We talked about our experiences on Paradise, and our lives before the Ruhar attacked. Chang had been an artillery officer in the People's Liberation Army, a career officer from a military family. He was just as worried about his family back on Earth as I was, the Chinese had not heard anything either; no messages or letters from home, no news, nothing. Chang was a good guy, professional, certainly a better office that I  was. He was also not looking forward to being paraded around as a public relations stunt by UNEF, although he thought that would be lower-key than what I expected. During the action that had resulted in him being promoted, he'd lost most of his men, including a lieutenant who was the only son of a high-ranking government official. The Chinese Army on Paradise wasn't eager to trumpet Chang's action too loudly. If I'd gotten the son of a senator killed, my military career would hit a roadblock for sure.

My zPhone beeped, it was Lt Reynolds, wondering where the hell was, only she said it politely. "We're on an observation deck, I think we're two," Chang held up three fingers, "no, three levels down. There's a bar here. A bar for the Kristang," I hastened to add.

"What happened to the Kristang assigned to you?"

"He was, uh, he had something important to do." I said, aware the Kristang were almost certainly listening. Important to do, like sleeping until he awoke with a hangover.

"Sir, please, stay where you are. Is Lt Colonel Chang with you?"

"Yeah, he's here, we're not going anywhere."

Five minutes later, Reynolds and two pissed-off looking Kristang showed up to retrieve us. We were hustled back to the shuttle bay, and as soon as General Meers and his staff were aboard, the dropship door slammed shut and the alarm sounded to depressurize the bay. Despite my fear that Meers was somehow pissed at me, he didn't say anything, Reynolds didn't think it was a big deal, and the ride back down was smooth

Chang and I never spoke about what the drunk Kristang had said, how he'd called humans 'slaves'. I thought about it a lot, and reported it to Meers' intelligence staff. To my dismay, they acted like they'd heard it all before, it wasn't news, and it wasn't a big deal. It was a big deal to me, it confirmed my worst fears that the burgermeister had told me the truth about the Kristang.

Were we fighting on the wrong side of this war?

CHAPTER EIGHT    PLANTING POTATOES