“Sorry about those,” said Filch, gesturing at his neck. “Appearances.” Jolo’s hate for his old number two had eclipsed even his hate for the whole Fed. This was a mistake, and he was going to escape, or better yet, kill Filch. He glared at the admiral.
“It’s good to see you,” said Filch. “The old crew back together again.”
“Never would’ve known by the last two days,” said Jolo. He suddenly had an urge to put his hands around Filch’s throat. He jumped forward but hit an invisible wall in front of the admiral’s desk. Electricity raced through Jolo’s body starting at his neck. He fell to his knees.
“Please,” said Filch. “You’ve got to stay put. Please sit down.” Filcher took a pull from his flask and then slid it to Barth. The old engineer took a long drink and handed it to Jolo. “Easy now,” said Filch. “Let’s talk.” Jolo tossed the flask back to Filch. It slid across his desk, knocked off a small, alacyte gunboat model and hit the floor. Filch reached to pick it up.
Jolo glared at him, wishing he had his gun, wishing they’d never come. They wouldn’t listen. This is what happens when you get mixed up with the Fed, he thought.
Barth leaned back in his chair and told the story of Jolo Vargas and Duval. He held nothing back: his mistrust of the Fed government, how he believed the BG were still a threat. How the BG were going to destroy Duval and Barc. How Jolo had pulled him from an ice harvester. All the while Filcher had his feet up on his desk. He’d take a pull from the flask then slide it back to Barth.
Barth finished with “…and now the BG are going to destroy Duval.”
The admiral put his feet down on the floor, “I know.”
“Then you’ll help?” said Jolo.
Filcher hesitated, fingered the large brass buttons on his uniform. Jolo remembered him doing the same thing, standing on the bridge of the Jessica, when he was captain and Filch was second. Filch looked up with a strained face. “No.”
Jolo instinctively jumped up again, then remembered the neck collar and held his ground.
“You were always ready to pull the trigger, weren’t you, Captain? Always ready to dive in head first and to hell with regulations, to hell with protocol—common sense!” yelled Filch.
“At least I fought for the Fed, just like Barth. I don’t remember everything but enough is coming back now. I never trusted you, did I? And now we know who you are. A snake!”
“No!” said Filch. “I do what’s best for the people always. I always have.”
“By supporting the unholy alliance with the worms?” said Barth.
“Barth, you were a fool to stand against it. Why do you think they shipped you off?”
“And what about when the Fed were gonna send me off to die on a prison planet? You did nothing!” said Jolo.
“Of course. See, that’s what you two warriors don’t get. There are times when the best course of action is to stand down. But all you know is fight. The alliance would have suffered with Captain Vargas. The military would have risen up again. I’m sorry, Jolo, if that is really who you are. I’m sorry they had no need of you. But it was the best thing at that time. One man steps aside so peace could prevail.”
“You call destroying Duval peace?” said Jolo.
“I call it survival. We can’t win. Deep down you know that. But you’d rather run into a brick wall and take everyone down with you. If you fight more humans will die and the black bas—,” he paused here then lowered his voice, “they could wipe us all out. If we stand down they’re gonna let some of us live. Come with me and live. I’m trying to save as many as possible.”
“You’re just saving yourself,” said Jolo. He stood up and gripped the collar around his neck with both hands. “Then at least let us go back and fight. Coming here was a waste of time. And what kind of life do you think the worms are gonna give you? You think they’re gonna just let you live happily on some beautiful oxygen-rich core world? I imagine it’ll be more like Sotec. You’ll have barely enough to survive and you’ll forget what it was to feel warmth on your face. I’m sure they’ll arrange plenty of work for you.”
“It won’t be like that,” said Filch defensively.
“You ain’t seen a prison planet, have you?” said Barth.
“Once you watch a BG bot pick up a living human and literally throw him into a trash chute to be recycled, you tend to underestimate who you’re up against,” said Jolo. “You figure out quick they don’t give two squirts of piss for your life. For humanity.”
“It’s not like that. I’ve fought them for years during the war,” said Filch.
“Yeah, but we were in the Jessica,” said Jolo, “fighting against other space craft. And we won more often than not. We rarely left that boat, rarely got on the ground. There was a kind of honor in those battles. May the best ship win. But down on the ground the BG are killing women, children, whole planets. You lose sight of that in your office here with pictures on the wall of your glory
