The only people not here were the five v-comas who had not yet awakened, a nurse to watch over them, the tranquilized Porter in his stockade cell, the three soldiers on the Return, and Elizabeth Duncan in the command post to maintain surveillance. Duncan already knew what Jason would say. The others would be told right after the meeting.
“You don’t have to introduce it this way,” Duncan had said. “You’re the commander.”
“Yes, I do,” Jason had said. “Otherwise, if I tell it piecemeal, rumors and exaggerations will get completely out of control.”
“True. But, sir… you’ll be inviting ugly debate.”
“They’re entitled to debate.”
“And then you’ll carry out the plan anyway.”
Jason hadn’t replied; they both knew he had no real choice about the overall strategy.
He scanned the crowd. Faces curious or apprehensive or hostile. Some of the hostile ones were his own troops. Some still resented his allowing the star-farers to infect everybody, resented his bringing the Settlers to the base, resented the war going on so long without much real action, resented their lives cooped up in two domes. Others of his soldiers waited blank-faced, reserving judgment.
The scientists stood together by the airlock, Dr. McKay next to his Awakened wife, holding their little girl. Dr. Ka^graa was with them, along with Jane, her cousin La^vor, and the giant teenager Belok^. Jane caught his eye and then looked away. In that moment, Jason understood that she knew what he was going to say. How? A little shiver ran down his spine.
Colin, in his powerchair, sat beside Jane, with Jason’s father seated on a folding chair, one hand on his cane and the other on Colin’s shoulder. Ryan looked very old. The Settlers clustered behind Colin. Jason looked for his grandmother, but couldn’t find her or Lindy in the press of bodies. He spotted Claire Patel, Dr. Holbrook, and one of the young teachers from Enclave Dome with Dr. Sugiyama’s two children clinging to her. Holbrook had told Jason that the teacher was the only one who could deal with their trauma, and they would not leave her. The little boy, trembling, had his face buried in the teacher’s neck.
Lieutenant Li, standing by the ordnance lockers, stared steadily at Jason. Did he guess? Maybe.
The rest of Jason’s officers, both line and staff. None of them among the Awakened.
The enlisted troops who were Awakened: McNally, Swinford, Ramstetter, Veatch, Larriva, Buckley.
Mason Kandiss, standing impassive with J Squad.
Beside Jason, Toni Steffens sat down on the roof of the FiVee’s cab. She must be exhausted. Her work on the gene drive had been unceasing. But, then, so had Jason’s work.
He braced himself. Everyone was here, 660 people. Time to begin.
“People of Monterey Base,” he said, knowing the term sounded both pompous and faintly comic but unable to think of anything better, “we are all here together because I have two announcements that you all need to hear. They affect everyone, military and civilian alike.”
Someone coughed. It was the only sound. Well, that wouldn’t be true for long.
“Neither announcement will, or can, be reversed, although I know you will have a lot to say about both. Here is the first: Dr. Steffens developed a gene drive to spread sterility among the sparrows that carry RSA. She and her team bred birds carrying that drive, and we have released them into the wild. In thirty to fifty years, by best estimate, the United States will be free of RSA. It will no longer exist here.”
Babble of voices: Done what? Released what? What does he mean? But at least half of the crowd knew enough. Colin shouted, “You can’t!”
Zack McKay started to say something, stopped, stared at Jason as if at a mirage. Voices rose. Jason raised his hand, but no one stopped talking. Over the din—as bad as the birds—Colin’s voice prevailed; he was, in his own way, as used to command as Jason. People quieted to listen.
“Are you insane? You’ve wrecked the entire ecology! Do you know what happened a hundred years ago when the Chinese tried to eradicate sparrows? Insects swarmed out of control because no birds were eating them, the insects ate the crops, twenty million people died of starvation! And now with the ecosystem already so fragile—”
“We haven’t got twenty million people,” Jason said. “There aren’t twenty million people left in the entire country. Look, I know this is a huge meddle with the—”
“It’s irresponsible! It’s criminal!”
All at once, Jason had an image of Colin as a small child during one of their brotherly fights: “Dad! He hitted me! It’s cwimial!” God, the betrayals of memory!
He looked at Colin’s non-childish face and said, “It’s done, Colin. It was a choice between the ecology and the population dying of RSA.”
“But out in the—”
“You have no right to—”
“No idea of—”
“No authority for—”
Half the crowd glared at him; the other half asked bewildered questions of their neighbors. Here and there were a few understanding faces, chief among them Jane’s. She was translating for her father and cousin, but her eyes were on him.
He’d expected this. But he didn’t expect Colin’s next shout, or the sudden pain it gave him. Colin said, “So how are you any different from the Gaiists, taking the fate of the Earth into their own hands?”
Relative silence. Now—he would have to finish this now. He called loudly, “There is more.”
The murmuring and questioning quieted but didn’t stop, and Jason kept his voice raised to just below a shout. Everyone needed to hear this.
“There’s another reason I released the birds. Listen, everyone, this is the larger of my two announcements, and it affects all of you. Our scientists will no longer be able to work on the gene drive, or to create a version that stops RSA without eliminating sparrows. They won’t be able to do that because we will no longer be here. And neither will the domes.”
The crowd stilled as if shot.
This was it. He needed to make it simple enough for the teenage Settlers to understand, convincing enough for the scientists, strong enough to command his army.
“The people coming out of v-comas have increased intelligence. Most of you already know that. They fell into v-comas in the first place because they possess a certain gene. I’m sure most of you have already heard that, too. This gene doesn’t only exist among people at Monterey Base. It’s a human gene, found in both Terrans and those from World. About four and a half percent of all humans possess it—possibly more, because Monterey Base is a small sample size to generalize from. Four and a half percent of all humans, including the New America enemy.”
On some faces, growing comprehension.
“All of us were infected with the virophage from World. Everybody. However, most of us didn’t even notice, or had just a slight headache, and then we got over it, like you do a cold. But those with a special gene who are exposed to the virophage go into comas and come out changed. The virophage activates the gene. After the v-coma, those people are still carriers and can infect others who have the special gene. And after the v-coma, when you awaken, your brain is different. Rewired. More intelligent. And so what you will infect others with is increased intelligence.
“I want to say that again—every single one of the Awakened can infect anyone else who carries the right gene, and the result will be that that person, too, becomes much smarter.