Leviathan

Five

“You’ve done this kind of thing before,” Captain Badaya pointed out. “You believe that the dark ships are programmed to mimic your tactics, and you have sometimes waited in ambush at a jump point where you expected the enemy to arrive.”

“It’s not a tactic unique to Admiral Geary,” Captain Armus pointed out, his tone gruff. Never a cheerful man, he had been particularly unhappy ever since the dark battle cruisers had so easily slipped through a screen he commanded.

“No,” Badaya admitted. “Hell, the Syndics have done it, too.” He laughed abruptly. “And you think Admiral Bloch commands the dark ships? What was his last battle?”

“Prime,” Tulev said, his tone carrying no trace of humor.

“Right! Prime, where he commanded the fleet, and waltzed us right into a Syndic ambush that hit us as we exited the hypernet gate there.” Badaya looked around the table. “Many of you know Bloch, too. If he still has control of the dark ships, don’t you think he’d try to copy the last successful battle he experienced?”

“Bloch would certainly want to replay such a fight with him on the winning side this time,” Desjani said.

“Does anyone disagree that this situation stinks of an attempt to lure this fleet into ambush at Bhavan?” Captain Duellos asked. He had arrived very recently, dashing home from leave as word spread through the Alliance of something very wrong that had touched Geary’s fleet.

No one spoke up.

Duellos turned to look at Geary. “But you are planning on taking the fleet to Bhavan?”

“Yes,” Geary said. “Because Bhavan has more than one jump point.”

The faces looking back at him, every commanding officer of every ship in the fleet apparently gathered at one immense table thanks to virtual conferencing software, shifted from disbelieving to realization.

“Hypernet to Molnir,” Badaya said with a grin.

“And jump from Molnir to Bhavan,” Duellos added. “It will take some more time than a straight jump to Bhavan, but neither Admiral Bloch nor the dark ships are likely to expect it. They will think that we are charging to the rescue, hoping to cut off and destroy the dark ships seen at Bhavan.”

“Will they wait long enough at Bhavan for us to take the roundabout way?” Armus asked.

Tulev answered. “If the dark ships are there to ambush Admiral Geary and this fleet, they will wait.”

“But what if we’re wrong about that?” Captain Vitali of the battle cruiser Daring asked. “What if they only wait for a certain period determined by whatever probabilities they have calculated, then bombard the hell out of Bhavan before they go home?”

“There isn’t any way to know for certain,” Desjani said. “They’re AIs. They should be a lot more patient than any human commander.”

“Unless Admiral Bloch is there commanding them!”

“Would Bloch bombard Bhavan?” someone asked.

Geary looked around the vast, virtual table again. “Many of you know Admiral Bloch better than I do. Would he take such a step?”

Duellos shook his head. “Mass murder? Not to an Alliance star system. He wants to be seen as the savior of the Alliance, not as someone who did what a Syndic commander would have done.”

“I agree,” Desjani said. “Ambitious as all hell, willing to sacrifice those in his way, happy to smash a Syndic star system that way, yes. But hitting Bhavan like that would be the kind of black mark that would prevent him from ever being accepted as the heir to Black Jack.” She must have noticed the wince that Geary couldn’t suppress. “Sorry, Admiral. But everyone who knows him would agree that Admiral Bloch has a bad case of Geary Syndrome.”

One of the many things that Geary had never expected to have happen was that his name and the legend the government had manufactured around it after his supposed death would be attached to a psychological disorder describing those who believed they were uniquely qualified to save the Alliance. The irony was that he himself, the real Black Jack, had never believed that he was such a person even though it seemed like most of the rest of humanity did. Nor, as far as he could tell, did his grand-niece Jane Geary think so highly of herself. Gearys seemed to be uniquely immune to Geary Syndrome.

“And if Bloch’s not there?” Vitali pressed. “How can we be sure how those dark ships will react?”

“We cannot be,” Duellos said.

“Is there something in particular that concerns you, Captain Vitali?” Geary said. “Something about the dark ships that we’ve seen but the rest of us might not have noticed?”

Vitali glared at the table, though his upset clearly wasn’t aimed at Geary or the question. “If there was one thing I saw that causes me to question how they… think… it was what the second battle cruiser did just short of Ambaru Station. Falling back to be with its crippled comrade. None of us expected that.” He looked around the table, his grim expression challenging anyone to claim otherwise, but no one did. “How long would you wait, sir?” he asked Geary. “How long before you assumed the enemy was doing something other than what you wanted?”

“That’s a legitimate question,” Geary said. He paused to think, aware of all of the eyes upon him. “There are two things we have to consider. One is that I wouldn’t have set things up that way. If I had the superiority in maneuverability and firepower that the dark ships do, and knew that this fleet had as much maintenance work going as it does, which also means this fleet is spread across a wide swath of this star system and not concentrated for battle, I would have come charging in here to see how much damage I could do.”

Desjani grinned in approval.

