“They’re the dregs of society,” Kitty said, seriously. “The Admiral wouldn’t care in the slightest if half of them died to bring Heinlein back into the United Nations. Why should he? They’re pulled off the streets, given just enough training to make them dangerous, and then sent out to occupy resentful planets. Most of them will never be able to claim the patch of land the UN promises them in exchange for their services.”
She paused and moved a pawn forward. “I don’t know about the enemy, John,” she said, “but by God they frighten me.”
I lifted an eyebrow at her choice of words. Religion had no place in the UN’s brave new world, or so we had been told. It was illegal to discriminate against any particular religion, but practicing any religion was not encouraged. Muna had been allowed to keep her scarf for some reason, but she’d received no other encouragement. It simply wasn’t allowed.
“They’re hated on every world,” Kitty added, grimly. “Whatever hope there was that the worlds might come into the UN voluntarily, they destroy, just by behaving like complete bastards, looting, raping and murdering wherever they go. They’re not Marines, John; remember that. They’re monsters in UN uniforms.”
She reached out and touched my icon the Senior Chief had given me. “Welcome to the Brotherhood,” she said. I felt my heartbeat racing suddenly. “The best we can do is try to prevent our honour from being tarnished any further.”
“You’re in the Brotherhood?” I asked, astonished. I hadn’t even given any through to who else might be in the Brotherhood, although I would have bet good money that Captain Harriman was a Brother, and Captain Shalenko was not. “How did you know about me…?”
“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies,” Kitty said, her green eyes very serious. I caught her meaning and nodded. The Security Department wouldn’t hesitate to subject us both to intensive interrogation if they realised that we were members of what they would regard as a subversive group. “You’re young, but the word was passed along to keep an eye on you. You’re not the first to have doubts.”
I stared at her. “Kitty…what happens if we get caught?”
Kitty shrugged. “How many members of the Brotherhood do you know?” She held up a hand before I could answer. “I doubt you know more than three at most — don’t tell me — and you won’t encounter many others face to face. What you don’t know can’t be forced from you. I only told you now because you need to know that you’re not alone.”
A nasty thought crossed my mind. “Kitty…how do we know that the Brotherhood is real?” I asked. “What if it’s secretly run by the Security Department?”
“They’d have rounded us all up by now,” Kitty said. “I suspect that they do have some idea we exist, but they’re not really capable of rooting us all out, for various reasons. Several…ah, friends went silent last year and I think that they did get caught, but they weren’t able to betray the rest of us.” She shook her head. “We’ll talk more about that later. Checkmate.”
I looked down at the board. She’d won, all right. “Neat,” I said, admiringly. I’d played Chess in the Academy team and declined an offer to play for the big leagues. Kitty made me look like a newcomer. “Why can’t we do something?”
“Like what?” Kitty asked, seriously. “What is going to happen to Heinlein is going to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it? Look” — she continued, catching my expression — “suppose that you have Brotherhood cells on all of the starships. What would we do with them? How could we coordinate our actions openly and take the ships, knowing that everything would be so confused…and what if Heinlein attacks?”
“I see,” I said, but Kitty wasn’t finished.
“The Admiral was convinced that Heinlein has no warships,” Kitty continued. “I suspect that they will have a few surprises waiting for us. They have to know that the United Nations won’t let their defiance pass. The last thing we need is a struggle for power when the fleet is under attack. Besides, who can we trust?”
I nodded, reluctantly. Everyone knew about the dangers of informers in the ranks, men and women who would betray their comrades to the UN Security Department for money, or power, or even under threat of blackmail. Who could we trust? We’d probably end up shooting at each other.
“We’ll talk more later,” Kitty said, standing up. “Get some sleep. You’re going to need it tomorrow.”
I couldn’t sleep very well that night, or the night afterwards. I kept working the problem, trying to find a solution, but Kitty was right. There was nothing we could do to prevent the invasion from taking place, leaving us all as unwilling participants in the UN’s plan. I thought, seriously, about deserting, but where would I go? Earth would hardly welcome me now. Three weeks later, when we arrived at Heinlein, I was still no closer to a solution.
The Admiral had claimed that victory would be easy.
Need I mention that it was nothing of the sort?
Chapter Fourteen
The UN claims to be expert in space combat, but the truth is that few are truly expert in space combat. The pre-space dreams of clashes between vast fleets of space dreadnaughts have not materialised. It is rare for any armed encounter between the UNPF and the pirates to involve more than two vessels, or indeed to end in anything, but a draw. True space combat is more theoretical than anything else. The UNPF’s failure to understand that this was a weakness cost it heavily in some of the main campaigns of the war.
“Wormhole exit in fifty seconds, sir,” the Pilot said. “All systems are standing by.”
“Excellent,” Captain Shalenko said. He, at least, wasn’t trusting his ship to a green Ensign when we entered a war zone. “All hands, this is the Captain. Battle stations. I say again, battle stations.”
I checked the duplicate tactical console quickly, confirming that I was locked out of the system — unless something happened to Anna. I doubted that it would matter that much — if Anna was taken out, the entire ship would probably be lost — but the Great God Regulations demanded my presence. At least the reporters weren’t on the bridge. The Captain had insisted that they remain in their stateroom until the system was secure and none of them, even Frank, had dared to argue.
“Systems ready, sir,” I said, when the Captain checked with me. If everything went to plan, I’d be nothing, but a helpless observer.
“Emergence,” the Pilot said. The wormhole twisted open in front of us and new stars started to shine through onto the ship. “We have emerged in the Heinlein System, sir.”
Captain Shalenko didn’t smile. “Confirm location,” he ordered. “Communications, link us up with the other starships.”
“Location confirmed,” the Pilot said. I checked myself and he was right. “We have emerged within two decimal places of our target coordinate.”
“The other starships are checking in now,” Kitty said, from her console. “Ah… not all of them have emerged in the correct locations.”
“Signal the Admiral, inform him of our status, and request orders,” the Captain said, a hint of frustration in his tone. I understood his feelings. If the remainder of the fleet had arrived in the correct locations, the Devastator would have been well-protected by the cruisers. As it were, we were dangerously exposed to anyone out there with weapons and bad intentions. “Tactical, bring up the main sensors and sweep local space. Report at once if you detect anything out of the ordinary.”