Relentless

ELEVEN

“It’s not too late!” Geary snapped. “The Syndics haven’t blown that gate at Varandal yet, and if we can there get fast enough, we can stop them. We can stop this whole thing, and we will!”

“How?” Rione demanded.

“Captain Cresida has reported that she’s been able to make enough progress on her design to protect against gate collapse. We’ll need to get one installed on Varandal and every other hypernet gate we can as fast as we can and hope the aliens don’t realize what we’re doing until too late.”

“What about Captain Tulev’s list?”

“It’s been overtaken by events. We don’t have any time left, and a priority list would be too complicated to get across in the time we have available. If we spread the word that the hypernet gates are threats, everyone will start putting up those systems of Cresida’s.”

Desjani pressed her palms against her forehead. “Even if we do stop the Syndics, why wouldn’t the aliens blow the gate as soon as they know we’re in Varandal? No, they won’t know. It’ll take them a while to learn. Long enough to install Cresida’s system?”

“We’ll have to hope so. We’re lucky we picked up that Syndic,” he added. “If not, we wouldn’t have known about Kalixa.”

“If her ship hadn’t survived and told the Syndic reserve flotilla about Kalixa,” Desjani pointed out coldly, “then they wouldn’t have gone off to collapse the Alliance gate at Varandal. I personally could have waited to hear about Kalixa if it would have avoided that.”

“She told us something else important.” Rione’s eyes were still hooded with gloom. “A Syndic merchant ship there had copies of our records from Lakota. That confirms that the information is being spread throughout the Syndicate Worlds, even though the Syndic leaders are doubtless trying to stop it.”

Geary walked to the comm panel. “We need a meeting. Now.” Less than ten minutes later he was facing the virtual presences of Captains Cresida, Duellos, and Tulev, as well as Desjani and Rione. It took only a couple of minutes to explain what they’d learned from the Syndic commander, then Geary turned to Cresida. “You told me the basic work was done. How close are you to having a design that can be fabricated and installed as soon as we reach Alliance space?”

“Close enough, sir.” She shrugged apologetically. “It can be refined, but it’s done. It’s got a lot of estimates factored in, but it should be effective enough to dampen the shock wave to levels low enough not to threaten a star system. There’s a basic emergency level add-on that will at least lower the intensity of the energy discharge so it won’t cause significant harm, and a more elaborate system that can be installed afterward on top of the other. That should guarantee the gate collapse is completely harmless.”

“How fast can they be made and placed on hypernet gates?” Rione asked.

“As fast as their priority level, Madam Co-President.” Cresida shrugged again. “We just need to convince the Alliance political authorities and our military chain of command of the urgency.”

The sarcasm in her words didn’t need to be emphasized. Rione looked angry but not at Cresida. “That may not be a problem if we lose Varandal, but it would be best not to have that kind of example to point to. We’ve already got Lakota and Kalixa, but since those occurred in enemy territory, their significance will be debated. We need to go around the Alliance bureaucracy.”

“Captain Geary could order it.”

“That’s no guarantee it would happen,” Geary interrupted. “Especially if it becomes a matter of people arguing about me instead of installing the…”

“Safe-fail systems,” Cresida supplied.

Tulev smiled without humor. “We just tell everyone. Broadcast it. Here’s what happened at Lakota and Kalixa. It could happen to your star system. At any minute. Unless you get this modification installed on your hypernet gate as fast as possible. People will pick it up, carry it onward.”

Desjani was shaking her head. “We have to maintain security.”

“If you do,” Tulev stated calmly, “then the political and military authorities will classify it divine eyes only, then sit on it and study it and consider it until Alliance star systems are destroyed by the score. All in the name of security and avoiding a panic, of course.”

Rione nodded. “Captain Tulev is right. We need to generate a level of urgency to get this done, hopefully get these systems on our hypernet gates before the aliens realize what we’re doing and before the Syndics collapse any of them. The only way to do that is to make sure as many people as possible know of the danger.”

“Urgency and hysteria may be hard to tell apart. Won’t the authorities still attempt to downplay the danger?” Duellos asked.

