Desjani hummed a little tune as she watched the wreck of the Syndic battle cruiser tumble in the wake of the Alliance fleet.
Soon afterward, a report arrived from
Rifle
. The destroyer’s captain seemed bemused as he reported. “We have fifteen liberated prisoners aboard, Captain Geary. Several have serious injuries that have only received triage treatment. We also have the commanding officer of the Syndic cruiser. She requested to be taken prisoner. Request instructions on where to deliver her and the injured Alliance personnel.”
Desjani was staring at the message window. “First some of our own liberated prisoners ask us to arrest them, and now a Syndic officer asks to be taken prisoner. Has the universe gone mad?”
“She must have had a reason,” Rione insisted. “Captain Geary, we need that Syndic on this ship so she can be interrogated. I have a strong suspicion that we need to know whatever she does about what happened here.”
Geary looked a question at Desjani, who immediately nodded. “
Dauntless
can take care of the wounded, and we have a cell available for the Syndic.”
He sent a reply, ordering
Rifle
to close on
Dauntless
so a shuttle could transfer the personnel, then sending
Culverin
to
Amazon
since that battleship had relatively few injured personnel.
“We paid a price for this,” Desjani noted. “The light cruisers and destroyers we sent on that jaunt are going to be well under twenty percent fuel-cell reserves when we jump out of here.
Rifle
may be down to fifteen percent.” She flipped one hand in a dismissive gesture. “Oh, well. Once our ships get to zero, they can’t get any lower.”
“I hope that was intended as a joke,” Geary said.
“Yes, sir. Whistling past the black hole.”
“WHAT were your orders?”
The Syndic commander who had been captain of the heavy cruiser gazed back levelly at Lieutenant Iger from her seat within the interrogation room on
Dauntless
. “I am a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds.”
“Was your ship part of the reserve flotilla?”
This time the reply took a moment. “I am a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds.”
The chief at the interrogation panel chuckled softly. “Got you. Lieutenant,” he said into the comm link, “brain patterns and physiological reactions show surprise and worry. She’s wondering how we know about the reserve flotilla.”
“How long was your ship attached to the reserve flotilla?” Iger asked the commander.
“I am a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds.”
The chief frowned slightly at the readouts. “Lieutenant, I can’t get a good call from that. Emotional responses, but hard to tell what they mean. Try baiting her with a characterization of the reserve flotilla.”
Lieutenant Iger nodded again as if acknowledging the Syndic commander’s last statement, but also responding to the chief. “Is it true,” Iger stated, “that the reserve flotilla is made up of the most elite elements of the Syndicate fleet?”
Even Geary could see the emotional responses that statement evoked.
“She didn’t like hearing that,” the chief reported. “Looks like resentment and anger.”
Desjani snorted in derision. “That cruiser wasn’t part of the reserve flotilla, then. It looks like the reserve flotilla thinks highly of itself and didn’t hesitate to let others know that.”
Lieutenant Iger was speaking again. “What are the reserve flotilla’s plans once it reaches Varandal?”
“I am a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds.”
“Lieutenant,” the chief reported, “I didn’t see any deception centers light up.” He looked toward Geary. “If she knew those plans, then she’d be thinking about how to lie about it, even if all she said was that ‘I’m a citizen’ junk.”
“Thanks, Chief.” Geary glanced at Desjani and Rione. “If her ship wasn’t part of the reserve flotilla, she probably wasn’t told the plan. Chief, have Lieutenant Iger ask her why no one in her crew objected to her surrendering her ship.”
A moment later, Iger did so. The Syndic commander’s jaw visibly tightened, and the chief at the interrogation panel whistled as the brain scan lit up. As the Syndic commander sat silent this time, Lieutenant Iger prodded her. “We know Syndicate Worlds regulations prohibit surrender. Weren’t you worried about what would happen to you?”
The chief nodded as more lights flared on the scan. “She was worried, but it doesn’t seem self-preservation-centered, Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant Iger pursed his mouth as if something had just occurred to him. “Weren’t you worried about what would happen to your family?”
“Direct hit, Lieutenant,” the chief reported. “Looks like she’s very worried about that.”
“Why did you surrender your ship?” Iger pressed, while the Syndic commander glared back at him, saying nothing.