Vitali nodded. “That’s true. They’re being more cautious than you would be. That does sound like Admiral Bloch is calling the shots at Bhavan, or at least planned the action.”

“It’s also old doctrine for confronting a strong opponent,” Geary said. “They may just be using that doctrine as a template for action. The second thing we need to remember is that the AIs controlling the dark ships are not really being human. They’re just acting human. Right?” Geary asked of everyone. “That second battle cruiser didn’t fall back to its stricken comrade because of any emotional imperative or loyalty. It did it because its programming told it to do that.”

Captain Casia of the battleship Conqueror rubbed his chin. “It wasn’t acting human, it was simulating how it thought a human should act. That’s what you mean, isn’t it? How you, specifically, would act, Admiral.” Casia turned a keen look on Geary. “Would you have dropped back if it had been you commanding that second battle cruiser?”

Geary frowned, thrown off-balance by the question. “I haven’t really considered that.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Captain Badaya announced confidently.

“What makes you so certain of that?” Casia replied, sounding genuinely curious.

“Because we’ve seen it.” Badaya pointed at Geary. “He knows what the mission is. He doesn’t abandon us, but he also doesn’t make futile gestures. He is willing to accept when losses must be taken to get the job done.”

“Your example being… ?”

Badaya, undiplomatic and socially inept as he was, still managed to look uncomfortable as he answered. “Repulse.”

It took Geary a few moments to realize that he had closed his eyes and was striving to settle the emotions that had uncoiled inside him. He took a deep breath, opening his eyes and focusing on Badaya, who was frowning in distress but also defiantly.

Tanya looked ready to bite off Badaya’s head.

“You’re right,” Geary said into the silence that had fallen, surprised at how steady his voice sounded. “It is not easy for me to acknowledge that, but you are right. For anyone who is unaware, when I assumed command of the fleet at Prime, Repulse had already suffered serious propulsion damage. When I made the decision to lead the fleet in an escape, the commanding officer of Repulse”—Michael Geary, his own grand-nephew, Jane Geary’s brother—“volunteered to help hold off the Syndic pursuit long enough to ensure the rest of the fleet escaped.”

“And you accepted what Captain Michael Geary offered,” Captain Tulev said, his own voice as dispassionate as usual. “Because you knew the necessity of it. As you knew the necessity of fighting your heavy cruiser Merlon to the end at Grendel. Captain Badaya is correct. The dark ships are programmed to follow a model of your actions that does not give sufficient weight to your ability to recognize when you must do what is required no matter the cost.”

“They still think you’re soft,” Badaya added, rousing himself again now that the wave of disapproval had faded. “I did, too. A lot of us did. You came out of the past and reminded us that our ancestors would never have accepted the practices that we had grown to accept without even thinking. Killing prisoners. Bombarding cities. It took many of us a while to see that your objections reflected wisdom, not softness. But the people in charge of the people who did the programming, to them who have not served directly under you, they still think you’re too humanitarian, and that’s the model the dark ships are working on.”

“He has an excellent point,” Duellos said, looking at Geary. “How we can use it, I don’t know, but at the least it would imply that the dark ships will assume that you will come to rescue the people of Bhavan no matter the risk.”

“Admiral Bloch would assume the same,” Tulev said.

“What about those two agents?” asked Captain Parr, commanding officer of the Incredible. “The ones who tried to take over Ambaru?”

“They’re still aboard Dauntless, in our most secure confinement conditions,” Desjani replied. “And they’re still not saying much. We got some initial self-justifying statements, but since then nothing. Our interrogators say they’ve been well trained on dealing with interrogation methods and equipment.”

“If they are legitimate, sooner or later orders will come in telling us we have to release them.”

She smiled at Parr. “We’ll have to ensure the orders are legitimate. It might take a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of time, to be absolutely certain.”

Parr grinned. “Good. I want them aboard our ships when we face the dark ships. Maybe that will loosen their lips.”

“Speaking of loose lips,” Captain Duellos said, “are we certain that the dark ships cannot monitor our own comms, cannot break into our fleet net?”

“They could have at one time,” Geary said. “We’re now operating on a unique set of codes for comms within the fleet. Our code monkeys swear the dark ships cannot break those codes before we do automatic changes at random intervals.”

“How much are you taking to Bhavan, Admiral?” one of the heavy cruiser commanders asked. “How much of the fleet?”

“As much as I can,” Geary said. “Even if we only find the dark ships that were there in the last report, four battleships and their escorts, it will still be a tough fight. There is a possibility that someone will arrive with the necessary codes to shut down the dark ships before they do more damage, but odds are we’re going to be responsible for cleaning up the mess before it gets a lot worse. Prepare your ships for action at Bhavan.”

As the images of the commanding officers vanished in a flurry, the apparent size of the conference room and the table shrank at a matching rate, until Geary was standing in a moderately sized compartment at a table that could have sat ten people comfortably, the only one left with him the real presence of Tanya Desjani.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He nodded, not saying anything.

