Dauntless

FIVE

Colonel Carabali’s image saluted Geary. “My Marines are prepared to secure the Syndic base, Captain Geary.”

Geary looked down at the frozen world, less than a light-minute away from Dauntless now. “Make sure your Marines know that we want as little broken as possible when that base is taken. After we’ve salvaged whatever we can use from the base, we’ll destroy anything left with military potential, but I want to make sure we don’t put holes through anything we’re going to want for ourselves.”

“They’ve been briefed to avoid collateral damage to the maximum extent possible, Captain Geary.”

Geary started to ask if that meant they’d actually follow those orders scrupulously, then stopped himself. Unless things had changed a lot more than he could imagine, you just didn’t ask whether or not Marines would follow orders. You assumed that they did, and that was all there was to it. “Very well. Get your landing parties on the way. Arrogant, Exemplar, and Braveheart have taken out the anti-space defenses near the base and will maintain positions overhead in case you need their firepower.”

“Thank you, Captain Geary. My Marines will have that base for you in short order. Intact,” Colonel Carabali added with a brief twist of her lips that might’ve been a smile.

Geary leaned back, rubbing his forehead and wondering why things seemed to alternate between happening too slow and too fast with no real transition between the two states. He looked back at the display, where the ships of his fleet not involved in capturing the Syndic base had braked themselves down to .05 light. No longer facing any enemy combatants to lure them away, they were finally forming into a semblance of order. Titan and the other fleet auxiliaries had escorts again and were veering slightly above the rest of the fleet to take a direct path to the jump point they’d use to exit Corvus System several days from now.

He frowned as his eyes rested on the battle cruisers still hastening to rejoin the rest of the fleet. How much time do I have in this system? How long would it have taken the Syndics to reorganize their fleet, to decide how much to send through the jump point after us, and to actually get into jump space? I’ve gone over this a thousand times, and it always comes down to just not having any way to know. But aside from those mines I had Duellos leave at the jump point, I don’t dare leave anything else there on guard.

Geary studied the remaining Syndic activity in Corvus System. He could tell where the light waves showing his fleet’s arrival could be seen by watching a sphere expand at scale light speed across the depiction of the system. It was odd to think that the arrival of the fleet, and the hourslater destruction of the three Syndic ships, wouldn’t even be known by the inhabited world for some time. War had come to Corvus, but most of the inhabitants of the system would remain blissfully unaware of that for a few hours yet.

He hadn’t heard from the Syndic commander again. Either the man was pouring over the Syndic Fleet Fighting Instructions for what to do next, or he’d died in the preliminary bombardment of the base. Thinking of the lost crews on the two Syndic ships that had fought to the death to no purpose, Geary couldn’t help hoping for the latter.

He fiddled with his controls, finally finding one that provided reports on the Syndic base nearby. Some of the images seemed to confirm that the base had indeed been maintaining stockpiles of supplies on hand for any passing ships that needed them. It’d been a safe assumption that the supplies would still be there even if the base had been abandoned, since shipping out the matériel would’ve cost more than they were worth, and keeping those supplies deep-frozen and unaffected by weather was rarely a problem on worlds that were usually far enough from their stars to lack meaningful atmosphere. The stockpiles are supposed to be for Syndic warships, of course, but I’ve no intention of being picky at this point. I hope Syndic fleet food is better than what the Alliance serves, but I doubt it.

Ancestors. I made a joke to myself. I wonder if I’m starting to really thaw out.

I wonder if I want to thaw out.

“Captain Geary.” He glanced back and saw Co-President Rione still in her seat on the bridge, her face revealing no emotions. “Do you believe all Syndic resistance in the Corvus System has been eliminated?”

“No.” Geary gestured at the display before his chair, wondering how much of it Rione could see. “As you’ve seen, our Marines are in the process of taking the military base on the fourth world. There’s a couple of military bases around the second world, that’s the inhabited one. They don’t even know we’re here yet.”

“Will they be a threat to the fleet?”

“No. They’re obsolete and designed to defend the planet, which we have no interest in messing with. I don’t intend bothering with them if I can help it.”

Captain Desjani gave Geary a surprised look. “We should eliminate all Syndic military capability in this system.”

“Those fortresses aren’t any threat to us and wouldn’t be worth the Syndics moving anywhere else,” Geary replied. “But I’d have to divert some ships to take them out, expend weapons in the process, and worry about damage to civilian targets on the planet from any pieces of the fortresses that enter atmosphere.”

“I see.” Desjani nodded. “There’s no sense in using up our limited supply of weapons on them, and you don’t want to split up the fleet.”

“Right.” Geary gave no sign he’d noticed Desjani didn’t acknowledge the point about civilian casualties. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rione watching them both intently.

The Co-President gestured toward Geary’s display. “You’ve recalled the forces guarding the jump point?”

“Yes. If anything comes through there now, it’ll almost certainly be too powerful for my battle cruisers to handle, and I’m not prepared to sacrifice them or any other ships just to blunt the nose of a Syndic pursuit force.”

Rione studied the display again. “You don’t think they could retreat quickly enough to rejoin us?”

