::Ride’s here,:: Harvey said to Sagan, and then was more than a little surprised to see what Sagan was carrying. ::That’s a kid,:: he said.
::I know that,:: Sagan said, positioning Zo? securely on the hovercraft. ::Get to the capture pod as fast as you can.:: Harvey accelerated to full speed and fled straight. There didn’t seem to be any immediate chase.
::I thought we were supposed to bring back Boutin,:: Harvey said.
::Change of plans,:: Sagan said.
::Where’s Boutin?:: Harvey asked.
::Dirac’s taking care of him,:: Sagan said.
::Dirac,:: Harvey said, surprised again. ::I figured he was dead.::
::I’m pretty sure he is,:: Sagan said.
::Then how is he going to take care of Boutin?:: Harvey said.
::I have no idea,:: Sagan said. ::I just know he will.::
Boutin opened his eyes in a brand-new body.
Well, not brand-new, he corrected. Gently used.
His Obin assistant opened his crèche and helped him out of it; Boutin took a few tentative steps and then a few non-tentative ones. Boutin looked around the lab and was fascinated to see how much more vibrant and engaging it was; it was if his senses had been at low volume all his life and then were suddenly cranked up to full. Even a science lab looked good.
Boutin looked over to his old body, which was brain-dead but still breathing; it would die of its own accord in a few hours or a day at most. Boutin would use this new body’s capabilities to record its death and then take the evidence with him to the capture pod, along with his daughter. If the pod’s still there, he quickly amended; it was clear that the Special Forces squad they had captured had somehow escaped. One of them might have taken it back. Well, Boutin thought, that’s fine. He was already spinning an alternative story in his head, one in which he—as Dirac—killed Boutin. The Obin, denied their prize of consciousness, would stop the war and give Dirac permission to leave with Boutin’s body and Zo?.
Hmmmm, that’s not quite believable, Boutin thought. He’d have to work out the details. Whatever story he thought of, however—
Boutin suddenly became aware of a small image flitting across his field of vision. It was a picture of an envelope.
You have a message from Jared Dirac, read a block of text that appeared in the bottom of his field of view. To open it, say “open.”
“Open,” Boutin said out loud. This was curious.
The envelope opened and then faded. Rather than a text message, it was a voice message.
“Hello, Boutin,” it said, in a simulated voice that sounded just like Dirac—sounded just like him now, actually, Boutin corrected. “I see that you have gone ahead and taken this body. But before I go, I thought I’d just leave you some final thoughts.
“A wise creature once told me that it was important to make choices,” the voice continued. “Through much of my short life I made no choices at all, or at least no choices of consequence. But now at the end of my life, I am faced with a choice. I can’t choose whether to live or die—you have made that choice for me. But when you told me that I had no choice but to help you with your plans, you made a mistake. I do have a choice, and I’ve made it.
“My choice is not to help you. I can’t judge whether the Colonial Union is the best government for humanity; I didn’t have the time to learn everything I should have learned about it. But I choose not to risk the deaths of millions or even billions by helping you engineer its overthrow. It may be that this will ultimately be the wrong decision to have made. But it is my decision, the one I think that best allows me to do what I was born to do. To keep humanity safe.
“There is some irony here, Boutin, in that you and I share so many of the same thoughts, share a common consciousness, and perhaps share the same goal of doing the best for our people—and yet with all we have in common, we have reached opposite conclusions on how to do that. I wish we had had more time between us, that I had been able to meet you as a friend and a brother instead of what I became to you, a vessel to pour yourself into. It’s too late for that now. Too late for me, and although you don’t realize it, too late for you also.
“Be that as it may, I want to thank you. For better or for worse, I was alive because of you, and for a brief time, I was able to experience the joys and sorrows this life has to offer. And I was able to meet and love Zo?, who I pray now will find a way to be safe. I owe you my life, Charles, just as I owe you my death.