The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible (31 page)

“Factions,” Duellos mused. “You know, the bits about pulling the auxiliaries from the fleet and trying to strip you of anyone with knowledge of how the hypernet works could just be the usual bureaucratic stupidity. The orders could have originated from different sources, both acting as regulations or ‘the needs of the fleet’ demanded in their tunnel-vision eyes. We are, after all, talking about fleet headquarters, an organization not famed for its ability to coordinate even within itself. As the old saying goes, never attribute to malice that which could be explained by stupidity. I wonder who first said that?”

“That has occurred to me,” Geary admitted. “Under normal circumstances it’s easy enough to think that the military bureaucracy is gunning for you, and these are worse than normal circumstances.”

“Exactly. You’ve also seen enough of the sort of minds that inhabit the higher ranks at fleet headquarters. Many of them got to those positions by focusing their careers on advancement. People like you who have advanced by actually accomplishing things are a threat to those whose résumés are all about ticket-punching. They would seek to trip you up out of general principles even if no plot existed. Rush you out the door, deny you time to prepare . . . why, you might fail in your assigned mission, and wouldn’t that be awful for those who see themselves as your rivals? Even if you didn’t fail, at the very least your life would be made more difficult, and that would be some reward to those of vast egos and small minds.”

Duellos thought again. “The new ships. Again, that makes sense. These ships have seen much hard use and, as you mentioned, were not designed for long service lives. It is not hard to see why new ones would not be built to provide an enduring defense for the Alliance. Indeed, you could argue that is the responsible course of action.”

“You could,” Geary admitted. “Why keep it secret?”

“If you assume the whole process has no dark undertones? Because, as we discussed earlier, for the average taxpayer in the Alliance, military expenditures have become that-which-shall-not-be-done. But even corruption could be relatively routine. Construction contracts for favored individuals, kickbacks to politicians from suppliers, bribes, all the usual.” Duellos sat quiet, brooding.

“Do you think that’s all that’s involved?” Geary pressed.

“I think it is for some. If we are dealing with many different factions, many different individuals, then we are dealing with different motivations. Some may have approved the contracts and the secrecy out of nothing more than recognition that this was necessary for the defense of the Alliance and had to be done in a politically viable way. Others may have been motivated by greed. And others . . .” Duellos glanced at Geary. “Who gets command of these new ships? That will tell us much. Some officers, such as the late and mostly unlamented Admiral Bloch, were known to have political ambitions.”

“He wanted to stage a coup!”

“Yes.” Duellos shrugged. “We simply don’t know enough. But when someone is named to command that new fleet, the identity of that officer will tell us a great deal, as will how they justify—” He stopped speaking abruptly, his mouth tightening.

“Justify what?” Geary asked.

Duellos fixed his eyes on Geary. “Justify not giving you that command. You are the best fleet combat commander the Alliance possesses by far. Your popular acclaim, your standing among the populace, is far higher than those of any other officer. How do they justify not giving you those ships?”

“You seem to have thought of an answer.”

“I have. If Admiral Geary is not there, Admiral Geary cannot be given the command.”

Geary sat back, raising hands clenched in frustration. “‘Not there’ can have a lot of possible reasons behind it.”

“It can. But those who differ in their reasons for wanting Admiral Geary to not be there can agree on wanting him not to be there.” Duellos nodded with satisfaction. “That is how I read this situation. Not a colossal conspiracy working surely to one end, but various parties with various agendas, many of which converged to send this fleet on this mission in this manner. It’s not you against the government.”

“Thank you,” Geary said. “I’ve been wanting to come to that conclusion myself, but because I wanted it I distrusted my thinking. But you came to the same results I have. There are people out there trying to create trouble for me, and other people trying to pursue personal agendas of power or money, and some who are actually working toward the common good but might be tricked into supporting actions that further other goals. Now, how can I help you with your concerns?”

“There’s no help for my angst,” Duellos said. “I no longer belong where I once called home. I’ll have to adjust.”

“You’ll always have a home in any force I command,” Geary said.

