“Now there’s a thought,” Yamaga said. “Pity indeed we can’t do that.”
“But the question is, what do we do with them now?” Owensford said. “We’ve got the island camps. The Legion training program worked all right. Last time we had transport we shipped over five hundred retrained Helots to reinforce Falkenberg on New Washington, and last I heard they were doing well enough. Of course that’s the cream of the crop, the ones with enough gumption to stick it.”
“You sent back a thousand more who’d volunteered and couldn’t finish your course,” Sir Alfred Nathanson said. “And they’re something of a problem. For the moment we’ve been able to keep order on the Island, even have them growing their own crops. But we can’t maintain concentration camps like that forever!”
“Bit of a mess for the Coast Guard,” General Desjardins said. “We’ve been worried that the Helots would try to rescue those people. So far the only reason they haven’t has been the physical isolation, but we’re using resources I’d like to put to other uses. We lose a few of those wet navy craft and all those Helot soldiers are available to the rebellion again.”
“We can’t just shoot them,” Elayne Rusher said.
“No, Madam,” Finance Minister Respari agreed. “Leave aside the ethics, none of the others would ever surrender if we did that. General, Sir Alfred, I’m afraid your island camps are the only solution we have. And the camps are cheaper than the war, by a lot.”
“Actually, there are two problems,” Yamaga said. “There are the prisoners of war, of course. And although we can’t send off the criminals as colonists to a pleasant place like Hell’s-a-comin’, the CoDominium keeps dumping involuntary colonists on us. I grant you they’re not quite the same situation, some of the new colonists fit in well enough, but all too many are nearly as much trouble as rebels.” He shrugged. “And for a lot of them it’s only a question of time before they go from being useless mouths to joining the rebellion and killing our people. Bread and circuses, that’s what they want.”
“Every democracy in history has wanted bread and circuses,” Roland Dawson said. “Not our party, of course, but there are Citizen groups who’d rather try bread and circuses than continue the war.”
“Danegeld,” Hal Slater said. “Never a very wise thing to give anyone, certainly not to criminals.”
“It is not what they will get,” Lysander said. His voice was low, but the room became quiet when he spoke. “Build that kind of welfare state and we corrupt our own people. This government will not pay people to be poor, nor will we set up paid officials with an incentive to have poor and idle clients. General Desjardins, I take it your RSMP doesn’t find Island duty pleasant.”
“They hate it, Highness. So would you.”
“I expect I would. Let me point out that there are advantages to this. No one wants to make a career of administering the camps, so there is no one who has a good reason to retain those camps if we find a better solution.”
“No one I’d want in the RSMP,” Desjardins sniffed.
“Keep it that way,” Lysander said. “Too many nations have destroyed themselves by allowing potentially fatal changes to their institutions as an expedient for winning wars or settling domestic crises. Every institution you build has people who want to keep on doing what they do. It’s the nature of government, to build enduring institutions, structures that stay long after their purpose is over. If you pay people to help the poor, you have people who won’t be paid if there aren’t any poor, so they’ll be sure to find some. Sparta was created as the antithesis of that kind of welfare state, and by God it will stay that way. I’d rather lose the war than change that.”
There were mutters of agreement around the table.
“Hear, hear,” Whitlock said.
“That’s clear, then,” Lysander said. “Now let me point out that when we win this war we will have far more Helot prisoners, some of them genuine war criminals.”
“Hang them,” Desjardins said.
“Those we can convict of atrocities, certainly. But how many will that be?”
“Rome crucified a rebel at every milepost from Vesuvius to Rome after the Spartacus rebellion,” Madame Rusher said. “That’s what? No more than a thousand, surely, and it’s remembered to this day. I suppose if we top that we’ll get a place in the history books, but I’m not sure it’s a place we want.”
“Nor I,” Lysander said. “I’m not sure what to do with those merely swept up in the rebellion, but there’s a simple solution to what to do with the active participants in the rebel cause. They wanted to try the barbarian life. I propose to give them their wish. Turn them loose on the island. Wolf Island. They get hand tools, seeds, and a few farm animals. No weapons, and no technology. If they don’t work, they starve. After a few years the survivors can try to negotiate a better deal.”
“Stark,” Roland Dawson said.
“It’s better than they planned for us,” Lysander said. “Sir Alfred, this will be your concern. Please see to it.”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Sir?”
“Admiral Forrest.”
“This is my first cabinet meeting. I’m not certain of the procedure,” Forrest said.
“We’re fairly informal, Admiral,” Lysander said. “If you believe you have something we should know that’s relevant to the discussion, it’s quite proper to speak up.”
“Yes, sir. I was going to say, the news from the CoDominium is confusing and contradictory. Rumors of mutinies in the fleet. Ships beached for lack of money to repair and fuel them. Stories of rivalries, along with official documents that don’t acknowledge that there’s anything unusual happening at all. One thing is certain, the BuReloc transport is overdue. It may be that we won’t be getting so many involuntary colonists.”
“A consummation devoutly to be wished,” Hal Slater said carefully. “I hear much the same as Admiral Forrest. The CD’s having trouble finding enough money to operate all their ships. It’s probable we won’t have as much trouble with involuntary colonists as we thought we would.”
“Or that it will all happen at once, with a number of ships coming simultaneously,” Lysander said. “But thank you for bringing that up. I presume everyone here knows that Admiral Forrest has persuaded the local CoDominium Fleet Commander to safeguard our observation and communications satellite. We’re told that they’re also intercepting the clandestine arms shipments to the rebels.”
“We very much owe Admiral Forrest a vote of thanks,” Elayne Rusher said.
“Indeed,” Lysander said. “Those Fang missiles could have been a lot of trouble. Still can be, but at least there aren’t infinite supplies of them coming in. And the other high tech gear. From all of us, and from me personally, Admiral, thank you. We won’t forget.”
“Thank you, Highness,” Forrest said. “Of course I had considerable help from Dr. Whitlock. He can be extremely persuasive.”
“Well, thank you,” Whitlock said. “Most important thing is to convince the local CD people they’ll be better off with us as a strong and peaceful place to call home, and the best arguments for that are Admiral Forrest and Captain Nosov.”
Lysander nodded agreement. “General Owensford, please continue your report.”
“Yes, Highness,” Owensford said. “As I said earlier, we’re winning. The renewed satellite pictures have been extremely useful, especially in the pursuit of their northern group, the force they called the Stora Commando group. I am pleased to report that the Stora Commando is no longer a threat to anyone. For a while they retreated in an organized and disciplined manner. That gave General Barton a lot of trouble, but shortly after the Ultimate Decree they became little more than disorganized stragglers.
“The change was sudden and dramatic. We have since learned that most of their leadership was evacuated, leaving the rest on their own, which was pretty demoralizing when the word spread among them. Many who hadn’t taken a personal part in atrocities surrendered very soon after that. The rest are disorganized, mostly city punks in the wilderness, relentlessly pursued by outdoorsmen who enjoy their work. You could almost feel sorry for them.”
“No you couldn’t,” Lysander said. “They demanded their rights. They’ll get justice. How many criminals have we caught?”
“Not so many as I’d like, because of course the ones we could prove to be war criminals don’t surrender. On the other hand, over six hundred have accepted the amnesty. Of those, nine were easily proven to be war criminals, thirty-four probably are, and four were traitors, actual Citizen supporters of the rebels.”
“Probably,” Roland Dawson said. “What means probable, given your—techniques?”
Jesus Alana shrugged. “It is expensive and time consuming to question every captive,” he said. “And are we so certain we want the answers? If we know someone is guilty of war crimes, we must make a decision as to what to do with him.”