“Of course they will. They’ll try to claim that the gates are one hundred percent safe, perhaps by saying our hypernet gates are different from Syndic gates.”

“That’s nonsense,” Cresida objected.

“Yes, it is. They’ll say it anyway, and also try personally to discredit anyone saying the gates are a threat.” Rione paused, then turned a sardonic smile on Geary. “Fortunately, the person declaring the gates to be a threat and offering the means to deal with that threat will be Black Jack Geary, returned from the dead to save the Alliance fleet and the Alliance.”

All of the others nodded in a satisfied way. “She’s right, sir,” Desjani added. He should have expected that if Rione and Desjani ever started agreeing with each other, it would be on things that he didn’t like. But as Geary thought about it, he realized the truth of Rione’s statements. This was no time to try to hide from the legacy of Black Jack. “All right. As soon as we arrive at Varandal, we start broadcasting our reports to anyone and everyone as well as the instructions on how to build Cresida’s safe-fail systems. With my name on them.”

Then Cresida surprised them all. “What about the Syndics?”

“I’m sure they’ll hear about it eventually,” Duellos offered.

“No, I mean, do we give it to them, too? Before we leave this star system.” Cresida looked around at the shocked expressions that greeted her question. “I’ve been thinking about it. Sure, the Syndics are the enemy. But their hypernet gates are being used as weapons against us by a third party. There’s less and less chance that any Syndic CEO would blow one of their own hypernet gates because word is getting around about what happens. But the aliens can still do it, like they did at Kalixa. If they know we’re in a Syndic star system with a hypernet gate, they’ll target us, and they’ll keep collapsing Syndic gates in an attempt to goad the Syndics into trying to collapse more of our gates.”

Tulev watched her intently. “You’re suggesting the Syndic gates are now weapons that would only be employed by an enemy common to us and the Syndics.”

“That’s right. In which case, humanitarian considerations completely aside, we still need to disarm those weapons. And the surest way to do that is by giving the safe-fail system design to the Syndics.”

“But you’re talking treason,” Desjani objected.

“It… could be interpreted that way.”

Silence stretched for a moment before Duellos spoke again. “I believe that Captain Cresida has a good point. She’s talking about neutralizing a hugely dangerous weapon that could be employed against us. If we don’t provide it to the Syndics, we and they both suffer.”

“The Alliance grand council is unlikely to see it in those terms,” Rione said in a quiet voice. “They’ll want to reserve the ability to use those gates as weapons against the Syndics.”

“And how do you feel about that?” Geary asked.

“You know how I feel. They’re too horrible and too dangerous to employ.”

Tulev’s head was bowed, his eyes on the deck, as he spoke. “As an officer of the Alliance fleet, I am sworn to protect the Alliance. It’s not always easy to know the best way to do so, especially when that could be interpreted as aiding the enemy.” He raised his eyes and regarded the others, his expression as impassive as it had ever been. “I have no love for them, but this is as much a matter of self-interest as it is humanitarian. Our leaders are unlikely to accept that argument without extended debate and delay, which could be fatal for billions. As I have nothing left to lose, I can be the one to release the information to the Syndics.”

Desjani turned an anguished look on Tulev. “You’ve given enough to the Alliance! I won’t hide behind you!”

“How do you feel about it?” Geary asked her.

She looked away, breathing heavily. “I… Damn. Damn the Syndics and their leaders to hell. After all the misery they’ve inflicted, now they require us to commit treason in the name of protecting what we care for.” Desjani turned her gaze on Geary, her expression intense. “The Syndic hypernet key.”

“What about it?”

“It’s useless right now. We’ve been considering it a war-winning advantage if we could get it back to Alliance space and duplicate it, but right now it’s useless.”

Cresida laughed bitterly and nodded. “Of course. I hadn’t gotten that far yet. We can’t employ the Syndic hypernet using that key because we don’t dare go into Syndic star systems with gates. If we did, the gate could collapse as we approached and wipe out the entire fleet. In order for the key to provide us a war-winning advantage, the Syndics have to own hypernet gates that the aliens can’t collapse on command.”

