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"There are good people in the military," said Imala.
"Of course there are," said Lem. "Ninety-nine percent of soldiers and officers are the salt of the Earth, heroes in every sense. I salute them. Too bad those ninety-nine percent won't be the ones making the decisions about your intel. You want evidence? Look at every military op that has been conducted since this war began. Fail, fail, fail. All because of incompetent leadership."
"And you think your leadership is better?" asked Victor.
"I'm not volunteering to lead anything," said Lem. "This would be your op. You pick the staff, you pick the equipment. You manage it. I simply supply the resources."
"Then you pull the plug when it's not going your way," said Victor.
"Wrong," said Lem. "I would give all oversight to Benyawe. I trust her judgment now more than my own. I learned that the hard way."
"There are other avenues besides you and the military," said Victor. "We could go public with this. We could release the vid on to the nets."
Lem l
aughed. "What would that accomplish? Giving the world a glimpse inside the ship doesn't cause it to suddenly explode. You still have to strike it. You still need a team to conduct an op."
"We would get a team," said Imala. "People would rally behind this. People with skills and talents and ideas. They'd volunteer."
"Yes, and in practical terms what you're describing is a logistical nightmare," said Lem. "How do you manage the deluge of volunteers from all over the world? How do you manage their ideas? Their resources? How do you determine if you even want their help? They could be nutcases. Or worse. Most of them won't have any of the skills you need or be qualified to help. Who's going to tell them that? You?"
"There are ways to filter people and find who we need," said Imala.
"True," said Lem. "But who's going to set up those systems? You? Do you even know how to do that? That takes time and man hours. And anyway you're not looking for individuals. You're looking for a team. Soldiers. Experienced professionals. Men and women with very specific combat expertise. How do you form a cohesive team when you have people coming from different cultures, languages, opinions? Many of these people will be enemies. You can't just throw them together and hope for the best. Assuming you even get them to be cooperative, they would need time to train as a team. And who's going to command them? Who makes that call? You two? It's not an easy choice to make. When soldiers don't have a preexisting command structure, they're at each other's throats in minutes."
"You make it sound like humans have never worked together before," said Imala.
"Have you forgotten what happened the last time you uploaded something onto the nets?" said Lem. "You warned the world of an invasion, and did they come together, did they unite under a flag, did they make rational decisions and value the opinions of others and work as one? No. They yelled at each other and floundered around like imbeciles and left us with no global defense. They practically rolled out the red carpet for the Formics. And when the Formics blew them to hell, did Earth get its act together? Did we suddenly wake up and say, Gee we should probably unite on this, folks. No, we did a little more floundering and a little more imbecilic posturing, and now we have no fleet in space to protect us and a fractured global leadership."
Victor and Imala glanced at each other and said nothing.
"And why does Earth fail to learn its lesson?" Lem said. "Why do we persist in this divided idiocy? Because the world is full of prideful bastards, that's why. Everyone believes they're smarter than everyone else, more capable than everyone else, more justified than everyone else. Humility went extinct a long time ago."
"Sounds like you're describing yourself," said Imala.
"You're right," said Lem. "That's exactly what I'm describing. And the world is more like me than either of you. Earth isn't a free-miner family, Victor. It might have been all harmony and roses on your ship, but it's the opposite on Earth."
"We had our disagreements," said Victor.
"Of course you did," said Lem. "Every family does. But when it was decision time, the family moved forward as one. Even if half or more disagreed with the direction, everyone went along with the plan to maintain the integrity of the group. You won't have that luxury with Earth. Nobody cares about the group."
"You don't think much of people, do you?" said Imala.
"I managed companies before I came to Juke," said Lem. "I know how people think. The kind of global come-together you're talking about is a pipe dream. It would fall on its face in a week. It's not sustainable, particularly without any system of government. The minute volunteers disagree with your approach, they'll either quit or splinter off. They have no incentive to stick with you. Then everyone will try to do their own thing, and we'll accomplish nothing. We'll be right back where we started. Nowhere."
"So it's your way or failure," said Victor. "Is that what you're saying?"
"I am offering you what no one else will," said Lem. "Go public with this, and I can guarantee you you'll be cut out of it, faster even than the military will do. The military will consult with you at least, initially anyway, because they'll recognize the significance of what you've accomplished. Not the public. And certainly not your financiers. They'll protect their investment. They'll use their own people or people they consider more qualified than you. You'll be kicked aside. No one on Earth will feel confident putting the planet's future or their money into the hands of wanted criminals, both under the age of twenty-five. Sorry. That's a fact."
"But you will," said Victor. "But you we can trust. Excuse me if I seem a little skeptical."
"You have every right to be," said Lem. "But if what I've said hasn't convinced you, this will: If you go public with this and ask for Earth's help, all of your equipment and people would need to be launched into orbit. Do you have any idea how much time that would require to prep and execute, how much money that would take? By the time you've gathered funding and a team and organized a launch, Earth could be a charcoal briquette. I'm already out here. I'm a hop away from the Formic ship. My resources--which are vast--are here, in space. I am ready to move right now."
"Engineers and equipment aren't enough," said Victor. "We need soldiers as well. You said so yourself. Those you don't have."
"True," said Lem. "But I know how to get them."
"So you say," said Victor. "Why should we believe you?"