“No, Madam Co-President, I don’t.” Geary moved his finger across the display as he spoke. “You see, anything coming out of the jump point will probably be at pursuit speed. Say point one light, just like we were. While they were on guard, my battle cruisers were matching the movement of the jump point in the system, but that’s a lot slower. The Syndics would have a big speed advantage, too big for my battle cruisers, or any ship in this fleet, to overcome before they got battered into wrecks.”

Desjani had been following the conversation silently, but now looked toward Rione. “If we had some automated warships, we could expend some of those on the mission without the risk of losing personnel. But we have none of those.”

Geary frowned, sensing from the expressions on Desjani’s and Rione’s faces that the statement had considerable history behind it. “Has that been proposed? Building fully automated warships?”

“It has been proposed,” Rione responded dryly.

Captain Desjani’s expression hardened. “In the opinion of many officers, we would gain great advantages in situations such as this if the construction of uncrewed ships controlled by artificial intelligences would be approved.”

Rione met Desjani look for look. “Then I’m afraid those officers are doomed to disappointment. One of my final acts before departing Alliance space with this fleet was participating in an Alliance Assembly vote regarding such a program. It was overwhelmingly defeated. The civil leadership of the Alliance is not willing to entrust weapons and weapons employment decisions to artificial intelligences, especially when those AIs are to be given control of warships capable of inflicting great harm on inhabited worlds.”

Desjani flushed. “If oversight AIs were also installed—”

“They’d be subject to the same potential failures, instabilities, and unpredictable behavioral development.”

“Install an override!”

Rione shook her head implacably. “Any AI capable of controlling a warship would also be capable of learning how to bypass an override. And what if our enemies learned to access this override through experimentation or espionage? I’ve no wish to give them control of warships we’ve built. No, Captain, we don’t believe we can trust AIs to operate independently. I assure you the Assembly is in no mood to bend on this point. Not now, and not at any point in the foreseeable future.”

Desjani, glowering, made a barely respectful nod and turned back to her display.

“Anyway,” Geary continued, pretending the argument hadn’t happened, “now that we’ve taken out the Syndic naval forces in the system, I’m going to threaten the inhabited world into sending us some cargo ships full of stuff we need. Food, mostly. Maybe some power cells, if we can adapt some of the Syndic stuff to work with ours.”

A officer with gray-streaked hair to Geary’s right shook his head. “We can’t, sir. They’re deliberately designed to be noncompatible. Just like their weapons. But if we can get the right raw materials, Titan and Jinn can manufacture more weapons. Titan can also build more power cells, and so can Witch. ““Thank you.” Geary tried to look as appreciative as he actually felt for the quick and to-the-point briefing. “Can those ships tell me what they need?”

“We’ve got the information onboard Dauntless, sir. Assuming their last updates to us are accurate, of course.”

“You’re supply?”

The gray-haired man saluted awkwardly, as if the gesture were long unused. “Engineering, sir.”

“I want you to make sure we know what the highest priorities are for each of those ships.”

“Yes, sir!” the man beamed, apparently honored at being given a task by Geary.

Geary turned to Desjani. “At least that way I’ll be sure to demand the right tribute from the Syndics in this system.”

Co-President Rione stood up and took a couple of steps to lean near Geary and murmur just loud enough for Geary and Desjani to hear. “By so making your demands, Captain Geary, you’ll also be telling the Syndics exactly what your greatest needs are.”

Desjani made a face. Geary thought she looked unhappy, too, but had to admit Rione was right. “Any suggestions?” he murmured back.

“Yes. Include some misleading demands. The Syndics will not know which demands represent real needs for us and which are luxury items, for want of a better term.”

“Good idea.” Geary gave her a lopsided grin. “Would you by any chance also have any suggestions as to who should present our demands to the authorities here?”

“Are you drafting me, Captain Geary?”

“I wouldn’t want to say that, Madam Co-President. But you do have the necessary skills, and it’d be nice if you agreed to volunteer before I gave you the job.”

“I’ll consider it.” Rione nodded toward Geary’s display again. “I understand most of what’s happening now, but not that activity around the surrendered corvette.”

“It’s being stripped for any useful parts,” Geary assured her. He focused on the information himself, then frowned and studied it closer. He gave Desjani a questioning glance, but she indicated she didn’t see anything odd, which also bothered Geary. He reached for his communications controls. “Audacious, why are all the survival pods from the Syndic corvette enroute to you?”

The other ship wasn’t far away, so the reply came so quickly that it almost seemed real time. “There are materials on the Syndic survival pods we can cannibalize, sir. Emergency life support and emergency rations, mostly.”

“Do you intend leaving the corvette intact?” Not that it was all that much of a threat, but Geary hadn’t intended leaving any enemy warship in functional condition behind them, regardless of whether or not its combat systems had been trashed.

“No, sir.” Audacious replied. “The corvette will be destroyed by triggering a power core overload after we’ve finished stripping it.”

Geary waited, but when Audacious said nothing more, he tapped his communications key again. “Audacious, how do you intend disposing of the corvette’s crew?” He didn’t want to have to divert a ship to deliver prisoners to a planet’s surface or some other safe location.

“They’re on the corvette, sir.” The voice from Audacious sounded surprised at the question.

