“Look, it’s not safe, okay?” I blurted out without meaning to. “I have to eat this stupid powder and then I roll a die, and if I don’t get a four or better, something bad happens.”
“What kind of something bad?”
“The death kind,” I admitted. Before she could say anything else, I cut her off. “It’s only a fifteen percent chance, and I haven’t used it except when there was no other way. I’m not being reckless or anything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded.
“Because I didn’t want you to worry,” I said, “and because I was afraid you would do it yourself.”
“Oh, Zeke,” she said, throwing her arms around me. “Every time I think I know how stupid you are, you find a way to surprise me.”
There were some things in our future—some terrible, dangerous things—that I did not want to think about, but knowing Tamret was on my side somehow made it all easier. No matter what was going on with her, she cared about me.
I broke away from her hug. I didn’t know how much time I had to spare, but this was important. “What is going on with you, Tamret?”
She shook her head. “I can’t stay on Earth, and I just didn’t want to, I don’t know, get too comfortable.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m the one who’s stupid? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Why plan for something you can’t control? When all of this is over, maybe you’ll want to stay on Earth.”
“But Ardov said—”
“You’re getting life coaching from Ardov?”
“Not anymore, since he was eaten by a sea monster, but he said that he’d spent time with the beings on Earth, and they would always hate me for being different. And they would hate you for being my friend. The humans are going to be suspicious of aliens after the invasion, and it’s one thing for me to be treated badly, but you’re going to have responsibilities once Earth joins the Confederation. You won’t be able to do that if everyone on your planet hates you. If I stayed, you’d have to choose between me and your own world.”
“And this is what Ardov said?”
“He said it, but I already suspected it.”
“Why not ask me what I think? I maybe know more about Earth than either of you.”
“Because you always want to see the best in beings, and Ardov might have been unpleasant, but he wasn’t easily fooled.”
I took her hand. The whole reason she didn’t want to come to Earth was because she thought it would make my life difficult. “Let’s not make any decisions, okay? Let’s just see what happens, and we’ll make decisions when we have to.”
She nodded.
There was more to say, especially about the powder, but that could wait until later. The main thing was that Tamret and I had cleared the air, and, suddenly, doing an incredibly stupid thing because we had no choice didn’t seem so bad after all.
• • •
The conversation with Dr. Roop and Captain Qwlessl was an uncomfortable one. They were both tired of running, and they didn’t want to believe what I had to say at first. They knew, however, that I would not make something like this up, and after a couple of convincing demonstrations of the lie detector, they had to admit, however reluctantly, that I was telling the truth.
“How do you want us to cover for you?” Captain Qwlessl asked.
“Whatever you think works best,” I said. “You don’t want them to suspect you. Ghli Wixxix doesn’t really know me, and since she’s in Junup’s camp, she’s probably inclined to think the worst of me. You can keep telling her that I am full of myself and need to be a hero. That will go along with your concerns from the meeting.”
“Zeke,” Dr. Roop began.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “You didn’t know what I was up to, and I’m sure it looked rude. The main thing is that you anticipate what she’s up to and find a way to control what the public knows.”
He nodded. “How trustworthy are these Phandic renegades?”
“I think they’re sincere,” I said, “but they’re strange. I don’t have any doubt that they really mean to destroy Confederation Central if my plan doesn’t work.”
“Then it had better work.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not going to use that powder again, I hope.”
“I may have no choice,” I told him. There was no way I was going to get through this without using the powder and the die. “It’s the most powerful advantage we’ve got.”
“I understand,” he said, “but make sure you have exhausted all other options.”
“I will. I’m in no hurry to get a bad throw.”
My data bracelet pinged. Steve was letting me know that he had monkeyed with the engines and we were ready to emerge from tunnel. “I better get out of here,” I told Dr. Roop. “You don’t want to be seen near me when all of this goes down. They might suspect you’ve been helping us.”
“We can’t have that.” He nodded. Then he and Captain Qwlessl gave me hugs.
“At some point, things are going to get back to normal, and then you’re going to love life in the Confederation,” Captain Qwlessl said.
“This is normal for me,” I told her. “Maybe normal will seem boring, but I’m willing to find out.”
Tamret and I left the room and headed to the shuttle bay. When we arrived, Steve used his bracelet to remotely trigger whatever nasty sabotage he had cooked up. At first nothing changed, and I thought perhaps he had failed, but then there was that odd sensation of dropping out of tunnel. Alarms began flashing, which was natural for something like this. Captain Qwlessl would be going through the standard operating procedure for an unplanned tunnel exit. No doubt the director would review the logs, and she would want to make sure everything looked the way it was supposed to.
We boarded the shuttle. Tamret took the navigation controls and hacked into the ship’s computer to seal the bay from the ship; then she began the process of opening the exterior doors. Meanwhile, I conveyed the coordinates of the renegade base to Steve, who was preparing the tunnel aperture in advance.
Tamret got the plasma field down, and we were on our way. Steve flew evasively, just in case. Captain Qwlessl would raise no suspicions by not wanting to fire at us, but who knew what kind of authority the director might have. I wanted us to be well away before she tried to exercise any of it.
