Victorious

SIX

A collective sound like that of a pride of lions sighting prey came from the watch-standers on Dauntless’s bridge as the Alliance fleet arrived in the Syndic home star system. The fleet had fled this star system six months earlier, running for its life in the face of terrible losses and overwhelming enemy superiority in warships. Now it was back, and the wreckage of those Syndic warships littered space along the path the fleet had taken home. “We’ve got them,” Desjani whispered, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Geary paused to savor the moment despite his own resolve not to be distracted. The Alliance fleet had arrived at an angle relative to where it had been when Geary first assumed command, about a quarter of the way around the outer extent of the star system from the jump point the fleet had once used to flee to Corvus. Three light-hours away, the hypernet gate for the star system hung in space. Even from this distance the fleet’s sensors could pick out the thick walls of minefields hanging just outside the gate, their numbers and the density with which the mines were laid going a long way toward negating the stealth characteristics of individual mines. Just outside the minefields, another mass of merchant ships waited, hundreds of FACs visible attached to them, ready to launch and strike as an attacking force staggered clear of the minefields. Behind the merchant ships, only fifteen light-minutes from the hypernet gate, the main body of the Syndic defenders waited, a mere twelve battleships and sixteen battle cruisers, but accompanied by sixty-one heavy cruisers, fifty light cruisers, and one hundred ninety-seven HuKs.

Most importantly, the Alliance fleet’s sensors confirmed that the hypernet gate had a safe-fail system installed. Not that anyone on the Alliance side had doubted that protection would be in place, but actually seeing a safe-fail system present relieved any lingering concerns.

Elsewhere in the system, there were a few light cruisers and HuKs transiting between planets, and far off, almost opposite the position of the Alliance fleet on the other side of the star system, a single battleship and three heavy cruisers hovered in a small group.

“I know many of those battleships and battle cruisers are new construction, but where did the Syndics get that many escorts?” Geary wondered.

“They must have stripped system-defense forces from a lot of star systems,” Desjani suggested. “If we’d run head-on into that trap, it would have been a repeat of the fleet’s last visit here. By the time we cleared the ambush, we would have lost so many ships that the Syndics could have won.” Her gaze wandered across her display. “Everything in fixed orbit in this star system has rail guns or particle-beam batteries on it. Good thing you saved our rocks.”

The Syndic home star system certainly constituted a target-rich environment. In addition to the fixed defenses, the planets in the star system boasted many cities and colonies, though the primary inhabited world also had vast stretches of what looked like parklands, with grand lodges set within them at such wide intervals that nobody in one of the lodges could have seen another lodge. “Nice place,” Geary commented.

“The main inhabited world eight light-minutes from the star is almost perfect,” Desjani agreed. “The planet four and a half light-minutes from the star is way too hot, but the one at fifteen light-minutes must be nice enough since there are a lot of enclosed cities on it, and that gas giant only thirty-two light-minutes from the star is really convenient for mining. It is a good star system. Can we break it?”

“Yeah. Let’s start with the fixed defenses. We’ll save industrial and transportation targets as leverage and take them out as necessary to goad the Syndics into negotiating seriously.” Geary entered commands into the combat systems, tagging as targets the enemy defenses mounted on planets, moons, asteroids, and artificial satellites in fixed orbits, as well as the command and control locations and sensor systems associated with those defenses, then asked the automated systems for a bombardment plan. The number of targets was so great that the fleet combat systems actually required a noticeable blink of time before they produced a solution. Geary didn’t quite suppress a whistle as he looked at it. “I’ll have to make certain the auxiliaries are manufacturing more rocks for us. This will seriously dent our inventories.”

He moved to confirm the command, then changed a setting and looked at Desjani. “You do it.”

“What?”

“I passed approval authority to you. Go ahead and launch the bombardment.”

She slowly smiled at him. “You do know how to make a woman happy. This woman, anyway.” The smile changed, taking on a feral cast as Desjani looked over the bombardment plan. “Thank you, Admiral. This is for the comrades we lost here last time,” she announced, then tapped the approval command.

All over the Alliance fleet, warships began hurling out kinetic projectiles. They would take hours and days to reach their targets, but the intricate network of Syndic defensive batteries would be junk once they had all struck.

Throughout the hundred years of this war, the Syndic home star system hadn’t directly felt the impact of the war. Now it would, and Geary felt some satisfaction in that. “Let’s go hit that Syndic flotilla. All units in the Alliance fleet, come port four two degrees, down zero one degrees at time three zero.” He would hold this formation for a while, until he saw what the Syndics were doing. Despite how well things seemed to have turned out, he had a nagging worry that the Syndics had placed some other traps within this star system that hadn’t been spotted yet. “Maintain an alert watch for any signs of other minefields within the star system.”

Now that immediate actions had been dealt with, it was time to address the reason the fleet had come here. He called the intelligence section aboard Dauntless. “Lieutenant Iger, how precisely can you tell me where the Syndic Executive Council is located within this star system?”

Iger had the look of a subordinate who knew that his answer wouldn’t satisfy a superior. “It’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to give you an exact location. We’re scanning all unencrypted Syndic communications right now for any information, and we’ll break out what segments of encrypted comms we can, but it’s likely that our only indications will be transmission priorities on the star-system comm web.”

“You can read message priorities?”

“No, sir, not exactly, but we can tell which transmissions are being given priority by routers throughout the star system. By tracking those transmissions to their origin, we can identify the general location of whoever has the authority to issue the highest number of high-priority transmissions.”

That sounded good. “How general is a ‘general location’?”

The intelligence officer’s discomfort grew. “Once messages get within a closed transmission system, we can’t track them anymore. That would be, say, an orbital installation. Or a planet.”

“A planet?” Geary stared at Iger. “You could only narrow it down to somewhere on a planet?”

“Possibly, sir,” Iger explained. “Once on a planet, there are all kinds of transmission methods we can’t monitor from out here. Buried cables, for example. Command nodes on planets tend to use remote sites for actual wireless transmissions to help hide their location. But we should definitely be able to tell you which planet the Syndic Executive Council is on.”

It was obviously an explanation, not an excuse, so Geary nodded. “All right. How long will it take you to get me that?”

“It depends on how tight the Syndic net is, sir. A few hours to less than a day on the outside. Admiral, if some Syndic source provides better information, we can localize the Executive Council better. We just can’t count on that happening soon.”

“Understood. Have you identified any POW camps, yet?”

Iger shook his head. “No, sir. Nothing that looks like a POW or labor camp, and no comm traffic obviously associated with such a thing. But we’ll keep looking.”

“Good, but the priority task is finding the Syndic leadership’s location. Let me know when you’ve got that, and get it as soon as you can.” He had enough experience with Iger to know the wording he used would be all that was needed to get the intelligence section working at full speed.

Less than a day, or at least a few hours. That seemed far too long to wait, to allow the Syndics to plan more attacks, before offering to open negotiations. Long experience had taught Geary that it was easier to stop a plan from being formed than it was to stop a plan in the process of being carried out.

