“Okay.” Geary tapped his controls, thinking through his words. “Twentieth Destroyer Squadron, members of
Warrior
’s crew are trapped on board.
Warrior
’s power core is fluctuating uncontrollably and may blow at any time. Request to know which destroyers in your squadron will volunteer to close
Warrior
and attempt to take off her remaining crew.”
The reply took only a little while, though it seemed agonizingly long. “Sir, this is Lieutenant Commander Pastak on
Gavelock
.
Arabas
,
Balta
,
Dao
,
Gavelock
,
Kururi
,
Sabar
, and
Wairbi
volunteer to assist
Warrior
’s crew. All ships proceeding to intercept
Warrior
at maximum acceleration.”
Geary checked his display. Every surviving destroyer in the squadron. “Don’t let me forget this,”
he murmured to Desjani.
“I won’t,” she replied. “Did you expect anything else?”
“I don’t know. I do know I am proud as hell to command this fleet.”
“Estimated time for destroyers to reach
Warrior
is twenty-three minutes,” the maneuvering watch announced.
“Try to get a message through to
Warrior
’s survivors that the destroyers are on the way.”
“Yes, sir. We are now in communication with the escape pods launched from
Warrior
and will try to relay through them.”
Geary nodded almost absently, his mind’s eye too easily imagining the scene on
Warrior
right now, the few sailors who could work on the power core trying to keep it under control, the rest waiting in the ruin of their ship for rescue or death. “Is Commander Suram on one of the escape pods?” he asked, already guessing the answer.
“No, sir. The highest-ranking officer on one of the pods is a Lieutenant Rana, who is badly wounded.”
He felt curiously detached as he saw the symbols of the escape pods racing away from
Warrior
, his mind numb after all of the other losses this day. Escape pods were designed to boost rapidly away from their ship on the assumption that distance would be critical, and in this case that was certainly true. “How much longer until the escape pods are outside the estimated danger zone for
Warrior
’s power-core blast radius? ”
“Five minutes, sir. That’s the estimate based on the known state of
Warrior
’s power core and the readings we’re picking up on it.”
Seven minutes later, with the destroyers of the Twentieth Squadron still sixteen minutes away, Geary watched the image of
Warrior
blossom into an irregular sphere of light and debris. He confirmed that the escape pods were far enough outside the blast area to be able to ride out the shock wave, then closed his eyes, took a long, slow breath, and called
Gavelock
. “Lieutenant Commander Pastak, please alter your mission to recovery of the escape pods from
Warrior
. They were close enough to the core overload that many probably received some damage. Thank you, thank all of your ships, for your efforts.”
Pastak’s somber acknowledgment came a few minutes later, then Geary leaned back and closed his eyes again. “Sir?” Desjani whispered. He shook his head, denying any conversation. After a moment, her hand closed over his wrist and squeezed tightly for a second in wordless comfort before being withdrawn. She knew how he felt, and somehow that made it a little easier to bear.
GEARY sighed as the tensions of worrying about the upcoming battle were replaced by the pains of dealing with the aftermath of that engagement. He felt incredibly weary, as though he had been on the bridge of
Dauntless
for most of a week instead of most of a day.
“The Syndic guard force is still about thirty light-minutes from the hypernet gate,” Desjani reported, her own voice tired. “If they keep up their speed, they’ll reach it in about four and a half hours.”
“Fine.” Geary rubbed his eyes, then looked back at his display. That Syndic guard force was now almost two light-hours away from the Alliance fleet. If it had been a lot, lot closer, he might have had to worry about a suicide charge against
Dauntless
or the auxiliaries, but at this distance the Syndics would take almost a day to get here after they started such a charge. “I guess we can decide what to do about them later.”
There didn’t seem to be much to worry about for the moment. The guard force was clearly going to stick close to the hypernet gate, just as it had last time the Alliance fleet was here, and that gate lay about two and a half light-hours off to port of the Alliance fleet. The habitable world that Lakota boasted was orbiting on the opposite side of its star from the Alliance fleet, almost two and a quarter light-hours to starboard. The Syndic military assets there wouldn’t be any threat unless the Alliance fleet came close to that world, and Geary had no intention of doing that.
