After Orvis, Senior Chief Tarrini, and Master Chief Gioninni left, Dr. Nasr turned a troubled look on Geary. “There is still a risk to those two officers, you know, even if we get them off Europa safely. It will only take one plague bacterium clinging to the outside of someone’s armor, then being transferred to them as they are put into the empty armor.”
“What can we do if they get infected before they get inside the armor?” Desjani asked.
“Nothing. I cannot even risk treating them except by remote means. If they have been infected, they may die before we finish decontaminating the outside of their armor for them and the Marines. We will have to treat them as possibly contaminated. Once we bring them aboard, they will have to be locked into extreme medical isolation. We have a single compartment that allows that. It will be crowded with two in there, but there is no choice.”
“There’s no cure?” Desjani asked. “No treatment?”
“To develop a cure, someone would need a sample of the disease,” Nasr explained. “Every existing sample has been confined to Europa. I will see if treatment simulations were run based on remote data, but I will be surprised if any are available.”
“The locals might have them,” Geary said. “They’ve been living with Europa for centuries. Surely they’ve thought about what to do if that horror ever escaped.”
“Perhaps.” The doctor shrugged. “But sometimes a taboo is too great to even bear looking at. Then, too, I remember a colleague of mine once arguing that research into cures was counterproductive, since it merely encouraged the behaviors that led to the ills. I did not agree, but such an attitude might rule here. Any suggestion that a cure might be found might produce pressure to relax the quarantine of Europa, and I understand why that could not be encouraged.”
After the doctor and Rione had left, Desjani looked angrily at Geary. “Admiral—”
He held out a warning hand. “You know that I can’t approve this on my own.”
She glared stubbornly back at him. “No, I don’t.”
“This is too big an issue, and we have representatives of the government aboard.”
“No.”
“I have to ask them, Tanya.”
“No!”
“Do you want to be present at the meeting as well?”
“No.” Her glare intensified as Desjani clenched a fist and pounded it lightly on the table. “But I will attend, anyway, Admiral, in an attempt to ensure that two of my officers are not doomed to die on Europa by the dithering and politicking of our esteemed Alliance senators.”
Four
Three senators of the Alliance, one envoy of the Alliance, an admiral and a captain of the Alliance fleet, and a doctor of the Alliance military medical corps sat around a small table inside the secure conference room aboard the battle cruiser Dauntless. Above the table floated an image of Europa and all the ships and other craft currently orbiting Jupiter near that moon.
Geary had finished describing the planned operation and was waiting for the reaction from the senators.
Senator Suva looked like she had a migraine headache. “Europa. Why did it have to be that place out of everywhere in this star system?”
“But it is Europa,” Senator Sakai said. “Two of our people are there. The Admiral says we can do something. Do we take that action?”
“If we don’t,” Senator Costa said, “those two officers of the Alliance fleet die.”
“How many officers have died in the last century? In the last year?” Sakai asked, his tone mild.
“That’s not the point, and you know it! It’s one thing to send members of our military on missions where they might die or even likely will die. It’s another thing entirely to sit back and let two of our people die when we could do something to prevent it.” Costa looked around the table, her gaze challenging. “That would make the Alliance look weak. Right now, the locals respect us. They’ve seen what this battle cruiser can do. We don’t want them deciding that we lack the resolve to protect our own people and interests.”
“But the two officers might already be dead,” Suva protested. “Or… infected.”
Everyone looked at Dr. Nasr, who shook his head. “If they were infected, they are dead, but the craft they are in must be making every effort to remain sealed against the risk.”
“And the only thing stopping us is fear of stepping on the toes of the locals?” Costa demanded. “Then let’s do it. We land the Marines, we get our people back, and by the time the locals know what’s happened, we’re at the hypernet gate and on our way home.”
“Keeping it secret may be impossible,” Sakai warned.
“But we must,” Suva insisted. “The consequences would be immense if it is learned that we put people on Europa and recovered them.”
“We only have to hide it until we’re clear of here, then no one can prove anything,” Costa declared. “They’ll all know what we did, but they won’t be able to prove it.”
“The locals will see us conducting the operation. We don’t have stealth equipment—” Geary began.
“Then how can we do this?” Sakai asked.
Dr. Nasr spoke with a sudden burst of pent-up emotion. “Why is this a question? The answer is simple. We cannot hide this. We should not try to hide it. Tell everyone. Tell them what we plan to do, how we plan to do it, what precautions we are taking, and let them watch as we do it all. Let them examine our equipment. Nothing else will convince them to trust us or to believe that our actions will not harm them. Why do we seek to hide it, to keep our plans secret? We are not the Syndics. We are not the enigmas. Why do we try to keep so much hidden from those who have every right to know it?”
Senator Costa’s expression had hardened as Nasr spoke. Senator Suva looked away. Senator Sakai seemed to be studying the far bulkhead, his face as impassive as usual. Rione, oddly, looked tired. But no one spoke for several seconds after the doctor finished.
Victoria Rione finally broke the silence. “You ask some very good questions, Doctor.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Costa retorted. “Security demands secrecy. We keep things like this under wraps so we can protect the Alliance.”
Costa’s criticism instantly decided Suva, who gave Costa a scornful gaze. “We keep too many secrets! Who or what are we really protecting?”
Senator Sakai made a sharp gesture with one hand, forestalling Costa’s counterattack. “There are secrets that are necessary, and there are those that serve no purpose. I would agree that secrecy has become too much a habit for us. My proof for this? None of us except this doctor thought of simply telling the truth to the people of Sol Star System. All we thought of was how to hide our actions. Do we still judge the need for secrecy in things? Or do we assume the need?”
“Do you agree with the doctor?” Geary asked Sakai.
“I do. His words have a wisdom we have forgotten. Truth does not fear the light.”
“The First Truth,” Rione said softly. “Yes. We have forgotten that.”
“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Costa insisted. “The only way to protect truth is to—”
“Lie?” Suva asked bitingly. “That is why we have so little credibility with the citizens of the Alliance! We don’t tell anyone the truth anymore. We classify everything, in order, we say, to protect those citizens.”
Costa looked fiercely back at her. “There are some secrets I am certain you would not want disclosed. Shall we spill them all?”
“That is a false argument,” Rione said. “It is not a matter of all or nothing. No one here would argue with the need to keep some secrets. But it has become too easy to think only in terms of hiding information and not consider the rationale for whether it should be secret at all.”