Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley Read Free Book Online

propaganda messages; power supplies had become untrustworthy. By the time the military phase of the war had begun, the populations of the cities had been demoralised, sick, and exhausted from dealing with faltering or failing life-support systems. Most had surrendered at once. Only Paris, Dione, had put up any kind of resistance, and it had fallen inside a day.
    Luiz told Cash that he and the rest of the singleship wing had spent their time chasing down Outer ships that had been attempting to flee the Saturn System. Most of those had been unarmed; the rest had been no match for the singleships. Still, more than half the refugees had managed to escape. Right now they were hiding out at Uranus. And no one knew how many of them were out there, or what they were planning to do.
    ‘Why haven’t you gone away?’ Cash said.
    ‘Away?’
    ‘I mean after them.’
    ‘We’re too busy here,’ Luiz said. ‘We’re good at blowing things up. It’s what we trained to do. But we’re not so good at putting things back together again. And fixing the damage to the cities is child’s play compared to dealing with the Outers.’
    Luiz told Cash that he’d been put in charge of a taxi service, shuttling marines and civilians and equipment between various moons. The Saturn System was now governed by the Three Powers Authority. The Pacific Community had established a small base on Phoebe and controlled the scattered settlements on Iapetus; the Europeans had been given charge of Rhea; Greater Brazil owned the rest. All the tiny and mostly uninhabited moons, as well as Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Titan.
    ‘Plus we’re arguing with the PacCom over who controls Hyperion,’ Luiz said. ‘No one lives there, but it’s become a sticking point.’
    ‘Bullshit politics.’
    ‘Remember we nearly went to war with them over Hawaii?’
    ‘I’m not that fucked up.’
    ‘They didn’t come here to help us out. We didn’t need their help. They came here for a piece of the action,’ Luiz said. ‘The question is, what are they going to do with what they have? And what else do they want?’
    ‘If there’s going to be another wart, another war, I need to make better fist,’ Cash said, and pretended that he didn’t see the quick tremor that passed across Luiz’s face.
     
    One day, General Arvam Peixoto visited Cash in his hospital bed and presented him with a medal and his captain’s bars - that was when Cash found out that he had been promoted, and that he was going back to Earth. The general told him that people back home needed to know about how the war had been won. He wanted Cash to act as an emissary or ambassador for the expedition. To explain the heroic work being done here, and to tell his own story.
    ‘I don’t remember too much of it right now,’ Cash said.
    ‘Don’t worry about that. I have people who can help you. It’ll be a fine little assignment. You’re a hero, Captain, and you’ll be treated as one. You’ll tour the major cities, meet VIPs at parties and receptions, drink fine wines and eat steak each and every night. And women, Captain, I don’t have to tell you that women love a hero, eh? All you have to do is make a few speeches, answer a few questions. And my people will write the speeches and coach you, and because they will be asking the questions, you will know the answers. A fine assignment, yes? And one that you fully deserve. What do you say?’

5
    Every day, the Brazilians brought more people to the dead city. Their search parties spread out across the face of Dione, entering and securing every garden habitat, oasis, and shelter, rounding up the inhabitants and transporting them to Paris for processing: a brief interrogation, confirmation of identity, injection with a subdermal tag. An industrial process, inflexible but efficient. The city’s net and every copy of its data base had been destroyed or corrupted during the war, but the Brazilians had assembled a list of malcontents by trawling