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

It’s not holding me hostage. It’s not coercing me. Now, you can still believe it or not, but at this point, if you don’t believe me, it’s not because we haven’t made an effort to make it easy for you to believe.”
    “Mr. Daquin,” I said.
    “Yes, Councilor Sorvalh.”
    “You were the one piloting during the rescue of the diplomats.”
    “Yes, I was,” Daquin said. “We have two other pilots, but I was the one at the helm for that.”
    “I know a pilot who called it an amazing piece of piloting, and wants to buy you several drinks to commemorate it.”
    “Tell your pilot friend I accept, in theory,” Daquin said. “The actual drinking part will have to wait.”
    *   *   *
    “Are you happy?” I asked Tarsem, when he and I were again alone in his office.
    “Happy?” he said. “What an odd question.”
    “I mean did everything you plan for the day happen.”
    “All I planned for was to have Abumwe give her speech, and that wasn’t even my plan,” Tarsem said. “That was yours. So I suppose I should ask you if you’re happy.”
    “Not yet,” I said.
    “Why not?” Tarsem said. “Abumwe’s speech entirely disrupted the momentum Unli Hado and his partisans had in pushing a no confidence vote. The fact I assured Hado and Sca that I don’t consider them traitors doesn’t mean their reputations aren’t irretrievably destroyed. Even if they stay on as representatives.”
    “I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy seeing Hado get crushed today,” I said. “That vainglorious martinet deserved the thumping. But now we have the somewhat larger problem that both the Elpri and the Eyr have been smeared with the accusation of, if not treason, then treachery of the worst sort. And you know they’re not going to be the only nations who harbor members of this Equilibrium group. Vnac is sifting through the data right now.”
    “You’re worried about what’s going to come out in the sifting.”
    “No,” I said. “I’m worried that you’re going to get accused of using it to start picking off political opponents, including entire nations. As much as I liked seeing Hado shut down, it didn’t help that the Elpri, of all people, are one of the two peoples called out by name in Abumwe’s report. No matter if Vnac clears her entire report—no matter if all of it is unimpeachably true—there will still be those who will see it only as a chance for you to settle scores at a moment when you were vulnerable.”
    “You ordered Oi to release the data to avoid that.”
    “I ordered it to release the data so it didn’t look like you were colluding with the Colonial Union,” I said. “That problem is solved. The other problem remains.”
    “What do you suggest?”
    “I think you need to address this directly and personally and on the floor of the Grand Assembly.”
    “And what would you have me say there?”
    “What you said to Hado and Sca,” I said. “Only writ larger. Encompassing nations, not diplomats.”
    “We’re going to find traitors,” Tarsem said.
    “Yes, but they are people. Individuals.”
    “Individuals who might be able to persuade their governments to leave the Conclave.”
    “All the more reason to make it clear that the actions of a misguided few don’t reflect on the people as a whole.”
    “You think this will work.”
    “I think it’s better than encouraging our members to start accusing each other of undermining the Conclave. That road goes nowhere we want to go.”
    “How committed are you to this idea?” Tarsem asked. “Presuming the Colonial Union isn’t running a long con on us, which is a thing you’ve begged me to consider and so I shall, it’s possible that entire member state governments are working to end the Conclave. We’ve had attempts before. We’d be allowing them to get away with it.”
    “No. We’d be offering them a way to step back from the abyss before we tumble into it.”
    “That’s an optimistic way of looking at