Winning the War
by Jacob Juntunen
(ADMIRAL sits at table. LIEUTENANT enters, snaps to attention.)
LIEUTENANT
Admiral.
ADMIRAL
At ease, Lieutenant. Any sign of the bugs’ battleships?
LIEUTENANT
No, ma’am. They flew around the sun, and that was the last we saw of them. The bugs must not realize how much they damaged our fleet during the last firefight, otherwise they’d be here to finish us off.
ADMIRAL
Our gambit with the Columbia seems to gone according to plan.
LIEUTENANT
Losing the Colonel was part of the plan?
ADMIRAL
We served together since the first war. He knew his duty and carried it out.
LIEUTENANT
And you don’t care, you can just seal off your emotions about a man you knew for twenty years?
ADMIRAL
Please ready the fleet for these orders.
(ADMIRAL hands LIEUTENANT a slip of paper)
LIEUTENANT
With all due respect, ma’am, I’m not sure—
ADMIRAL
I’ve gone over it again and again. This is the only winning strategy.
LIEUTENANT
To attack our own civilian colony?
ADMIRAL
To harvest what’s needed. Without repairs, the fleet won’t stand against another attack. Without protein, we’ll run out of food in three days.
LIEUTENANT
My brother’s down there, with his family—
ADMIRAL
There are only so many habitable planets in this system, Lieutenant. If we lose the perimeter the bugs will kill every human in the sector, and gladly.
LIEUTENANT
So we’re just going to take what we need from this colony, by force?
ADMIRAL
The bugs aren’t going to negotiate; if they get through, more than one colony will be destroyed. We’ll lose the entire system.
LIEUTENANT
But how are we any better than the bugs if we—
ADMIRAL
This isn’t about your brother, Lieutenant. This is about our civilization.
LIEUTENANT
Who knows how many crew members have family down there. How can we expect them to—
ADMIRAL
Those are my orders, Lieutenant. Put together a detailed plan to carry them out.
(LEIUTENANT puts orders on table)
LIEUTENANT
Ma’am, I must respectfully decline.
ADMIRAL
I don’t have time for noble resignations. You’re the best strategist I’ve got, Amy, the only one who can figure out how to put down the correct amount of resistance from the colony without military losses—
LIEUTENANT
I’m not resigning, Ma’am.
ADMIRAL
Then utilize any personnel you need and return—
LIEUTENANT
I must ask for your resignation, Admiral.
ADMIRAL
This isn’t some holochannel melodrama, Amy, this is—
LIEUTENANT
The captains of the ships will side with me. There’s already been talk—
ADMIRAL
Oh, has there?
LIEUTENANT
Since you used the Columbia as a suicide missile against the bugs—
ADMIRAL
I saved the fleet, didn’t I?
LIEUTENANT
How many friends did we lose, Admiral? Maybe you can just write off the Colonel, but some of us—
ADMIRAL
I spent more time with the Colonel than with my family. Got along better with him, too. Don’t you dare say I don’t miss him, but his death saved millions of lives—
LIEUTENANT
There are some lines that can’t be crossed just for the sake of winning, otherwise we’ve failed.
ADMIRAL
So you save your brother and get the fleet destroyed in the next attack? Let the soldiers starve? Let the bugs kill your brother?
LIEUTENANT
We’ll find a way—
ADMIRAL
I found the way.
LIEUTENANT
A way that doesn’t break our oath.
ADMIRAL
You won every war game in the Academy. We have barely have any shielding left. Soldiers are already on half-rations. If you have a way that doesn’t attack your brother’s colony, I will gratefully take recommendations. But the time is now. (pause) Lieutenant? (pause) Do you have any recommendations?
LIEUTENANT
Not yet, ma’am, but give me some time—
ADMIRAL
We have no idea when the bugs will come back. Are you willing to lose the entire system, millions of lives, because you can’t make a hard call? We attack your brother’s colony, or lose everything. If the captains will follow you into mutiny, they’ll follow you into this mission. We’ve all sacrificed. We’ve all lost someone. You’re somehow special?
LIEUTENANT
But how can we explain attacking civilians? Our own families?
ADMIRAL
Textbooks have a way of making the winners moral. So which is it? Do you bring me a detailed plan of survival, even if your brother’s on the Colony, or do we lose the war and let your brother die at the hand of the bugs?
(LIEUTENANT picks up the orders)
LIEUTENANT
I’ll return ASAP with a plan, Admiral.
ADMIRAL
Good. And Lieutenant: Find out from the Rations Head exactly how much protein we need for another six months of fighting. If too few civilians resist our attack, use lethal force on enough people to feed the fleet for six months. It shouldn’t take more than a thousand bodies or so; make sure our freezers can hold that much meat. I hope your brother knows better than to resist.
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