The End of All Things #2: This Hollow Union Read Online Free PDF Page A

happy.”
    “We don’t need him to be happy,” I said. “We need him to understand the political landscape we’re working in. I can make him do that.”
    “And the diplomats from Earth?”
    “We’ll have to meet with them,” I said. “And as for Earth itself, we need to get it out of the reach of the Colonial Union without bringing it into the Conclave.”
    Tarsem smiled. “I’m looking forward to hearing how this is going to happen,” he said.
    “We have them ask for protection,” I said.
    “Protection,” Tarsem said. “From whom?”
    “From the Colonial Union, who attacked Earth Station,” I said.
    “If it did.”
    “It doesn’t matter if it did. It matters that Earth believes it’s a threat.”
    Tarsem gave me a look that suggested a complicated response to this statement, but decided not to immediately follow it up. “So they ask for protection,” he said. “What does that solve?”
    “It solves Unli Hado, for one,” I said. “Because the Earth doesn’t ask to join the Conclave, and it doesn’t stay vulnerable to the Colonial Union. And when it asks for protection, we’ll assign three of our member states to take up the guard.”
    “Which three?”
    “Two of them it doesn’t matter. Pick who you like. But the third—”
    “The third is the Elpri,” Tarsem said.
    “Yes,” I said. “And then Hado is trapped. His entire ploy is based on you being too soft on the humans. But now one branch of humanity is publicly rebuffed and the other is guarded by Hado’s own species. He said to me today that his sole concern is the unity of the Conclave; let’s hold him to his words, and let’s make him do it publicly. He’s trapped by his own posturing.”
    “And you think the Earth will go along with this.”
    “I think they believe we both have a common enemy, and they know they are defenseless without us,” I said. “The only thing we have to do is not make it look like we’re bottling them up, like they were under the Colonial Union.”
    “Although that’s actually what you’re proposing we do.”
    “These are the options at the moment.”
    “And you think this will actually work,” Tarsem said.
    “I think it buys us time.” I turned back to the rock where the young Lalan had been a few minutes before, and noticed it wasn’t there anymore. There was a splotch of blood, however. Whether it belonged to the youth or the one who had been killed before it, I didn’t know. “Maybe enough time to save the Conclave from collapsing. And that’s enough for now.”

PART TWO
    “Wake up, Hafte,” someone said.
    I woke up. It was Vnac Oi. I stared at it for a moment before gathering enough wit to speak.
    “Why are you standing in my sleeping chamber?”
    “I need you awake,” it said.
    “How did you get in?”
    Oi gave me a look that said, Really, now.
    “Never mind,” I said. I lifted myself off my sleeping pedestal and moved to my wardrobe to get dressed. I don’t usually prefer other people see me without clothing, but it’s for their sake, not mine; Lalans don’t have a taboo against nudity. “Tell me what’s going on, at least.”
    “A human ship has been attacked,” Oi said.
    “What?” I looked out from my wardrobe at Oi. “Where? And by whom?”
    “In our space,” Oi said. “And we don’t know. But it gets worse.”
    “How does it possibly get worse?” I slipped a basic robe onto my body and stepped out of the wardrobe. Other accoutrements could wait.
    “The humans’ ship is out of control and being dragged in by the gravity of this asteroid,” Oi said. “We have four serti before it hits.”
    “That doesn’t leave much time,” I said. There are thirty serti in a sur.
    “It gets worse,” Oi said.
    “Stop saying that,” I said. I stood in front of Oi, now. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
    “There are humans trapped on the ship,” Oi said. “Including the diplomatic mission from Earth.”
    *   *   *
    “Here is the Odhiambo, ”