“I don’t think that’ll make it better.” Holden took the pause back off, and Drummer sprang back into motion.
“The other thing we don’t do is let everyone who captains a ship on our registry make their own policies for the union as a whole. What you did on Freehold doesn’t get to set precedent for what I have to do on every other system that decides to break the rules. I sent you out there with a mission to deliver a message. Not negotiate. Not broker deals. You were there because it was important for everyone else who’s watching—and everyone’s watching—to see what happens when you break the terms of your contract with the Transport Union.”
“So it was theater first, and then an execution,” Holden said to the screen. Not that she could hear him. Still, she paused, looked down, and gathered herself as if she had.
“My problem now,” she said, “is how to fix what you’ve broken with the least amount of damage. I will be consulting with the board and our legal counsel, and when we decide what needs to happen, I’ll tell you. And you’ll do it. I really hope this is clear enough that it doesn’t confuse you.”
“I’m getting the feeling she may not actually like me,” Holden said.
“She’s working herself up a little,” Alex said. “I wouldn’t take it personally.”
“For now,” Drummer said, “I am instructing you to proceed on to Medina with Governor Houston. I will have someone ready to meet your ship when you dock. At that time, I will expect you to read a statement that I will put together for you. It may be an apology. It may be a clarification of the Transport Union rules. Whatever it is, I’ll deliver it to you before you get there. And you’ll recite it word for word.
“You don’t get to make the universe be what you want just by saying it, Holden. There are other people who live here too. Next time, show some respect.”
The message ended. Alex blew out a long, slow breath. “Well, maybe take it a little personally,” he said as Holden closed the message out. The screen returned to its series of rolling system reports. Drive output, environmental stability, waste-heat management. The Rocinante doing what she did best. What she always did. The knot in his stomach sat there, quietly. He couldn’t tell if it was anger or disappointment or something altogether else.
Alex cracked his knuckles. “You’ve got that look,” he said.
“No, I don’t,” Holden said. “I don’t look like anything.”
“She’s got a point. There’s a lot of colonies out there. If we’re going to start hauling in bad guys from all of them … well, there’s a lot of mission creep in that. Telling them they can’t come play if they won’t play nice? It’s rough, but it doesn’t change what the Transport Union is, you know?”
“It’s more convenient,” Holden said more sharply than he’d intended. “It is. No, I see that. I understand that it’s easier to run the union if everything’s in terms of who’s violated the terms of the contract and withholding service and … and give it a few more decades so the colonies are all able to support themselves, maybe cutting off trade will be a slap on the wrist. But the fact of the matter right now? It’s a death sentence.”
“Maybe,” Alex said. “What I heard about Bara Gaon Complex and Auberon, they’re already—”
“This isn’t Bara Gaon Complex or Auberon. This is Freehold. If we cut them off for three years, the colony would collapse, and they’d all starve. So right now, yeah, she’s saying we should ki
ll them. Only she’s phrasing it so it sounds like it’s just the natural consequence of their choices and not also ours.”
“Well, yeah,” Alex said, but Holden wasn’t done. The words kept pushing their way out of him.
“They didn’t vote for Drummer,” he said, tapping hard on the screen. “They can’t appeal her decisions, and she has the power of life and death over them. She needs to be held to a higher standard than ‘whatever’s most convenient.’ And in every military service in history, when the commander gave an immoral command, it was the duty of the soldiers to disobey it.”
“Every military service in history?”
“All the good ones.”
“All right,” Alex said. Then a moment later, “They didn’t elect us either.”
“Exactly! That’s my point.”
“Right,” Alex said.
“So we’re agreeing with each other.”
“Yes. But it still kind of sounds like we’re fighting.”
“It does,” Holden said, and leaned back. His crash couch shifted under him, hissing. The tightness in his gut hadn’t lessened at all. He’d really hoped it would. “Shit.”
“You think she’s going to shut them out again? Put the quarantine back in place?”
“I don’t know,” Holden said. “Except if she was going to do that, she’d probably make us take Houston back to die with his friends. And it doesn’t do great things for your political dog-and-pony show when the captain of one of your pet gunships starts refusing your orders. She’ll have to give us this one.”
“That sounds right,” Alex agreed. “Next one’s going to be interesting, though.”
“Yeah.”