He couldn’t yet target his message on one location, so he would have to broadcast it. Geary sat straighter before transmitting this time. “To the members of the Executive Council of the Syndicate Worlds, this is Admiral Geary, commanding officer of the Alliance Fleet. We are here to end this war on terms both sides can accept. We will end it by negotiation if possible, or by force if necessary. Attached to this transmission is a list of proposed points to form the basis for a peace treaty. I urge you to review that list and respond positively as soon as possible. Alliance forces within this star system will continue offensive operations until a treaty is agreed upon.” Rione had suggested that as a way of ensuring that the Syndics wouldn’t try drawing out negotiations as long as possible. “To the honor of our ancestors.”

As he finished, Geary heard a noise at the back of the bridge and turned, annoyed. Besides Rione, the other two senators stood there as well, crowding that particular area. All three politicians seemed to be arguing, and Desjani appeared to be trying to decide whether she could get away with arresting them all. “Excuse me,” Geary said, a little louder than usual. “But we are still facing strong Syndic military forces in this star system and anticipate combat. We’d prefer not to have distractions on the bridge.”

“Even though we’ve had to live with them for some time,” Desjani muttered too low for any of the politicians to hear.

Senator Costa frowned importantly. “Admiral Geary, we’re simply working out a fair rotation for occupying the observer position on the bridge.”

Out of sight of Costa and Sakai, Rione made a defeated gesture to Geary before speaking. “Perhaps this discussion should be held elsewhere,” she suggested to the other two politicians. “Someplace quiet, where we won’t disturb the crew.”

“The brig is nice and quiet,” Desjani grumbled under her breath.

“Tanya,” Geary warned softly before raising his voice again. “That’s a good suggestion, Madam Co-President. Work it out among yourselves, please.” He didn’t want to get involved in this because he was afraid if he did, he would eventually lose patience with the politicians and order them to follow a certain arrangement. Ordering politicians around could very easily become too comfortable a way of handling them. He couldn’t afford to become comfortable with that, not when the fleet and the people of the Alliance would be all too happy to urge him on.

Sakai’s feelings were hard to determine, but he nodded. “All right, Admiral. We trust that we will be notified as soon as the enemy combat forces are eliminated?”

The senator made the elimination of the Syndic flotilla sound like a mere formality, Geary thought. Outwardly, all he did was nod. “Certainly.”

“I am very proud,” Sakai added, “to see so many brave citizens of Kosatka here, playing such a critical role in this fleet. We could not be here without their courageous sacrifices.”

Unseen by Sakai, Desjani rolled her eyes, but her voice sounded respectful. “Thank you, Senator.” The watch-standers on the bridge from Kosatka all uttered brief but polite responses as well before the three senators left the bridge.

Geary wasn’t surprised when Senator Costa showed up a short time later to somewhat smugly take a seat in the observer’s chair. He had expected Rione to agree to let another senator sit there for a while, since Rione already knew from her own experience that nothing would be happening for hours. It would still be over two hours before the Syndic flotilla guarding the hypernet gate even saw the Alliance fleet, and close to three hours after that before the Syndic reaction would be seen.

After the first hour had gone by, with the Alliance fleet steadily heading toward the Syndics but little else occurring except for kinetic bombardment rounds hitting a couple of the closest Syndic defensive installations, Costa had grown a little fidgety. Another hour, and not much else had changed. Point one light speed sounded fast, and it was. At that velocity, the Alliance warships were covering about thirty thousand kilometers per second. But given the immense distances in space, even that could feel like a crawl. With ten hours required to cover a single light-hour of distance, and the enemy close to three light-hours away, it would be well over a day before any prospect of battle arose.

“They should have seen us by now,” Desjani finally commented to Geary loud enough for Costa to hear. “Only three more hours until we see them react.”

Costa, already looking bored, twisted her mouth.

Geary stood up. “I need to walk around and think. Let me know if anything happens before three hours is out.”

“I’ll do that, sir.”

Two hours later he was back on the bridge. Rione sat in the observer’s seat again, but she didn’t seem self-satisfied at having tricked the other senators into a rotation that favored her. Instead, Geary thought he saw worry in Rione. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know.”

She said nothing more, so Geary sat down, nodding to Desjani, who also appeared bothered. “How’s everything look?” he asked.

“Good.” But Desjani didn’t seem entirely happy about that.

“What’s bothering you?” Geary asked.

“I can’t tell, Admiral. What’s bothering you?”

“I can’t tell, either.”

The minutes crawled by, but eventually alerts appeared on the maneuvering display as movement by the Syndic flotilla was finally seen.

“They’re avoiding combat,” Desjani noted with a scowl.

The Syndic warships had pivoted and were accelerating away from their positions near the hypernet gate, but not on any vector that would bring them to the oncoming Alliance forces. “I wonder where they’re going,” Geary said. If the enemy flotilla chose to hang around just out of reach of the Alliance forces, it would be an annoying and constant threat. Humans could play games with physics in normal space with such things as the inertial dampers, which made it possible to accelerate and decelerate at rates that would normally have torn apart ships and humans, but no one had figured out how to triumph completely over the simple factors of distance and time. The Syndics were too far distant for the Alliance fleet to have any chance of catching them. The Syndics would have to come a lot closer for combat to happen, but they didn’t seem interested in doing that at the moment.

“Wherever they’re going, it’s nowhere near us,” Desjani muttered, as the projected vectors for the Syndic ships shrank from cones to thinner and thinner lines as the Syndics reached their intended course and speed, and the fleet’s sensors analyzed the resulting track. “Looks like they’re cutting through one segment of the star system, not directly away from us but not coming all that close, either.”

Had the Syndics chosen to negotiate without fighting a hopeless battle? But Geary had yet to receive a reply to the demands he had broadcast. “They’ll remain a threat in being. Fine. We’ll disregard them and head for the primary inhabited world. That will give that flotilla a little over two days to decide whether it will just stand by while we put guns to the heads of their leaders. Either they fight, or we win.” It didn’t feel very satisfying, but it seemed the best option.

“We can’t catch them, so we have to make them come to us,” Desjani agreed with evident frustration.

The fleet swung around again, heading toward the star and the planet orbiting only eight light-minutes distant from that star.

Ten more hours crawled by, the Syndic defenses in fixed orbits vanishing in an expanding arc of destruction as the Alliance bombardment reached them. A barrage of kinetic projectiles was fired at the fleet at extremely long range by some of the Syndic fixed defenses, which were so distant that the Alliance bombardment hadn’t gotten to them yet, but with literally hours and days to dodge slightly to avoid the oncoming projectiles, the Alliance warships didn’t spend any time worrying about them.

When a message finally arrived at the Alliance fleet from the Syndics, it wasn’t from any of the planets. “We have a transmission from the flagship of the Syndic flotilla,” the communications watch reported.

Geary felt a sense of déjà vu as the image appeared before him. He had sat in this chair before, in this star system, and seen this same Syndic CEO. “Him?”

“The one who commanded the Syndic forces here before and ordered the murders of Admiral Bloch and the other senior officers in the fleet,” Desjani confirmed, each word coming out harder than the one before. She hadn’t had any personal admiration for Admiral Bloch, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t mad as hell about his being killed under the guise of negotiations.

“Yeah. That guy.” Geary’s memories flashed back to when that same CEO had arrogantly demanded the unconditional surrender of the Alliance fleet warships that had survived the initial ambush. He could, if he wanted to, call up the record of the transmission sent to the fleet of Bloch and the others being shot inside the shuttle dock of the Syndic flagship. A surge of old anger filled Geary as he looked at that face again.