“Badaya shouldn’t have brought that up. He’s a clueless oaf, but he’s not usually that brainless—”

“Tanya.” Geary gave her a rueful look. “He was right. In a critical situation, the dark ships might well assume that I will go for a crippled companion, abandoning the mission in the process. If Badaya hadn’t brought that up directly, I might have shied from considering it. You know as well as anyone how I never like to think about watching Repulse die, and wondering whether or not Michael Geary made it off the ship in time.”

She sighed heavily. “I guess Badaya has his uses. That must be why I haven’t killed the idiot yet.”

“That, and it would be against regulations.”

“Yeah. I have to set a good example for the junior officers, who thanks to you have a much better chance of living long enough to grow into senior officers.” She ran one hand through her hair, grimacing. “Badaya is lucky Jane Geary wasn’t here, though. Speaking of which, in case you haven’t noticed, Jane Geary forgave you some time ago.”

“I noticed. She had a lot to be angry about.”

Desjani’s grimace changed into a scowl. “No, she didn’t. You didn’t create the legend of Black Jack that meant every Geary in your family had to join the fleet in order to carry on the great tradition. You didn’t start the war in the first place. You didn’t choose to get stuck in a damaged escape pod that had nearly exhausted its power when we finally found you after a century—”

“I really don’t like to think about that either, Tanya,” Geary objected.

“Sorry. And you didn’t take the fleet to Prime to fall into a Syndic trap that nearly destroyed the fleet and lost the war.” Desjani fixed him with a demanding gaze. “Did you? And you didn’t even ask Michael Geary to cover the retreat. He volunteered, sparing you having to ask him. Jane Geary was angry at Black Jack. She never should have been angry at you, and, eventually, she realized that.”

“Thanks,” Geary said. “It’s still hard…” He paused, looking toward the star display floating over the center of the table. “And speaking of hard, I need to call Roberto Duellos back.”

“Do you mind if I stay?” Desjani asked.

“No, I guess not.” Geary tapped the controls, and after a few seconds, the image of Duellos reappeared, standing beside the table.

“Admiral?” His gaze shifted to Desjani. “Personal or professional?”

“Professional,” Geary said. “Inspire will take at least another week in dock before she can get underway again.”

Duellos hesitated. “I am going to make that happen faster than scheduled.”

“A week is already faster than scheduled. I assumed you would get things done faster, but a week is longer than I can wait before heading for Bhavan.” He could see the disappointment that Duellos was having a hard time hiding. “That actually works out to our advantage. I want some insurance against the possibility that dark ships might attack Varandal while the fleet is gone. Inspire, Formidable, and Implacable can provide that insurance along with a scratch force of cruisers and destroyers that will also be getting operational again in the same time frame. And I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that having you in command of the remaining elements of the fleet at Varandal will be a source of great comfort to me.”

“I see.” Duellos pursed his lips as he thought, then nodded. “I understand both your logic and your reasons. I’m not happy, but it’s not your job to make me happy, and it is my job to do what is needed. What am I supposed to do if dark ships do show up?”

“That depends on how many there are,” Geary said. “If it is a force small enough that you can handle it, try to bring it to battle and wipe it out. I’m sure that you’ve been studying the records of the engagements we’ve already fought with the dark ships and know what a challenge that will be. They’re tough, fast, and nimble.”

Duellos smiled. “So are my battle cruisers.”

“As I know from personal experience,” Geary agreed. “If the dark ships come in force, then your job will be to divert them from attacking other targets in Varandal, attempt to lure them into futile chases and missed intercepts against your force, and in general stall them and prevent them from doing damage while waiting for the rest of the fleet to get back to Varandal.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Duellos remarked in a dry voice that made it clear he was mocking his own words. “I’ll do my best, Admiral.” He saluted, clearly ready to depart again.

“Roberto,” Desjani said, “how is everything else?”

“Ah, now we are engaged with personal matters.” Duellos paused, his expression shifting, then made a slight, indefinite gesture with both hands. “There is a clearer understanding. My wife knows how much losing this would hurt me.” He waved around, this time including the entirety of the ships and environment of the fleet in the gesture. “And I understand better her concerns for me and for the future.”

He made a face. “Our eldest daughter is complicating matters. She has a strong desire still to enter the fleet as well, despite many now telling her it is a dead end and no longer required since peace abounds and nothing really important will ever happen again.”

Desjani smiled bitterly. “Yeah, I’m loving this peace stuff. I wonder how the folks at Bhavan are feeling about that right now?”

“Not to mention those at Atalia,” Duellos said. “That’s what worries my wife. She knows the risks of being in the fleet still exist. And if our daughter follows me into the service…”

Desjani smiled wryly. “I’d offer to look after her, but I’ve had so many ships shot out from under me that wouldn’t necessarily comfort anyone.”

