planet.”
“I see,” I said.
“A few council members felt we should join the Unified Authority,” he confessed. He sounded so specking magnanimous, it was a bit surreal. Here he was telling me, “Thanks for rescuing us from the aliens, now close the door on your way out,” but he managed to convey this in the comforting voice of a father telling his son about the facts of life.
“They wanted to join the Unified Authority?” I asked, hardly believing my ears. The Unified Authority had abandoned these people. We saved them, and they still preferred the U.A. to us.
“After we discussed the issues, there was a nearly unanimous vote to remain neutral. In the meantime, we all agreed that we wanted you and your Marines to leave our planet.
“I’ve always been up-front with you, Harris. You and your Marines and your warships represent nothing but a threat to us. I mean, look at you. You’ve been here one night, and what happened?”
“I was attacked,” I said.
“By my people?” Doctorow asked. He sounded concerned.
“No,” I admitted.
He said nothing. He did not need to say anything; I had already made his point.
“So you’re done with us?” I asked. “That’s it.”
“What are you looking for, General? Do you want me to thank you for rescuing us?”
“We also restored your power and fixed your roads,” I said. “The Corps of Engineers is military, too.”
That shut him up for a half of a second. “I wanted to speak with you about that. As we discussed before, we would like you to leave your engineers here, on Terraneau. We could use their help for another year or two.”
It was hard not to smile, but I managed it. “You certainly have a set of balls on you,” I said.
“General, there is no cause for profanity,” Doctorow said, and this time he showed no signs of embarrassment for saying it.
“You don’t want me around, but you want me to leave my engineers.”
“Engineers aren’t trained killers. They pose no threat to our goals. Engineers don’t carry guns.
“Harris, you and your men and the whole military way …You bring trouble on yourselves. Look at you. You’re like a lightning rod. You attract violence.”
“That’s a bit simplistic,” I said. “We didn’t bring the aliens.”
“Yes you did. They came back when you arrived.”
“They never left. They were always here, always destroying the planet, you just didn’t know it.”
“Have you had a look at yourself in the mirror this morning? Your face is covered with bruises,” he said. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. You were attacked. I understand that, but what happened to the men who attacked you?”
“One man,” I said.
“Where is he now?” Doctorow asked. “Is he dead? Did you kill him?”
“Dead, but I didn’t kill him,” I said. I hated this. The bastard had put me on the defensive.
“You didn’t kill him, but he’s still dead,” Doctorow said. “That is why we don’t want you or your kind on our planet.”
“How will you protect yourselves?” I asked.
“Protect ourselves from what? With you and your Marines off the planet, we won’t need to defend ourselves. Without you, we’ll be safe.”
“What happens when the Unified Authority arrives?” I asked.
“With you gone, they won’t have any reason to come here. We’re not at war with them.”
“Do you think they will respect your sovereignty?” Actually, I was pretty sure they would. They’d given up colonizing years ago.
“Yes, I believe they will. Look, we don’t want you here. I really don’t see that there is anything else for us to discuss.”
“What happens if the aliens come back?” I asked.
It was my ace in the hole, but I had played it too often, and I knew it. This time Doctorow was ready for it. “That’s a possibility, I suppose,” he said. “Personally, I am less concerned about that possibility than I am about getting you and your men off my planet.”
“You didn’t feel that way when we chased them away,” I said.
“If you recall, we did feel that way. We asked you to go away. I’m glad you ignored our request, but we didn’t want you here in the first place. And now, General Harris, it is time for you to leave.”
I stared at him angrily, he returned my gaze, looking calm and smug, neither of us willing to look away.
“We’ll leave,” I said, “but we are taking our engineers with us.”
“Have you asked them what they want?” Doctorow asked. “I have. I took the liberty of speaking with Lieutenant Mars last night.”
“You ran an end run to my engineers?” I asked, barely able to contain my anger. Why the speck had I come back to Terraneau? My girlfriend left me, an assassin nearly beat me to death, now this bastard was kicking me off the planet. “Have you spoken with anyone else? Perhaps you want my pilot.”
“I spoke with Ava this morning,” Doctorow volunteered.
“You spoke with Ava.” I muttered.
“She wants to stay,” he said.
“I saw her last night,” I said. “I got the same feeling.”
Doctorow’s composure never wavered throughout the interview. My temper flared. I became sullen. I wanted to kill the bastard. My emotions betrayed me and made Doctorow look all the more prescient.
“Hollingsworth would probably stay if you asked him,” I said.
“I don’t plan on extending that invitation,” Doctorow said.
“So I guess we are done,” I said as I started to stand.
“Not yet,” Doctorow said. “What are your plans, General? The Council would prefer for you to leave within the week.”
My thoughts had become a double helix. One strand contained logic and the other emotion. I never wanted Terraneau to sign a treaty with the Enlisted Man’s Empire; but now that they had rejected me, damn it, I felt judged and devalued by the people whose worthless lives I had saved.
“It won’t take long for us to pack,” I said, admitting my defeat.
“And your engineers?” he asked.
“I’ll speak to Mars. They can decide for themselves.” The Enlisted Man’s Empire would have plenty of engineers. If Mars wanted to stay, we’d get by without him. He’d earned that.
“Good man,” Doctorow said.
Had he just called me a “good man”? Had this specking antiestablishment son of a bitch just called me a “good man”? I quietly contemplated ripping his throat out of his neck.
He stood up to signal that the interview had ended, then he did something that almost set me off. As we walked to his door, he patted me on the shoulder and repeated his comment that I was “a good man.”
“So, I suppose that concludes our business together, General,” he said as he led me toward the door.
I turned to say something to Doctorow and found that I could not look the bastard in the eye. I wasn’t ashamed, just angry beyond reason.
And so I left. I walked out of that marble-lined office and found my own way out of the building. I stormed out to my car and told my driver to take me downtown.
He wanted us off his planet by the end of the week. I wanted us off by the end of the day.
Ava looked so pretty in her cream-colored blouse and sky blue skirt. The blouse was loose, but it showed off her figure. She wore her hair down, and her makeup was perfect. She applied her makeup discreetly so that it blended with her face. I wouldn’t have known she was wearing makeup had I not seen her without it. She looked at me and smiled.
“I’m leaving,” I said.