Desjani’s mouth twisted as she looked at the image of the Syndic officer. “Chief, have the lieutenant ask her if
she
has any questions.”
The chief seemed startled but passed on the instructions.
The Syndic commander stayed silent a moment longer after Iger had asked, then spoke reluctantly. “Are my surviving crew members safe as agreed?”
Geary understood then, nodding to Desjani, who seemed grimly satisfied. “She wanted to save her surviving crew. The only way to do that was to agree to surrender, but she couldn’t let her crew know she’d done that. Even if none of her officers had objected, she still would have been worried about what the Syndic leaders would do to her family if it was known she’d surrendered her ship.”
He tapped the control to allow his voice to sound in the interrogation room. “Commander.” She and Lieutenant Iger looked toward the bulkhead from which Geary’s voice came. “Your crew is safe. Do you have any messages for them?”
A low whistle from the chief. “Major fear spike. Not self-focused, though.”
The Syndic commander took a deep breath. “No. I prefer that they believe I died on my ship.”
“Was that what you told them?” Geary asked. “That you were staying behind to die? Did you lie to your crew?”
The chief nodded. “Looks like it from here.”
The Syndic commander glared furiously at Lieutenant Iger. “Yes, I lied to my crew. I told them that I’d stay behind and trigger a core overload when the Alliance ships got close enough. But I knew if I really did that, then you’d kill the rest of my crew. I lied to them so they’d abandon ship, and so they’d report that I’d died in the line of duty.” Her angry gaze shifted, as if searching for the point from which Geary was watching her. “I would have fought my ship to the death if it would have made any difference, but we were helpless. Even then, I wouldn’t have reached an agreement with anyone but Captain Geary, because I’ve seen too many Syndicate Worlds’ escape pods destroyed for sport!”
Geary saw Desjani’s face redden. “Self-righteous bitch,” Desjani spat. “She’s probably shot up some of ours.”
Looking for something to change the topic, Geary triggered his mike. “Ask her how her ship sustained that damage to the bow.”
After the question was relayed, the Syndic officer just stared at Iger, her face as pale as death.
“Wow,” the chief commented. “Huge reaction. She’s very upset thinking about whatever caused that damage, Lieutenant.”
Iger repeated the question.
She glared back at him. “You know what caused it.”
“No,” Iger replied in a steady voice. “We don’t.”
“My ship came here from Kalixa! Does that give you the answer you want?”
Lieutenant Iger looked startled and puzzled, though Geary suspected he’d let those feelings show on purpose. “No, it doesn’t answer the question. Something happened at Kalixa?”
“Don’t play games with me! You must have caused what happened at Kalixa!”
Geary activated the comm circuit again. “What happened at Kalixa, Commander?”
The Syndic glared around her for a long moment, not speaking.
The chief whistled. “Markers all over the place. Like she’s real upset but can’t decide whether to lie or tell the truth or just start throwing things.”
But the Syndic officer must have made up her mind not to get violent. Instead, her glare deepened. “Fine. We’ll pretend you don’t know that the hypernet gate at Kalixa exploded, devastating the entire star system.”
Geary stopped breathing for a moment. Rione made a choking sound. Desjani just stared rigidly at the Syndic commander.
Lieutenant Iger spoke slowly. “This fleet was not responsible for that. We had no idea it had occurred. No unit from this fleet went to Kalixa.”
The Syndic stared back at him, her distress clear now.
“How does she know what happened at Kalixa?” Rione wondered. “This must have been fairly recent.”
“That’s obvious,” Desjani said. “The damage to her ship’s bow, as if from a single massive blow. Her heavy cruiser must have been far enough from the gate to survive, but took a lot of damage. That cruiser wasn’t shot up in Atalia fighting the Alliance ships from Varandal, it arrived here badly damaged.” She seemed to be thinking for a moment. “That amount of damage to a heavy cruiser. The energy discharge from the collapsing gate must have been significantly stronger at Kalixa than it was at Lakota.”
“But what made it collapse?” Geary demanded.
Lieutenant Iger was asking the same question at that moment. “Commander, were there Alliance warships in Kalixa Star System when its hypernet gate collapsed?”