Otherwise, the Syndic presence here seemed rapidly to be going to ground as the light from the latest engagement reached different parts of Lakota Star System. Merchant ships were fleeing for whatever sanctuary they could find, and colonies and mining operations on outer planets were shutting down equipment as they sent their populace to whatever shelters existed. Accustomed to having Alliance forces bombard Syndic worlds, the people in the system expected the worst from the victorious fleet. It wasn’t going to happen, but Geary didn’t feel like explaining that to them at the moment.
All around
Dauntless
, the now-widely dispersed ships of the Alliance fleet were making emergency battle repairs and running down Syndic warships knocked out but not destroyed in the battle, to ensure that their power cores were overloaded. Nothing was to be left for the Syndics to salvage. Shuttles flew between Alliance ships, carrying critically needed replacement parts for those warships requiring them. Destroyers and light cruisers darted around, finding and picking up every Alliance escape pod ejected by ships lost during the battle. Geary had already heard of one such pod, containing sailors who had abandoned the battleship
Indefatigable
during the first engagement in Lakota Star System weeks ago, been captured by the Syndics and taken to the wreck of
Audacious
, been liberated by Alliance Marines earlier today and taken to the heavy cruiser
Fascine
, then had to abandon
Fascine
when the heavy cruiser was shot up, and finally been rescued again by the light cruiser
Tsuba
. He wondered if those sailors regarded themselves as lucky or unlucky, and whether or not they were worried by the fact that they’d kept ending up on progressively smaller warships.
Rione stood up with her own heavy sigh. “I need to check on a few things. Let me know if you need me,” she told Geary.
Needing her could mean a number of different things. The ambiguity of the phrase made him wonder if Rione had decided it was time for them to share a physical relationship again. Then Geary spotted Desjani’s teeth clenching for a moment, her eyes rigidly fixed on her display before she relaxed herself. Apparently Desjani had interpreted the phrase the same way and hadn’t liked it. He hadn’t noticed that kind of reaction from her before and wondered if Desjani was more worried about Rione’s influence on him than he had realized.
He could scarcely discuss that now, though, so Geary turned toward Rione and shook his head.
“I’ll be fine. Get some rest.”
“That’s not too likely, but I’ll try.”
Desjani visibly relaxed after Rione had left. “You should get some rest, too, sir.”
“There’s a lot of after-battle mess to clean up,” Geary replied.
“We can handle that. You’ve already ordered our ships to return to their places in Fleet Formation Delta Two once they finish their postbattle operations. They can do that without you watching them. Even
Orion
and
Conqueror
can carry out tasks reliably if they’re not being shot at.”
“Yeah, I guess they can.” Geary stood, surprised by how unsteady on his feet he felt. “Are you going to get any rest?”
Desjani shrugged apologetically. “I’m the captain of
Dauntless
, sir.”
“And captains of warships never get to rest.” He hesitated, then asked the question he had wanted to avoid. “How many did
Dauntless
lose?”
She took a deep breath, then answered in a steady voice. “Twelve. We were lucky. Another nineteen wounded, two critically.”
“I’m sorry.” Geary rubbed his forehead, meaningless phrases about honoring their sacrifices rolling through his brain. Twelve more sailors who would never again see Alliance space, never again see their homes, families, and loved ones. Twelve more just on this lightly damaged ship.
Multiply that across the fleet, and the great victory suddenly felt even less worthy of celebration.
Maybe Desjani felt the same. As if reading his mind, she shook her head. “I guess we’re all a little shell-shocked, sir. Tomorrow I’ll be able to appreciate what we did here. Right now I’m just trying to keep going.”
“You and me both.” He frowned down at the deck. “What was I doing?”
“Rest, sir,” Desjani prodded.
“If you can remember that, you’re in better shape than I am. I’ll be back up here in a little while.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Call me in an hour or so.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I mean it, Captain Desjani.”