Once more, Geary waited a moment for Audacious to finish replying to his question. He was moving to tap the communications key again when he suddenly realized with a growing sense of horror that the other ship had finished answering him. “How do you intend disposing of the crew?” “They’re on the corvette, sir.” The corvette that was going to be destroyed by its own power core.

Geary looked down at his hand, the finger still poised over the communications key, and saw that his lower arm was trembling. He wondered how much of the rest of him was reacting to the shock of what he’d realized. They’re going to simply blow up the prisoners with their own ship. Ancestors, what’s become of my people? He looked over at Captain Desjani, who was talking with one of the Dauntless’s watch-standers and seemed unconcerned about Geary’s conversation with Audacious. Rione was apparently seated behind him once again, out of his sight.

Geary closed his eyes, trying to order his thoughts, then slowly opened them again and finally, moving his finger with great care, keyed communications. “Audacious, this is Captain Geary.” You’re about to commit mass murder, you bastards. “Return the survival pods to the Syndic corvette.”

A few seconds passed. “Sir?” Audacious asked. “You want the survival pods destroyed, too? We could use some of their components.”

Geary stared straight ahead and spoke with a flat voice. “What I want, Audacious, is for the crew of that corvette to be allowed to evacuate that ship in their survival pods prior to the destruction of the corvette so they can reach safety. Is that absolutely clear?”

A longer pause. “We’re supposed to let them go?” The captain of the Audacious sounded incredulous.

Geary noticed Captain Desjani was staring at him now. Ignoring her, he spoke again, letting each word fall slowly and heavily like falling hammers. “That’s correct. The Alliance fleet does not murder prisoners. The Alliance fleet does not violate the laws of war.”

“But … but … we’ve—”

Captain Desjani was leaning toward him, whispering urgently. “The Syndics—”

Geary’s control snapped. “I don’t care what’s been done before!” he roared at both the communications circuit and the bridge of the Dauntless. “I don’t care what our enemies do! I will not allow any prisoners to be massacred by any ship under my command! I will not allow this fleet and the Alliance and the ancestors of all aboard these ships to be dishonored by war crimes committed under the all-seeing eyes of the living stars! We are sailors of the Alliance, and we will hold ourselves to the standards of honor our ancestors believed in! Are there any further questions?”

Silence reigned. Captain Desjani was staring at him, her face frozen, her eyes reflecting shock. Finally, Audacious replied, her Captain’s voice hushed. “The survival pods are on their way back to the corvette, Captain Geary.”

Geary struggled to control his voice. “Thank you.”

“If you wish my resignation—”

“No.” It had been several days since the last wave of weakness had hit him, but one seemed to have come on now, and Geary tried to fight it off without resorting to a med-patch. “I don’t know everything that has led to this. I have every reason to believe you were carrying out your duties as you understood them. But I must emphasize that whatever violations of the laws of war that took place before this must stop. We are the Alliance. We have honor. If we hold to that, we will win. If we don’t hold to it … we don’t deserve to win.”

“Yes, sir.” It was hard to tell from the voice of the Captain of Audacious what he thought of what Geary had said, but at least he was doing what he was told.

Geary slumped in his chair, feeling as if in the last several minutes he’d aged the century he’d slept through. Captain Desjani was staring at the deck, her face troubled. She’s a good officer. Like the Captain of the Audacious. Just misguided. Somewhere along the line a lot of important things got set adrift. “Captain Desjani—”

“Sir.” Desjani swallowed and shook her head. “Forgive me for interrupting you, sir, but while you were speaking to Audacious, the Marines reported they have taken the Syndic base and are conducting mop-up operations.”

“Thank you, Captain Desjani. I wanted to say—”

“Sir. The Marines have taken prisoners of most of the garrison of the base.”

Geary nodded, trying to understand why Desjani kept interrupting him.

“The rest of the fleet heard what you told Audacious. However, the Marines would not have been monitoring the communications circuit you used with Audacious.”

Then he got it. Prisoners. Lots of them. And Captain Desjani, whether she agreed with Geary or not, was going to keep interrupting him until he realized what might well be going on at that base. “Get me Colonel Carabali.”

“She’s out of communications for some reason, sir, but we have an audio and video feed from the ground force command-and-control net.”

“Give me a link to that!” His display blinked, and the three-dimensional projection of ships and the Corvus Star System was replaced by a panel made up of at least thirty individual pictures ranked side by side and in vertical columns. It took Geary a moment to realize he was looking at video depictions from what were probably each squad leader in the Marine assault force. He reached forward as if to touch one, and the image expanded, pushing the other images to the side. Geary touched another, and it and the first image adjusted so both were the same size, the other small images ranked around their borders ready for access. Wow. That’s a pretty neat toy. I wonder how many commanders have played with it while they lost track of the big picture?

Geary scanned his eyes across the images, searching for signs of prisoners or any obvious indication that one of the images represented a link to the commander of the assault force. His eyes paused on one image, watching the metal of a corridor wall warp as something firing large solid slugs punched numerous holes in it. Symbols flowed across the image, he saw an arm gesturing within the view, then he could see Marines dashing forward, looking inhuman in their combat armor. Two fired some sort of barrage in the direction from which the shots that hit the wall had come, then a third leveled a large tube and fired it.

