was difficult to find a safe place anywhere within the system when it was in a state of constant war, and with the Dusan moving inexorably forward, taking planet after planet. In the end, the ships, the passengers, Scoyfol became a moving world.” She was silent for at least a minute. “I do not know how they accomplished it back then. I only know what they are now.”
“And what are they now?” he asked. Why the distance? It was almost as if she was talking about other people.
“They are a people in…turmoil,” she admitted. “For so long, the need to survive gave them a common purpose, a common reason to sacrifice. They have been…ghost ships carrying ghost people who had only the will to endure, to exist long enough to go home.”
It sounded like a nightmare to him.
“But with the peace, or what there was of it, the passengers have desired an end to their journey. Resolution if you will, even if it means change as drastic as their first parents experienced.”
“Returning to those planets might not give your passengers resolution,” Halliwell pointed out. He’d dealt with some weird stuff since being deployed here, but this might top the list. He considered past events and decided that it was up there, but not the weirdest. At least, not yet. He didn’t sigh because, again, he was a general, but thinking about the Dusan brought back some bad memories. “Scientists from the region have begun doing assessments of the…abandoned…planets but I’m not sure how far they’ve penetrated that region.”
Abandoned wasn’t exactly what had happened there he knew. But even beyond that, what the Dusan had done, the havoc they’d wreaked on conquered worlds was horrifying.
“They might not be habitable for a while, or at best, challenging to reclaim.”
“That is the position of the Captain, that it is too soon.”
He studied her, noting the deepening of the lines around her eyes and the thinning of her mouth.
“And what is your position?”
She looked up, startled. “If it were appropriate for me to have a position, it would be to give them what they want. Before, arrival was not possible. Now it is.” She looked away and Blooban croaked again. “There is something…wrong. I feel it here.” She touched her heart with her hand. “It is ironic that with the collapse of the common enemy, what has resulted is not peace, but a fracture in purpose. It is a story that needs an ending, a resolution.”
“It happens,” Halliwell agreed, somewhat dryly. He had his own trust issues with their allies during the battle with the Dusan, despite having fought side-by-side with the Gadi. “We can’t get involved in what is, well, a regional dispute,” he pointed out, though he felt an odd regret about this. Was he crazy? They’d gotten involved in a lot of crazy since they got here. There was no need to sign on for something that was clearly outside their jurisdiction.
“I did not come to ask you to take sides,” she said.
He considered the situation. “What you really need is arbitration—someone who can bring everyone to a solution that doesn’t please anyone.”
She gave a small chuckle at this.
“At the moment, that is where everyone already is.” She was quiet for a moment and he had a sense she was gathering her thoughts, or perhaps marshaling her next plea. “You have a reputation in this galaxy for being fair, impartial, if you will, and…far-seeing.”
But he wasn’t impartial, he just hid it better because generals had to. And as for far-seeing…
Your reputation does precede you, General. For the first time, Bangle weighed in verbally, via the sound system.
It must be some kind of record for the AI, Halliwell thought grimly.
“Why should any of your…combatants…care about my opinion?” he asked. “You said your captain doesn’t want to arrive.”
“The stalemate is…” She frowned. “I feel there is, oh,” she leaned back with a sudden jerk and rubbed her face. “Does it sound insane to say it is so boring, that something has to happen? That something will happen?”
It did sound boring, he had to admit. He sure wouldn’t want to endlessly drift in space, trying to survive.
She lowered her hands, her face charmingly rueful. “It is like a story with no plot. I know it sounds irrational, but it feels like we need to introduce another element to trigger needed change.”
Blow it up was more like it. But…it sounded like it was going to blow up anyway. Or they’d all die of boredom.
“Your captain