“She’s considering a lie, Lieutenant,” the chief reported. “No. Going for truth.”
“No,” the Syndic officer said.
“Which warships were near the hypernet gate when it collapsed, then?”
“There weren’t any warships near it!” the Syndic screamed, her nerves suddenly breaking at the memories. “Nothing was near it! It just began collapsing, its tethers failing! A merchant ship elsewhere in the star system had seen images, from . . . from Lakota, and it sent out warnings. It asked for help. Everyone started asking for help! We were far out, near the jump point for Atalia. We went bow on and reinforced our shields and we barely survived! Kalixa . . .” She took a deep breath and shuddered. “It’s gone. Everything. Everybody. Dead. Gone.”
“Truth,” the chief reported to Iger in a small voice.
“No wonder she looked shell-shocked when we saw her,” Desjani commented softly. “Worse than Lakota. First time I ever pitied a Syndic.”
Iger was gazing at the commander, his own face pale now. “We didn’t do it.”
But the Syndic kept talking, her voice wavering with stress. “We jumped here. Orders. Go to Atalia. We found a lot of ships waiting here. Reserve flotilla, they said. Told the CEOs what happened. They didn’t believe us, insisted on seeing my ship’s records. Then they told us to proceed on duties assigned and turned and headed for the jump point for Varandal. Just left us. Then the Alliance appeared, and there was a fight.” The Syndic commander gulped and breathed deeply. “Afterward, our track crossed some Alliance escape pods. Standing orders. Take prisoners when possible. We did.”
Iger waited, looking slightly helpless as the Syndic sat shivering, her eyes haunted. Geary motioned to the chief. “Tell the lieutenant to give the Syndic a break. See if she needs any medical care. Captain Desjani, Co-President Rione, please come with me.”
They followed him out of the intelligence spaces, none of them speaking again until they reached the fleet conference room and Geary had sealed the hatch. “There only seems to be one possibility for what happened at Kalixa.”
“They did it,” Desjani said with a scowl. “The aliens thought we were going to Kalixa, or might go there. They eliminated a gate we could use.”
“Why not wait until we went there to do that? Then the gate’s energy discharge could have hit this fleet.”
Her scowl deepened. “They’d have to know . . . Sir, that’s the answer. They can’t track us anymore. They’re used to knowing where we are or where we’re going in something close enough to real time to be usable. But since we discovered the alien worms in the navigation and communications systems on our ships and scrubbed them out, they can’t do that. They made an estimate of when we’d arrive in Kalixa if we went straight there and blew the gate accordingly.”
“Do the travel times work for that?” Geary ran out the calculations, then shook his head. “Maybe your idea is correct, but they blew that gate long enough ago for the Syndic cruiser to have jumped here with the news before we arrived. That would’ve been too early to catch us.”
“Not if we hadn’t uncharacteristically lingered at Dilawa.” Desjani brought up the travel times and pointed to the result.
He started to answer, but no words came. The figures didn’t lie. A quick transit of Dilawa followed by a jump of the fleet directly on a path for Kalixa would have brought it there a little less than a week before now. Perfect timing.
Rione was shaking her head. “Even when you screw up, it turns out to be a good thing.”
“He’s guided,” Desjani insisted.
“Perhaps,” Rione replied. “Though I understand that good planning can have all the benefits of divine intervention without the arbitrary and capricious drawbacks. Be that as it may, uncharacteristic hesitation and characteristic avoidance of Syndic star systems with hypernet gates seems to have served this fleet well.” Her expression tightened. “An entire star system and every human in it wiped out. The aliens have started what we’ve feared, triggering the collapse of hypernet gates.”
“We’ve still got time to defuse this,” Geary insisted. “It was a shot in the dark, and it missed. By the time the aliens confirm that our fleet wasn’t at Kalixa—”
“This isn’t just about the aliens! Don’t you understand yet?” Rione glared at both of them. “The Syndic reserve flotilla was waiting here for this fleet, then when it received the report from that heavy cruiser about what happened at Kalixa, the reserve flotilla headed for Varandal. Obviously the news of the collapse of the hypernet gate at Kalixa triggered some modification of their orders. Now think! Why would they go to Varandal after hearing about Kalixa?”