“No, it wouldn’t. My wife and I agreed that we have visions for the future that are incompatible, and we agreed that we still want to have a future with each other. So… a dilemma.”

“There are assignments that could keep you closer to home,” Geary said.

“System defense?” Duellos looked offended. “After all we have seen?”

“What about a training assignment? That’s valuable. A chance to pass on what you have learned. At the least, you could save a few lives by teaching people what not to do.”

Duellos paused, then shrugged. “Perhaps. If we can resolve this latest mess. I will keep an eye on the place until you return, Admiral, and if the dark ships show up, I will see what some old, beat-up battle cruisers and some beat-up crews can do against the newest bright and shiny that attracted the eyes of our leaders.”

Three days later, the hastily assembled First Fleet was approaching Varandal’s hypernet gate when a courier ship carrying Captain Jane Geary popped out.

“What’s happening?” Jane Geary asked as the courier ship raced to intercept Dreadnaught so she could rejoin her ship.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t make it back before we left,” Geary told her.

She scowled. “I delivered the information to the people you had specified. I’ll fill you in on that later though I will say now that each of them promised to immediately get on the matter. But, after delivering the materials, I couldn’t get a ship back to Varandal. Delays and excuses and postponements. Finally, I threatened to go public, and this courier ship miraculously became available.”

“I’m glad that worked. Your executive officer can brief you on the situation when you reach Dreadnaught. We’ll enter the hypernet gate as soon as the courier ship delivers you and gets free of the hypernet bubble.” As Jane Geary’s image vanished, Geary turned a concerned look toward Desjani. “They were trying to delay her return. Do you think her threat to speak to the press is really what got her back here?”

“Of course it did.” Desjani said it as if the answer should be obvious. “She’s a Geary.”

“She’s not Black Jack—”

“She’s his closest living relative. I mean, as far as is known,” Desjani said. “Her special status isn’t confined to fleet matters or politics. If she wants to talk to the press, the press will come running.” She sighed. “According to everything I heard, Jane never sought out the press. She didn’t exploit her status in any way. But that could have been because it would have been perceived, rightly or wrongly, as her personally benefiting from the family name. Now, she’s working the problem along with us, and she’s using every weapon in her inventory to help us win.”

“Maybe someone at Unity is going to fix the dark ships problem before we get to Bhavan,” Geary said.

“You don’t really believe that.”

“No. I don’t.”

Geary brought the First Fleet out of the jump point from Molnir to Bhavan with all warships ready for immediate action. Having lost Adroit at Atalia, with Intemperate badly damaged during the fight at Varandal, and the three battle cruisers Inspire, Formidable, and Implacable still undergoing critical repairs, Geary only had nine battle cruisers with him. He should have been able to muster twenty-one battleships, but Relentless, Superb, and Splendid were also in dock, leaving only eighteen. Twenty heavy cruisers, forty-one light cruisers, and one hundred twelve destroyers made up the rest of the force. There were no auxiliaries or assault transports along this time. Just front-line warships.

“Oh, damn.”

Geary heard Desjani say that as he tried to shake the disorientation caused by exiting from jump space. He finally managed to focus his own eyes, seeing what had caused her comment.

Sixteen dark battleships orbited near the jump exit from Varandal, along with thirty heavy cruisers, forty-five light cruisers, and an even one hundred destroyers. They were arranged in a rectangular box facing that jump point, only a couple of light-seconds away from it, ready to hit anything arriving at Bhavan directly from Varandal.

“Roughly even odds,” Geary said.

“You mean if the dark ships didn’t outgun our ships?” Desjani asked, her voice bleak.

“Yeah. Ancestors save us. If we’d come straight from Varandal, they would have torn us apart before we could get past them.”

“The only advantage we have is that we have battle cruisers and they don’t,” she said. “But what are the odds that we can use maneuverability to wear them down in any meaningful way? They’re three and a half light-hours from us. We’ve got that much time before they see us, and seven hours before we see their reaction.”

Which left it in his hands. Geary studied his display with a sinking feeling. Even if every one of his ships had been at one hundred percent effectiveness, this would have been a very hard fight.

Aside from the dark ships and Geary’s fleet, though, it was a very empty battlefield. Bhavan had one planet seven light-minutes from a star that was a bit less luminous than ancient Sol, the standard that humans still used. That planet was comfortable enough for humans that it now boasted a significant population in many cities as well as a lot of industry both on the planet and orbiting above it. Five more planets also orbited the star, most rocky but one a gas giant in a slightly erratic orbit that seemed to have swept up at least one other planet in its wanderings. Mining and manufacturing facilities orbited some of those worlds as well, some large enough to qualify as good-sized towns in their own right.

But the many sorts of civil shipping that should have filled space between the planets and around the planets was nowhere to be seen. Freighters, tugs, passenger liners, and other craft that would normally be plodding along their great, curving routes between worlds were all absent.

There were, however, a suspiciously large number of debris fields, by their size fairly recent, and concentrated through the regions that shipping should have occupied.