The Syndic CEO on the screen smiled as if he knew he would be recognized and wanted to let them know he would enjoy their reactions. “The Syndicate Worlds send their greetings to Admiral Geary. I am CEO First Rank Shalin.”

“He’s wearing more medals than before,” Desjani breathed with barely controlled fury. “Awards for what he did here last time.”

CEO Shalin continued speaking. “We’re prepared to offer a cease-fire within this star system, in the interests of humanity. We are willing to engage in negotiations with your fleet.”

Geary stared at the image, wondering if his mouth was literally hanging open. To have this man speak of negotiating after the atrocity committed during the last “negotiations” with him labeled him as either unbelievably tone-deaf or viciously insulting.

“We have a number of Alliance prisoners of war within this star system” the CEO went on in an almost negligent tone of voice. “They were acquired during your fleet’s last visit here. Those prisoners are dispersed in a wide number of locations. It would be a pity if any were harmed by bombardments. I await your reply and trust that you will exercise discretion in your actions to avoid escalating tensions and casualties.”

The image blanked, and Geary shook his head in disbelief. “What was the purpose of that? Are they just trying to make us angry?”

“They’re succeeding,” Desjani growled.

“Would they actually place our prisoners of war at their defensive sites?” He already knew the answer but needed it confirmed. Intelligence still hadn’t found any POW camps, which meant any Alliance prisoners in this star system would have to be dispersed and confined in relatively small groups.

“They would.” Desjani shook her head. “But it’s stupid to make that threat after our barrage was launched. We can’t stop it any more than they can, so claiming our POWs are at those locations has no result except to make us madder.”

His and Desjani’s reactions to the Syndic transmission had been the same. “That’s the idea, isn’t it? Make us mad, enraged, in the hope that it causes us to do the wrong thing, We’ve used that tactic against them, and I can’t imagine any other reason for the tone and wording of that transmission.” He thought for a moment. Senator Sakai was occupying the observer’s chair on the bridge just then and, while watching intently, hadn’t offered any comments. “Senator, do you have any thoughts on this?”

Sakai, his face impassive, slowly shook his head. “Nothing beyond what you and Captain Desjani have speculated, Admiral. I agree with you that the enemy commander’s message seemed designed to provoke us into heedless actions. However, I am accustomed to the tricks employed in political combat, not those used in actual fighting. I don’t know what actions the Syndics hope to goad us into taking, and since you are aware that they are attempting to provoke us, I can think of nothing further to add at this time.”

“Thank you, Senator.” At least Sakai was intelligent enough to recognize his limits and candid enough to admit to them. “Captain Desjani, please forward a copy of that transmission to Co-President Rione. I’d like her assessment of what the Syndics are up to.”

Desjani gestured to a watch-stander to carry out the task, her expression still furious. “If I get within weapons range of that man, and I pray to the living stars that I do, I’ll blow his everlasting soul into enough tiny pieces that even his ancestors won’t be able to put it back together.”

A muted alert sounded, drawing Geary’s eyes to his display. “The Syndic flotilla is turning toward us.”

Her eyes lighting with eagerness, Desjani focused on her own display. But as the minutes went by and the course of the flotilla steadied out, she scowled. “They’ve come starboard, but that flotilla’s track still has a closest point of approach to us of about a light-hour. If we come onto an intercept, they can still easily evade us.”

“What’s their game?” Geary wondered. “Make us mad, then hang out of reach. What is it they expect us to do?”

Desjani took a long, slow breath, clearly mastering her own anger enough to think, then glanced at him. “Do you remember Sutrah? As well as Corvus?”

He didn’t like to dwell on those engagements early in his command of the fleet, but it wasn’t hard to see her point. “This fleet, back then, would have charged that flotilla even knowing they had no chance of intercepting it.”

“Because going on the attack was always right, and they would have expected the Syndics to countercharge.” Desjani’s brow furrowed in thought. “That CEO is the one we most want revenge against, he says things designed to make us want to go after him, and their flotilla cruises along just out of reach.”

“They want us angry enough to chase them even though we have no chance of catching them.” Geary leaned back, searching his display for something they might have missed earlier. “Why? What’s the point? Surely we’d spot any minefields in our path, and in any case, our possible courses cover too much space for this to be an attempt to lure us into prepositioned mines. A delaying action? At best such a tactic would buy them a few days before this fleet got tired of a futile chase.”

“If our formation dissolved, and the fleet was strung out, they might be able to hit portions of it that couldn’t be supported by the rest of the fleet,” Desjani suggested.

“Maybe. I suppose that would give them a chance to hit our battle cruisers if they had charged too far out in front. But we would still have a strong advantage in numbers.” Another possibility came to mind. “Do you think they’re delaying because they expect help from … anyone?”

Desjani frowned. “External help?” she asked, avoiding speaking directly about the aliens. “Why would the Syndics trust them again?”

“Because it’s their only chance? But why try to draw us into a chase instead of just delaying through negotiations?” Too many questions, not enough answers. “Let’s hold course for a while and see what they do once it becomes obvious we’re not playing their game.”

“Are you going to answer that motherless scum?” Desjani asked.

“Not yet.” Partly because he didn’t trust himself to speak calmly to the man, and partly because he wanted to learn more before deciding what to say.

Half an hour later, long before it could have seen the Alliance fleet’s reaction to its previous maneuver, the Syndic flotilla veered to starboard again, coming onto a vector that would intercept the Alliance fleet in about three days. “Now we don’t even have to maneuver,” Desjani observed, scowling. “I want to blow away those bastards, but if they really wanted to fight, they’d be coming toward us on a much faster intercept. They’re just going to run again once we get a bit closer.”

“So even though we’re not chasing them, for the time being they’re happy if we just keep doing what we’re doing.” Geary squinted at his display as if that would make him see hidden objects there. “There’s nothing on our track that could be a threat, right?”

“Not a thing, not unless their stealth mine technology has suddenly improved by several orders of magnitude.”

That wasn’t impossible if the aliens had rendered more direct assistance to the Syndics, Geary realized. But there had been no way for the Syndics to predict that the Alliance fleet would be on this particular path through space, no way for the Syndics to have laid minefields along that path, so why were the Syndics content to keep luring the Alliance fleet down that path?

Rione came back onto the bridge as he was still considering the question. “We think they used that CEO to goad us into attacking. What do you think?” Geary asked “That’s as good a guess as any,” Rione replied, sitting down herself, as Senator Sakai rose but stayed standing beside the observer’s seat. “Yet the odds as we know them offer no reason why that tactic would succeed. I expected the Syndic leaders to stall for time, but this is different, an attempt to ensure we remain focused on that flotilla. Is there anything else in this star system to which they wouldn’t want us paying attention?”

He studied his display with that in mind, then pointed.

“I expected that battleship and those three heavy cruisers to head for the flotilla and join forces. Instead, they’re just waiting there, and the flotilla has gotten steadily closer to them.”

“They’re near a jump point,” Desjani said. “For Mandalon. I don’t know why the Syndics would waste a battleship and three heavy cruisers guarding a jump point, though. Maybe they do expect reinforcements to come through that jump point, and the flotilla is moving to join up with them when the reinforcements get here.”

