Star Carrier (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

error, probably due to our shift of scenery. He appeared to be sitting on the far side of my desk, but instead of being anchored to the chair, he was posed floating in the air a half-meter above it. As he didn’t see anything wrong with my positioning, I decided to ignore the anomaly.
    “Admiral,” I began, “I do have misgivings.”
    I proceeded to relate to him all my doubts about using variants.
    “You think they’re too much like the Stroj, huh?” Halsey asked when I’d finished. “Well, they are freaky. I’ll give you that. But it’s time to man-up, Sparhawk. This isn’t just a border skirmish we’re involved in. If the Stroj come here in strength, they’ll wipe us out. You’ve seen the projections. Without the ships these monsters have produced, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”
    “I can’t deny the truth of your words.”
    “So then, what would you want to do differently?”
    “I think we should build our fleet then immediately close the new facilities,” I said.
    He blinked at me in shock. “What? Are you kidding? After all this effort and expense? Every Great House on Earth is chipping in. You know that, don’t you? They’ve put down their treasure, and they’ve spent it all. That includes your family as well, Sparhawk.”
    “I’m sure that’s true, sir. But you asked me what I thought, and I think we should—”
    “What would we do with the variants themselves if we closed down their factories?”
    “Well… I think we should destroy them. All of them. They pose a danger to—”
    Halsey stood up suddenly in agitation. The software was still wrong, and he was now looming over my desk, with his illusory head brushing the ceiling. His finger waggled at my face.
    “I’ve got your number, Sparhawk. I get it. Your family is behind all these misgivings. You Equality types are all alike. You hate progress. You want stagnation and protectionism. Well, your time has passed on for now. This isn’t about human labor versus automation. We have to pull out all the stops and use every trick we have to win this war!”
    The software managing the admiral’s positioning was slowly correcting itself. It now had him drifting downward until his feet touched the floor of my office again. He paced in front of me angrily.
    “I don’t like to see this kind of thing in my best officers,” he said. “Why does politics always have to rear its head when the money begins to flow around in new directions? Can’t we all just focus on the joint goal of surviving this war?”
    “Admiral,” I said, interrupting his tirade, “please understand that I agree with most of what you’re saying. But I would ask that you consider how the Stroj developed originally. Did they take the same path we’re taking now to solve their problems?”
    “Huh? You’re not making any sense, man! No one is suggesting that we all turn ourselves into variants. A few criminals and social rejects, that’s all we have here. I see nothing wrong with pressing them into the service of Earth when she needs them most. They’re finally contributing to the social good.”
    I stared at him for a frozen moment. He was as much as admitting to me that the variants were not volunteers by any stretch of the imagination. I didn’t know quite how to respond.
    “That’s right,” he said. “It’s hard to be in command of a defensive effort that spans an entire star system. Choices have to be made. Hard calls that don’t let a man sleep easily at night—not unless he keeps the consequences of failure clearly in mind.”
    He went on like that for quite some time, and I no longer bothered to argue with him. He wasn’t going to listen, I could tell that by now.
    When he ended the call and vanished from my office at last, I headed back to the command deck to check over the status of my ship. All was well for now.
    A week passed before we left Mars orbit. The Iron Duke came with us when we headed home.
    “Course?” Durris asked, looking at me