There were several attempts to contact us. Captain Qwlessl was clearly going through the motions to cover her own tracks. We ignored these, and the moment we had our tunnel aperture opened, we were gone.
It would take about eleven hours to get to the renegade base. We would reach our destination around the same time the ship arrived at Confederation Central. We had no way of knowing what was in store for them, and they would be clueless about what we were up to. There were countless things that could now go wrong, and I was expecting to have to deal with every one of them.
• • •
Our return to the renegade outpost was uneventful. They hadn’t given me any instructions on how to enter the cloaked compound, but I figured I didn’t need them. I had the location still recorded on my bracelet, so we flew in low and broadcasted a message announcing who I was. I received a response telling me where to land.
They created a momentary opening in their cloaking shields, and we flew in, while the humans among us gaped at the Old West look of the settlement. We landed next to a few other short-range vessels, which were about the only high-tech things in sight. Otherwise it was all cowboys and nerfs.
By the time we emerged, Convex Icosahedron, Adiul-ip, and a small band of armed guards had shown up to meet us. I took no offense at their precautions. They had no idea why we were there or if we were who we claimed.
I made introductions all around, and if all my friends seemed a little on edge, it was only because we were surrounded by Phands and a guy with a geometric shape for a head and no face. Colors swirled over Convex Icosahedron’s flat surfaces and sharp
angles as he seemed to regard us.
“As you are here,” he said, “I presume your mission to rescue Ghli Wixxix failed, Zeke Reynolds.”
“No, the prisoners were rescued,” I said, omitting the fact that we hadn’t had anything to do with the rescue. The more competent he thought us, the better. “And everything went pretty smoothly on Planet Pleasant. The problem is that your Lasso of Truth gave away Ghli Wixxix’s secret—that she’s working with Junup.” I couldn’t be bothered to include his name at the end of every sentence. I hoped this counted as a strategy session so I wouldn’t be given a hard time.
The colors of Convex Icosahedron’s head shifted more rapidly, which I’d come to think of as something like a nod. “I thought that device might come in handy, Zeke Reynolds.”
“If Ghli Wixxix cannot be depended on to restore order to the Confederation,” Adiul-ip said, “then we’ll have to return to the original plan.”
“I have a better idea,” I said. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. And, hey, we’re talking strategy, right? We can drop the names, can’t we?”
“A reasonable observation,” Convex Icosahedron said, mercifully not using my name. “Let us continue our conversation, but you and Villainic only, Zeke Reynolds. Your associates can await our decision.”
“Not acceptable,” I said. “They’re in on all of this.”
“That may be, but I cannot have cacophony in a meeting of such import. Only the two of you, Zeke Reynolds.”
Steve shrugged. “It’s your plan, mate,” he said. “It’s up to you to sell it. Though why . . . ?” He jabbed a thumb at Villainic.
I shook my head. “They like him, for some reason, but I don’t like the idea of anyone being boxed out.” I turned to Convex Icosahedron. “We’re a team. Anything we discuss, they need to hear themselves.”
Convex Icosahedron appeared to consider this. “As it should be,” he said, as though he hadn’t proposed separating us in the first place.
We followed the renegades to the building where we’d had our previous strategy meeting. It took a few minutes to gather all the chief advisors, including Colonel Rage, and when he came in, he created a bit of a stir.
“Uh, what?” Alice said when she saw him.
“What’s he doing here?” Mi Sun demanded.
I’d had a lot on my mind, so I’d maybe forgotten to mention that the human who had betrayed us back at the Hidden Fortress was now working with the Phandic renegades, and that he was basically trustworthy—as long as he didn’t think betraying us again was in Earth’s best interests.
“We can trust him, mostly,” I said, wearily. Honestly, I didn’t have the strength to go over the details. “Enemy of our enemy and all that.”
To his credit, Colonel Rage did his best to mend fences, apologizing to everyone and explaining that then, as now, his priority was the protection of Earth. “The fact is,” he said, “I’ve learned that you kids may be better judges of these alien creatures than I am. Maybe it’s your youth. I don’t know.” He rubbed at his eye patch like it irritated him. “If you have something to say that can help us get those monsters off our planet, I’ll be happy to listen.”
“Nice speech, geezer,” Steve said. “Don’t cross us again.”
“I clearly missed out on some excitement,” Nayana said.
“Now that we have that out of the way,” the colonel said, “I understand you have new information and a new plan.”
I’d lost track of how many times I’d been in desperate situations, life-or-death conflicts in which I’d felt like everything was on the line. I’d been terrified each time, but there was always something that needed doing, maybe a dozen things. I could be scared, but because I had to act, I could put that fear aside. Now here I was, trying to convince these adults that they should drop their plan and follow mine. I needed to convince them that I was right or Confederation Central would be destroyed.
I took a deep breath, reminded myself to speak clearly and decisively, and began.
