Free The Terran Mandate by Michael J Lawrence Page A

don't understand them. Why won't they help their own
kind?"
    "That's a question that's been
asked for generations now. The Shoahn' are gone and they still keep fighting
like they're protecting something," Dekker said.
    "Why?"
    "I don't know. Power, I guess. Or
maybe just because they were here first."
    "Ben, I don't want you to take this
the wrong way."
    "Go ahead, Emmet. No secrets
between us."
    "Has anybody considered that it might
be time?" He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. "-maybe it's time
to surrender?"
    "Can you carry a weapon,
Emmet?"
    "I'm too old for that sort of
thing. I was thinking more about Jommy. You know?"
    Dekker picked up his cup turned it in
his hand, studying the imprints of the boy's hand where he had formed the clay.
"They don't have much use for things like this over there."
    "Really, though, how bad could it
be?"
    Dekker leaned back as a cold mask fell
over his face. As the Colonel spoke, Emmet felt a shiver run through him.
"Guys like you, the old and the sick; they'll be put to sleep and tossed
on top of each other to burn. The young fellas; they'll get to the Highlands
just fine, in shackles, working the ground until they can't keep up and then tossed
on with the rest. They'll draw your blood, match up the women with the
strongest traits and let them have just enough babies to maintain their ranks.
And when they can't have babies any more, they'll put them in the fields and
wait for them to fall behind quota before tossing them on that pile. And boys
like Jommy. He'll be fine as long as he can shoot straight and take orders. And
they won't care when that order is to toss you on that pile."
    "Come on, Ben, this isn't Old
Earth."
    "No, but it's the same story. You
think they see us as human."
    Emmet felt his hand starting to shake
and placed it flat on the table, hoping Dekker wouldn't see. "How do they
see us, then?"
    "As less than that. That's when it
really begins. Once the last ties to our history are swept away, they'll
indoctrinate our children in The Way. They'll try to make us forget who we
are."
    Emmet took a long breath and let out a
sigh. "But we would be alive."
    A thin eerie grin crept across Dekker's
face as he pulled the cup to his lips and took another sip. He set the cup down
slowly and the grin disappeared. He folded his hands and leaned forward.
    "Then you and I have different
definitions of what it means for a man to be alive." The Colonel took a
long drink, wincing as he set the cup back on the table. "The Way is a
hoax. A lie to smother their own regret because they can't admit they were
wrong. We can make something of this place. You've said it yourself. All they
had to do was let us. Surrender to the Terran Guard?  No. We didn't come all
this way just to give up on who we are."
    "It was just a thought."
    "Oh hell, Emmet, it's an option.
You're not the first one to consider it. I just don't think that's why we came
here." Dekker's expression eased and sadness filled his eyes as he seemed
to be choking something back again.
    "What is it Ben?  No secrets."
    "Alright." Dekker took another
sip and visibly had trouble putting the cup back on the table. "You
wouldn't be asking about surrender if it wasn't for me."
    Emmet knitted his brow. "How do you
mean?"
    "I'm the man who lost the Highlands
in the first place."
    They both sat in silence as the words
hung in the air. Part of him wanted to reach across the table and grab the
Colonel by the throat and scream. He had heard it before, but now, coming from the
man himself, he couldn't deny it. The reason his people were starving was
sitting right in front of him. Except that wasn't really true, was it?  The
real reason was miles away, oiling treads aching to run through his home. They
hadn't done that yet. The man sitting across from him was the reason for that,
too. Embarrassed by his own thoughts, Emmet let out a chuckle. "You're a
good man, Ben. You need to let that go."
    "No, I don't." Dekker turned
the cup slowly on the