The view shook. Marines dashed forward, the image Geary was viewing jerking as the Marine broadcasting it ran with the others. Around the corner and down a long corridor with some sort of security station at the end. Geary, expecting to see mass devastation from whatever weapon had been fired from the large tube, instead saw only bodies sprawled about in armor different from that of the Marines. A concussion weapon? I guess the Marines used that because of their orders to limit collateral damage to the installation. That might mean those Syndic soldiers are still alive.

The thought brought Geary’s mind forcefully back to his current mission. He searched the images again, finally noticing one scanning across some sort of large room or hanger with a big crowd of people in it. He touched the image, and it grew. That’s it. Those are Syndics. “Captain Desjani, how do I talk to someone using this?”

She indicated a communications symbol at the bottom of the image. “Just touch that.”

“Have you reached Colonel Carabali yet?”

“No, sir.”

Then I’ll have to bypass her. Geary touched the symbol. “This is Captain Geary.”

The image jerked once. “Yes, sir.”

“Who’s this?”

“Major Jalo, sir. Second-in-command for the landing force. Colonel Carabali ordered me to oversee mop-up operations to secure the main installation while she checked for any pockets of resistance in outlying areas.”

“Are these all the Syndic prisoners?”

“Not yet, sir. The mop-up sweeps are bringing in some final holdouts.”

“What…” How do I ask this? “What are Colonel Carabali’s orders regarding the prisoners?”

“I haven’t received orders on final disposition, sir. Standard procedure is to turn the prisoners over to the fleet.”

That’s interesting. Do the Marines know what happens to prisoners? Or do they pretend everything’s okay to keep their consciences clear? Geary was about to ask another question when the view in his image jerked again. Everyone visible within the image swayed on their feet. “What was that?”

Major Jalo’s voice came faster, hyped and ready for action. “Some sort of heavy explosion, sir. There’s another,” Jalo added unnecessarily as the image jerked again. “Somebody’s hitting the area with heavy ordnance.”

Heavy ordnance? The Marines have already taken the surface around the base, and the ships overhead have taken out the anti-space defenses. Ancestors. The ships overhead. “Captain Desjani! Are any of the ships positioned near the Syndic base firing?”

He watched the image from Major Jalo dance a few more times as Desjani answered. “Arrogant is firing upon an area near the base, Captain Geary. I don’t know what the target is.”

“Hold those prisoners until you get further orders from me,” Geary barked at Major Jalo, then he leaned back and scowled at the array of images. “How do I get the fleet display back?”

Desjani reached over and tapped a control. There was the representation of Corvus System, with the ships of Geary’s fleet spread all over the place. He fumbled at the communications key for a moment, fuming inwardly. “Arrogant! Identify the target you’re firing upon!” Geary waited, his temper rising, as no reply came and Arrogant continued to pound the surface near the Syndic base. “Arrogant, this is Captain Geary. Cease fire. I say again. Cease fire.”

The other ship was only a few light-seconds away, but a full minute passed with no response. Geary counted to five inwardly, thinking through his options. “Captain Desjani. Exemplar and Braveheart. Which has the best commander?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Exemplar, sir. Commander Basir.”

“Thank you.” Geary tapped the communications key. “Commander Basir on Exemplar, do you copy?”

“Yes, sir,” the reply came within less than a half minute.

“Can you identify the target being fired upon by Arrogant?”

A longer pause this time. “No, sir.”

“Have you, Braveheart, or Arrogant received requests from the Marines to fire upon any targets on the surface?”

“No, sir. Not Exemplar, and I overheard no requests to Braveheart or Arrogant on the coordination net with the Marines.”

I don’t know what that idiot on Arrogant is doing, but if that ship keeps throwing heavy weaponry at the surface, she’s liable to hurt our own Marines, not to mention damaging supplies at the base. And now I know for certain that Arrogant’s not responding to any threat to her or the Marines. “Thank you, Exemplar.”

Geary glared around at the personnel on the bridge of the Dauntless. “Can I control Arrogant’s weapons? Do we have a way to remotely override local control?”

Everyone shook their heads, but only Captain Desjani spoke. “No, sir. As previously discussed,” she added, somehow glowering toward Rione without actually looking that way, “it is believed that allowing ship systems to be controlled remotely opens up vulnerabilities that can be exploited by the enemy.”

Rione’s voice came. “Enemy intrusion into the remote command systems, avenues for delivering disabling viruses—”

“And a lot of other things that good emissions warfare can do even if it isn’t supplemented by espionage. Thank you, I know. I spent a moment hoping someone’d found a way around all that during the last century.” Geary bared his teeth as a thought came to him. “But I do have one thing on Arrogant that I can control.”

Desjani raised one eyebrow in question.

“Arrogant’s got Marines on board, right?”

She nodded.

Geary tapped his communications control. “Arrogant, this is Captain Geary. You are endangering our personnel on the surface. You will cease fire immediately, or I will relieve your commanding officer of command and give direct orders to the Marine detachment aboard Arrogant to place that individual under arrest. I will not repeat my order again.”

Even though he was royally ticked off at the moment, Geary couldn’t help wondering how the fleet would take that kind of ultimatum. But Captain Desjani seemed grimly pleased. Apparently Arrogant’s commanding officer wasn’t popular with her, at least.