“That’s possible.” Geary rubbed his neck, trying to figure out what the Syndics might be up to. “They must be thinking of fighting us eventually, and waiting for reinforcements would explain what they’ve been doing. If the Syndic flotilla just wanted to run, they could have used their own hypernet gate or headed straight for the jump point.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Rione said, “but one more battleship and three more heavy cruisers won’t make any significant change to the odds against the Syndics. Nor can they have significant numbers of reinforcements still coming unless our intelligence is far from the mark. There’s still something missing, something the Syndics don’t want us to see.” Rione shook her head, gazing at the display before her. “The Syndic leadership has stayed in control because they are willing to do whatever it takes to maintain that power. They know you have defeated their flotillas time and again. They know their fixed defenses in this star system couldn’t defeat a fleet. We’ve seen the ambush they prepared if this fleet had come through the hypernet gate here. It was thorough and deadly, but the fleet under the command of Admiral Geary has escaped certain doom more than once. What is their hidden card, the one the Syndic leaders planned to play if all else failed to stop a man whom they have failed to stop time and again?”

Desjani spoke with exaggerated patience. “Madam Co-President, the fleet’s sensors aren’t infallible, but they have scanned this system repeatedly. It is not overconfidence to say that we know everything the Syndics have here. They planned on the ambush at the hypernet gate destroying this fleet.”

“I’m aware of what the sensors report.” Her tone remaining almost distant, Rione stared at her display. “There’s something missing,” she repeated. “Every instinct I have tells me that the Syndics would have insurance, something else in the all-too-likely event that Black Jack Geary produced another miracle.”

Geary looked from Rione to Desjani, his own misgivings springing back to life. “The Syndic flotilla’s actions imply there’s something else going on here, but if there is another threat big enough to imperil this fleet, we haven’t found it. What could it be?”

Sakai spoke for the first time. “As I said, I have little direct experience with military matters, but I do have some knowledge of dealing with opponents in ways they do not expect. If what you seek is here, and you are confident that we have seen all that is here, then we must have seen it and not known what it means.”

“Maybe intelligence has spotted something. It’s their job to figure out what things mean.” Geary called Lieutenant Iger again. This time, Lieutenant Iger had the unhappy look of an intelligence officer who was about to impart something that wasn’t going to make his superior happy. “Lieutenant, do you have anything regarding any threats in this star system that wouldn’t have been apparent before now?”

Iger appeared startled by the question. “No, sir. Nothing we haven’t reported. We’ve fed everything we’ve found regarding threats into the fleet combat systems. But, sir, I was going to call you after we ran a triple check on our analysis of the Syndic net. We do apparently have something odd going on.”

Naturally. Something else odd. “And what would that be?”

“Sir, regarding the location of the Syndic Executive Council.” Lieutenant Iger frowned down at something on his own display, then made a helpless gesture. “We have identified a location that has firm priority within the Syndic net.”

“Which planet is it?” Geary pressed.

“It’s not a planet, sir. It’s in the small group of Syndic warships at the jump point for Mandalon.”

Geary’s eyes went to his display. “They’re on that battleship?”

“That is our assessment, yes, sir. As I said, we were rerunning our analysis—”

“Why? Why would they be on that battleship?”

“We have to assume that they’re preparing to run, sir.”

“But if the Syndic leaders are on that battleship so they can escape, why haven’t they already run? It would have made more sense to leave this star system before we arrived so it wouldn’t so obviously be running. And how can they hope to maintain their authority if they flee this star system?”

Iger looked apologetic. “Sir, we don’t know the answers to that. We have to assume that there is a reason the Syndic leaders haven’t yet fled and that they have some grounds for thinking they can politically survive such a flight.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Geary looked to Desjani, Rione, and Sakai. “Intelligence says the Syndic Executive Council is on that battleship at the jump point for Mandalon. Intelligence doesn’t know why they haven’t already run if that’s their intention.”

“They’re planning on doing something before they run,” Desjani replied.

“That’s what intel thought. But what?”

“I don’t know. I can only think of one reason why as a military officer I’d want to get away fast after performing an action.”

Memories flashed into Geary’s mind. The last moments of his heavy cruiser Merlon in Grendel star system. “If you’ve activated a power-core overload on your ship. A self-destruct command. You need to be able to get off the ship fast after you give that order.”

“Right. But what could the Syndic Executive Council want to do that’s anything like that?”

Rione answered Desjani, though her reply sounded more like a prayer. “May the living stars preserve us.” She stood up, her face growing pale as an expression of horror flitted across it. “Senator Sakai was correct. We’re looking at it. Ancestors save us, it’s right there, and we didn’t see it.”

Desjani frowned, searching her own display. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about what we expect to see and what really is there! How did this fleet defeat that Syndic flotilla at Lakota? It used a large number of ships as an improvised minefield, and the Syndics didn’t realize what it was because it didn’t look like a minefield.” Rione’s hand came up, pointing. “The hypernet gate.”

Geary felt a hard knot tighten in his guts. “It has a safe-fail system installed. We confirmed that.”

“Yes, we did.” Rione turned a burning gaze on him, then stepped forward quickly, leaning over close so only Geary and Desjani could hear her. “But systems can be reprogrammed, Admiral Geary. The collapse of a hypernet gate can be scaled down to minimize the energy release, or scaled up to make it a deadlier weapon.”

He got it then. When Captain Cresida had first worked up the necessary algorithms to scale down the energy release from a collapsing hypernet gate, she had also had to work up the reverse, the ways to increase the energy release. He had given that set of algorithms to Rione, not trusting himself with such a weapon.

But the Syndics would have done the same calculations, eventually reached the same conclusions, discovered how to reliably turn their own hypernet gates into weapons that could kill fleets and star systems at a single blow. A self-destruct command encompassing an entire star system, aimed at taking down this fleet.

Desjani’s face had gone rigid, and she spoke with extreme care. “Can a safe-fail system be reversed? Made to trigger a powerful blast? Worse than at Kalixa?”

“I don’t know,” Geary replied, marveling at the steadiness of his own voice. “I can find out.” Like Desjani, he didn’t question that the Syndic leadership might annihilate even this star system if that price bought the destruction of the Alliance fleet. He had seen far too many incidents where star-system CEOs had ordered actions with a similar callous disregard for their own people living in those star systems.

Rione pointed again, this time to the battleship and heavy cruisers at the jump point for Mandalon. “They had it all set up. They’re ready to escape. If the ambush failed, they send the collapse command, then jump to safety.”

“And afterward blame us,” Desjani finished. “We’d all be dead. Damn. Sir, she’s right. The Syndics have the biggest bomb in the galaxy staring us in the face, and we didn’t even realize it.”

