Chapter 28
Fortune brought Remy before Colonel Freedom on the bridge in front of most of his crew. The humiliated Inspector stole glances among the faces silently judging him, looking for Anders. He had been separated from the Lieutenant and from Roxanne the instant the vanishing white flash showed them the interior of the ship they had been attacking. That he was still alive and retained all memories of this voyage gave Remy hope that he would continue to exist. While the possibility swirled in his mind that this was just a sadistic show on Freedom’s part, that the Colonel wished to torment his prisoner before ending him, or that he wished to create an example for his men before those ideals of morality they had left back on Earth took hold in their consciences.
No matter what lay ahead, Remy refused to believe what he did was wrong. Never had it been wrong to stand up for one’s beliefs. Speaking out for the rights of the underprivileged was something Remy was prepared to go to his grave for. What he regretted was dragging his friends down this road with him. Maybe Anders knew what he signed up for, but Roxanne didn’t. Her lack of experience left her almost childlike. She followed him, not because she believed in the plight of the miners, or desired to be free of Pittman’s chains. She left this ship behind out of sheer fascination for his uniqueness and the doorways to new experiences he opened for her. What little of that book she managed to read through taught her more about life and the human condition than the weeks or months she spent penned up in the crew quarters.
Fortune shoved him in the back to get him one more step closer to the CO. Freedom stood beside his chair with his feet at shoulder width apart and his hands clasped firmly behind his back. He had worn his service uniform with his rank insignia polished and shiny on the collar, and the multitude of service ribbons climbing his left breast up and over his shoulder. Just as the dress was meant to impress, it didn’t escape Remy’s notice that the fresh shave to his face and crown was intended to separate him as the more civilized between them.
The Colonel took a long, drawn out breath before addressing his prey. “You’re a man of principle, Dr. Duval. I can respect that. But this is not your ship. Those miners are not your people. The workings of our space program are not your concern.
“You’ve had only two days to absorb and comprehend what most of us have been processing for months, even years. Your own organization puts more time into studying a situation back on Earth before drawing conclusions and releasing reports. You think you know what is going on out here, and you think the way we do things is wrong, but you’ve only seen a fraction of my world. You’ve seen but one side to our space program.
“My government chose this mission for you to observe because it was the safest, not just for you, but for the people like us who have to keep these secrets. There are dangers out here that make LX-925 look like a sandbox. There are horrors that would turn your hair white and torment your dreams so deeply, sleep will seem like a distant memory. We face enemies that don’t give two shits about the Geneva Convention. They don’t care about your human rights or your dignity. They commit atrocities toward each other that would make the Holocaust look like a church picnic. If they get the chance, they would exterminate every man, woman, and child that you and your kind stand up for back home. And they have the numbers to overrun our entire world before you could scramble a single fighter.
“The only thing keeping you and your kind safe from this galaxy is me. You may not like our tactics, but our technology and our methods are the only advantage we have. Without this way of life in our world, there would be no humanity.”
Remy recognized the man who had just revealed himself. Colonel Freedom was the man who would pop up once a generation, always promising to unite disenfranchised people. The promise of security and survival was always the same. The justifications always sounded necessary whether they covered slavery or genocide or simple oppression. In only a handful of days, Remy had witnessed all three.
It was clear Freedom was nothing more than a mouthpiece for the leaders above him, but it made him no less culpable. Standing before Remy, it also made him the target for the Doctor’s outrage.
“I don’t care how you justify your actions. Without our principles and our respect for human life, humanity is already extinct. Those people working that colony may be copies. Those soldiers following the Lieutenant Colonel into battle may be copies. Who knows, maybe all these officers looking the other way afraid to follow their consciences are copies as well. I don’t care how these people came into being, the fact is they’re still people and they still have rights.
“If you’re encountering races out here with different principles, how about getting them to talk before you start scrambling them into oblivion? We’ve been pulling people together on Earth for almost three hundred years by getting them to the table and talking through our differences.”
Freedom cut him off. “And that hasn’t been working out so well, has it? Just last year the UN had to send forces into the Amazon to protect a native tribe from extermination. You had to deal with a warlord trying to unite the islands in the South Pacific against those around the South China Sea. Don’t talk to me, Doctor, about your peacekeeping efforts because the UN has skated by on pure luck since its inception.”
“You’re wrong, Colonel. Maybe we haven’t been able to stamp out war completely, but we’ve made remarkable progress in mitigating the damage of armed conflict around the world. The only reason we still have war is because of the arrogance of people like you who refuse to accept alternatives.
“You won’t be able to keep your secrets forever. One day, I will get back to Earth and I will report everything I’ve seen out here. Even if I’m reported dead, or you somehow brainwash me like the other inspectors we’ve sent out here, Earth will learn of your actions one way or another.”
Remy’s warning drew a hearty laugh from the Colonel. It started off as a chuckle, but as he considered it in relation to the situation, it grew louder and harder until the convulsions began to choke his airways. When Freedom regained his breathing, he pulled his right hand up beside his shoulder and snapped his finger.
All eyes on the bridge left their workstations to enjoy the coming reaction on the Candian’s face, as Lieutenant Dorsey slipped a data chip into his terminal. Pressing a few of the buttons before him, he activated the view screen to display a recording.
“We received this while my XO was storming your cargo ship.” Freedom didn’t bother turning to see it, he had already watched it, aware of what was about to unfold. Like his men, he was deeply amused by the expected reaction.
Remy recognized the meeting room of the UN’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee, more commonly known as the Fourth Committee. He didn’t think they were scheduled to convene this week, so it must have been a special session. The Chairman introduced someone and sat down, the volume was too low on the recording, so he couldn’t hear who, but he recognized the trim, charcoal gray suit topped with the flat, black hair and month-long stubble on the face. If he went the next twenty-seven days without shaving, Remy knew that’s what his beard would look like because the person approaching the podium was him!
Freedom didn’t hide his gloating smile very well. “Dorsey, why don’t you turn that up? I don’t think the Doctor can hear it.”
The communications officer hit another button to add words to the picture.
“…I set down with the Executive Officer and we met with the miners to discuss their problems.” Remy recognized his own voice, but he refused to believe it. He had seen the duplication for himself on the planet with the prisoners. He believed the miners when they complained of being copies. Remy was aware of the tricks Freedom could pull with that scrambler, but like a teenager believing himself invincible to the injuries and deaths plaguing others, he had never expected he might be a victim until he saw himself on the recording telling the committee how the Republic forces solved the miners’
rebellion with grace and dignity.
This other Remy wasn’t just a copy; he had been altered somehow to report to the UN exactly what the Republic wanted him to report. Somehow he had become one of those experiments in Dr. Sadile’s lab having his memory altered, or having memories implanted, or having been brainwashed. He had become one of the very people he set out to free.