“We have to give the Syndics the safe-fail system in order to ensure we can beat them?” Duellos laughed briefly, too. “And the Syndics will be forced to install such systems on their gates because the alternative to having the Alliance fleet arrive by using them is having the gates exist as bombs capable of going off at any moment and annihilating the star systems they’re supposed to serve. That should be an easy question for even a Syndic CEO to answer. The living stars love irony, don’t they?”

“Why wouldn’t the Syndic bureaucracy balk at installing the safe-fail systems?” Desjani asked.

“Oh, they would. They’d try even harder than the Alliance bureaucracy to keep it very, very quiet until star systems started going out like bad lights and the Syndic leaders had to start pretending they had no warning or idea why it was happening prior to that time. Unfortunately, that’s already begun.” Duellos gestured to Rione. “But what’s good for the Alliance is just as effective for the Syndics. Broadcast the events at Lakota, as we already have elsewhere, along with the design for the safe-fail system, and it will all spread virally. Local leaders will find ways to justify installing the systems, either voluntarily or to prevent mass rioting on their worlds. By the time the Syndic leaders at the home star system hear of it, there will probably be safe-fails on most of the gates in the Syndic hypernet.”

“Will the Syndics trust our design?” Desjani pressed.

Cresida answered. “Any team of halfway-competent engineers will be able to see that it’s a closed system that does what it’s advertised to do and nothing more. Hell, the Syndics are probably already working on their own safe-fail system, but odds are it’s caught up in that bureaucracy and the bureaucratic mania to keep things secret from your own side.”

Desjani exhaled slowly. “Then my answer is yes. Give it to the Syndics. Because ultimately that decision protects the Alliance.”

“All right.” Geary looked around, knowing what he had to do. “Thank you for volunteering, Captain Tulev, but I won’t ask you to take an action that’s my responsibility. I’ll—”

“No, you won’t.” Rione interrupted, then sighed. “I should lecture you all on your duty and remind you of your oaths and the laws of the Alliance and regulations of the fleet. But I’m a politician, so who am I to speak of honoring oaths? Enough has already been asked of you all, and of your ancestors, in a hundred years of war. Let this politician prove to you that all honor is not dead among your elected leaders. I will release the information to the Syndics.”

“Madam Co-President,” Geary began, as the other officers present looked at Rione with varied looks of surprise.

“I am not under your command, Captain Geary. You cannot order me not to do it. The arguments made here are convincing, but we don’t have time to try to convince the authorities back home. Not just the fate of this fleet but the lives of untold billions of people ride on this decision being made quickly. If it is seen as treason, you must remain unstained by it for the good of the Alliance. Unless you are prepared to arrest me and openly charge me with treason, I will do this.” Rione turned to Cresida. “Captain, is your design within the fleet database?”

Cresida nodded, her eyes on Rione. “Yes, Madam Co-President. Under the file name ‘Safe-fail’ in my personal files.”

“Then I will acquire it without your assistance since I have the means to access those files. Your hands will be clean.”

“Clean? But we know you’re going to do this,” Duellos pointed out.

“No, you don’t.”

“You told us.”

“The words of a politician?” Rione smiled again, almost as if she were enjoying this. “You have no reason to believe anything I say is true. You probably think I’m just trying to entrap you by urging a course of action I won’t actually carry out. You can’t be absolutely certain I’m not doing that.”

She left quickly, before anything else could be said. Cresida, a pondering expression on her face, suddenly nodded, looking from Geary to the door by which Rione had left. “I finally understand why—”

Biting off the words and reddening slightly, doing her best not to look at Desjani, Cresida rose to her feet, saluted hastily, then her image vanished.

Tulev rose with unusual speed, saluted as well, and also departed.

Desjani, a look of weary resignation on her face, stood up. “I’ll get back to the bridge.”

“But—” Geary began.

“I’ll see you up there, sir.” Desjani saluted with careful precision, then stalked out of the room. Geary frowned at Duellos. “What was that about? What Cresida said?”

