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His uniforn looked Martian, except for the blue-gray color scheme where Holden was used to red and black Kohl floated before him, confusion in her eyes
“This is an act of war,” she said, her voice tree to step in, refocus the man onto him just to make her safer It was a stupid impulse “The union The Earth-Mars Coalition The Association of Worlds They won’t stand for this”
“I know,” the young ht But I have to accept your surrender now, please”
She braced to attention, and it was over
It had taken less than four hours from the first transit Marines in Laconian power armor patrolled the corridors and coned unifor equipment into various communication and environmental systems with a well-practiced efficiency The people of Medina mostly watched in a sort of dazed shock
It had all happened so quickly It was impossible to process
He and Nao with the hundreds of representatives from the colonized worlds, several dozen reps from the Transport Union, the senior staff of Medina Station He didn’t have any actual authority He wasn’t even technically the captain of a ship or a ued They all gathered in the coalition-council rooe with a podium on it that consciously aped the layout of the General Assembly of the UN back on Earth
Admiral Trejo was a stocky olderholding a military posture that he looks comfortable in it He took his place at the podiuh and Colonel Tanaka stood respectfully behind him and off to one side
“Greetings,” the adh Admiral Anton Trejo of the Laconian Eh Consul Winston Duarte, our leader And now your leader as well”
He paused as though waiting for applause After a moment, he continued
“As you knoe have accepted control of Medina Station And yes, we intend to take control of all the thirteen hundred worlds it leads to This isn’t an act of aggression, but necessity We bear no ill will or animosity toward any of you As you’ve seen, this will be as bloodless a transition as you allow it to be I’ you here to implore you to please, please, contact your home worlds We will make communications available for anyone ill tell them to peacefully relinquish control to us If they do this, there will be no need for violence of any kind”
“I aduys,” Holden whispered to Naoo”
“There’ll be a ‘but,’” she said “There’s always a ‘but’”
“Cooperation is the coin of the es were already in motion here Your Association of Worlds The Transport Union All of these things will continue High Consul Duarte wants input and representation from all the systems humanity has colonized and will colonize The Transport Union is a vital apparatus in supporting those efforts Both organizations can and must continue their important work
“The only thing that has changed is that High Consul Duarte will be expediting the process The Laconian fleet will be the defenders of a new galactic civilization of which you will all be welcome citizens The only price is cooperation with the new order, and a tax to be paid to the empire that will not be onerous, and will be entirely invested back into the creation of new infrastructure and aid to fledgling or struggling planetary econoh consul’s leadership”