“It looks like the dark ships have wiped out every spaceship that didn’t manage to jump out of danger,” Desjani said.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Castries reported, “we have indications that every craft capable of entering atmosphere has taken refuge on planetary surfaces. From the chatter we’re picking up, they are terrified of the dark ships going after them, but for some reason the dark ships have refrained from targeting anything that wasn’t in space.”

“They haven’t hit any of the orbiting facilities, either,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “Nothing in a fixed orbit has been destroyed, Captain.”

“That’s weird,” Desjani commented. “It’s almost like… maybe that’s it.”

“What?” Geary asked.

She gave him a puzzled look. “It’s as if the dark ships identify this as a friendly star system, with anything in fixed orbit or on a planet safe from attack, but they see any ship in space as an enemy.”

“That at least makes some kind of sense,” Geary said.

“And we’re ships,” Desjani added.

“I already did that math.” He shook his head. “We have one big advantage, but only one.”

“And that is?” Desjani asked.

“We destroyed every one of the dark ships that we fought at Atalia. That means none of them had the opportunity to send any lessons learned to the other dark ships. They will still expect me to fight like Black Jack Geary, and they will fight like me as best they can.”

She gazed at her own display. Knowing her, he could see that she was worried but also determined to fight her hardest. “They’ll learn every time we make a firing run at them. Can we inflict enough damage on sixteen battleships like that quickly enough to make a difference?”

“We’ve got eighteen battleships.” He focused on his display again, trying to think. “What would I go after first if I were commanding the dark ships? Our battleships or our battle cruisers?”

“The battle cruisers. They can run if things get really bad. But we’d have a better chance of catching battleships that were trying to flee the fight.”

“All right.” He lowered his voice, making certain that the privacy field surrounding his and Desjani’s seats was active. “Tanya, our smartest move would be to leave Bhavan. These odds are ugly.”

“Leave without a fight?” She was trying not to sound upset and kept her own voice low, but the emotion came through anyway. “Abandon an Alliance star system to enemy forces? You can’t do that.”

“You can evaluate this situation as well as I can. Even though we’re coming in at them from a different jump point, that meant we had to come out three and a half light-hours from them, which is seventeen hours’ travel time. They’ll have plenty of time to set up attacks on us as we head for them.”

“If they act like they did at Atalia,” Desjani insisted, “they’ll come for us as soon as they see us, so that seventeen hours will be more like eight or nine hours. Which is what you would do, right? But you cannot… cannot…” Even now, Tanya had enormous difficulty saying the word “retreat” when speaking of Alliance fleet forces.

“This fleet is the only substantial force the Alliance has that can stop the dark ships,” Geary said just as forcefully. “If it is destroyed or takes serious losses, the Alliance will be helpless.”

“If the star systems making up the Alliance hear that this fleet, with you in command, left an Alliance star system to its fate against a force that looks inferior in strength to our own, then there won’t be any Alliance left to worry about!” She glared at him. “You know that’s true! We have to hold the line. You have to hold the line. If Black Jack abandons the Alliance, the Alliance is done!”

He looked back at her, seeing the certainty in her eyes, and knew she was right. “That is one hell of a demand to put on me.”

“I… yes, it is.” Desjani shook her head. “But I didn’t make it that way, and I can’t change it. I can just help you handle it.”

“That’s a big thing,” Geary said. “Any ideas?”

“Give them a perfect run at you, then do the stupid thing again.” She must have seen something in him, her expression shading into questioning. “What?”

“I don’t know. Something else is bothering me, but I can’t figure out what it is.” He tried to drop all doubt and prepare for a battle that the other side would not even know was coming for another three hours. “At least our outguessing them on the planned ambush here proves that we can outthink the dark ships on strategy as well as tactics.”

He had arranged his own fleet into three formations again, this time three diamonds arranged vertically. The leading diamond contained all nine battle cruisers, while the other two, currently arranged one slightly behind and below and the other slightly behind and above, each held nine battleships. Ten heavy cruisers accompanied each battleship formation, along with ten light cruisers each, while the remaining twenty-one light cruisers were with the battle cruisers. Thirty destroyers were with each battleship formation, the remaining fifty-two with the battle cruisers.

It gave him a leading formation designed for fast attacks and two trailing formations designed to hit hard.

If Tanya was right, and he thought she was, the dark ships would aim to take out Geary’s battle cruiser formation first. “Our battle cruisers have to be the bait, and the two battleship formations will be the jaws of the trap,” Geary said.

She grinned at him. “Now that’s Black Jack talking.”

“I’ll have to see how the dark ships set up their formations to attack us,” he added. “They won’t hold that single rectangle.”

“Not if they’re programmed to simulate Black Jack. I bet you we’ll see three subformations,” Desjani added.

“I do that a lot?”

“Sure do. But that’s all right. If the dark ships see you doing what they expect you to do, it will feed their confidence.”