“Yes, sir.”
He left the bridge, somehow certain that Desjani had decided that she wouldn’t actually call him unless another emergency erupted but too tired to debate the issue any longer.
HIS stateroom comm alert buzzed angrily, jerking Geary awake. He’d fallen asleep in a chair and took a moment to orient himself before acknowledging the call.
“Captain Geary,” Desjani reported, “there’s a problem at the Syndic hypernet gate.”
His stomach turned to lead. “Reinforcements for the Syndics? ” His fleet wasn’t in any shape to fight another major engagement. The aliens on the other side of Syndic space had diverted a big Syndic force to Lakota the last time the Alliance fleet was in the star system, baffling the Syndics but giving them an opportunity to destroy the Alliance fleet. They’d come far too close to succeeding. Somehow the aliens had known the Alliance fleet would be at Lakota the first time, but his immediate jump back should have thrown off even whatever means of tracking the aliens were using.
“No, sir.” Geary’s initial relief at Desjani’s words vanished as she continued speaking. “The Syndic guard force is destroying the gate.”
Geary took the distance to the bridge in record time, coming to a halt beside his command seat and staring at the images on his display. It took him a moment to accept what he was seeing. As Desjani had reported, the Syndic guard force at the hypernet gate had opened fire on the gate.
“They’re taking down the gate. While we’re still light-hours away.” His disbelief must have been obvious.
Desjani was checking her own display and made a gesture of contempt. “The Syndic commanding that guard force has panicked. He or she has orders to ensure you don’t use that gate, so they’re acting long before they have to act.”
“But this fleet is so far away, we’re much less likely to be damaged by the resulting energy discharge!” Geary stared at the representations of the Syndic guard force. “And his or her own ships are right there. Why commit probable suicide if you don’t have to?”
Rione answered, her voice sharp. He hadn’t noticed her coming onto the bridge, but she must have been right behind him. “Obviously because the Syndic commander doesn’t know what’s going to happen when that hypernet gate collapses. The commander wasn’t informed, either because of a misplaced emphasis on secrecy or because no one thought to do so in the wake of this fleet’s apparent defeat in this same star system almost two weeks ago.”
Desjani spoke as if to herself. “Or because the Syndic Executive Council didn’t want their on-scene commander knowing what would happen and deliberately kept that commander in the dark to ensure their orders would be followed. ”
Geary had a sick feeling that Desjani’s guess was the right one. The Syndic leadership would have wanted to ensure that the Alliance fleet couldn’t use the hypernet gate, and would have decided to withhold any information that might have caused their own commander to hesitate in carrying out orders to destroy it.
“Therefore,” Rione continued as if Desjani hadn’t spoken, “that commander is playing it safe, terrified that this fleet will once again do something that is supposed to be impossible, not realizing that playing it safe is actually dooming them.”
Geary turned on her. “The Syndics are playing it safe because they think this fleet can do the impossible?” he demanded.
She met his gaze coolly. “Don’t blame me.
You’re
the one who keeps achieving the impossible.”
Arguing with Rione would obviously be as futile as usual. He took a moment to think, then called
Furious
. “Captain Cresida, can you give me an estimate of how long it would take the Syndic guard force to cause that hypernet gate to collapse?”
Several seconds later, Cresida’s image appeared and nodded. “Just a moment, sir.” She looked to one side, her eyes examining something, then back at Geary. “Assuming they continue firing and destroying gate tethers at their current observed rate, my calculations indicate that it would take between twenty and thirty minutes more for the gate to begin uncontrollable collapse. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise, but it’s mostly theory since we just don’t have enough actual gate-collapse data to reference.”
Twenty or thirty minutes. And the gate was two and a half light-hours away. “So it probably collapsed a little over two hours ago.”
A few more seconds, then Cresida nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
“Is there any way to estimate the level of the energy discharge before it gets to us?”
“The energy pulse is going to propagate outward at the speed of light, Captain Geary.” Cresida shook her head. “We’ll find out when it hits us. Which could happen in about twenty minutes.”