“Arrogant has ceased fire,” Desjani reported a few seconds later in a carefully bland voice.

“Good.” Shooting at shadows is one thing. When you’re in combat, it’s all too easy to think there’s an enemy target where there’s nothing. But that fool on Arrogant was too stubborn or dumb or both to realize the mistake or stop shooting when I ordered it. I need to get rid of Arrogant’s commanding officer as soon as I can swing it. Just one more thing to worry about.

“Sir?” Geary and Desjani both looked toward the watch-stander who’d spoken. “We have Colonel Carabali on the circuit again.”

Carabali looked as furious as Geary had been moments before. “My apologies, Captain Geary. The unit I was with was forced to take shelter within a shielded bunker, so we were unable to communicate with anyone.”

“Forced to take shelter? Is there still that much Syndic resistance around the base?”

“No, sir.” Carabali seemed to be fighting to keep from snarling. “We did initially pursue some Syndic forces into the bunker. But as we were preparing to leave it, the area we were in started being bombarded by one of our own ships.”

Arrogant. Firing on a location occupied by our own people. That stupid sorry excuse for a ship commander. “Did you lose anyone?”

“By the grace of our ancestors, no, sir.”

“Good.” Although if you had lost someone I could’ve hanged that fool on Arrogant. “Any idea what Arrogant was shooting at?”

“I was hoping you knew, Captain Geary,” she said slowly.

Geary almost smiled at the carefully understated words, but he managed to keep his expression stern, knowing the Marine commander probably wasn’t yet in the mood to see the dark humor of the situation. “No. My apologies for the time required to get Arrogant to cease fire. I will ensure steps are taken to make certain this sort of thing isn’t repeated.”

“Thank you, Captain Geary. Major Jalo tells me you were in communication with him regarding the prisoners.”

“That’s correct.” Geary paused, wondering how to word his next statement. Were you planning on murdering your prisoners, Colonel? “I don’t know what the standard procedure has been regarding prisoners.”

Carabali’s eyes narrowed. “Standard procedure has been that we turn them over to the fleet, sir.” Everything in her tone and posture clearly communicated a further message to Geary. I’m certain you know what the fleet does with them once they’re out of our hands.

The exchange brought Geary’s temper rising again. How dare she be holier than thou about this? It seems the Marines kept from being directly involved in killing prisoners by looking the other way. That’s not exactly the most virtuous of actions. Though at least they kept their own hands clean. I have to give them credit for that much. But all he said was, “That’s changed. You will maintain responsibility for the prisoners and make arrangements to ensure the prisoners are confined in an area with adequate life support and the means to call for rescue once we depart.”

Carabali’s expression shifted. “I understood the base was to be totally destroyed, sir.”

“Sufficient living space, food, water, and life support to keep the prisoners alive until rescued will be kept intact, along with one primary and one backup means of basic communications with the inhabited world in this system.” It was so easy for Geary to reel off the requirements. Everyone had known them once. Every officer had been required to know them. And to follow them. “The prisoners will be kept under guard and treated in accordance with the laws of war until we depart. Are there any questions?”

Carabali was watching Geary as if studying him. “I understand these orders are to me, personally? That they cannot be overridden by any other fleet officer without your concurrence?”

“Yes, Colonel. I have every confidence that you will faithfully execute the spirit as well as the letter of my orders.”

“Thank you, Captain Geary. I understand and will obey.” Carabali rendered a precise salute, then the image blanked out.

Geary leaned back, rubbing his eyes, then looked toward Desjani again. “Thank you, Captain Desjani.”

“I just did my duty, sir.” Desjani was looking away, refusing to meet Geary’s eye.

Geary looked around the bridge, seeing the other officers and sailors also finding anything else to stare at rather than look him in the face. “Captain Desjani—”

“Standard procedure,” she interrupted in a low voice.

Geary stopped and took a deep breath. “How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“Official?”

This time Desjani paused, then shook her head, still not looking his way. “Never official. Never in writing. Just understood.”

So you all knew it wasn’t right. Couldn’t be right. Or you’d have written it down.

But as long as you didn’t write it down, you could pretend it really was okay. Just unwritten.

Desjani spoke again, her voice thin. “We heard your reaction, Captain Geary. We saw your reaction. How could we have let this happen? We’ve dishonored our ancestors, haven’t we? We’ve dishonored you.”

Even though Desjani was still avoiding his gaze, Geary found himself looking away from her. They did. They’ve done something horrible. They’re good people, and they’ve been doing something horrible. What do I do? “Captain Desjani … all of you … your past actions are between you and your own ancestors. Ask them for forgiveness, not me. I wish … I wish to remind you all that someday we will be judged for our actions. I will not judge you. I don’t have that right. But I’ll not permit dishonorable actions by forces under my command. I’ll not permit some of the finest officers and enlisted personnel I’ve ever met to sully their own service. And you are fine officers who command fine sailors. Sailors in the Alliance fleet. All of us are, together. There are things we don’t do. From this moment forth, let us all ensure our every action reflects well on us and our ancestors. Let us live to the highest standards, lest we win this war only to find ourselves staring in the mirror at the face of our late enemy.”

A murmur of replies followed. Geary looked around again, and this time everyone met his gaze. It was a start.

