“These wildcat colonies aren’t actually unofficial at all, then,” Sorvalh said. “And we’re back to the question of whether they are truly that stupid.”
“It’s a fine question, but one that is tangential to my real concern,” Gau said.
Sorvalh waggled the sheet in her hand. “You’re worried that Hado and his friends will find out about these.”
“Precisely,” Gau said, and pointed at the sheet again. “That’s the only written-out list, and it’s written out only once to avoid it slipping out easily into the universe. But I am not stupid, nor do I believe my intelligence gatherers talk only to me. Hado and his compatriots will find out. And if they find out and if these colonies really do have Colonial Defense Forces members within them, then we have no choice but to remove the colony. If the colony won’t be moved, we’ll have to destroy it.”
“And if we destroy it, we’ll be at war with the Colonial Union,” Sorvalh said.
“Or something close enough to it,” Gau said. “The humans know they are in a bad position, Hafte. They are dangerous animals on the best of days. Poking at them right now is going to go poorly for everyone involved. I want this problem solved privately before it becomes a public problem.”
Sorvalh smiled. “I imagine this is where I come in.”
“I’ve opened up a back channel to the Colonial Union,” Gau said.
“And how did you do that?” Sorvalh asked.
“Me to our envoy in Washington, D.C.,” Gau said. “Him to John Perry. John Perry to a friend of his in the CDF Special Forces. And so on up the chain of command, and back down again.”
Sorvalh gave a motion of assent. “And my job is to meet with the back channel.”
“Yes,” Gau said. “In this case it will be someone of lower rank than you-apologies for that, the humans are twitchy.” Sorvalh offered up a hand expression signaling acceptance and lack of concern. “It’s a Colonel Abel Rigney. He’s not of especially high rank, but he is very well placed to get things done.”
“You want me to show him this list and let him know we know about the CDF soldiers,” Sorvalh said.
“What I want you to do is scare him,” Gau said. “In your own special way.”
“Why, General,” Sorvalh said, and gave the appearance once more of being shocked. “I have no idea what you mean.”
General Gau smiled at this.
“Well, he was certainly a tall fellow, wasn’t he?” Sorvalh said, looking up at the statue in the Lincoln Memorial.
“Tall for a human, yes,” Colonel Rigney said. “And especially tall for his time. Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States well before humans made it out into the universe. Not everyone had good nutrition then. People tended to be shorter. So he would have stood out. Among your people, Councillor Sorvalh, he’d be considered something of a runt.”
“Ah,” Sorvalh said. “Well, we are generally considered tall for most intelligent races we know of. But surely there might be some humans as tall as a Lalan.”
“We have basketball players,” Rigney said. “They are very tall for humans. The tallest of them might be as tall as the shortest of you.”
“Interesting,” Sorvalh said, and kept looking at Lincoln.
“Is there someplace you would like to go to talk, Councillor?” Rigney asked, after allowing Sorvalh her moment of contemplation.
Sorvalh turned to the human and smiled at him. “I do apologize, Colonel. I realize you are indulging me by meeting me here at a tourist attraction.”
“Not at all,” Rigney said. “In fact, I’m glad you did. Before I left Earth I lived in this area. You’re giving me an excuse to visit old haunts.”
“How wonderful,” Sorvalh said. “Have you seen any of your family and friends while you’re here?”
Rigney shook his head. “My wife passed on before I left Earth, and we never had children,” he said. “My friends would all be in their eighties or nineties now, which is old for humans, so they’re mostly dead, and I don’t think the ones that are living would be too pleased to see me bounding in, looking like I was twenty-three years old.”
“I can see how that might be a problem,” Sorvalh said.
Rigney pointed at Lincoln. “He looks the same as when I left.”
“I would hope so!” Sorvalh said. “Colonel, would you mind walking as we talk? I walked down the Mall before I got here and I passed someone selling something called ‘churros.’ I should like to experiment with human cuisine, I think.”
“Oh, churros,” Rigney said. “Good choice. By all means, Councillor.”
They walked down the stairs of the Lincoln Monument and toward the Mall, Sorvalh walking slowly so as to keep Rigney from having to jog to keep up. Sorvalh noticed other humans looking curiously at her; aliens on Earth were still a rarity, but not so rare now in Washington, D.C., that the people there would not attempt nonchalance. They stared equally at the green human next to her, she noted.
“Thank you for meeting me,” Sorvalh said to Rigney.
“I was delighted to,” Rigney said. “You gave me an excuse to visit Earth again. That’s a rare thing for a CDF member.”
“It’s convenient how the Earth has become a neutral ground to both of our governments,” Sorvalh said.
Rigney winced at this. “Yes, well,” he said. “Officially I am not allowed to be pleased by that particular development.”
“I understand entirely,” Sorvalh said. “Now then, Colonel. To business.” She reached into the folds of her gown and produced the manuscript and handed it to Rigney.
He took it and looked at it curiously. “I’m afraid I can’t read this,” he said, after a moment.
“Come now, Colonel,” Sorvalh said. “I know perfectly well that you have one of those computers in your head, just like every other Colonial Defense Forces member. What is the ridiculous name you call them?”
“A BrainPal,” Rigney said.
“Yes, that,” Sorvalh said. “So I am confident that not only have you already recorded the entire content of that paper into the computer, it has also rendered you a translation.”
“All right,” Rigney said.
“We aren’t going to get anywhere, Colonel, if you are going to insist on fighting me on even the simplest of things,” Sorvalh said. “We would not have opened up this back channel if it were not absolutely necessary. Please do me the courtesy of presuming I am not on my first mission of diplomacy.”
“My apologies, Councillor,” Rigney said, and handed back the document. “I’m in the habit of not revealing everything. Let’s just say my automatic reflexes kicked in.”
“Very well,” Sorvalh said, took the manuscript and then placed it back into the folds of her gown. “Now that you’ve undoubtedly had time to scan the translation, you can tell me what was written on the document.”
“It was a list of uninhabited planets,” Rigney said.
“I question that modifier, Colonel,” Sorvalh said.
“Officially speaking, I have no idea what you are talking about,” Rigney said. “Unofficially, I would be very interested in knowing how you developed that list.”
“I am afraid I must keep that a secret,” Sorvalh said. “And not just because I was never told. But I assume now we can dispense with the polite fiction that there are not, in fact, ten human colonies where they should not be.”
“Those aren’t sanctioned colonies,” Rigney said. “They’re wildcats. We can’t stop people from paying spaceship captains to take them to a planet and drop them there without our permission.”
“You could, I am certain,” Sorvalh said. “But that’s not the issue at the moment.”
“Does the Conclave blame the Colonial Union for the existence of these wildcat colonies?” Rigney asked.
“We question that they are wildcat colonies at all, Colonel,” Sorvalh said. “As wildcat colonies typically do not have Colonial Defense Forces soldiers in their mix of colonists.”
Rigney had nothing to say to this. Sorvalh waited a few moments to see if this would change, and then continued. “Colonel Rigney, surely you understand that if we had wanted to vaporize these colonies, we would have done it by now,” she said.