“If these aliens communicated through philotic links,” said Quara, “they wouldn’t have to use molecules.”
“Maybe these molecules,” said Miro, “are how they communicate with animals.”
Admiral Lands could not believe what he was hearing. The First Speaker of Starways Congress and the First Secretary of the Starfleet Admiralty were both visible above the terminal, and their message was the same. “Quarantine, exactly,” said the Secretary. “You are not authorized to use the Molecular Disruption Device.”
“Quarantine is impossible,” said Lands. “We’re going too rapidly. You know the battle plan I filed at the beginning of the voyage. It would take us weeks to slow down. And what about the men? It’s one thing to take a relativistic voyage and then return to their home worlds. Yes, their friends and family are gone, but at least they aren’t stuck off on permanent duty inside a starship! Keeping our velocity at near-relativistic speeds, I’m saving them months of their lives spent in acceleration and deceleration. You’re talking about expecting them to give up years!”
“Surely you’re not saying,” said the First Speaker, “that we should blow up Lusitania and wipe out the pequeninos and thousands of human beings so that your crews don’t get depressed.”
“I’m saying that if you don’t want us to blow up this planet, fine — but let us come home.”
“We can’t do that,” said the First Secretary. “The descolada is too dangerous to leave it unsupervised on a planet that has rebelled.”
“You mean you’re canceling the use of the Little Doctor when nothing has been done to contain the descolada?”
“We will send a landing team with due precautions to ascertain the exact conditions on the ground,” said the First Secretary.
“In other words, you’ll send men into mortal danger from this disease with no knowledge of the situation on the ground, when the means exist to eliminate the danger without peril to any uninfected person.”
“Congress has reached the decision,” said the First Speaker coldly. “We will not commit xenocide while any legitimate alternative remains. Are these orders received and understood?”
“Yes sir,” said Lands.
“Will they be obeyed?” asked the First Speaker.
The First Secretary looked aghast. You did not insult a flag officer by questioning whether he meant to obey orders.
Yet the First Speaker did not withdraw the insult. “Well?”
“Sir, I always have and always will live by my oath.” With that, Lands broke the connection. He immediately turned to Causo, his X.O., the only other person present with him in the sealed communications office. “You are under arrest, sir,” said Lands.
Causo raised an eyebrow. “So you don’t intend to comply with this order?”
“Do not tell me your personal feelings on the matter,” said Lands. “I know that you’re of Portuguese ethnic heritage like the people of Lusitania –”
“They’re Brazilian,” said the X.O.
Lands ignored him. “I will have it on record that you were given no opportunity to speak and that you are utterly blameless in any action I might take.”
“What about your oath, sir?” asked Causo calmly.
“My oath is to take all actions I am ordered to take in service of the best interests of humanity. I will invoke the war crimes clause.”
“They aren’t ordering you to commit a war crime. They’re ordering you not to.”
“On the contrary,” said Lands. “To fail to destroy this world and the deadly peril on it would be a crime against humanity far worse than the crime of blowing it up.” Lands drew his sidearm. “You are under arrest, sir.”
The X.O. put his hands on his head and turned his back. “Sir, you may be right and you may be wrong. But either choice could be monstrous. I don’t know how you can make such a decision by yourself.”
Lands put the docility patch on the back of Causo’s neck, and as the drug began feeding into his system, Lands said to him, “I had help in deciding, my friend. I asked myself, What would Ender Wiggin, the man who saved humanity from the buggers, what would he have done if suddenly, at the last minute, he had been told, This is no game, this is real. I asked myself, What if at the moment before he killed the boy Stilson or the boy Madrid in his infamous First and Second Killings, some adult had intervened and ordered him to stop. Would he have done it, knowing that the adult did not have the power to protect him later, when his enemy attacked him again? Knowing that it might well be this time or never? If the adults at Command School had said to him, We think there’s a chance the buggers might not mean to destroy humanity, so don’t kill them all, do you think Ender Wiggin would have obeyed? No. He would have done — he always did — exactly what was necessary to obliterate a danger and make sure it did not survive to pose a threat in the future. That is the person I consulted with. That is the person whose wisdom I will follow now.”