Instead of replying, Duellos held up a warding hand. “You’re not getting me involved.”

“In what?”

“Talk to your ancestors. Some of them must know something about women.” Duellos paused before leaving, then shook his head. “Oh, I can’t leave you hanging hopelessly. I’ll give you a hint. When two people get involved, however briefly, other people who know at least one of them naturally wonder what they saw in each other.”

“You mean Rione and me? You all wondered what I saw in her?”

“Good heavens, man, how can that surprise you?” Duellos cast a bleak look at the deck. “We humans are a strange bunch. Even in the midst of dealing with a threat to our entire race, we can be sidetracked for a moment by the oldest and smallest of personal dramas.”

“Maybe we’re trying to avoid thinking about all of this,” Geary suggested. “The consequences if we fail. Before, failure could mean our deaths, the loss of our ships, perhaps eventually the defeat of the Alliance. Now, it could mean the loss of everything. What do you think of our chances?”

“I didn’t think we’d make it half this far home,” Duellos reminded him. “Anything is possible.”

“Why? Why are they doing it?”

“The aliens? Perhaps, before all is said and done, we’ll have the chance to ask them directly.” Duellos’s face grew uncharacteristically harsh. “And when we do, perhaps we’ll have hell-lance batteries pointing at their faces to ensure we get a reply.”

“Another war?” Geary asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe not. The aliens don’t seem to like stand-up fights.”

“But we do.”

“Yes.” Duellos smiled unpleasantly. “Maybe that’s why they’re acting already. Maybe right now they’re getting scared.”

SEVEN more hours until they reached the jump point for Varandal. About six more hours until the fleet crossed the path of the second badly damaged Syndic battle cruiser, the one hurt by Intractable’s final blows. Geary wandered restlessly through Dauntless’s passageways, exchanging brief words or conversations with the crew, acutely aware that in some critical ways events were coming to a head. A successful battle at Varandal was the key to saving the fleet and the Alliance, even though getting the fleet back to Alliance space would still leave some critical issues to resolve. Without victory at Varandal, there could be no next step. So he strode through the now-familiar passageways of the battle cruiser, speaking with the hell-lance battery crews, the engineers, the cooks, the administrative personnel, the specialists of every kind, and all of the other individuals who made Dauntless a living ship. For the first time, he realized that even though he wasn’t her captain, losing Dauntless would hurt at least as much as losing Merlon.

He went down to the worship spaces and consulted with his ancestors, finding small comfort this time. If only his ancestors could warp time and space, bring the fleet to Varandal now so the Syndic reserve flotilla could be confronted now. Decide it now, end it now. But space was huge, and there were still six hours to jump for Varandal, then almost four days in jump space afterward. Finally, he made his way back to the intelligence spaces. “Where’s the Syndic commander?” Geary asked.

“On her way to the brig, sir,” Lieutenant Iger responded. “Captain Desjani is accompanying her there.”

Something about that felt odd. “Is there something unusual about that?”

Lieutenant Iger nodded. “Yes, sir.” He looked toward the interrogation room, making an expression of distaste. “We don’t allow physical harm to be inflicted on prisoners, sir. But, they get escorted to and from their cells through the same passageways the crew uses. The crew reacts by making those trips as unpleasant as possible.”

“The prisoners have to run a gauntlet.”

“Yes, sir.” Iger shrugged. “No physical harm, but words, gestures, noninjurious things thrown at them and their uniforms. Emotions run high, sir. The Marines do have orders to protect their prisoners, but certain things are accepted.”

Easy enough to understand. Ships’ crews rarely saw the hated enemy face-to-face. Geary looked at the hatch through which Desjani had gone. “But the crew won’t do those things to this prisoner if Captain Desjani is with her.”

“No, sir, I wouldn’t think so.”

Odd. A chivalrous gesture toward the enemy. Geary waited a decent interval, then requested that Desjani visit his stateroom at her convenience. “I didn’t get a final assessment from you on our plans,” he said when she arrived.

