Strong and Courageous Read online

  “Right on time, Colonel,” Hayworth said. “You could almost set a watch by your punctuality.”

  Taylor and Merriweather both sprang up from their chairs and came to attention. David waved them off. “As you were.”

  Both relaxed and returned to their seats, while David pulled up a chair and sat in between them all. He looked over at Hayworth and smirked. “That’s one thing the military does to you, Doctor. You learn to be on time.”

  “Tell that to Eliza,” Hayworth said, drawing a look of ire from Merriweather.

  “That’s Major Merriweather to you if you’re going to talk like that, Doctor.”

  “So, what have we found out?” David interjected. I don’t have time for banter today.

  “Well, sir, we’re in the process of finalizing our search, but I believe we can say with certainty several large installations are newly constructed.”

  “Show me,” David commanded.

  Taylor typed a few commands into his terminal, and a large holoprojection of the surface filled the room. The picture zoomed in to a grouping of long, rectangular buildings that appeared to have a wall around them, with ominous guard towers every one hundred meters. Taylor tapped another button and the perspective changed to a bird’s eye view.

  “As you can see, there are large row houses here that we estimate can house three hundred people in each one. This particular camp has thirty of the row houses, with what appear to be medical facilities, an exercise yard, and other buildings. We assume that they’re for feeding the inmates.”

  “It could just be a normal prison.”

  “I don’t think so, Colonel,” Hayworth said, gesturing to one of the buildings. “We sent down a stealth drone to observe and take readings. These buildings are less than six months old, and multiple camps fit this same general profile. I don’t believe it’s plausible to say they’ve had an increase in felons by that kind of percentage.”

  “It’s strong circumstantial evidence, Doctor. But it’s not overwhelming.”

  “Our last survey just finished,” Merriweather interjected into the conversation. “Have a look.” She tapped a series of buttons on her terminal, and the holoprojection changed to show a three-dimensional view of the ground with a specific section off to the side of the camp, in a cross section that showed what was beneath.

  David stared at it for a moment before he blurted out, “Are those bodies?”

  Merriweather furrowed her eyebrows together. “Yes, sir. I believe we’re looking at a mass grave with at least eight hundred people in it.”

  “Can you tell how they died?” David asked.

  “No, sir. We’d need to exhume the grave to determine that.”

  “Well, they sure as heck didn’t get there by accident,” Taylor said.

  “Agreed, Lieutenant. There’s a part of me that can’t believe, in this day and age, an entire planet would decide to do this and apparently vote for it. But part of me isn’t surprised. People have traded rights for perceived throughout the generations. No different now.”

  “What are we going to do about it, sir?” Taylor asked.

  “Package all this up and put it into a written briefing for me, Lieutenant. I’m going to have a word with the government on Monrovia. We’ll see if they have an explanation. Then I’m going to present our findings back to HQ and General MacIntosh. I will argue for full-scale military intervention.”

  “We’ve also been examining the Monrovian National Guard,” Merriweather piped up. “They’re far behind us, technologically speaking. They have stratofighters and armor corps, but they’re so far out of date compared to our equipment, I would believe our MEU is more than a match.”

  David nodded. “That’s good info, Major. Make sure to put that in the written report; being able to tell the brass we can execute military action with few casualties will help the argument.” He turned toward Hayworth. “Doctor, thank you for taking point on this. The people in these camps are in your debt."

  Hayworth stared straight back at David. “No debt, Colonel. I’m just… doing my job, as you military types would say.”

  David cracked a smile. “Alright, Doctor, then I’ll just say we’re rubbing off on you.”

  Hayworth snorted but didn’t reply further. David scanned the room as he stood. “Thank you all. I’ll look for that report in the next two hours. Carry on.”

  “Yes, sir!” Merriweather crisply replied.

  “Aye, sir!” Taylor said, right after her.

  David nodded and turned toward the door, walking quickly to his next destination, his day cabin on deck one. Let’s see what Prime Minister Fitzroy has to say for herself and her government. I don’t see any way there’s a rational explanation for this, but I’ll give her the courtesy of asking nicely… before I rain hell itself down on her planet.

  8

  “He wants what?” Fitzroy said in an exasperated tone, perched behind her desk in the prime minister’s office.

  “He’s demanding to speak to you about the treatment of religious persons on Monrovia, Madame Prime Minister,” her aide, Sefton said.

  Fitzroy said, her face red with anger, “Well, I guess they got enough to believe those damn traitors. Okay, put him through in five minutes. We’ll make the man wait so he can remember who he’s talking to.”

  During the five-minute period she had specified, she took the time to go over what she would say if confronted about the rebels. It’s none of their business how we run our planet; it’s our planet, after all. The sanctimonious Terran Coalition has some gall, trying to tell us and the rest of the neutral worlds how to handle our affairs. The League is a better reflection of what our people believe. I hope we can play nice long enough to get this troublesome colonel on his way.

  David’s image appearing on the monitor in front of her snapped Fitzroy out of her thoughts. “Colonel Cohen, what can I do for you?” she asked with a forced smile.