“You have my thanks.” Duellos stood and saluted solemnly. “Though not, perhaps, the thanks of my wife. I will return to duty now, Admiral.”

After Duellos had left, Geary sat looking at the star display.
Not me against the government. But what if the government changes? What if some of the people Rione has warned me against move to take control, using some pretext or even claiming my backing to keep the people of the Alliance quiet?

But then it won’t be the government. Not really. Certainly not a government of the people of the Alliance.

How many people would see that and understand my actions if that happens?

He had been reading a bit more about that ancient place called Rome, on Old Earth, and what had happened when military leaders declared themselves rulers of that land, always justifying it with claims of incompetence or corruption or weakness on the part of the government. Sometimes those claims had been true. But, true or false, each time the legions marched, the government became less about the Senate and people of Rome and more about the leaders whose power rested on the sharpness of their swords.

He could not let that happen to the Alliance.

FIFTEEN

IT’S
just another star occupied by the enigmas,
Geary told himself as the last minutes went by before they left jump to arrive at Hua.
We’ve gotten though any number of those, even when the enigmas knew we were coming. We’ll get through this one.

“At least the enigmas should be totally surprised at seeing us show up at Hua,” Desjani commented in unconscious echo of Geary’s thoughts. “They’re probably still congratulating themselves over our imagined annihilation in Kick territory. You know there’s going to be a hypernet gate here, right?”

“Yeah, I know that.” It was a border star system for the enigmas, and as far as they could tell, the enigmas used the gates themselves as defensive weapons instead of crafting the same sort of mechanisms into supermines as the spider-wolves did.

His mind fuzzed as
Dauntless
left jump, the Alliance warships twisting in the preplanned evasion straight off to one side. But as Geary’s mind cleared, he noticed the lack of immediate danger warnings from the sensor systems and saw his display remain comfortingly clear of any sign of minefields or enigma warships near the jump point.

“There it is,” Desjani said. A hypernet gate, hanging menacingly three light-hours off to the side opposite where the fleet had turned. “Good choice on the direction we turned, Admiral.”

“Thanks.” Where were the jump points?

Then he realized that he didn’t have to wait for the fleet’s sensors to identify those locales in space. Just ahead of the fleet, the six spider-wolf ships were leaping forward, accelerating toward a point off to starboard. He gave the necessary orders to his fleet to move in the wake of their alien allies, increasing velocity as well to match their increase in speed. “Let’s follow the spider-wolves.”

“Did you ever expect to say that?” Desjani was eyeing her display. “Fixed defenses scattered around . . . space docks here and there . . . that looks like a big orbiting military base . . . warships here, here, and here.”

“Definitely enigma warships,” Geary agreed. There were only five of them, all showing the squat, turtlelike shapes that the enigmas used for warships, though in size they varied from human destroyers to something larger than a heavy cruiser but much smaller than a battleship.

“Except for that damned hypernet gate,” Desjani concluded, “it’s not nearly as many defenses as I would have expected for a star system facing an opponent like the spider-wolves. General Charban may have been right.”

“Captain,” Lieutenant Yuon called, “there appear to be substantial docking facilities for military ships in this star system. It looks like they normally have a lot more warships here.”

Desjani nodded. “Good assessment, Lieutenant. They’ve stripped out the defensive forces here to help equip an attack force.” She looked over at Geary. “And we know where that attack force is probably going. It must have looked like a real safe bet to the enigmas to draw down the defenses at Hua long enough to trash Midway. We’re supposed to be dead meat at the hands of the Kicks, with maybe some torn-up remnants far away from here trying to limp home, and the spider-wolves don’t bother their neighbors as long as their neighbors leave them alone.”

“When things look that good, you always have to wonder what you’ve missed,” Geary agreed. “And the enigmas missed the fact that we might not fulfill our assigned role in their plan.”

“The hypernet gate is three light-hours behind us now,” Desjani pointed out. “The main military facility is four and a half light-hours off to port, a lot closer to the star. How far away is that jump point?”

It took several more seconds before the displays popped up that information.