“That’s because we’d stopped thinking of the gates as weapons after the safe-fail devices were installed. If Cresida hadn’t died at Varandal, she would have warned us, I’m certain.” Geary tapped his controls. “Commander Neeson, I need an analysis from you, and I need it five minutes ago.” The commanding officer of Implacable was one of the best hypernet experts remaining in the fleet since Cresida had died. “Can a safe-fail system be reprogrammed to increase rather than decrease the output of a hypernet gate’s collapse? And, if it can, how long would that take?”Implacable was several light-seconds distant, but Neeson’s image stared at Geary longer than that time delay alone could account for. Finally, he nodded. “Yes, Admiral. I don’t have to run any analysis. The equipment could be used that way even though that option had never occurred to me.” Neeson paused, swallowing, before speaking again. “How long? Once the necessary algorithms were calculated, they could be added as an option to the controlling software. Toggling between options would be essentially instantaneous.”

Geary had to pause to ensure his voice remained steady before replying. “Thank you, Commander. Please keep that assessment to yourself for the time being. We’re considering possible enemy options over here, not dealing with certainties.”

“Yes, sir.” Neeson rubbed one hand across the lower half of his face. “Sir, if the Syndics here do that …”

“We know.” Geary broke the connection, facing Desjani and Rione again, Sakai standing back deferentially but listening intently. “It can be done. If the Syndics have worked up the calculations, then they could switch the safe-fail system into a catastrophic-fail system in an instant.”

“There’d still be time delays for the signal to reach the gate,” Desjani said.

Rione had her eyes closed, obviously trying to regain her composure. “Would we have any warning?”

“We’d see the gate starting to collapse, but unless we were very close to a jump point, that wouldn’t help,” Geary admitted. “But if that was the Syndics’ backup plan, why haven’t they done it already?”

Desjani, studying her display again, nodded sharply. “They need those ships.” She looked at Geary. “The Syndic leaders need the warships in that flotilla. That’s their last major force. Without those warships, their ability to keep the Syndicate Worlds together by coercion disappears. They won’t want that flotilla destroyed here with us.”

“That’s why the flotilla didn’t head for the hypernet gate to leave after the ambush failed,” Geary realized. “Cresida told me no one knew for sure what would happen to ships in transit if a gate anchoring one end of a hypernet path is destroyed. One possibility was that they’d be destroyed as well, but she said the most likely probability was that the ships would drop back into normal space somewhere along their route.”

“Light-years away from any star?” Desjani asked. “They’d get somewhere they could use jump drives eventually, but it would be decades, and until they got somewhere, those ships would be of no use to anybody. So the Syndics wouldn’t try to use the gate to get their flotilla clear of this star system. We could have intercepted that flotilla if it headed for the jump point for Tremandir. They could have easily reached the jump point for Corvus before we got to them, but instead they bypassed that jump point. Now they’re positioned where they can safely reach the jump point for Mandalon before we could catch them.”

“But why did the flotilla bypass the jump point for Corvus? What makes Mandalon a better objective than Corvus? Is it just because the Syndic Executive Council is forted up on the battleship there? And why isn’t the flotilla headed straight for the Mandalon jump point instead of cutting closer to our path like they are doing?”

“They want us to chase that flotilla. That would draw us deeper into the star system.” Desjani’s expression grew thoughtful. “Time lags. Look at the geometry. When we arrived in this star system, we were a little more than ten light-hours from the jump point for Mandalon, and about three light-hours from the hypernet gate. The Syndic leaders on that battleship could only see what we were doing as of ten hours before. Any signal they transmitted to the hypernet gate would have taken … about seven hours to reach it. Then the shock wave would have taken three hours to reach our location near the jump point from Zevos. Their information about us would be ten hours old, and it would take ten more hours for their surprise attack to reach us.”

“We could go a long ways in twenty hours,” Geary agreed. “The fleet could turn around and jump out of this star system while the Syndic signal was on its way to the gate. So they’re trying to get the time lag down and get us deeper into the star system, farther from any jump points we could use. That’s why the flotilla and that damned CEO are luring us onward. They want us chasing after the Syndic flotilla with no thought for other possible threats and too far from any jump point to leave the star system between the time the collapse order is given and the shock wave hits.”

Sakai shook his head. “Surely even the Syndic leaders realize the effect it would have on their people once it was learned that those leaders had deliberately wiped out one of their own star systems and murdered every Syndic citizen within it? Fear of retaliation from their own government has helped keep the Syndicate Worlds together, but if the Syndic people know they could be sacrificed en masse anyway, they might indeed finally revolt.”

“The Syndic leaders would blame us,” Rione replied. “They’d tell their people that the Alliance had collapsed another hypernet gate, after practicing at Sancere and Kalixa, but had been caught by our own weapon this time. Enough Syndic people would probably accept that to avoid revolt.”

Desjani’s own response was stiff and formal. “Even the Syndics know that this fleet under the command of Admiral Geary does not commit atrocities.”

“That is true,” Rione conceded. “But it would be a cold comfort to us if the Syndic leaders’ cover story wasn’t accepted after this fleet was destroyed. Can we still get out?” she asked Geary. “Turn about and make it back to the jump point from which we arrived before the Syndics could react?”

“Probably not,” Geary replied, trying to decide how long the Syndics might hesitate before ordering the gate to collapse. “We’re already more than fourteen hours travel time at point one light speed from the jump point we came in on, and that much closer to the Syndics at the Mandalon jump point. If they ordered a gate collapse as soon as they saw us turn, we’d have to be very lucky to avoid getting hit.”

“Go faster! If they know you’re leaving anyway—”

“I can’t turn the fleet on a dime, and I can’t accelerate every ship like I can a destroyer or a battle cruiser. It might work if we tried it right now, but I doubt it.” He paused, wondering if that was, nonetheless, exactly what he needed to do, if that was the only chance the fleet would have.

“But you can’t just turn this fleet around and run for the jump point!” Desjani shook her head, keeping her voice low but intense. “This wouldn’t be like Lakota, where we could say we were heading to attack another part of the Syndic forces. It would be running with no apparent reason, fleeing this star system. Our fleet believes in you, Admiral Geary, but please do not test their faith this way. It would go against everything they believe in besides you.” Her eyes went to Rione. “And because they wouldn’t accept that you would choose to do such a thing, they would instead believe that the retreat had been ordered by the politicians, and that you had either been coerced or had caved in to their demands. Do I need to spell out what might happen then?”

Rione gazed back at Desjani dispassionately, then nodded to Geary. “She is absolutely right. It would be assumed within the fleet that we, the politicians, had sold out the Alliance either because of bribery or simple treachery and ordered you to retreat.”

Geary blew out an exasperated breath. “Why is it whenever you two are in agreement, it’s about something that’s going to make my life harder?”

“Good advice tends to do that,” Rione said. “If you haven’t figured it out already, bad advice usually makes you feel better in the short run.”

Desjani was eyeing her display. “Every second that passes means we’re traveling deeper into a Syndic trap, but if we turn around and head for the jump point to escape, the Syndics will trigger the trap as soon as they see us running and before we can reach safety, and our own fleet will mutiny. I don’t have any good ideas at the moment.”

Geary drummed his fingers on his seat’s arm, trying to think of alternatives. “Is there any chance we could get to the hypernet gate before the Syndic flotilla reaches the jump point for Mandalon? Head that way instead so we could take it down safely?”

“Let’s see.” Desjani’s fingers danced across her controls as she ran the maneuvers, then she made a tired gesture. “Yes and no. We could charge the gate with just our battle cruisers, accelerating, then decelerating at maximum, and in theory get there in time, but in order to get close enough to the gate to counter the Syndic collapse we’d have to get through the minefields first. We’d lose every ship trying to ram our way through them. We could blow a path through the mines using null fields, but in order to do that we’d have to slow down a lot.”

