But all Malin said was, “That could well be so.”
It took the comm specialist several minutes before he turned to Drakon. “General, I’ve established contact with an executive third class who is willing to talk with you.”
“Well, isn’t that nice of the executive,” Drakon grumbled. He knew he looked like someone who had been in his battle armor way too long through desperate fighting, but that was fine. Anyone whose appearance was perfect after supposedly leading troops under these conditions would very likely be a fake who wouldn’t be worth talking to.
The executive third class didn’t look as bad as Drakon, but she didn’t look anything like fresh and perky, either. “What’s a general?” she asked as her face’s image appeared before Drakon.
“CEO-equivalent,” Drakon said.
“Are you a CEO?”
The question came with enough heat behind it to cause Drakon to shade his reply. “I’m a general. My brigade commanders aren’t sub-CEOs. They’re colonels. We stopped being Syndicate a while back. We stopped acting like Syndicate a while back.”
“You don’t look like a CEO,” the executive admitted. “Are there any snakes in there with you?”
“None that are still alive that we know of. We’re still screening prisoners to see if we can spot any snake agents hidden among them.”
“Prisoners?” The executive said the word as if it were totally foreign and incomprehensible to her. “You took prisoners? What, from the brigade that was supposed to hold that base?”
“A lot of them, yeah,” Drakon said. “Others from one of the attacks you people launched on us. We sent out a counterattack and brought in a couple hundred, plus about forty wounded.”
“You— Who are you? We were told that you were traitors trying to set up some warlord arrangement, working for a rogue CEO.”
Drakon grinned. “That’s what your CEO and the snakes told you? Did you believe them?”
“No.” The executive grinned back, a baring of teeth that was only partly about humor. “But all that tells me is that they lied, which I already knew. It doesn’t tell me who you really are.”
“Fair enough,” Drakon said. “We fight for the free and independent star system of Midway. The Syndicate no longer rules there. There are no snakes there.”
“Then who is in charge there?”
“President Iceni. Me.” Drakon felt ridiculous saying the next words, but they were increasingly true. “And the people.”
“The people?” The executive laughed. “Do you think I’m that stupid?”
“No,” Drakon said. “Actually, you’re impressing me. What’s your name?”
“Executive Third Class Gozen,” the woman said, both face and voice defiant.
“Well, Executive Third Class Gozen, who’s in charge out there? You?”
“I’m in charge of what’s left in this part of the line.”
“What about the snakes with you?”
“As of three minutes ago, there aren’t any snakes with us. Except for dead ones.”
Drakon nodded, smiling. “It looks like we have something in common.”
“You and I might, but not the units opposite me,” Gozen said. “The snakes won there. We just wiped out a last pocket of them over here and are setting up defenses on each side facing out.”
“Do you want any help dealing with those units opposite you?”
Executive Gozen gazed at Drakon with a flat expression. “Look… General… I may not want any snakes shooting me for not being happy at charging into another senseless attack, but that doesn’t mean I want to help you kill people in units that are part of my division. They’re stuck over there, maybe some of them helped the snakes, I don’t know, but others literally have guns to their heads forcing them to keep fighting. So, no, I don’t want your help killing more of my comrades.”
Drakon nodded again. “You seem to have quite an attitude problem, Executive Gozen.”
“You’re not the first person to tell me that.”
“All right. You’ve been straightforward with me, I’ll be straightforward with you. We came to Ulindi to get rid of Supreme CEO Haris. We thought he had rebelled against the Syndicate, but apparently that was part of a plan to lure us here.”
Gozen shook her head. “I don’t know anything about that. I haven’t heard of any Haris. My unit only landed three days ago. What’s a Supreme CEO?”
“Beats me,” Drakon said. “Anyway, we didn’t come here to conquer the place, or to die. We came here to get rid of the snakes and let the locals decide how they should run things.”
“Wow. You do think I’m stupid.”
“Executive Gozen, I don’t have forever to talk to you before I make up my mind what to do. I’d advise you to listen,” Drakon said. “Midway doesn’t have enough ground forces and firepower to conquer and control other star systems. We can help other star systems get rid of the Syndicate and the snakes, but we can’t impose our own rule. Trying to occupy and garrison Ulindi is beyond our means, but in any case, we don’t want to. We had too much of that under the Syndicate. Taking out the Syndicate here at Ulindi was a defensive move by us to remove a nearby threat. Give us credit for being able to recognize that action was in our self-interest. If you’re going to stop fighting us, if you’re going to stop trying to support the Syndicate, I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t try to set yourself up as a warlord who’s a danger to nearby star systems that Midway has pledged to help defend. But I cannot allow functional, loyal Syndicate ground forces to remain active on this planet and in this star system.”
Executive Gozen looked back at Drakon for a few moments before replying. “You don’t have the firepower? You do know there’s a battleship in orbit, right?”
“Yeah. That’s ours. It’s new. It wasn’t supposed to be operational yet.”
“It’s operational.”
“So I understand. It could bombard this planet until there was nothing left, but it can’t control the planet or the people on it. And it’s not going to stay here. It’s going home with us because we need that battleship to defend Midway. So tell me, what are you going to do, Executive Gozen?”
“You’re using Syndicate equipment. Have you got any good code monkeys… General?”
“As a matter of fact,” Drakon said, “I have some of the best damned code monkeys in human-occupied space.”
“Really?” Gozen grinned for real this time. “How do you know that?”
“They’ve told me that more times than I can count.”
“I can send you a virus,” Gozen said, suddenly all business. “We’ve been blocked from linking with anybody on the other side where the snakes are still in charge. If you can figure out how to get this virus into their network, it will identify snakes for you with a distinctive symbol on battle armor targeting displays.”
“That could come in handy.” Drakon said. “What’s the deal? What do you want in exchange for it?”
“If you go in against them, you kill the snakes. No one else.”
“What if someone else is shooting at us?”
“Look… just do your best. Say you’ll do your best. I’ll take that.”
“Why?” Drakon asked.
“Because…” Gozen made a face. “Because you’ve listened to me and explained things, when the sort of commanders I’ve been dealing with would have long since told me to shut up and comply. And because the soldiers I’ve got over here are good, they’re good men and women and they know their jobs and they are brave, but a lot of their friends have died, and they have been pushed past all limits, they’re disorganized, exhausted, and burnt-out right now. I can’t get at the snakes holding the rest of what’s left of our division hostage, and I don’t think I can stop them, or you, if an attack comes. That’s why.”