For the first time, he wondered if missing the last century had actually been a blessing of sorts.

The conference room once more appeared to be occupied by the apparently endless table with every commanding officer in the fleet seated along it, even though Geary knew only Captain Desjani was actually here in person with him. Right now the images of the other ship commanders were staring at him with expressions that ran the full gamut from faithful to hostile, with plenty of surprise thrown in for good measure. “Kaliban?” the harsh voice of Captain Faresa demanded. She made a dismissive gesture toward the navigational display of local stars that floated above the table. “You actually want us to jump to Kaliban?”

Geary nodded, tamping down his temper. It had gotten to the point where even thinking about Captain Faresa, or Captain Numos for that matter, made him angry. He couldn’t afford that kind of distraction. Besides, it was unprofessional, and he couldn’t demand professionalism from others if he didn’t try his best to practice it himself. “I explained my reasons.”

Captain Numos shook his head in a way that somehow reminded Geary of the bureaucratic Syndic commander. “I cannot agree to such a rash and senseless course of action.”

Captain Tulev broke in, frowning. “It seems to make a great deal of sense to me.”

“That’s hardly surprising,” Numos stated in a disparaging tone.

Tulev flushed but continued to speak in an even voice. “Captain Geary has analyzed the likely enemy reactions to our current situation. I can’t fault his reasoning. The Syndics are not fools. They’ll have a major force waiting for us at Yuon.”

“Then we’ll deal with them.”

“This fleet is still recovering from what happened in the Syndic home system! Our losses can’t be replaced until we reach home. Surely, even you realize we can’t risk getting caught by superior forces again.”

“Timidity in the face of the enemy—” Numos began.

“We aren’t in this situation because of timidity,” Captain Desjani interrupted, ignoring the angry look Numos sent her way. “We’re here because we were more concerned with acting aggressively than with thinking about what we were doing.” She subsided while the other officers stared at her in either disbelief or incomprehension.

Captain Faresa made what was apparently her best attempt to speak in a condescending voice. “Are we to understand that the commanding officer of a ship in the Alliance fleet regards aggressiveness as a negative quality?”

Geary leaned forward. “No. You are to understand that aggressiveness without forethought is a negative quality. That’s my opinion, Captain Faresa.”

Faresa’s eyes narrowed as she opened her mouth to speak, then froze in that position. Geary watched her, not letting his amusement show. You were going to cite fleet traditions, weren’t you, Faresa? Maybe even quote Black Jack Geary. But I’m the one person you can’t use that against.

Farther down the table, a commander spoke, his words rushed. “It’s common knowledge that prolonged survival sleep affects people.” He paused as he became the center of attention, then spoke quickly again. “This isn’t the officer whose example has inspired this fleet for a century. Not any more.”

Everyone looked toward Geary, who realized that the commander had brought into the open something his enemies must have been whispering since he took command. To his own surprise, the charge didn’t anger him. Perhaps because Geary disliked the heroic image of Black Jack Geary so much that he didn’t mind having someone else disassociate him from that mythical construct. Geary could also tell from the expressions around the table that most of the officers present disapproved of what had been said. Many still clearly worshipped Black Jack. Others seemed unhappy with the unprofessionalism of the comments made by the commander. He hoped at least a few were actually trusting him because of his actions so far.

So instead of reacting with passion, Geary deliberately leaned back and looked directly at his opponent. A name tag immediately sprang into view, identifying the man and his ship. Commander Vebos of the Arrogant. Of course. “Commander Vebos. I don’t claim to be more than human. I am, however, the officer who led this fleet out of the Syndic home system when it was threatened with imminent destruction. I know how to command a fleet. I know how to give orders. That’s because I learned how to take orders, a necessary skill in any officer. Don’t you agree, Commander?”

Vebos turned pale at the pointed reference to his actions in bombarding the Syndic base. But he bulled ahead anyway. “Other officers could’ve done better. Captain Numos. He’d have us halfway home by now!”

“He’d have us in Syndic work camps by now,” Captain Duellos noted dryly. “Though he was willing enough to try to get away alone in Orion while the Syndics were busy finishing off our damaged ships.”

It was Numos’s turn to flush red with anger. “I will not—”

Geary slammed his hand onto the table, and silence fell. “I do not wish to have my officers publicly malign other officers,” he stated.

Captain Duellos rose and inclined his head toward the place Numos occupied. “My apologies to Captain Geary and to Captain Numos.”

Geary inclined his own head in return. “Thank you, Captain Duellos. It is critical that we remain focused. This fleet is transiting the Corvus System en route to the jump point that leads to Kaliban. We are currently in negotiations with the Syndic authorities on the second planet. They are being told to provide us with supplies and raw materials as we pass through the system, on pain of having the fleet inflict extensive damage to their world.” Geary thought that of those present, only Captain Desjani would guess that Geary had no intention of actually bombarding an inhabited world simply to punish the people on it. “I am certain that the Syndics will be awaiting us with force at Yuon. I will take this fleet to Kaliban. And our ancestors willing, I will take this fleet home.”