“One and three-quarters light-hours,” Desjani said, the fingers of one hand flying as she ran the data through the fleet’s maneuvering systems. “If we keep trying to match the speed of the spider-wolves, that means reaching point one five light speed before braking and . . . fifteen hours transit time.”

The geometry was simple enough. In no more than four and a half hours, the enigmas at the main military base would learn of the human fleet’s arrival. If one of the enigma warships used its faster-than-light comms before then, that margin of safety might be whittled down to two hours. If the main base sent a collapse command to the hypernet gate, it would take almost five and a half hours to reach the gate, then the resulting blast more than another three hours to reach the fleet as it moved away from the gate. “Thirteen hours before they could hit us.”

“Make that as little as ten hours if any of those warships report in via faster-than-light comms,” Desjani warned.

Geary looked over the star system as the fleet’s sensors continued to fill in details. Not wealthy or heavily populated with planets but a reasonably well-off star system. One planet had the veiled cities and towns of the enigmas straddling the borders of land and some impressive oceans. “We don’t have any idea what level of detail their faster-than-light comms can provide. Would they blow this away without confirming whatever their ship reported? Especially if they saw us heading straight for a jump point out of here instead of lingering at all or heading for somewhere within the star system?”

“Using human logic hasn’t always worked well when it comes to enigmas,” Desjani pointed out.

“Granted. But we know that the number of star systems available to them is limited because they’ve got us on one border, the bear-cows on another, and the spider-wolves facing them elsewhere. And in our travels through their space, we didn’t find any enigma star systems that had suffered through the collapse of a gate. They can’t be authorized to blow up star systems unless as a last resort.”

A vulnerability period of anywhere from two to five hours. But nothing could be done about that except what he was already doing, getting to that next jump point and getting out of here as fast as the fleet could manage it.

He hadn’t slept well in the day before they arrived, and now nothing could happen to threaten the fleet for hours. “Captain Desjani, I am going down to my stateroom to get some rest. I encourage you to stand down your crew for the next few hours as well.”

Desjani frowned at him, pretending to be unaware of the desperate efforts of every crew member within sight to avoid looking hopeful. “Let my crew rest?”

“If you’re comfortable with that.” He knew how hard they had been working to get every system ready for arrival here, testing and repairing and tweaking to bring
Dauntless
to the highest possible combat readiness.

“Yes, Admiral, I am. They earned it. All hands, this is the Captain. Stand down from normal work routine for three hours. Normal workday routine is to resume at the end of that time.” She released the general announcing system control and winked at Geary in such a way that no one else could see. “Enjoy your rest, Admiral. I’ll be keeping an eye on things.”

“Tanya, you should—”

“I got plenty of rest last night.”

She was probably exaggerating wildly when she said “plenty,” but he couldn’t very well call her a liar in front of her crew.

HE
was actually back on the bridge after only two hours, noticing as he traveled from his stateroom that numerous members of the crew had also drifted back to duty stations earlier than required.

“What do you suppose they’re thinking?” Desjani asked. “The enigmas, I mean. We show up here with six spider-wolf ships along for the ride, and towing a Kick superbattleship that’s obviously seen better days.”

“What I hope,” Geary replied, “is that the enigmas are seeing we have new allies and that we not only beat the Kicks but acquired a very impressive souvenir from them.” He wondered for a moment by what name the enigmas called the Kicks. “Either one of those things might have influenced the enigmas to seriously negotiate with us. Taken together, maybe they’ll be enough to convince the enigmas not to mess with us anymore.”

“It doesn’t sound like you believe that, though,” Desjani commented, sitting back in her seat, her eyes on her display.

“No.” Geary felt the old sense of futility. “General Charban thinks the enigmas will have to be beaten badly at least one more time in order to get across that they can’t defeat us militarily.”

“How did that ground-forces general get so good at figuring out how alien species think?”

“I have no idea. And, yet, he’s single,” Geary couldn’t help adding.

Desjani didn’t turn her head, just cutting him a look from the corners of her eyes. “Women are not an alien species.”

“Did I say that? Is anything important happening?”

