Weapons of War

Yesterday, I recapped the scenes for you from Rome's Revolution where Estar informed Rei that the Arks contained very powerful Erklirte weapons. As a civilian, Rei was not privvy to the dual purpose of their equipment. And since he was not a member of the Darwin Project, he had no idea of their secret agenda. However, all became clear as they were unloading the "supplies" from the Ark II's cargo compartment. Rei came to realize the sinister nature of the equipment:

     Now that Keller’s men could see, the process went faster. Two more vehicles were removed and “inflated.” Boxes upon boxes were unloaded and staged on the ground. Rei watched in horrified fascination as they inserted power rods into the particle beam drillers and now with the harsh vision of the current situation, he was able to see that, indeed, they were mobile cannons. Other boxes were removed, marked as explosives but also emblazoned with the symbol for radioactivity. Large tanks, containing liquefied fuel that had been frozen solid in space for 13 centuries were also place on the flatbeds.
     Weapons were removed and handed out. The Essessoni started climbing up onto the transports and the Ibbrassati handed them more equipment. To someone who had just arrived, there would be no way to convince them that all that equipment fit within the confines of the cargo section of the ruined Ark.
     “This is unbelievable,” Rei said with disgust. “We really are a small army.”
     “We had to be ready for all eventualities,” Keller said. “No one knew what we’d be facing.”
     “So why the pretense?” Rei asked. “Why didn’t you just tell us we were going to be conquerors instead of colonists?”
     “Because we didn’t know if it had to be this way,” Keller said. “There was always the chance that things would go peacefully.”
     “What about the animal embryos?” Rei asked. “Are they weapons too? Are you going to throw them at the Vuduri and ick them into submission? Are you going to choke them with seeds?”
     “I don’t know what your problem is, Bierak,” Keller said, “but this is the way it is. Get used to it. This is who we are.”

This is so hard to sort out. I don't blame the mission planners for sending along weapons. After all, nobody had any idea what they were going to encounter on alien worlds. But why the pretense? Well, that was what the Darwin Project was all about, secrecy. By the way, the line highlighted in bold is like one of my most favorite lines in all of the books, "ick them into submission." Pretty funny.