“My apologies, sir,” Desjani replied. “It’s the best of a bad situation. That’s my assessment. I can’t think of any better courses of action.”

“Thank you. I wanted to be sure of that.” He paused. “I understand you escorted the Syndic commander to the brig.”

Desjani gave him an impassive look, betraying nothing. “Yes, sir.”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? If we ever want a chance at ending this war, officers like that are the people we need to deal with. Officers willing to keep their word with us and who care enough about their crews to put aside uncompromising orders. But in order to get the Syndics to the negotiating table, we need to keep doing our best to kill officers like that.”

“I suppose ‘strange’ is one word for it.” Desjani’s expression was still impossible to read. “If people like that weren’t fighting so hard for a government that they fear, then the war might have ended a long time ago. It’s not like we can trust the Syndics as a group to negotiate in good faith anyway. You know that now, after seeing how many times they tried to double-cross this fleet as we headed toward home.”

“That’s true,” Geary agreed. “Can I ask a personal question?”

Desjani looked down, then over at him and nodded.

“Why did you escort that Syndic commander through the passageways of your ship?”

Instead of answering immediately, Desjani looked down again, then eventually shook her head. “She acted with honor. I was granting honorable treatment in return. That’s all.”

“She was willing to sacrifice herself to save the surviving members of her crew,” Geary pointed out. “I know that impressed me as a former ship captain myself.”

“Don’t push me on this.” Desjani met his eyes, her own expression hard. “I still hate them for what they’ve done. Even that one. I’m certain she hates us, too. If she were truly honorable, why did she fight for the Syndics?”

“I can’t answer that. I just see some common grounds, that’s all. With her, anyway.”

“Did we kill her younger brother?” Desjani closed her eyes after that slipped out, then drew in a long breath through clenched teeth. “Maybe we did. At what point do the hate and the killing no longer make sense?”

“Tanya, hate never makes sense. Killing is sometimes necessary. You do what must be done to protect your home and your family and what’s precious to you. But all hate does is screw up people’s own minds, so they can’t think straight when it comes to knowing when they have to kill, or when they don’t have to kill.”

She gazed back at him, her face still hard, but her eyes searching his. “Did the living stars tell you that?”

“No. My mother told me that.”

Desjani’s face slowly softened, then she smiled with one corner of her mouth. “You listened to your mother?”

“Sometimes.”

“She—” Desjani broke off the sentence, her half smile vanishing.

Geary didn’t have any trouble knowing why. Whatever Desjani had been planning on saying about his mother, she’d realized that Geary’s mother had been dead for a very long time. Like so many others in his life, Geary’s mother had aged and died while Geary drifted in survival sleep amid the wreckage of war in the Grendel Star System. Because the Syndics had attacked, because the Syndics had chosen to start this war.

“They took your family from you,” Desjani finally said. “They took everything from you.”

“Yeah. That’s occurred to me.”

“I’m sorry.”

He forced a smile. “It’s something I have to live with.”

“Don’t you want revenge?”

It was Geary’s turn to look down for a moment as he thought. “Revenge? The Syndic leaders who ordered the attacks that started this war are themselves long dead and beyond any vengeance I can manage.”

“Their successors are still in power,” Desjani argued.

“Tanya, how many people do I kill, how many people do I ask to die fighting, in the name of avenging a crime committed a hundred years ago? I’m not perfect. If I could somehow get my hands on the Syndic bastards who started this war, I’d make them suffer. But they’re all dead. Now I’m damned if I can figure out what this war is still about aside from avenging the latest defeat or atrocity. It’s turned into a self-sustaining cyclic reaction, and you and I both know the Alliance as well as the Syndicate Worlds are starting to crack from the pressure of a war without end.”

Desjani shook her head, walking over to a chair and sitting down, her eyes on the deck. “I spent a long time just wanting to kill them. All of them. To get even and to stop them from killing anyone else. But it’s never even, it just goes back and forth, and how many Syndic deaths would it take to equal my brother’s life? Every single one of them dead wouldn’t bring Yuri back, and then at Wendig I saw a Syndic like Yuri, and I wondered what the point would be of killing somebody else’s brother to avenge my own. To make them hurt, too? Once that would have been reason enough. Now, I’m starting to wish that no one else’s brother or sister or husband or wife or father or mother had to die. But I don’t know how to make that happen.”