“Meaning we wouldn’t get there in time.”

“No, not even if the Syndics held off blowing the gate that long.”

“You could fire those bombardment projectiles,” Rione urged.

“No. Rocks could take down the gate, but the Syndics would see them en route in plenty of time to order the gate to collapse destructively before the rocks got there. It might cost them that flotilla they want to save, but if we launched rocks at the gate, it would guarantee this fleet’s destruction. As much as the Syndic leaders must want that flotilla to get out of this star system intact, I think they’ll sacrifice it to get us.”

Desjani nodded. “What’s one more flotilla or star system to them? Just numbers on a balance sheet as long as they can avoid taking the blame for the losses.”

Going back wasn’t an option. Going ahead just pulled them deeper into the Syndic trap. “You warned me,” he muttered to Rione. “Don’t start believing that you’re really Black Jack. I did. I thought I was being so damned clever. But the Syndics expected that I might well do something they hadn’t anticipated, so they planned for that, too.”

“You’re not the only person who missed it,” Rione corrected, her voice harsh. “But you may be the only one who can get us out of this.”

“She’s right,” Desjani said.

“Stop agreeing with each other!” Geary snapped. He knew they were both correct, but at the moment hearing them in agreement was a little too weird given all of the other pressures on him. “We’re too far from the jump point to ensure that the fleet could make it out in time even if we turned this instant. Retreating won’t work if the Syndics have laid the sort of trap we think they have, and we can’t just hang around this part of the star system, which means we continue to close on the primary world and the Syndic flotilla while we try to figure out another option. As long as the Syndics think we’re diving deeper into their trap, and they still have a chance to get their flotilla out intact, they’ll hold off collapsing the hypernet gate. Do you both agree with that?”

Desjani shrugged. “I expected to die the last time I was in this star system. If it happens this time, I’d prefer to go down fighting, or at least heading toward the enemy.”

It took Rione a moment to reply. “I can’t think of any other course of action, Admiral Geary, but I hope one of us manages to do so before too much longer.”

“Then let’s show the Syndics what they expect to see.” He took a moment to work up a maneuver to shorten the time to intercept of the Syndic flotilla, then transmitted it to the fleet. “Should I send an answer to that CEO?”

“What would you say to him?” Rione asked.

“Nothing my mother would approve of.”

“Then leave him hanging for now. We need to know what we want to say before we speak to that CEO.”

What they wanted to say would, of course, depend on what they were going to do. He wished he had some idea what that was. “I need to walk around and think.” Nothing would happen now for a while, if their guesses were right, and just sitting would drive him crazy. Walking at least created an illusion of purposeful movement so that his mind could focus better on finding an answer.

Rione stepped back. “You’ve always found a solution.”

“That’s because there have always been solutions to choose from in the past. I don’t know of even one at the moment.”

To Geary’s surprise, Desjani gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Sir, have you ever read Dauntless’s commissioning emblem?”

“I’ve seen it.” The information deeply engraved on a bulkhead near the heart of the ship told when Dauntless had been launched, when she had been commissioned, and included very brief notations about distinguished other ships of the same name stretching back to the days when every human warship rode only the waters of Earth.

“Including the ship’s motto?” Desjani asked.

“It’s in some old language.” Geary couldn’t count how many times he had resolved to ask someone or look up what it meant, but with all of the distractions and other tasks at hand, he had never gotten around to either.

“A very old language, passed down like the name Dauntless from far in the past, but every commanding officer is told what it means. ‘Nil Desperandum.’ It means ‘Never Despair.’ ” She shook her head. “There was a time when I thought that motto mocked us, on the last occasion we faced the Syndic fleet here in their home star system, with destruction certain, with no way to escape any of us could see. Then you assumed command of the fleet, and I have not despaired since.”

He gazed back at her wordlessly for a moment. If Desjani had just said she was certain he would find an answer, it would have felt like an added and unwelcome pressure. But instead she had expressed her confidence in him indirectly, invoking ancient words whose meaning held the same force they must have always had. So Geary returned her smile with a grim one of his own, nodded to Rione, then left to walk the passageways of Dauntless as if they held the solution he needed.

An hour later, tired but uninspired, he strode into his stateroom and more flopped than sat down in one of the chairs, glaring at the star display over the table. The star itself seemed to be gazing back with a gloating gleam, so Geary moved to block its light.

Then stopped in midmotion, staring at the star.

They had been looking at the danger posed by the Syndic hypernet gate without realizing what it was. Maybe they had also been looking right at the way to save themselves and not knowing it, either.

He began asking the maneuvering systems for solutions, trying out options as fast as he could request them and see the responses.

The fleet conference room was filled with the usual images, only Commander Neeson among them revealing tension rather than simple curiosity about Geary’s next battle plan. Desjani appeared as quietly confident as usual, and Rione had schooled her expression into a mask showing nothing of her thoughts.

Geary stood up, deciding only at that moment how to begin. “We face an unexpected and serious threat.” He paused a moment to let the other officers absorb that before continuing. “It seems certain that the Syndics had a backup plan.” He explained the menace from the hypernet gate while the confident looks on the faces of most of his ship captains were replaced by growing shock and worry.

“Those fatherless, motherless scum,” Captain Badaya muttered, his face shading red with fury. “We always make the mistake of thinking we know how low they can go, then they find a new level of hell beneath the last one.”

“They’d actually do that? To one of their own star systems?” Captain Vitali of the Daring asked. “I have no trouble believing that they’d do it to one of ours, but this is their capital system!”

“The leaders of the Syndicate Worlds already have done it to one of theirs, at Lakota,” Tulev answered. “They knew what might happen and gave orders that the gate there be destroyed anyway. On that occasion they could salve whatever passes for their consciences by pretending that the worst case was only a possibility, but they were certainly willing to accept that worst case. It never occurred to us that they would take an action guaranteed to wipe out one of their own star systems when they had a safe alternative to collapsing a gate.”

“That’s because we would never destroy one of our own star systems like that,” Neeson said.

Tulev shrugged, contempt showing. “The Syndic leadership refuses to lose this war, no matter the cost to their own planets or people.”

“Politicians,” Captain Armus grumbled, using the word like an obscenity.

“Some politicians,” Geary corrected. “You will note that three of our own politicians are here to share the risks with us.” None of the three appeared to be particularly happy to be sharing those risks, but he didn’t see any need to point that out. “We’ve also met some Syndic leaders who don’t share the same callousness toward their own people, but the very top ranks of the Syndic CEOs seem to be isolated from that. They’ll do anything to win, or rather anything to avoid losing and paying a personal price for their mistakes. But they won’t succeed, and when we eventually make it clear to everyone else in this star system what their plans are, it may well change the situation.”

“That’s your plan?” Armus asked. “To hope the Syndics finally make their own leaders act civilized?”

