Read Rumors of Salvation (System States Rebellion Book 3) for Free Online Page B

Eventually, there’d have been
another attempt at secession, and another after that, and another after that.
The Federation’s been living on borrowed time for the past three decades.
Majestic calculated a better than even chance that it would have collapsed
within three decades, and after that it would have been a free-for-all. Planets
would have built up fleets and armies. Then they would have gone after each
other with weapons of mass destruction and death, nuclear bombardment of the
kind that Earth got a taste of yesterday, plus horrendous depopulation from
bio-weapons. Whole planets would have lost all human life on them. Civilization
would have broken down until the survivors would be fighting over food and
water with clubs. That Dark Age would have lasted for at least three whole
centuries, Admiral.”
     
    Chenko
scowled. It sounded pretty awful, but of course it would have to in order to
justify Nagumo’s betrayal, and yet he sounded as if he believed what he was
saying. When it was clear that Chenko wasn’t going to say anything, Nagumo
continued.
     
    “Majestic
came up with an alternative scenario that was equally compelling in its detail.
A central government with a strong, decisive individual at the helm, dedicated
to preventing any planet from developing or building offensive weapons like
ships or tanks, could keep the peace and allow all planets the breathing space
to develop at their own pace.”
     
    Before
he could go on, Chenko interrupted. “But that’s what the Federation was for!”
     
    Nagumo
gave an amused chuckle. “You really believe that, don’t you? What you don’t
seem to realize is that the Federation is a de facto Oligarchy. Earth dominates
the Assembly, and the Council and the big Chartered Companies dominate Earth’s
representatives to the FPS. That’s not a strong central government at all.
Policies that are politically expedient and that benefit the Chartered
Companies are the ones that get voted into law, not ones that are good for the
Federation as a whole. That’s why the SSU was formed in the first place.
Planets were exploited by the big companies, and they were helpless under
Federation Law to prevent it. Majestic’s logic was air-tight. You’ve never
actually seen the machine in operation, have you? Even before we expanded it in
Phase II, it was far more capable than the old Oracle device that Trojan used
on Earth. When Trojan looked at the analysis and the computations, he became
convinced that he had a higher duty to Human Civilization that trumped his oath
to the Federation. I came to the same conclusion after I looked at Majestic’s
results. Others have too. In fact, I don’t know of anyone who’s taken a good
look at the analysis and hasn’t reached the same conclusion.
     
    Chenko
refused to look at Nagumo. If he was telling the truth, then the fact that
others had voluntarily switched sides was a compelling fact that made Nagumo’s
explanation very hard to ignore. Chenko remembered a conversation with
Masterson early in the war, during which Chenko had speculated that maybe the
Federation was too big and travel times were too long for it to be governed
effectively by one central authority.
     
    “You
examined Majestic’s analysis yourself; you didn’t just take Trojan’s word for
it?” he asked in a somber voice.
     
    “I
looked it over very carefully. Trojan insisted on it, just like he did with the
others. There’s no doubt in my mind at all that Majestic came up with that
analysis. In order to ignore it, you’d have to assume that the machine was
falsifying the computations for some ulterior motive, which you have to admit,
Admiral, is pretty ludicrous, right?”
     
    Chenko
did think it was ludicrous, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to say so. “I
hope you’re not expecting me to jump aboard that bandwagon. I’ve been an
officer in the Federation Navy for over 50 years. I don’t think I could change
now, regardless of how compelling