The Fog of War
In 2015, fifty-five years after the Europans landed, the governments of Earth agreed to the decommissioning of the Internment Lagoon and to full transparency about the so-called Halvah War. Although most records had been declassified when the Europans were freed in 1980, the remaining records—including the full circumstances of the attack—were not released until the Lagoon was decommissioned in 2015.
From the oral history of Major General Vlailolo (Duke) Tosi, USMC (Ret.) (Continued)
As I approached the survivors sitting under guard, one stood and said, "Forgive me, Cousin." I heard her clearly, but her voice was weirdly high-pitched and distant. Her mouth behind the rebreather didn't move, but with each syllable, water squirted from neck slits partly hidden under her fur.
She identified herself as the leader, so Gunny Pectol and I brought her back to the CP tent. I interviewed her while the Gunny recorded and took notes.
(Excerpted notes of Gunnery Sergeant Vernon Pectol)
CREW: The 22 aliens comprised seven crew members: Nö, the xenologist; a radio specialist; and five engineers and deckhands. The remaining 15 passengers were family, friends, and the shipboard pet, a Rottweiler-sized aquatic animal.
CASUALTIES: The Europans had detected our spotter on the ridge overlooking the ship concealment. Fearing an assault, Nö ordered that the passengers be sequestered in the ship's hold, while the crew would approach the spotter and offer surrender. Shortly after they donned rebreathers and exited the water lock, mortar rounds breached the ship's hull, killing all the passengers. The crew were unharmed.
PLANNING: Nö had led the Matriarchy's Earth comm team. She knew many of her colleagues hated the Matriarchy, and she recruited a crew to steal a mining ship, pilot it to Earth, and ask for sanctuary. She chose the lander site and drug vector (halvah) after a radio conversation with a nostalgic human counterpart on our Europan comm team.
(From the transcript)
Tosi: If you came for sanctuary, why poison us?
NÖ: We feared a panic. We all use the "Peace Sacrament" to feel closer to one another. We heard about the side effects only a few hours before the bombs fell.
TOSI: Side effects or not, you had to know it was an attack.
NÖ: We intended to reveal ourselves only after a critical minimum of inhabitants could view us as friends instead of monsters. The plan failed, and we both have lost so much. Please forgive me, Cousin.
TOSI: That's for my superiors to say. Please tell me why you call me Cousin.
NÖ: (Scratchy, low-pitched ejaculation later interpreted as laughter) Look at us, Cousin, it's obvious, no? We are people, humans.
TOSI: Impossible.
NÖ: The Matriarchy considers such research a sacrilege, with mortal consequences for disobedience. But there are whispers, and other lines of evidence—poor Kutya, for example. So far as we know, she and her related forms flourishing on Europa are the only life there that show kinship with us.