That sounded wrong. “They’re not capable of confidence,” Geary said. “How about saying they won’t question the assumptions in their calculations?”

She shook her head more firmly this time. “Look, those may be machines, but there are humans behind them. Humans cut the code, humans refined the results, humans ran the tests and decided what outcomes were good enough. As far as I’m concerned, we are fighting those humans. And I want to kick their butts.”

“Fair enough. That feels better than thinking we’re fighting monsters, doesn’t it?”

Desjani grinned. “Sure does. And it helps my confidence. I can beat up software designers without breaking a sweat.”

He gave her a surprised look. “Have you actually done that?”

“No!” She appeared to be genuinely offended by the idea. “I’ve always stood up for the nerds, ever since I was a kid. I was one of them! And look how they’ve repaid me.” Desjani waved at her display and the images of the dark ships on it.

“Creating monsters. Yeah.” But her words had given him an idea for demystifying the dark ships, which felt intimidating for their alienness as well as their strength. He reached for the comm control. “All units in First Fleet, stand down your crews from combat alert for the next five hours. We will be moving to intercept and engage the dark ships. Remember that when we fight those ships, we are fighting the humans who programmed them. Those are the people we have to beat. Geary, out.”

He thought for a moment longer, then touched an internal comm control. “Lieutenant Iger, please inform the alleged agents that we have in custody that we are about to engage in combat with a large force of dark ships. If they want to increase their odds of surviving that battle, they might want to start talking to us.”

“I will pass that on, Admiral,” Iger said, looking discouraged, “but it probably won’t influence them. Those two are hard-core knuckle-draggers. I’m certain they would take it as a point of pride to die not having told us a thing.”

“Even if it led to a disaster for the Alliance,” Geary said. “May the living stars preserve us from those so certain of their own virtue.”

Telling others to rest was one thing. Being able to rest himself was another.

His first stop after leaving the bridge had been his own stateroom, where Geary had carefully composed a message in the hope that Admiral Bloch was present with the dark ships and that Admiral Bloch still had control over them.

“Admiral Bloch, we are both on the side of the Alliance. The ships you command are a threat to the Alliance. We need every warship we can get to deal with threats posed by the remnants of the Syndicate Worlds, especially after what happened at Indras. We also face threats from the enigmas and possibly the creatures we have nicknamed Kicks. I assume you’ve seen the Kick battleship we captured and renamed Invincible. You know the level of danger they pose. We can work together to preserve the Alliance instead of destroying the means for the Alliance to defend itself. I await any communication from you to discuss our options and the best route forward from here. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

He did not expect Bloch to reply. But maybe he would. Maybe they could make some sort of deal that would halt the dark ships long enough for the government to reestablish control over them.

After sending the message as a broadcast to the dark ships, he tried to get some sleep but could not, his mind irrationally waiting for a reply that could not appear for at least several more hours given that light could only travel a bit more than a billion kilometers an hour, and there were a lot of billions of kilometers between this battle cruiser and the dark ships. Giving up the effort to rest, Geary walked through the passageways of Dauntless, trying to sense the state of the crew’s morale and trying to settle his own nerves. There was something deeply disturbing about fighting a totally automated foe with no living creature in direct command. The upset didn’t make sense on any intellectual basis. Why did it matter what was trying to kill you? But it did. Somewhere inside, Geary had a firm conviction that it should always be who was trying to kill you. As Tulev had said, when it became accurate to instead say what was pulling the trigger, it felt wrong.

Up ahead in the passageway, Geary could see Master Chief Gioninni talking to a junior sailor. He knew what the conversation must be like, since the body language of both participants made it clear that the sailor had messed something up, and the master chief was “explaining” to the sailor why this was a bad thing and must not be repeated.

Both paused in their discussion to face Geary and salute, the sailor rigidly correct and Master Chief Gioninni correct in the manner of someone who didn’t even have to think about how to do it right in order to do it right. “How is everything going, Master Chief?” Geary asked.

“No problems, Admiral,” Gioninni assured him. “I’m just providing a little extra instruction to Seaman William T. Door, here.”

“I hope he appreciates the opportunity,” Geary said, keeping his voice sounding serious. “There has been many a time I wished someone could tell me how to get something done.”

Seaman Door did not, in fact, look as if he appreciated his good fortune.

Gioninni grinned. “If you’re trolling for advice, Admiral…”

“The first thing I learned as an ensign was the importance of listening to chief petty officers,” Geary said.

“Then, sir, I know we’re trying to outsmart those dark ships. I would suggest that if you are trying to put a scam over on someone, which is not a matter I have much personal experience with, you understand, then you would want to show them what they expect and what they most want, because that will make your mark confident and eager.”

Geary nodded at Gioninni. “Even if they’re an AI?”

“Sir, did you ever know a computer to question itself? Humans do. Not enough for their best interests, but still they manage at times. But computers? All you can do is kick ’em or reboot ’em or wipe them clean and start over. Those who have total confidence in themselves are the easiest marks by far.”