“You have come up with a way to win this conflict,” I said. “You want to put an end to the Phandic Empire. We have the same goal, but we’ve come up with a different way to do that. We think it’s a better way because it preserves Confederation Central. It saves a great city full of millions of beings, a wonder from the time of the Formers. We think the place, and the beings, are worth saving if we can.”
I then went into the details. I told them how we would use their portal to Earth and destroy the Phandic occupation there, gaining access to their computers, which would provide irrefutable evidence of Junup’s complicity. Our allies on Confederation Central, meanwhile, would expose both Junup and Ghli Wixxix.
“Not only can we accomplish our goals without having to sacrifice innocent lives,” I concluded, “but we show the galaxy that the Phands can be overthrown. We break the alliance with Junup and we humiliate the Phands by taking away a conquered planet.”
I struggled to find some clever way to finish, something like This combination is a winning combination, but everything that popped into my head either sounded stupid or like an ad for candy. Instead, having made my point, I sat down.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I suppose I imagined everyone at the table leaping up and cheering. Perhaps there might be a chant of Zeke! Zeke! Zeke! This was, admittedly, unrealistic, but I still thought it was a good speech and deserved some kind of acknowledgement.
Instead I got nothing. On Earth we would have heard crickets; here there was only a low, distant humming sound made by carnivorous plants.
• • •
“I do not believe you are bringing us anything new,” said Convex Icosahedron, finally breaking the endless silence. “We spoke of the idea of fomenting rebellion, and that we rejected it because the numbers didn’t support a successful outcome as confidently as the destruction of Confederation Central. What you report, that Ghli Wixxix is in league with Junup, only goes to prove that the corruption is further spread than we feared. I suspect a new analysis of the data will make the liberation of a planet seem even weaker by comparison.”
“Weren’t you listening?” Tamret demanded. “This plan breaks the Phandic Empire but saves millions of lives.”
“I have already explained to Zeke that those lives are merely statistical noise. They are meaningless in the broad sweep of history.”
“I do not believe the beings living them would agree with you,” Charles said.
“Do your friends still have access to the Former military tech skills?” Convex Icosahedron asked.
I shook my head. “Just me,” I said. Sometimes. Only Tamret knew about the system with the powder and the die, and I decided to gloss over the details for now. I didn’t want the rest of them volunteering to take that kind of risk.
Convex Icosahedron appeared to think about this. At the very least, colors moved thoughtfully across his head. “Tell me,” he said at last. “Did you speak of the plan to destroy Confederation Central to any of your allies?”
Since he was the one who had given me the lie-detecting technology, I had to assume he would know if I told the truth or not. “I told Dr. Roop. I totally trust him.”
“Regardless, he is not going to want his city to be destroyed. That means our window to act is closing. We should launch the offensive at once.” He turned to one of the Phands. “Alert fleet command to deploy the—”
“Come on!” I stood up. I knew that as a grand strategy, interruption would only get me so far, but I was not willing to let them steamroll me. I could not accept that instead of coming with a plan to save Confederation Central, I’d just sped up the timeline for its destruction. “You can’t really believe that this is the right move. Saving Earth not only weakens the bad guys and exposes Junup, but it keeps beings from being killed. How is that not the better choice?”
Convex Icosahedron needed to think about this for a moment. “You are very spirited, and I admire that, but with your plan there is a chance that we will expo
se ourselves and gain nothing. We shall proceed with our plan. I will promise you that once we have destroyed Confederation Central, we will make the liberation of Earth our next priority. I can guarantee you that your world will be saved.”
Colonel Rage nodded. “You can’t ask for much more than that.”
“I kind of can,” I said, slowly returning to my seat. “I get that you want to make sure you win—that makes sense to me—but at a certain point, you have to accept that you are fighting for something, not just looking to beat the other guy.”
“You seem to have little respect for plans you did not devise yourself,” Convex Icosahedron said.
“Everyone keeps saying that I need to be at the center of things,” I answered with a sigh. “I really don’t. I’ll sit the mission out if it means accomplishing the goal.”
“Our only goal is to break the grip of the empress,” Adiul-ip said.
“But at what cost?” Nayana said.
Everyone stared at her, and she suddenly appeared very self-conscious. “Yes, for those who don’t know me, I am Nayana Gehlawat, and I am significantly more intelligent than Zeke. And most importantly, I am a strategist.”
“Tell us some more about yourself,” Tamret mumbled.
“The point,” Nayana responded, “is not how intelligent I am. The point is that, in spite of his limitations, Zeke has struck at the heart of this matter. I understand you depend heavily on your projections of how your actions will affect the future, but I wonder if you have projected the ramifications of the example of the destruction of Confederation Central. Will future generations, when they encounter a potential threat, choose to destroy rather than talk or negotiate because they have learned from the example of the past? Will you, in your desire to sweep the board clear of your enemies, establish a new pattern of bloodshed? Are you, in other words, exchanging one reign of terror for another?”
Nayana’s speech, like mine, was met with silence, but this time the quiet felt thoughtful, contemplative, as though they were thinking about what she’d said.
“I think she makes a valid point,” Villainic said at last.