  “You can start by telling me why you’re detaining large amounts of your population in prison camps with mass graves in them, Madame Prime Minister,” David said without preamble, his brow furrowed and face red.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Colonel Cohen. Flinging accusations about like that is not the way for the Terran Coalition to demonstrate its friendship with Monrovia. I suggest you change your attitude, or you will no longer be welcome in orbit of our planet.”

  “I’ve got proof, Prime Minister. We have imaging of the prisons, eyewitness accounts, and ground-penetrating imagery of the mass graves.”

  Damn, they must have gotten more of the message than I thought. “The word of traitors that want to stoke conflict between our countries, against its elected government… surely, Colonel, you can’t think that…” Fitzroy began before David cut her off.

  “Madam Prime Minister, stow it. The science department on board the Lion of Judah took those images. We know, and very soon, the citizens of your planet, as well as the entire Terran Coalition will know, and the rest of the galaxy… exactly what you’ve done.”

  Rage built inside of Fitzroy as she watched David. This smug, useless piece of crap telling me what he’ll do to my planet? Who the hell does he think he is? “And they’ll do what exactly, Colonel?”

  “I would hope to remove you from office and put you on trial for crimes against humanity, for starters.”

  Fitzroy, in spite of herself, laughed into the vidlink. “We voted on the course of action taken, Colonel Cohen. The vote was nearly seventy-five percent to twenty-five. That’s what I would call a super-majority. We asked the Terran Coalition to take in those on Monrovia that don’t share the same views as the vast masses of citizens regarding religion. I don’t see you offering up that solution.”

  Fitzroy could almost feel David’s eyes boring into her as he spoke again. “Prime Minister, I’m aware that our government was approached about taking in refugees of various religions from Monrovia. At no time were we told the reason you wanted to be rid of them was to perform what
amounts to ethnic cleansing of all people of faith on your planet!”

  “I don’t care what you think about us, Colonel. Do you have anything else, or do you want to rant and rave some more?” Fitzroy said, forcing a fake smile back onto her face.

  “No, Prime Minister… I don’t have anything else for now. But I’ll be back. I promise you that, and when I do, you’ll regret the day you were born,” David said. As soon as he finished, the screen abruptly went blank.

  The doors to her office swung inward, and Attwood walked in. “Colleen, what do you think you’re doing?” he practically shouted.

  “Oh, shut up, Marty.”

  “Don’t tell me to shut up. I just found out the Coalition Defense Force knows about our camps; they also seem to know about the mass graves!”

  “Word travels fast, I see.”

  “Are you not fazed by this at all?”

  “No. They’re a paper tiger. Colonel Cohen just finished yelling at me. He’ll go back and complain to his superiors, and that they’ll tell him to be a good little boy and go on the next mission. Stop freaking out.”

  “This isn’t going to end well, Prime Minister. It’s not going to end well at all,” Attwood said.

  “Well, for all our sakes, I hope and believe that you’re wrong. We’d better move up the timetable for re-education. I want a directive sent out to the paramilitary forces to hurry up. Anyone who won’t comply should begin to receive enhanced education.”

  “You mean we should torture them?” Attwood said, calling out the euphuism embedded in the term “enhanced education.”

  “I don’t care what we call it, Marty. We have to get it done. I don’t like that we had to do this to our citizens, but we’ve been trying the carrot for years. Now they feel the stick. Clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Attwood grated out.

  “Good. Get on it… I need to get with the League’s ambassador. There’s going to be complications from this activity.”

  Attwood nodded. “I’ll update you later.” He turned around and walked out of the room. Fitzroy stared at the door, considering the events of the past few minutes. Everything will end up okay, she thought. At the end of the day, people take care of themselves, even the Terran Coalition. That will win out over everything else.

  Simultaneously on the bridge of the Lion of Judah, David abruptly stood up from the CO’s chair, his face bright red as he wore a decidedly angry expression. “XO, you have the conn.”

  “Yes, sir, I have the conn,” Aibek said.

  “I’ll be in my day cabin. Lieutenant Taylor, get me General MacIntosh on a gold priority channel, and patch him through.”

  Taylor peered over his console at David. “Sir, it’s two A.M. on Canaan currently.”

  “I’m well aware of the time on Canaan, Lieutenant. Wake him up,” David snapped.

  “Yes, sir, right away.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.” David quickly turned on his heel and strode out off the bridge, removing his cover as he crossed the threshold to the passageway directly behind the bulkhead. It only took him fifteen steps to get to his day cabin, the computer automatically turning on the lights.

  David sat down behind his desk and leaned back in the chair. Emotion cannot be allowed to interfere with decision-making. But he couldn’t help the fact that the entire situation made him furious. After all this time, after all the progress they’d made as a species, the idea that a group of humans—who had a democratically elected government—would choose to imprison and kill people because they didn’t like what they believed? It’s things like this, he reflected, that make me wonder if the human race has evolved at all.

  “Colonel, I’ve got General MacIntosh on the vidlink for you, sir,” Taylor’s voice said from the ship’s intercom system.

