slavery.” A Navy corpsman had arrived in time to slap some fastheal nano on Dr. Hanson’s wound. She’d lived, and she was telling everything she knew about PanTerra’s scheme. Carleton had joined her in the revelation, probably to cover his ass.
And King as well, though he still didn’t see anything wrong with his stand. Why should he? he asked. PanTerra had been operating with the best intentions of the Ishtaran humans at heart. King had accepted house arrest with ill grace and temper. He would be vindicated, he claimed, at the court-martial.
Unfortunately for him, a board of senior officers would not be available until they returned to Earth. In the meantime, Ramsey had assumed full operational command of 1 MIEU. The Marines themselves joked about the “mutiny.” Some had taken to wearing makeshift eyepatches or peppering their speech with piratical arrrrs.
They gave the AI Cassius credit for carrying out the coup.
“I think they’ll have to accept it as a fait accompli,” Garroway told her after a moment. “I think the colonel is a damned genius, myself.”
“Let’s hope the brass back home agrees,” Kat replied.
Colonel Ramsey’s solution was elegant. The Marine Corps was not supposed to set government policy, but the government was 8.3 light-years away right now, and the nearest other representatives of that government would not be there for another five months. With the sudden Ahannu declaration of peace, something had to be done now.
Ramsey had put together a working plan. As senior officer for 1 MIEU, he’d formally recognized the free Ishtaran humans as a separate state, an independent state on Ishtar, supported by the U.S. Marines. They would be the ones who talked to Earth’s representatives about any repatriation or emancipation of humans in the Llalande system, and they would approve any travel of Ishtaran humans back to Earth.
Further, the Ishtaran state—Dumu-gir Kalam, as it was to be called—would have access to the Sag-ura under Ahannu control. Earth would supply the diplomats to begin peaceful negotiations between the two groups, with an eye to helping the Sag-ura gain some measure of self-determination. The Ahannu had agreed—reluctantly, but they’d agreed. The Marine nir-gál-mè-a carried a fair mass in the way of moral authority. Dr. Hanson had compared it to the Marines being thought of as co-equal gods with the Ahannu.
Gods of battle.
That was quite a promotion, Garroway thought.
Frankly, he doubted that the Sag-ura would ever choose self-determination. According to the xenosoc experts, they didn’t think of themselves as slaves but as people who merely served their gods, who had served them since time had begun. What, he wondered, would happen when the government’s desire to free the human slaves on Ishtar collided with the laws against interfering with people’s religion? The social firestorm that raised would likely burn for another century or two, at least.
But the Sag-ura would have time to become adjusted to some new ideas, like the fact that they could choose a path for themselves. Maybe in a few more centuries…
“You know,” Garroway said, “once this story gets out, none of the other nations on Earth will have anything to do with PanTerra. They’ll be finished.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Though with that much money, I doubt it.”