“Not that you have much personal experience with that kind of thing,” Geary noted.

“Exactly, sir.”

Geary looked back at Seaman Door. “What about confidence in the people who work for you, Master Chief? Is that important, too?”

“Very important, Admiral,” Gioninni agreed. “Even new recruits like this fellow here. He won’t let you down, sir.”

“I know.” Geary met the eyes of Door and smiled with the best confidence he could project, then nodded to both the sailor and Gioninni, and continued on his way.

There wasn’t anything wrong with Gioninni’s advice. In fact, Geary had already employed tactics like that at places like Heradao. The question was whether the dark ships could recognize tactics like that, and whether they could be manipulated into seeing what they wanted to see in the way a person could be.

That led to a string of thoughts that ended with questions that only Lieutenant Iger might be able to answer.

The hatch controlling access to the intelligence compartments offered few clues to the secrets it guarded. The compartment codes on the hatch indicated only that inside it lay Crewed Equipment—Sensor Integration, Analysis, Communications. But the scanners and access controls on the hatch were considerably more robust than those elsewhere on the ship. Geary could have walked right in anyway, but out of courtesy he always called in first, waiting until Lieutenant Iger or one of his subordinates came to escort him inside.

This time it was a fairly junior technician who led Geary into where Iger and his other techs were fussing over a variety of equipment. Lieutenant Iger saluted with a grimace. “No luck so far with the dark ships, Admiral.”

“What are we trying?” Geary asked.

“All of the usual and then some.” Iger indicated the men and women frowning intently as they watched virtual screens, occasionally reaching to enter commands. “We’re trying to analyze the comm patterns and codes being used by the dark ships, but they keep altering in ways we haven’t been able to predict, and their codes keep changing in ways designed to frustrate our equipment.”

“We’ll get it anyway, Lieutenant,” a female chief said, her voice angry and determined. “They can outthink the algorithms, but they can’t outthink me.”

Iger nodded to her. “Stay on it. If anyone can break into their net, you can.” Then he turned back to Geary. “The problem is,” Iger said in a very low voice, “it is obvious the dark ships know everything about our gear and our procedures. They were designed to be as impervious as possible to our intelligence collection and intrusion methods.”

“Lieutenant,” Geary said, “something has occurred to me. From all I have seen and experienced, you, your people, your equipment, are all among the best.”

Iger smiled slightly, looking embarrassed. “Thank you, sir.”

“There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m only saying what I’ve seen. But—” Geary paused, looking around at the intent workers and the screens they were studying. “If we can’t break in, could anyone else?”

Iger hesitated. “With enough resources, anything is possible, sir. Do you mean the Syndics?”

“I mean anyone trying to get access to the dark ships’ comms or controls. If the AIs running the dark ships tried to block any countermanding signals coming in, could they do it? Even if the people trying to break in had the codes they needed?”

This time, Iger took several seconds to reply. “I’ll need to speak to my people, sir.”

“What’s your gut feeling right now?”

“I think the dark ships could block it, sir.” Iger gestured in the direction the dark ships were. “I am guessing that whoever built and programmed them was focused on ensuring that no one who was unauthorized could break in, and gave the dark ships the very best means available to defend themselves against intrusions. But if the AIs can block us, they can block anybody, if they mistakenly categorize an authorized source as an unauthorized source. Or, if some malware got through and recategorized authorized sources as unauthorized, the defenses would then stop any corrective measures from getting in.”

“Admiral?” the female chief said, glancing away from her display for a moment to look at him. “From what we’re seeing of this stuff, the dark ships have had some really excellent defenses programmed in. And if their programming is biased toward defense against intrusions, they’re going to start seeing intrusions. Software is like people that way. It sees what it expects to see, it spots what it was told to look for.”

“Thank you,” Geary said.

“Do you think they’re totally out of control, Admiral?” Iger asked.

“I think they are trying to follow what they believe to be their orders,” Geary said. “And based on what you’re telling me, I think they may be blocking any attempts to regain full control of them. Maybe they’re misidentifying the source of the legitimate signals, maybe some malware got into them and is blocking any signals that counter it, maybe it’s just bugs in the software.” He thought about Master Chief Gioninni’s suggestions again. “But without the ability to question what they believe to be true, they can’t correct the problem themselves. Speaking of which, what about our agent friends? Have they bent at all?”

“No, sir.” Lieutenant Iger led the way into another compartment, then activated virtual windows that showed the views of the high-security cells in the brig where the two agents were being held separately. The woman was lying on her bunk gazing upward at nothing, the man sitting on his bunk, his gaze also unfocused. Their suits, the sort of civilian clothing that would have aroused no comment in almost any setting, were a bit more rumpled, but otherwise, they looked like they had when arrested on Ambaru. “They’re very well trained on resisting interrogation,” Iger said. “We can’t get anything out of them. Sir, I am still concerned about holding in custody agents whose credentials check out.”

