“Here is what you are going to do, Lieutenant. You will recant. You will write a personal apology in response to every single one of these letters. You will state that these were unprovoked attacks, conducted by you, without authority. You will beg for their mercy. If you do that, then we will not turn you over to them, and we will not punish your crew. Instead we will ship you to Westerness, where you will face trial and punishment by your own people. Do you understand?”
There was a roaring in Melville’s ears. The dark little room seemed to close in upon him. His crew. They would punish his crew. He could save his crew, all the brave men and women who suffered and served so nobly. He could save them if he cooperated. All he had to do was to tell this little man’s lies. Sacrifice himself, and his crew was safe.
It was his duty. It would be so easy to accept failure, to simply die and let it end. Here was his lawful authority telling him to surrender, and he was a good sailor, an obedient officer, a disciplined warrior. It would be so easy, but something in him couldn’t give up. Something made him struggle against the fate that this little man had decreed for him. His duty was all he had. Obedience was his duty. What could be more important than duty.
But wait. The enemy was obedient. The Guldur commander who murdered his captain, he was just doing his duty. The enemy was just obeying orders. And still the enemy was evil. So what was the difference? The difference was Honor. A code of honor. Decency, nobility, gentleness . . . all of that was in the warrior’s code of honor.
There was something more important than duty. It was honor. How did Shakespeare put it? “Mine honor is my life; both grow in one; Take honor from me, and my life is done.”
Once to ev’ry man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
“No sir. I won’t do that. You’ve read my report. I see them there before you. They’re confirmed by all my officers, and by the two Sylvan members of my ship. Lady Elphinstone isn’t a liar. Neither am I, or any of the others who signed that report.”
This was easy. It was like combat. You knew you were probably going to die, but you did it anyway without a second thought. Because it needed to be done.
“A vast war is brewing. The enemy is evil. They murdered my captain, murdered our Ship, all under a flag of truce. They attacked the Stolsh without provocation, dropping onto their worlds without warning, inflicting unimaginable horrors upon innocent civilians. No one is asking you to make the decision. Just tell the truth to Westerness. Let them decide, based on the facts as sworn to by my officers, not your lies.”
Some great cause, some great decision,
Off’ring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
‘Twixt that darkness and that light.
He looked into the eyes of the ambassador, and knew what he was seeing. He knew of senior officers who were capable of great bravery in combat, but when it came to their precious careers, they compromised and prostituted themselves and their sacred honor. They sold their souls a nickel at a time, and in the end they had nothing left. They became very small men. In the end they’d become that most wretched of creatures, politicians.
Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And ’tis prosp’rous to be just;
His voice dropped to a whisper. “Darkness falls. The shadows call. Shadow and flame. But our fight is true. Our enemy is moving. They’re coming for us, Guldur and Orak. In the years to come we will have no choice but to fight them. Right now we have a chance to join in the fight for the very right to exist, for they bring genocide with them. We are on the brink of destruction. We must unite, or we will fall. While we dither, their power grows. We can fight them now, while we have allies, or we can fight them later and die alone.”
Then Melville’s voice grew strong and he stood tall, with a faint smile. “You can turn me over to them. And in so doing you will have handed me undying fame, glory and honor. While you will have brought eternal shame upon yourself . . . and Westerness. Our allies know the truth. It will come out. On every Sylvan and Stolsh world across the galaxy, they will know what you have done. You fear losing trade? You fear bad diplomatic relations? Doing this to me will destroy your relations with every Sylvan and Stolsh world in the galaxy. You would sacrifice me to prevent war, yet war is inevitable. It will happen, and throughout history you’ll be remembered as the man, the appeaser, the Quisling, who turned me over to our enemies.”
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.
Sir Percival Incessant sat breathing deeply through his nose. Then he picked up a small bell and rang it (“tinkle-tinkle-tink”) and two marines came in. Melville noted that they, too, were unarmed. Here, indeed, was an unhappy lord who dared not carry his sword, nor trust anyone else to do so.
Incessant sat back and steepled his fingers. Always a bad sign in politicians, lawyers, diplomats and their ilk. “This man is under arrest. Place him in your jail or brig or whatever. Get him away from me.” He turned to Melville and made one last parting shot, “Lieutenant, you will hang for this.”
Tho’ the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ’tis truth alone is strong:
Tho’ her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
The young marine corporal looked at Melville with tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m sorry, sir . . .”
“Don’t apologize, son. You’re just doing your job.” Then, looking at the ambassador he added, “Hell, someone has to.”
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own.
Melville had only been in his cell for a few hours. But they’d been some of the worst hours of his life. Doubts about what he had done ate at him. He worried about his family and the shame that he was bringing upon them. Perhaps it meant more than shame for his family, perhaps they too would be punished to appease his enemies. He couldn’t help but think that the ambassador, far older and wiser in the ways of the world, might be right. He was gambling it all: his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor.
He kept telling himself that it was no different from the risk of combat. That in the end, they could not take his honor away. They could take his life. They could take his fortune. (Such as it was! Small loss there.) But they couldn’t take his sacred honor. Only he could do that, and if he agreed to tell their lies then that was what he would have done. But how could he be sure?
He lay back on his cot, his mind spinning like a wheel trying to gain traction, when there was a knocking at his door. In spite of everything he smiled to himself. You don’t knock at a prisoner’s door. “Come in!” he said, sitting up in the light gravity. Gunny Von Rito walked in.
“Well, sir,” said the gunny, a grin splitting his scarred face, “you’ve got yourself in a hell of a fix. But not to worry, we’ve come to spring you.”
Melville shook his head with a sad smile as he looked up at the big NCO in his red jacket. The full magnitude of what had happened was just beginning to set in. “Don’t get yourself in trouble, Gunny.”
“Sir,” the gunny answered, his friendly grin suddenly becoming feral, “It’s not me that has trouble. Or you. The marine guards let us know what happened. Just scuttlebutt among jarheads, you know? We just happened to let Lady Elphinstone and Valandil know what was up. The King of Osgil, and the King-in-Exile of Stolsh, along with the Dwarrowdelf League ambassador, have summoned you to an audience. Tonight. The Westerness ambassador has informed them that you won’t be available. Now it is the Westerness ambassador who has trouble. And now you, sir, are about to disappear, escaping from durance vile, adding yet another chapter to your legend.”
“Things do move fast around here,” said Melville, standing up. “But I get a sense that it has been building up to this for quite a while.”