  “Very well, Lieutenant. Put him through to my tablet.”

  “Yes, sir, wait one.”

  David picked up the tablet off his desk and scanned his fingerprint. The screen turned on, and the vidlink engaged, with the decidedly unhappy face of General MacIntosh filling the device.

  “Colonel, please tell me you have an excellent reason for waking me up at this hour.”

  “I apologize for the late call, General. We’ve hit a serious roadblock with the Monrovians.”

  “I wasn’t expecting you to get them back on our side in one trip, Colonel.”

  “No, sir, but it’s far worse than we thought. We’ve learned from a group of political dissidents on the planet that the government is engaging in the systematic imprisonment, re-education, and extermination of all people of faith.”

  MacIntosh sat back in his chair and squeezed his eyes open and closed several times. “I may be half asleep, but I think you just told me that a neutral planet is perpetrating a modern-day holocaust. If that’s what you said, do we have proof?”

  “Yes, sir, we do. Doctor Hayworth was able to configure our scientific sensors to map the planet. We located and mapped several large camps and have ground-penetrating images of mass graves containing thousands of bodies,” David answered.

  MacIntosh’s jaw fell open. “You got Hayworth to do that of his own accord?”

  “Yes, sir. He wanted to run the team.”

  “Miracles never cease to happen,” MacIntosh said with a wry smirk on his face. “Okay, we’ll pass this on to the department of state. Get our diplomatic team engaged and see if we can’t move the needle.”

  David pursed his lips together, fighting down anger. “With respect, sir, I already spoke to the prime minister.”

  “You what, Colonel?” MacIntosh barked.

  “I spoke with the prime minister, sir. She acknowledged the camps, indicated that a supermajority of citizens voted to join the League, and she has no intention of stopping the practice.”

  “You exceeded your authority, Colonel. Good Lord, are you trying to start another war?”

  “Sir...” David stammered, realizing he was talking to his superior officer and a four-star general. Oh, what the heck; go for it, David. “With respect, sir, we can’t just stand by and let them murder God knows how many innocent people. We have a duty to intervene.”

  “Well, where does that end, Colonel? If we don’t like that a neutral planet has permissive laws regarding drug use, should we invade them too? Maybe we should invade Monrovia, convert them to Christianity, and plant our flag on the capital building.”

  “Sir, that’s crazy. I’m suggesting we act to stop genocide. I don’t care what the rest of their population does or doesn’t do.”

  “I believe you, Colonel. But right now, we’re in a precarious situation. Our military power is only strong thanks to our alliance with the Saurians. If the neutral planets turn against us, especially a group of them at the same time, we’ll have enemies in our backyard. It’s the policy of the Terran Coalition that we do not interfere in the government of other planets. That’s been our policy for several generations. We’re not the galaxy’s policemen.”

  “If you were walking down the street and saw muggers attacking an old woman, would you step in to stop it?” David asked harshly.

  “This isn’t about you and me; it’s about the policy of our government. We don’t get to set that policy, Colonel. We execute it. And if you’ve never had to carry out an order you didn’t agree with, then you probably lack an internal moral code.”

  “I can’t believe that with your personal connection to President Spencer, you can’t get him to see what’s going on here. He’s a good man; he’d want to help.”

  “You’re probably right, but he has the well-being of two hundred billion people to worry about.”

  “So who cares about a few million that aren’t even our citizens?” David said, his voice dripping acid.

  “That’s out of line, Colonel. Remember who you’re talking to.”

  “Permission to speak freely then, sir.”

  “Granted.”

  “You’re not the man I thought you were if you can stand aside while people are s
laughtered for no other reason than what they believe. We’re in a war to defend our right to believe. We cannot pass by and ignore this. We blather on and on about how we’re on God’s side, and we do what’s right, how we’re better than the League because here freedom matters. Monrovia is so out of date technology-wise, our MEU could take the planet in a week! There’s no reason not to help except we don’t care.”

  MacIntosh bit his lip. “I’m going to choose to ignore that statement, Colonel, as I understand you’re having an emotional response. Look, I want to help these people. I agree with you, but I can’t commit the Coalition Defense Force to war without executive and legislative branch approval. You’re talking about a declaration of war… that’s not something we do lightly.”

  “No, it’s not, and war isn’t something we should ever do lightly. But when people are dying by the thousands, we cannot stand aside. If Monrovia had some mineral we needed, like lithium for our starships, you can bet your bottom credit the politicians would jump all over it. Getting involved is the right call, and if we’re not the galaxy’s policeman, who is then, sir? Because it needs one.”

  MacIntosh was silent for a moment and sat back in his chair. “You’ve got a point, Colonel.”

  “Then do something, sir. Don’t we have any favors that can be called in with the private military corporations?”

  “You know how much I hate those contractors playing war.”

  “Didn’t say I liked them, sir. But even one of those outfits could wipe the floor of the Monrovian National Guard.”

  “Have you been asked to leave orbit yet?” MacIntosh asked.

  “In as many words.”