A number of commanders still looked unhappy or skeptical, but most of the officers made their at-least-grudging agreement clear. Geary looked along the ranks of ship commanders, trying to identify those who looked to be trouble, then stopped himself. I won’t turn into a Syndic CEO, playing political games and purging officers suspected of “disloyalty.” But by the living stars, Commander Vebos won’t still be commanding the Arrogant when we leave this system. That man isn’t simply disloyal and insubordinate. He’s stupid.

The number of officers around the table dwindled rapidly as they broke the connections that had presented their images at the conference. Once again, the apparent size of the table, and the room itself, shrank along with the reduction in officers whose images had been present. Many of the officers paused, their images suddenly seeming to stand before Geary, and expressed brief words of support. Geary acknowledged them as gracefully as he could, trying to not grimace at how many of them looked at him with the worshipful eyes of those seeing Black Jack Geary in the flesh.

Captain Duellos was the last to leave, giving Geary a big grin. “Maybe you should’ve left Numos and Orion guarding the jump exit,” Duellos suggested.

“Why would I have wanted to do that?” Geary asked.

“You could’ve left him there!”

Geary laughed despite himself. “His crew doesn’t deserve that.”

Duellos smiled again. “No. I expect they suffer enough as it is.”

“Sorry I had to slap you down when you and Numos started to get personal,” Geary said. “I trust you understand why I did that.”

“I did, sir. Though I must confess I don’t regret making the remark and reminding my fellow ship commanders of the course of action Numos tried to endorse back in the Syndic home system.” Duellos paused. “I want you to know that you have my unconditional support.”

“Thank you.”

“Not Black Jack Geary. You.”

Geary raised one eyebrow. “You’ve figured out I’m not that person?”

“I’m glad you’re not,” Duellos confessed. “The man always scared me.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Captain Desjani is a very good officer. You can trust her.”

“I already know that.” Geary made a face. “Speaking of trust, do you have any officers you’d recommend for command of Arrogant?”

“I can give you some names. A word of advice, Captain Geary?”

Geary nodded. “I never refuse to listen to advice from good officers.”

Duellos made a small bow. “Thank you. Don’t replace that idiot Vebos with an officer certain to be loyal to you. It will raise concerns of a loyalty purge.”

Geary bit his lip, trying not to show his surprise that Duellos had echoed his own earlier thought. “Surely that hasn’t actually happened in the Alliance fleet.”

For the first time, Duellos looked grim. “Captain Geary, I know that you have already learned of some of the things that have happened in the Alliance fleet.”

“Damn,” Geary whispered, then shook his head. Loyalty purges in the Alliance fleet. Unbelievable. When? Where? I don’t really want to know. “Thank you, Captain. I’ll remember your advice. It’s very good to have officers like you and Desjani whom I can trust implicitly.”

“We can always trust in our ancestors as well,” Duellos offered. “I do not regard myself as an overly religious man, nor have I subscribed to the belief that the dead Black Jack Geary would somehow return when he was most needed. But it is nonetheless heartening even to me that you came to us when you did.”

Geary snorted. “I suppose I shouldn’t complain about being found since I’d have been dead for real before much longer. But I’m not sure even my ancestors can help me much with this situation.”

Duellos made a sweeping gesture and grinned. “Then perhaps mine can assist with avoiding the enemy fleet and looting bystanders. By dint of experience, that is. My ancestors include a few pirates.”

“Do they? I guess there are some skeletons in everyone’s family closet. A few of my ancestors were lawyers.”

“Ah! My condolences.”

“We’ve learned to live with it.”

Duellos stepped back and saluted. “You reminded us all of how our actions have dishonored our ancestors, you know. But you did it as well as such a thing could be done. You spoke of ‘us’ and ‘we,’ placing yourself alongside us. And placing us alongside you. There are many who will not forget that.”

Geary returned the salute, thanking whichever ancestor had inspired him to use those words. Because I sure didn’t think that out beforehand. “Thank you.”

“It is only the truth, sir.” Duellos lowered his hand, and his image vanished.

Geary sat down heavily in his stateroom, staring glumly at the display he’d activated. It showed the situation in Corvus System, with a few ships from the Alliance fleet finishing up their work at the Syndic base on the frozen world while the rest of the fleet proceeded through the system in a halfway decent formation. Fourteen hours since we entered this system. How much longer until serious Syndic pursuit shows up?

I can’t believe how tired I am. Do I dare sleep? Will the fleet fly apart again if I’m not watching it?

The hatch chime sounded. Geary heaved himself up into a more formal position. “Come in.”

“Captain Geary.” Co-President Rione spoke formally, her expression as controlled as usual. “May we speak?”

“Certainly.”

Geary waved her to a seat, but instead Rione walked over to stare at the starscape that dominated one bulkhead. “First of all, Captain, I hope my interventions on the bridge did not adversely affect your work.”

“Not at all. You had some good input. I appreciated the advice.”

A momentary smile twisted Rione’s lips, then vanished. “More so than Captain Desjani, I would assume.”

“She’s the Captain of Dauntless,” Geary pointed out in a carefully neutral voice. “The bridge is her throne room, if you will. The place where her authority finds a center. Any ship Captain would be a little touchy about someone else appearing to exercise authority on the bridge.”

Rione turned her head for a moment to give Geary a searching look. “Does she react this way to you, as well?”

