"They're hiding something," Rickard concluded.
"Of course they are," Savannah responded. "Refusing to turn over their findings from the alien ruins? Quickly followed with a purchase of four destroyers? Nobody moves that overtly unless they're plotting something. GreenWorld is preparing their dagger, so we ought to prepare for the possibility that we are the intended recipient of its sharp edge."
"Comes down to that fundamental choice in the end, doesn't it," she mused. "Only so many labour-hours our Society produces. Bread - or bullets?"
"It was a mistake opening dialogue with GreenWorld," Jonathan claimed. "It must mean something for a Nessie to be a Nessie, and this was in violation of that. The fact that we invited them to talk to them means that we wanted to talk - that we were not confident of getting what we wanted on our own strength, alone, as we always have. It is weakness that we've shown, and now they're jumping on it. This is what you get for trusting those foreign barbarians. They respect nothing but violence."
Rory sat brooding in the corner of the small office, accepting his veiled rebuke. There is no virtue in high politics, except victory. No sin, except defeat. What worth has your honour, when weighed against the hundred and twenty million lives that lie in the balance? None - no worth at all.
"The inspectors we sent were thorough," he did argue, nonetheless. "We even dismantled and reassembled their engines and power plants before any of their shuttles left the planet. Are we sure that GreenWorld snuck something off the planet?"
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that statement was met with disbelieving stares from everyone else in the room.
"They couldn't have taken anything big off the planet," Jonathan corrected. "But a small microchip can be hidden basically anywhere, and knowledge can be even more valuable than materials. Besides, we didn't check the crews' intestines, chest cavity, or the larger arteries - although in retrospect I guess we should have. You can smuggle quite a bit in the human body, as long as it's something that won't trip the detection sensors. Actually, Kalvijn, isn't that exactly how you--?"
"GreenWorld sifted through the entirety of what looks like a sizable extraterrestrial settlement and they supposedly came up with nothing of substance," Rickard added, interrupting Jonathan's reminiscence. "That's quite the extraordinary claim, and if you take extraordinary claims at face value without the extraordinary evidence to go along with it, you are a naive idiot."
"The problem is that there is little that we can really do to respond," Claire pointed out, continuing the discussion. "Our colony in the Masood system is still nascent and only partially-industrialised. Militarising our presence in space at this early stage in the great game will cripple our vital colonisation efforts. Even a small change in the base can make a critical difference when the exponent is large."
"Can we cripple their military from the inside? Surely we have some people in there, even if they're not in the right positions," Savannah suggested.
Kalvijn Stauning, of the innocently and euphemistically named Special Research Division, shook his head.
"Unlikely," he concluded, without even that much in the way of thought. "This isn't the Reunification Wars. The UN keeps its paperwork tight these days and it's no longer really possible to make people appear from nowhere to take up positions in the militaries and administrations of other Societies. We still have a few assets in GreenWorld we snuck in during the Reunification Wars, but they're irreplaceable and they know it."
Savannah grimaced.
"We proceed with our industrial policy as previously planned. If we divert resources away from that then GreenWorld is going to get the space supremacy they're clearly angling for without firing a shot or at all tarnishing their reputation. That cannot be allowed to happen."
"Just take the risk that GreenWorld might attack before we're ready, then?" Jonathan asked. "That's quite the bold move."
"As you say yourself, Jonathan, it must mean something for a Nessie to be a Nessie," Savannah confirmed. "We have our veil, so let's use it. Kalvijn? How much of an underbelly does GreenWorld have?"
Kalvijn gave a feral smile.
"GreenWorld? Oh, plenty. They're a far more dispersed Society than our own is, geographically, and they haven't embraced a closed society as much as we needed to after the Reunification Wars. Scandal exposes, organised strikes, bureaucratic failures on their subcontractors and customers... there are ways."
"Investigate the possibilities," Savannah ordered. "Plausible deniability, as usual, nothing that can be pinned on us in a United Nations court of justice, but something that GreenWorld will suspect that we had a hand in. Being a hassle is all we can do at this point, but there's no reason why Mister Ernskein needs to know that. Let them know that we are fully able and eager to make our displeasure known for them hiding their Masood I alien secrets from us, and let them concern themselves over how we might respond should they go for overt aggression."
"Perhaps paired with a demand that GreenWorld accept tighter and more thorough inspections on their activities in the Masood system," Jonathan suggested. "That way there's no need for Kalvijn to take larger risks trying to strike the balance with anonymity - the timing of our demand will be message enough on that front, and he can focus on covering our tracks."
"Sure," Savannah agreed. "As I said, investigate the possibilities, and get back to me on those as soon as you can."