“No. That’s what happens after we execute my plan.” The anxiety in the room cleared in a flash, and Geary could see in almost all of the other officers here the same faith in him as Desjani’s. “The Syndics missed something. The sort of energy discharge that gate would produce would be too huge for ships to hope to ride out. But, there’s one thing in this star system that’s big enough to not be destroyed by the energy wave and big enough for this fleet to hide behind.” He pointed at the representation of the star on the display. “There’s one place in this star system that should offer safety to the fleet if we can reach there.” The view on the display pivoted around the star. “Here, in the lee of the star itself.”

Silence fell as everyone studied the display. Duellos was the first to speak. “It should work, but it doesn’t guarantee safety. The shock wave will consist of particles colliding with each other, being knocked to the sides, so it will spread back some into the area blocked by the star.”

“It offers a solid chance,” Badaya corrected, “if we get in the lee close enough to the star itself.”

“I didn’t say otherwise. We also have little choice, it appears.”

Captain Armus was shaking his head. “The Syndics are scum, but they’re not stupid. They’ll see us heading there.”

Armus wasn’t the brightest officer in the fleet, but he was shrewd enough to spot that. Geary nodded. “That’s why we have to conceal our intentions until we’ve got the star between us and that gate. Fortunately, the Syndics’ own behaviors give us a plausible cover for our movements.” He tapped in a command, and projected paths for the fleet arced across the display. “The Syndic flotilla is pretending to be heading for an encounter with us. Given what we’ve figured out of their plans, we expect them to veer off in about six more hours and head straight for the jump point for Mandalon. They’ll expect us to do one of two things, either chase after the Syndic flotilla for at least a while, or try to force it to face us in battle by threatening other Syndic assets in the star system.”

Bright arcs appeared on the display. “We’ll head onto these vectors, swinging past the frozen, inhabited planet fifteen light-minutes out from the star and flattening every military and industrial target on it at close range, then head for the primary inhabited world, not on a straight trajectory but by swinging around the star to intercept the planet in its orbit.”

Duellos grinned. “A more lengthy approach, which will appear to be a transparent attempt to draw the Syndic warships into battle. Will they believe that Black Jack is being so obvious?”

“They’re pleased with themselves right now,” Desjani replied. “They think they’ve got us trapped and that we don’t even realize it. Overconfidence is exactly what they’d expect from us, and because the Syndic leaders are positioned on the battleship at the jump point of Mandalon, they will still be close to five light-hours from our fleet when we turn to take shelter in the lee of the star and seven light-hours from that gate itself.”

Badaya nodded. “Five hours to see us veer onto a new track, then, even if they immediately figure out what we’re doing, seven hours for their destruct order to reach the gate, and five more hours for the shock wave to reach us. Seventeen hours, and we’ll only be about ten light-minutes from the star when we begin our maneuver. They won’t be able to hit us in time.”

“If they wait,” Armus grumbled. “Why should they wait that long?”

Rione answered. “Because it is certain that the Syndics want no living witnesses to what happens here. They want that flotilla to be in position to jump before any signal they send to the gate can be received and the initial results seen. Then the Syndic leaders can jump their entire flotilla out, everyone except themselves in ignorance of what has been done. Anyone arriving back in the star system after the shock wave has passed will find nothing and no one able to tell them what happened.”

Badaya narrowed his eyes at her, then nodded again. “They can say we caused it somehow, just like they’re trying to claim about Kalixa.”

Commander Landis also agreed with a nod, but he still looked troubled. “What if they do figure out what we’re doing before then, though? What if they decide to sacrifice their own flotilla and blow the gate before we get in the lee of the star?”

Geary had already forced himself to face that possibility. He tapped another control and a formation appeared. “We’ll form up like this if there is time available once we spot the gate collapsing. The battleships will be as close together as possible, forming as strong a wall as they can, bow on to the gate. The rest of the fleet will array in successive walls behind the battleships. That offers the best chance we have that some of the fleet’s ships will survive.”

Everyone nodded somberly, including the captains of the battleships. The armor and shields on the massive battleships served offensively, but were often called upon as a last line of defense when the rest of the fleet needed that. As Captain Mosko had said at Lakota, shielding the rest of the fleet was something that battleships did. They had left Mosko at Lakota, along with the three battleships in his division, holding off the enemy. Facing death was something everyone in the fleet was accustomed to, and dying for their comrades in battle was as good a way to die as any.

Not that anyone expected that to matter this time. They had seen what a hypernet gate collapse could do to a star system. The battleships and everything behind them would surely be blown to fragments if something stronger than Kalixa hit them here. But it was still necessary to do something.

Captain Armus shrugged. “All right, then. If our ancestors smile upon us, we’ll beat this Syndic trick, too.”

Captain Tulev nodded. “And if they do not, they will know we died facing the enemy.”

Jane Geary spoke up. “Admiral, what will we do once we reach the lee of the star?”

“That’s going to depend on what else is happening,” Geary replied. “We won’t just sit there. We’ll drop sensor buoys behind the fleet so we can watch the gate even after every ship is behind the star. Assuming the Syndic leaders haven’t blown the gate and jumped out of the system by then, we’ll take a number of measures to make their lives miserable. From the lee of the star, we can still wipe out the Syndics here if we have to do that. Are there further questions?”

“Admiral,” Captain Kattnig said quickly, “may I suggest an action that would discomfort the Syndics? They need this fleet destroyed, but if the entire fleet takes shelter behind the star, our ability to directly pressure the Syndic leaders will be lost. If, however, we send a group of fast ships out directly at the jump point for Mandalon, the Syndic leaders will either have to destroy their entire star system knowing that they will not get most of our fleet in the bargain, or they will have to flee the jump point, or fight.”

A lot of officers nodded approvingly to Kattnig. Geary thought about the proposal, realizing that it might well make sense despite his reluctance to send ships out on what could be a suicide mission.

“It would have to be battle cruisers,” Desjani said.

“Yes,” Kattnig agreed. “I volunteer the Fifth Battle Cruiser Division.” Some of the other commanding officers in that division appeared startled, but none of them objected. In this fleet, with its concepts of honor, none of them could object.

But Duellos spoke up, his tone carefully neutral. “The offer is in the finest traditions of the fleet, but I have been reviewing the capabilities of the Adroit-class battle cruisers. Because of sensor limitations in the design of your ships, you would require other capital ships to accompany you.”

“Certainly,” Kattnig agreed. “The First Battle Cruiser Division?” he asked, naming Duellos’s own unit. “We would be proud to have them with us.”

Geary looked down to think and noticed Desjani glaring at the table’s surface. She wanted to volunteer Dauntless. He knew that. But she knew that if the enemy realized the fleet flagship with Admiral Geary aboard was part of the small force, it might well make that a sufficiently worthwhile target.

He hesitated to send Duellos as well. But Kattnig’s eagerness to be at the enemy, while not exceptional in the fleet, still concerned Geary. If Kattnig needed to be held back, Duellos was senior enough and wise enough to do the job. Tulev could do it as well. But right now Duellos was on the spot, and he was clearly waiting for Geary to weigh in before replying to Kattnig.

Turn down Duellos and order Tulev’s division to go instead? Or just tell everyone that I want to think about the composition of the force and put off deciding which ships go? No, my hand is being forced by the way this happened. Unless I say now that I want the First Division to go, it will sound like I don’t want the First Division to go, and while fleet regulations might declare that I don’t have any obligation to explain that decision, in practice I would have to justify it somehow. How do I justify that without the crews and officers in the First Division feeling that they had been slighted?

