Free The End of All Things #2: This Hollow Union by John Scalzi

said. “Mr. Daquin, who did this to you?”
    “Put my brain in a box? That would be the group calling itself Equilibrium, Ms. Lowen,” Daquin said.
    “Why did they do it?” Tarsem asked.
    “Partly to trim down the number of working parts they needed to run the ship,” Daquin said. “Partly to make sure I stayed in their control. They assumed that I would do anything they wanted if they promised to give me back my body.”
    “Why didn’t you?” Tarsem asked.
    “Because I figured that they didn’t have any intention of ever giving it back.”
    “But the Colonial Union could give you another body,” Hado said. “They haven’t. They’re using you like this Equilibrium group had.”
    “They’re growing me a new body as we speak,” Daquin said. “It’ll be ready soon. But Harry here asked me if I wouldn’t mind being a part of the Chandler ’s crew for a bit, especially for trips like these, where people might need convincing that Equilibrium is a thing and not just a convenient cover story for the Colonial Union.”
    “If this is real,” Hado said.
    “Get some scientists over here to test me if you like,” Daquin said. “I like company.”
    “It still doesn’t prove anything,” Hado said, turning to Tarsem. “We’re being asked to believe this unfortunate creature isn’t being coerced into saying these reports are his. We can’t believe that someone in his position can be expected to say anything but what his captors want him to.”
    “Captors,” Daquin said, and the derision was hard to miss. “Seriously, who is this guy?”
    “Representative Hado has a point,” I said. “You’re a brain in a box, Mr. Daquin. We have no assurance that you aren’t being used.”
    “Do you want to tell them, Harry, or should I?” Daquin asked.
    “For obvious reasons, you should,” Harry said.
    “General Gau, Councilor Sorvalh, you’re aware that your director of intelligence tried to hack into the Chandler ’s systems when we arrived, yes?” Daquin asked.
    “We, we knew that,” I said.
    “Of course you did. You know what Director Oi found, right?”
    “Oi said it was a picture of someone showing their posterior.”
    “Yup, that’s called ‘mooning,’” Daquin said. “I did that, Councilor. Not the mooning, for obvious reasons. But I put the picture where Director Oi would find it. I did that because I don’t only pilot this ship, I am this ship. It is entirely and completely under my control. The Chandler has crew and they run operations—you can ask Captain Balla if you like, to confirm this—but ultimately they have only as much control over the ship as I allow them. Because this ship is me. And I choose to help. Without my cooperation, the only way the Colonial Union can control this ship is to destroy it. And I’d destroy it myself before that could happen.”
    “You still need sustenance, I assume,” Tarsem said. “Your ship still needs energy. You have to rely on the Colonial Union for that.”
    “Do I?” Daquin said. “General, if I were to ask you for asylum right now, would you give it to me?”
    “Yes,” Tarsem said.
    “And I assume you wouldn’t let me starve.”
    “No,”
    “Then you’ve just invalidated your own assertion.”
    “But you still need the Colonial Union to get your body back,” Lowen said.
    “To grow a new one, you mean.”
    “Yes.”
    “Ms. Lowen, there’s a door to your left. When the ship was built, it was the captain’s ready room. Go ahead and open it.”
    Lowen found the door and opened it. “Oh my god,” she said. She opened the door fully so the rest of us could see.
    Inside was a container with a human body in it.
    “That’s me,” Daquin said. “Or will be me, anyway, once it’s done growing and once I decide to put myself into it. Representative Hado, you can have your scientists check its DNA against the DNA in my brain here. It checks out. But the point is that no, the Colonial Union isn’t holding my body hostage.