“No. I understand the protocol, and I have an established role. I let her run her ship while I try to run the fleet. That sort of thing is well understood. But there’s no real protocol for having a high-ranking civilian on the bridge. There’s bound to be some friction. Captain Desjani’s a good commanding officer, though. She’ll get used to your appearances on the bridge, and she won’t act improperly toward you.”

“Thank you, Captain Geary.” Rione inclined her head in a brief gesture. “I wish you to understand that for my part, I did not take amiss Captain Desjani’s strong words regarding the issue of robotic warships. The argument is never-ending, and I truly appreciate the thoughts of those who actually fight, but I cannot imagine fully entrusting weapons to artificial intelligences.”

“To be perfectly honest, I agree with you.” Geary shrugged. “It’s the same problem we had in my time. If an artificial intelligence isn’t smart enough to employ a weapon all by itself, you can’t trust it very much in battle. If the AI is smart enough to employ a weapon all by itself, you can’t trust it at all.”

Rione’s lips made another very brief smile. “True. But it’s time I addressed the issue that brought me here.” Geary waited while Rione stared at the depiction of the stars. “I find it necessary to confess something to you, Captain Geary. You have shamed me.”

“If this is about the prisoner thing—”

“It is. I suppose you’re tired of hearing us express our feelings?”

“That’s not how I meant it.”

“No. I didn’t think so.” Co-President Rione seemed to be studying the starscape again. “Captain Geary, I’m not one of those who believes that the past was always a better place. That the old ways were necessarily better. But I have known for some time that the pressures of this war have warped those who fight it. How much so is easily overlooked. We have forgotten some very important things.”

Geary frowned and pretended to be looking at his hands. “You’ve all been through a lot.”

“That’s an explanation, but it’s not an excuse.” Rione had bent her head again, her mouth a thin, hard line now. “It is all too easy to become like the enemy you hate, isn’t it, Captain Geary?”

“That’s why we have the laws of war. That’s why we try to teach honor to those who have to fight.”

“The laws of war mean nothing if those charged with following them do not believe in them. Honor can be twisted, turned upon itself, until it appears to justify the most evil actions. You know this, Captain Geary.”

Geary nodded heavily. “I’m in no position to judge anyone, Madam Co-President. I had the luxury of avoiding the many years of war that led to this state of affairs.”

“Luxury? You don’t appear to have enjoyed the experience.” Rione raised her head, but she still didn’t look toward Geary. “In the last few hours, as time permitted, I’ve gone back through my classified archives, studying the true history of the war and trying to determine how we reached this state. I want you to know it wasn’t the result of any deliberate process. I could see where the rules got bent here and there, always for what seemed good reasons. The next time they got bent some more.”

“For the best of reasons,” Geary stated without emotion.

“Yes. Step by step, over the course of time, we grew to accept things. We grew to believe that the deplorable actions of the Syndicate Worlds justified deplorable actions on our part. Even I accepted this as an unfortunate reality of the war.” She finally looked at Geary with an expression he couldn’t read. “And then you reminded us all of what our ancestors would think of those actions. Only you could do this, because no one else could speak so clearly from the past to us. You reminded us that this war began because we were different than the Syndicate Worlds. Because there were things the Syndicate Worlds would do that the Alliance would not.”

Geary nodded again, uncomfortable under Rione’s gaze. “I never believed that the Alliance somehow made a decision all at once to start violating the laws of war. I guessed it had been like you said. Starting down the slippery slope and ending up at the bottom without even realizing how you got there. All because of the old argument that we had to do some bad things to win because it was important to win.”

“An old argument and a false one, isn’t it?”

“I think so. If the Alliance starts modeling its actions on those of the Syndicate Worlds, I’m not sure what the point of winning would be.”

“I heard you say that. I agree.” Rione bowed her head toward him. “You reminded us of who we once were, Captain Geary. And you had the courage and fundamental decency to stand by the truly honorable things you believed in, even at the risk of alienating those in this fleet who believe in you and follow you.”

Geary shook his head. “I’m not a courageous man, Madam Co-President. I just acted on instinct.”

“Then I hope that you will continue to do so. When first we met, I told you that I had no use for heroes and expressed my concern that you would lead this fleet to ruin. I freely admit that thus far you have proven me wrong.” Rione inclined her head again and left.

Geary rubbed his forehead, thinking over Rione’s words. She didn’t exactly give me unconditional approval, did she? “Thus far” I haven’t lived up to her worst expectations. But that’s okay. She’ll help keep me honest. I don’t want to end up believing I deserve all those worshipful looks I keep getting from people in this fleet.

He thought about going back to the bridge of the Dauntless, and then thought about having to face all the others there. I think I’ve had enough drama for now. He paged the bridge instead, telling them he’d be catching some sleep and making sure they’d wake him if anything important happened.

Seven hours later a buzzing sound jerked him awake. “Geary here.” He tried to come fully awake, shocked at how long he’d slept and how tired he still felt. Obviously, he hadn’t recovered as much from his long survival sleep as he’d been imagining.

“Captain Geary, this is the bridge. Sorry for waking you, sir. You asked to be notified—”

“Yeah, yeah. What is it?”

“We’ve sighted major elements of the Syndic fleet exiting the jump point. Captain Desjani assesses it to be the main pursuit force.”