The End of All Things: The First Instalment (14 page)

“Are you kidding me?”

“Relax. You didn’t let me finish. I’m not supposed to tell you anything about that. Specifically, I’m not supposed to tell you that we found the base and we found a lot of fresh damage that corresponds to what you told me, but aside from that the base was deserted.”

“What do you mean deserted?” I said. “When did you get there?”

“We sent probes almost as soon as we got coordinates from you, and a couple of warships right after that.”

“Then you should have found
something
. They couldn’t have disappeared.”

“I didn’t say
disappeared,
” Wilson said. “I said deserted. There was a lot of evidence of someone having been there, and of the base having been used up until very recently. But whoever was there was gone. They left in a big damn hurry.”

“What about the other ships?” I asked. “The ones like me, I mean.”

“We found wreckage,” Wilson said. “Whether they were the ships like you or some other ships we can’t tell you yet.”

“They wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere,” I said. “If you found wreckage, it was those ships.”

“I’m sorry, Rafe.”

“I don’t understand how they could have deserted the base that quickly. I knocked out their communications.”

“There’s the possibility that they had drones or ships in other systems set to investigate
if
there was no communication with the base,” Wilson said. “These assholes were building a fleet with hostage pilots. They probably figured one of them might try an attack or lead someone back to them sooner or later.”

“But
I
got away. If they planned for it, how did
that
happen?”

Wilson grinned. “Maybe you were better at it than they expected. They had to decide between evacuating their people or going after you.”

“But we still have all the evidence. You have Ocampo, for God’s sake! Have
him
talk.”

“He’s not going to be talking to anyone other than CDF intelligence for a while,” Wilson said. “More to the point, he doesn’t really have the capability to talk to anyone else at the moment.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that right now, you and he have a lot in common,” Wilson said.

It took me a second to figure out what
that
meant. Then I imagined Ocampo in his own little box.

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” I said, eventually.

“I think you should probably feel disgusted by it, but that’s just me,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t in charge of that decision. Look, Rafe, you’re right. We have all the facts. We have names. We have data. And when and if people choose to look at all that
rationally,
then they’ll realize that the Colonial Union isn’t to blame for a lot of the crap it’s currently getting the blame for. But until that time, being able to have you around to appeal to their emotions and sense of morality doesn’t hurt. We could use you.”

“To evoke pity.”

“Yes,” Wilson said. “Among other things. Also, we kind of need a ship.”

I thought about this. “For how long?” I asked.

“Hopefully not too long,” Wilson said. “Things are moving fast now. We’re already a week behind. We’ve sent back-channel messages to the Conclave and are arranging meetings now. We’re trying the same with Earth. In both cases things are complicated by the fact that some of their people are involved too. And meanwhile Equilibrium is still out there. And you’ve probably accelerated their schedule. Everything’s going to get done very soon, I expect.”

“And if it all works out, then my body is waiting for me.”

“Even if it doesn’t work out your body will be waiting for you,” Wilson said. “Although in that case you may have less time to enjoy it than you’d want.”

“Let me think about it,” I said.

“Of course,” Wilson said. “If you can give me an answer in a couple of days that would be good.”

“I will.”

“Also, if you say yes, then we’ll be working together,” Wilson said. “You and me and Hart Schmidt. Who is worried about you and quietly furious that he’s not allowed to talk to you yet and that I can’t tell him anything. Let me suggest that you let him in to see you as soon as that’s cleared from above.”

“I will,” I said again.

“You also need to tell us whether you want us to tell your parents about you yet,” Wilson said, gently.

This was something I had been waffling about. I was alive. But I didn’t think my family would be comforted by how I was right now.

“They still think I was lost with the rest of the crew,” I asked.

“Yes,” Wilson said. “We found lifepods and are retrieving the bodies and notifying the families. There was one lifepod that was destroyed. As you know. We can always say to your parents that some bodies haven’t been found. Which happens to be true, as far as it goes.”

“I’ll tell you what to do when I give you my other answer,” I said.

“Fair enough.” Wilson stood up. “One last thing. The State Department asked me to ask you if you’d do a write-up of your experience. A personal history.”

“You’ve already debriefed me.”

“I did,” Wilson agreed. “I got all the facts. I think they’re wanting to know everything else, too. You’re not the only person they’ve done this to, Rafe. I know that for a fact. At the end of this we’re going to have to put other people back together too. You telling us what it’s been like for you might help with that.”

“I’m not a writer,” I said.

“You don’t need to be,” Wilson said. “We’ll get someone to clean it up so it scans. Just talk the whole thing through. We’ll figure it out from there.”

“Okay,” I said.

And that’s what I did.

And that’s what this is.

The life of the mind.

Well, my mind, anyway.

So far.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

JOHN SCALZI
is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors to emerge in the last decade. His debut,
Old Man’s War,
won him science fiction’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His
New York Times
bestsellers include
The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation,
his most recent novel
Lock In,
and also
Redshirts,
which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel. Material from his widely read blog
Whatever
(
whatever.scalzi.com
) has earned him two other Hugo Awards as well. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.

By John Scalzi

The Old Man’s War Series

Old Man’s War

The Ghost Brigades

The Last Colony

Zoe’s Tale

The Human Division

The End of All Things

First published 2015 by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

This electronic edition published 2015 by Tor

an imprint of Pan Macmillan

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Associated companies throughout the world

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ISBN 978-1-4472-9842-7

Copyright © John Scalzi, 2015

The right of John Scalzi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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