“Aside from an admiral skating on thin ice? No. You would have been informed, sir.” She indicated one of the enigma warships. “This guy is closest to us. He will see us first, anytime now, as a matter of fact, and when we see his reaction in a few hours, it may give us some indication of what the enigmas are going to do.”

Geary rubbed his lower face with one hand, wishing he had some more definitive and timely information.
You would think I would be used to this kind of time lag in information by now.
He tapped an internal comm circuit. “Emissary Rione? General Charban? Have we heard anything from the spider-wolves?”

Dr. Shwartz answered. “I’m the only one here at the moment, Admiral. We haven’t heard a thing.”

“What have we sent them?”

“Upon our arrival here, we sent a message trying to ask the spider-wolves what they would do. It’s still hard to format the pictograms and other symbols in ways that we know get across anything but the simplest concepts. About an hour ago, we sent another message, asking them if they knew what the enigmas would do. We asked them that before we left spider-wolf space, of course, but they didn’t answer us then. We thought it wouldn’t hurt to repeat the question.”

“Not too friendly,” Geary muttered.

Dr. Shwartz must have heard. “We don’t know that we’re getting across the right question, and we don’t know their social protocols. If you ask a human something, and they don’t know the answer, the polite thing for them to do is say, ‘I don’t know,’ or something like that. For spider-wolves, the polite thing might be to say nothing if you can’t provide a meaningful answer.”

“But we don’t know if that’s how they do things.”

“No, Admiral, we don’t know.” Dr. Shwartz shook her head ruefully. “It’s much easier dealing with imaginary aliens. They somehow always come around to acting the way you want them to act. That’s what all of us ‘experts’ found during our careers prior to this, that is. But the enigmas, the bear-cows, and the spider-wolves persist in doing things that don’t fit the molds we’re trying to create for them. Some of my colleagues are having a great deal of trouble with that. They keep trying to make the aliens fit the mold rather than the mold fit the aliens. I can’t blame them for that. It’s how we all worked for a long time.”

“Do you think that’s why General Charban is coming up with some of the insights he’s having? Because he’s not an expert with a lifetime of trying to figure out how an alien species would think to hinder his ability to see how these aliens really are?”

Shwartz looked startled, then thoughtful. “That is possible, Admiral. Would it be immodest of me to point out that I’ve also come up with a few insights?”

Geary smiled. “You have indeed, Doctor. I am grateful for your presence with us and will ensure that everyone back in Alliance space knows how much you have contributed to our mission.”

She laughed. “At which point my colleagues will all develop legendary levels of hatred for me! Have you ever seen the knives come out among academics? I’m not sure that I should thank you. Well, I will. If the government decides to send a delegation to the spider-wolves, I hope my name will be considered as a participant.”

“If I have any say in it, you’ll be part of such a delegation.”

THERE
had still been nothing from the spider-wolves, whose ships had maintained a steady vector aimed at the jump point for Pele, when a reaction from the enigmas could finally be seen. “He’s coming around,” Desjani said. “Looks like . . . I’ll bet you he’s coming to an intercept with us or something a few light-minutes short of an intercept.”

“A lookout,” Geary said. “Coming to tail us so it can send out faster-than-light status updates and let the enigma bosses in this star system know much quicker what we’re doing. The same thing the enigmas did when we went through their star systems earlier.”

“That doesn’t imply they’re going to collapse the gate,” Desjani pointed out.

“No. It implies the opposite, that they’re going to watch us and make sure we leave as fast as we came.”

“So they want us to go to Pele,” Desjani added, dumping a cold pail of water over his growing sense of relief.

“If they do, they’re going to be sorry when we get there.”

The enigma tail was still closing on Geary’s fleet when the spider-wolves reached the jump point and vanished. Fifteen minutes later the human warships jumped as well, the star system of Hua disappearing and the nothingness of jump space taking its place.

“Five days,” Desjani commented. “Like Neeson said, if they’ve got a force heading for Midway, the enigmas at Hua will have told them we’re on the way.”

“I know. Five days.” But this time he felt no dread of what might await them at Pele, just an eagerness to come to grips with the last obstacle between this fleet and human space.