I’m stuck. Duellos isn’t a bad choice, but I don’t know whether he would have been my choice. Now I have to go with him or create the impression that I don’t trust him or his ships.

So Geary nodded to Duellos. “Does the First Battle Cruiser Division wish to be part of the force?”

Duellos read the nod correctly. “Certainly, Admiral. My ships are ready.”

That was it, then. Kattnig looked very pleased. Duellos projected calm and confidence. Tulev’s feelings couldn’t be read. Badaya seemed happy. Desjani was apparently trying not to beat her fists bloody against the table in frustration.

Geary managed to keep his own voice even despite being annoyed at having his hand forced. “I need to determine the mission and full composition for the strike force. The battle cruisers will be accompanied by enough fast escorts to ensure they can handle any threat the Syndics might develop. I will let you know of further plans after we reach the lee of the star.”

The images of most of the other fleet officers vanished. Duellos lingered long enough to give Geary a resigned look. “We both walked into that one.”

“Yeah, we did. I’ll talk to you about it later, one-on-one.”

As Duellos’s image disappeared, Badaya, who had also remained, nodded again to Rione, then to Geary. “It’s useful having someone along who understands how the Syndic leaders think.”

“Yes,” Geary said, and nothing else, knowing that as far as Badaya was concerned, Rione understood the Syndic leaders because she thought the same way.

“Are the others giving you any trouble?”

Behind Badaya, Rione raised her eyes upward with a weary expression.

Choosing his words carefully, Geary also kept his tone even. “The senators are not causing any problems.”

“Good. As long as they remain aware of who’s in charge.” Badaya smiled, saluted, and vanished.

Rione gave Geary a questioning look. “What are you going to do if he ever finds out that you’re not really giving orders to the government?”

“Damned if I know.”

With Badaya gone, Desjani stood up. “I’m sorry,” Geary told her. “I know you wanted to volunteer Dauntless for that strike force.”

Desjani shrugged. “Being the flagship usually has advantages. I’d be foolish not to realize that in this case, sending Dauntless along with that strike force would be offering the Syndics far too attractive a target.”

She wasn’t doing too good a job of acting resigned to the situation. “I’m afraid so.”

“You need to watch Kattnig,” Desjani added.

Geary eyed her. “What about him worries you?”

“The same thing that worries you. I could see it in you. He’s too eager. He’s not an overaggressive idiot like Captain Midea, but he’s too eager.”

“Yes.” Geary shook his head. “Duellos should keep him in check.”

“Tulev would have been better, but you couldn’t publicly shoot down Duellos. Appearances matter. And speaking of appearances, Admiral, if we see the gate collapsing, and the fleet is ordered into that defensive formation, where will Dauntless be?”

He looked away for a moment. “Tanya, if it comes to that—”

“If it comes to that, the odds of survival for any ship in this fleet are so small as to be effectively zero. I respectfully request that if Dauntless and her crew are to die, we die with honor, in the place the flagship should occupy within the fleet.” Her voice was calm, firm, and steady.

There didn’t seem to be any good arguments against that. “Where do you consider that place to be? In the front rank, with the battleships?”

“No, sir. That would create a weak spot within the wall of battleships. But Dauntless should be directly behind those battleships.”

Geary closed his eyes, not wanting to look at her as he pronounced what could be Desjani’s death sentence. His own, too, but in a sense he had been living on borrowed time ever since being awakened from survival sleep. “Very well, Captain. Dauntless will be in her rightful place should the fleet face that situation.”

“Thank you, sir.”

He opened his eyes to see her saluting him, her own eyes on his, Desjani’s expression grateful. “I owe Dauntless, and you, at least that much,” Geary added as he returned the salute. “But I hope it won’t come to that. If it does …”“Nil Desperandum,” she reminded him with a half smile, then Desjani left with a quick but relaxed stride.

Rione watched Desjani leave, then shook her head. “Do any of us deserve to have people like that fighting for us?” she asked.

“I thought you didn’t like her.”

“I don’t. She can be almost as big a bitch as I am. But I thank the living stars that she’s commanding this ship and not someone like Badaya.”

Geary sat down again, his eyes on Rione. The virtual images of Senators Costa and Sakai had vanished earlier, neither of them realizing in time that Rione might hang around to speak privately with Geary. “Badaya is a competent enough officer. If we can rebuild his faith in the Alliance government, he’ll be a credit to the fleet.”

Rione smiled, but in a sad way. “I think that as long as nothing disastrous happens, Captain Badaya will convince himself that you are really still in charge but pulling the strings in secrecy. He won’t be the only one believing that.”

He didn’t want to go there, didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of the war when he hadn’t yet managed to end it. “Madam Co-President, have you thought of anything we can say or do that will convince the Syndics that we are ignorant of any peril from that hypernet gate? We need to keep them fooled until we’re close enough to being in the lee of the star.”

Rione twisted her mouth as she thought. “I think we need to continue on as we have, expressing confidence by our actions and our words. You should resend the demand for negotiations, using a bit more arrogance this time and displaying an appropriate level of contempt for that CEO in charge of the flotilla. Perhaps a few taunts about how much smaller it is than the last Syndic force we faced here would be proper.”

“Perhaps one of our governmental representatives could give our demands and taunts a suitable amount of arrogance and contempt,” Geary suggested.

“Meaning me? I am better at the arrogant thing than you are.” Rione leaned back. “But Costa is even better. I’ll tell her you thought she should issue the next demand. It’ll make Costa think you’ve been impressed by her.”

“Will she give away our concerns about a trap?”

“Costa? She protects secrets tighter than celibates protect their virginity. That’s the last thing you have to worry about with her.” Rione smiled. “I’ll be up front with her about this being aimed at keeping the Syndics fooled. She’ll love that, as well as a chance to mock a Syndic CEO to his face. How long do we have to keep the Syndics fooled, anyway?”

Geary waved toward the star-system display. “As you saw, we can’t just charge straight for a lee position without giving away our intent, so we’re going roundabout. A bit more than two more days, then we head directly for the lee of the star.”

“The Syndics will give us that much time?”

“If their own flotilla continues on its own roundabout transit, it will take three more days to reach the jump point for Mandalon.”

“We should have the time, then. Would you like to hear what Sakai said about you?”

He pondered that question for a moment, then nodded.

“Senator Sakai said, ‘He listened to us.’ ”

Geary waited, but nothing more was forthcoming. “That’s all?”

“That is a great deal, Admiral Geary.” Rione studied him again, shaking her head. “I don’t know when it happened. Maybe it’s always there and just got a lot worse. But at some point the senior officers and the senior politicians in the Alliance stopped listening to each other. We all pretend we’re listening, but all we hear and see is what we expect.”

“Like Badaya.”

“Or Costa.” Rione stood, heading for the hatch, then paused and looked back at him. “Maybe there was another reason that I came along with the fleet when Admiral Bloch was in command, a reason that I didn’t know of. Healing the Alliance will take officers who trust politicians, and politicians who trust officers.”

He made a crooked smile. “Don’t you get all mystical on me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Admiral. If the living stars were depending on the likes of me to carry out their missions, they’d really be scraping the bottom of the barrel.”