Read Online The Disinherited by Steve White - Free Book Online Page B

lock of hair. "And second, the penalty for failure: destruction of our world by the Korvaasha." Heads nodded affirmatively at this.
    DiFalco paused for an interminable moment, then drew a breath and spoke with the force of absolute, bridge-burning commitment. "But neither of these arguments applies if we accept his offer. Not our governments . . . us ! RAMP! Think about it," he hurried on, before the disjointed shock in their faces could congeal into opposition. "We have a fair-sized fleet of deep-space-capable ships here, and we've had to develop a substantial industrial capability. We can refit our ships with Varien's stuff, while continuing to keep his existence secret, and then depart the solar system along the Lirauva Chain— after wiping our records and our ships' computers of every scrap of data that could be used to identify the star we came from! If our attack on the Korvaash occupiers of Raehan succeeds, fine. If it doesn't . . . well, the Korvaasha will have no idea of where this attack on them originated. And neither will anyone on Earth; where we went will be the biggest unsolved mystery since the Lost Colony! And . . . I think I'd rather die in battle, fighting for the long-term defense of Earth, than rot in some goddamned concentration camp!"
    His voice had risen in volume until it was a rolling thunder. Its echoes died away, leaving the room in a silence of total shock. Liz had actually stopped twisting her hair.
    "But," Traylor finally broke the silence, "win or lose, we'd be cutting ourselves off from Earth for all time . . . ."
    "Hell, no! Look, Varien and his people know the locations of the displacement points that make up the Lirauva Chain. After we defeat the Korvaasha and Earth is out of danger, we can just proceed back along the Chain to Alpha Centauri. From there, Sol's the brightest star in Cassiopeia . . . we could find it with our eyes closed! We can go the last four-and-a-third light years of the trip on continuous-displacement drive and arrive back here bringing a whole new order of technology and the news that we've got allies— human allies—among the stars. That ought to really do the trick Liz was talking about and turn Earth around!"
    He surveyed the room and saw much the same look on every face. It was the look of people who had been offered an escape from an insoluble dilemma . . . and were terrified of it.
    "But Colonel," Tartakova spoke hesitantly, "how could we keep this a secret? Surely not every one of the hundreds of people here and at Phoenix will agree!"
    "Of course not. We'll have to restrict all knowledge of what's really going on to people we've sounded out and know we can trust. I know you and Arkady already have a pretty comprehensive list of the people we definitely can't trust. They, and everybody else who isn't involved, will just continue to rotate back and forth between here and Phoenix as before. In the meantime, we'll be doing the crucial work at Varien's outpost, protected by his stealth technology. Only one of our big ships would have to be there at a time, and we'd only have to have our people in a few key positions to be able to cover for those absences. I'm willing to bet that we can be ready within the two years the Project's got."
    His eyes swept the room again. Relief still warred with fear on every face, but relief was winning. And it was being joined, here and there, by sheer awe at what they—just possibly—had in their power to do.
    Kuropatkin, who had been prepared, recovered first.
    "Colonel," he began, "I know you and General Kurganov have not yet discussed this . . . alternative with Varien."
    DiFalco and Kurganov exchanged glances. "No, we have not," the Russian admitted. "I believe another visit to his ship is in order!"

Chapter Five
    Varien was uncharacteristically silent after they had finished. Then he sighed and shook his head slowly.
    "We really had no conception of the political climate we were dealing with, you know.