“They were children,” I pleaded.
“Nits breed lice,” the Captain said, coldly. “They were growing up exposed to propaganda that would have turned them against us in the next few years, turning them into insurgents themselves and sending them out to kill more of our Infantry. Their parents could have moved them out of the war zone, or even bargained with us to remove them before the fighting began, but instead…they chose to keep them there. What happened was tragic, but it needed to be done.”
“You don’t care,” I said, feeling like a child myself. “Why…”
“You should have learned that at the Academy,” Captain Shalenko said, his voice still cold. “Before the United Nations was established, there were endless wars between nations on Earth over everything from resources to religion. Men did terrifying things to one another because they believed that they could be individuals and put themselves above the remainder of humanity. The great leech nations, nations you may never have heard of, polluted the globe as they raped Earth of her resources. The ideology behind Heinlein even came out of one of those leech nations. The duty of the Peace Force is clear — we have to maintain the peace. It is better that a hundred, a thousand, a million children die on Heinlein, than the consequences of all-out interstellar war. You saw the starships they used to raid the fleet as we advanced. In ten years, they might have been striking at Earth.”
He looked up at me and met my eyes. “They would have been striking at Earth,” he corrected himself. “Their ideology is unrelentingly hostile to the UN. They were building a war fleet in secret and preparing to use it against us. Would you rather your family died on Earth, under a bombardment from Heinlein-based starships, or that people opposed to the UN died on Heinlein?”
My family were dead, I recalled. I’d seen where they’d died, where the safety systems on their mall — no malls on Heinlein, as far as I could tell — had failed, due to carelessness or simple lack of maintenance. Captain Shalenko didn’t know that my family were dead. I doubted that it was even in my file. The Heinlein battlefleet hadn’t killed them on Earth. They had been killed — murdered — by a system that didn’t care what happened to its people. A system that was prepared to expand to other star systems and destroy anyone standing in the way. A system that had made me compliant in its crimes. I was just as guilty as they were.
I also knew the right answer. “I would rather that my enemies died,” I said. It was perfectly truthful, after all. “Sir, I…”
“Enough,” Captain Shalenko said. “I am impressed with your performance so far, so I’m going to do you one favour and delete this…ah, request from the computers and your file. It won’t do your career any good to have this on your record. When the Political Officer sees something like that, the person is normally transferred to an isolated fuelling station or sent back to Earth in disgrace. In exchange, I expect you to carry out your duties without demur. Do you understand me?”
I straightened to attention. “Yes, sir,” I said, sincerely. How could I fight a system I had come to hate when I was outside it? There had to be a way to hurt the UN badly enough to force it to back off from the colonies, somehow. “Thank you, sir.”
“Speak nothing of it,” the Captain ordered. I understood his meaning. He was technically supposed to report anything reassembling political unreliability to the Political Officer. I suspected that having doubts about murdering innocent children would probably count as political unreliability. There was no room for doubt or scruple in the service of the UN. “Now…”
He pulled his terminal round and examined it carefully. “As you are having…issues with working as a forward operations controller, I’m going to assign you to taking over some of Anna’s and Konrad’s duties while they’re working as controllers themselves,” he said, firmly. “I expect them carried out with the same level of competence and dedication they bring to their tasks. I dare say the Specials won’t object, even though Sergeant Ryan filed a note of commendation for you. They’re both working with the Ensigns at the moment and while you are too young for the role, you’ll have to do it.”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“The reporters are bouncing back and forwards between us and the ground, so you’ll be responsible for them as well,” the Captain said. He looked me in the eye again. “Do you still want to be removed from your position as forward controller?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. I would sooner deal with reporters than kill innocent children again. The reporters, at least, couldn’t be shot. Regulations were such a nuisance at times. “Do you want me to supervise their activities on the planet?”
“Not at present,” the Captain said. “The Admiral’s staff are capable of controlling them and ensuring that they toe the line. You’ll be given some time to check in with them in a week or so, but unless they want to come back onboard, they’ll be out of your hair.”
I remembered just how secure Lazarus was and decided that the reporters would probably be happier filing lies from orbit, even with Heinlein starships jumping in, firing off a few volleys, and vanishing again. The battles in space had stalemated with no side able to claim an advantage. The UN held the local system, but isolated starships were easy prey for the Heinlein raiders. It was a toss-up if I were safer in space or on the ground.
“Thank you, sir,” I said.
“Good,” the Captain said. He gave me a paternal smile. “You are dismissed.”
I saluted, turned about-face, and marched out of the cabin, thinking hard.
Chapter Nineteen
The UN has free speech, in theory. It is a guaranteed right, provided that the speaker does not offend anyone. In practice, critical remarks of any kind are regarded as offensive, as are anti-UN propaganda, honest financial reports, violent images, nationalist tracts and anything else that attracts the eye of the UN censors. The UN bans the works of political writers — to be fair to the system, both Adam Smith and Karl Marx are banned — and even those who attempted to reform society. Charles Dickens and Jerry Pournelle, to name, but two, are among the thousands of writers whose books have been banned from the shelves. Copies now only exist in the Deep Internet and mere possession can send a person to the re-education camps.
The war raged on.
Over the next six months, UN Ground Command declared Lazarus a secure city four times. Every time, something happened within a day of the announcement that put the lie to their words. Admiral Hoover would appear on the communications network, bragging about how the UN had finally secured the planet, only to end up dodging incoming mortar shells. On the third time, someone screwed up and the entire planet was able to see the shells barely miss the Admiral’s podium. It probably encouraged resistance no end.
I remained on the Devastator for most of the time, but I heard plenty from the communications networks — and the Brotherhood. The Infantry were seizing and sweeping through towns in vast numbers, but the insurgents were very good at slipping into the countryside and vanishing. The Infantry were mainly city boys and girls and knew little about the countryside. Heinlein had developed its own set of animals and some of them were very dangerous. Soldiers shied away from harmless snakes only to run into lethal creatures that killed, and were killed. At first, Ground Forces Command attempted to prevent the soldiers from killing the animals, only to discover that it was a set of orders that wouldn’t be obeyed. The soldiers might have been trained to obey orders, but it was amazing how quickly such orders were forgotten when it was their lives at stake. The animals also proved to be inedible — which didn’t stop hungry soldiers from trying to eat them when their supply trucks were hit and left as burned-out ruins.