“Lieutenant, I’ve sent a report to the government that includes everything we have on those two. If the government disagrees with what we’re doing, they can tell me. Orders to release them could have come back on the same courier ship that brought Captain Geary from Unity. But, so far, we haven’t heard anything from any organization claiming to own those two. Their official credentials look fine, but no office is stepping up to ask for their release. I still wonder exactly who those two are taking orders from. We’re not mistreating them. We’re not hurting them. We’re trying to find out who they really are and what they know about the dark ships.”

“I understand, sir,” Iger said.

“Do you? If you thought I was wrong, would you file an official report on my actions that stated your concerns?”

Iger paused, looking uncomfortable, then nodded, looking directly at Geary. “Yes, Admiral, I would.”

“Good. The more power someone has, the more they need people around them who are willing to speak up when they think that person is wrong. Continue asking questions, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” Iger replied with a relieved grin. “If I may say so, Admiral, I’ve met some senior officers who do not share your philosophy.”

“I’ve met many myself,” Geary said. “I had to work for some of them. That’s why I try hard not to be like them.” He gestured toward the prisoners. “Let them see and hear me.” He waited until Iger gave him a thumbs-up. “There is something I’ve wanted to ask both of you.” He waited again as the two agents turned to look toward the image of Geary that would be visible in their cells. “Let’s assume you actually are working for some part of the Alliance government, you both are convinced of the rightness of what you’re doing, and are absolutely certain that it is in the best interests of the Alliance.”

Neither agent responded. Geary hadn’t expected them to. Even he knew that one of the rules for resisting interrogation was to avoid giving even innocuous answers that would help establish baselines for the sensors monitoring every twitch in their bodies and minds. “I understand secrecy,” he told them. “I know the importance of keeping the enemy from knowing critical things. I also know that left to itself, any classification system will extend its reach, finding rationales to classify more and more. Such systems need to be controlled, or they expand to cover too many things. Secrecy should be aimed at our enemies, to keep them from knowing information that we need to protect. I find myself wondering who you think the enemy is, though.

“Tell me one thing. If you are really working for the Alliance, which exists on the basis of self-government by the citizens of its member worlds, and you are certain that this is the right thing, then why has it been kept totally secret? Why have the people of the Alliance been prevented from knowing what was being done, the malware that corrupted and controlled official software, and the dark ships, even in general terms? Is it that you don’t really believe in the principles of the Alliance and think that you have the right to dictate what people do and know, or is it that you don’t really believe that you are right? Someone who did believe in the Alliance wouldn’t depend on secrecy to prevent the people of the Alliance from deciding whether what was being done was something that agreed with their laws and their sense of right and wrong. Someone who did believe that they were right wouldn’t fear letting the people know because they would be just as certain that the people would agree with the rightness of those actions.”

Geary shook his head at them. “Whatever orders you have, whether they come from authorized sources or not, do not overrule the laws of the Alliance. If you believed that the orders you have been given were allowed by the laws of the Alliance, you would not be hiding those orders. Yet even now, even after seeing what the dark ships did at Atalia, and at Indras, and at Varandal, and what they’re trying to do here, you have given no signs of questioning those orders. The artificial intelligences controlling the dark ships could use the excuse that they can’t do better. But you could, and so far you have refused to do so. Think about that.”

His words finally drew a reaction, the man focusing on Geary and almost shouting his reply. “We need to keep the enemy from knowing our secrets because if they know what we’re doing, they can counter it!”

“You think they don’t know?” Geary asked. “Those software modifications only blinded Alliance sensors. The Syndics knew they had been attacked at Indras, and they could see who was attacking them. The only ones kept in the dark by our secrecy were our own people. Who do you think the enemy is?”

Neither one answered him this time.

Geary made a chopping gesture to Iger, waiting until the virtual windows vanished before speaking again. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I doubt any of that got through to them, but it was worth trying. Let me know the moment your people make any inroads on the dark ship systems.”

He had barely made it back to his stateroom when a call came in from the bridge. “We’ve received a message for you from the local government,” the comm officer reported.

Alliance star systems could choose their own specific forms of government, as long as they conformed to certain rules about popular representation and civil rights. Bhavan was run by an executive committee elected from a wider group of elected representatives. The entire committee appeared to be present in this message, and none of them looked happy. “We are under siege by a military force of unknown origins that refuses to communicate with us! We demand that the Alliance fleet eliminate that threat immediately! Our senators will be notified of these events and will demand an explanation from the Alliance government!”

Geary resisted the urge to point out that no one could be notified of anything until he dealt with the dark ships that were enforcing a blockade on space traffic in Bhavan. But the elected leaders of Bhavan did deserve some sort of answer. “This is Admiral Geary, in command of the First Fleet. I and the units under my command will do all that we can to defeat, destroy, and drive away the hostile warships besieging Bhavan Star System. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”