Geary sat down opposite her. “We may have a chance, once we get home, and you’ll have played a big role in making that chance happen.”

“Once we get home, you’ll have other things to deal with, too. I wish I knew how to make that easier.”

“Thanks.” He gazed to one side, eyes focused on nothing. “It still doesn’t feel real to me, that everyone I once knew is gone. At home, I’ll really have to face it. I wonder if I’ll hate the Syndics then as much as you have.”

She gave him an annoyed look. “You’re supposed to be better than us. That’s why the living stars gave you this job.”

“I’m not allowed to hate the Syndics?”

“Not if that gets in the way of your mission.”

He looked back at her for a moment. “You know, Captain Desjani, it has just dawned on me that every once in a while you give me orders.”

Desjani’s annoyed expression deepened. “I’m not giving you orders, Captain Geary. I’m just telling you what you need to do.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Of course there’s a difference. It’s obvious.”

Geary waited a few moments, but Desjani didn’t elaborate on what was apparently obvious to her. Debating the issue didn’t seem likely to produce a win for him, so he finally made a noncommittal face.

“All right. But…” He hesitated, wondering if he could bring up something that had haunted him, then deciding that if he could ever speak of it, then it should be now with Desjani. “I’m worried about how I may react. It hasn’t really hit me, I think, on some level. I was so stunned when I was awoken from survival sleep, and I went numb when I learned what had happened, how long it had been.”

“You looked like a zombie,” Desjani agreed, her voice much softer now. “I remember wondering if Black Jack really still lived.”

“I don’t know about Black Jack, but I did.” Geary looked down at his hands and inhaled deeply before being able to speak again. “But I had to put that aside when I had to assume command of the fleet. I put it aside. I don’t think I really resolved it. What’s going to happen when we get home, when the reality of everyone I once knew being dead and gone hits me because I’ll see the changes and know that I’m alone?”

Desjani’s voice was very low, but he could hear her very clearly. “You won’t be alone.”

That statement came far too close to a subject they could never speak of or even acknowledge existed. Startled, he looked up and caught her eyes.

Desjani looked away. “You needed to hear me say that.” She stood up, straightening her body to the posture of attention. “By your leave, sir, if there’s nothing else, I have some matters I should attend to.”

“Certainly. Thank you, Captain Desjani.”

He checked the time after she left. Five hours to jump for Varandal.

THE ball of wreckage that had been the last Syndic battle cruiser in Atalia Star System fell away in the wake of the Alliance fleet as it neared the jump point for Varandal.

“Captain?” The face of Dauntless’s systems-security officer floated in a window before Desjani.

“There’s been some uncleared transmissions from our ship.”

“Uncleared transmissions?” Desjani asked mildly.

“Yes. Unencrypted broadcasts to anyone in this star system. I’m trying to identify the source within Dauntless.”

“Is the information within the broadcasts classified?”

The systems-security officer blinked as he considered the question. “No, Captain, not as far as I can tell. There’s no formal classification attached, and the security review scans didn’t match the contents of the broadcast to any known classified material.”

“Then I don’t see any need to make it a priority,” Desjani said. “We need to ensure the ship’s systems are as close to optimum as possible when we arrive in Varandal.”

“But… Captain, any broadcast to the enemy is prohibited.”

“Of course,” Desjani agreed. “But since no classified material is involved, the damage assessment from this incident will surely place it as a low-priority matter. Let’s focus on preparing for battle, Commander.”

“Uh, yes, Captain.”

After the security officer’s image vanished, Desjani gave Geary an enigmatic look. “I wonder what that could have been about.”

“Probably nothing important, like you said,” he replied.

She was studying the information forwarded to her by the systems-security officer. “The same records from Lakota that this fleet already broadcast, a description of something at Kalixa, plus some kind of equipment schematic and a narrative. No transmission authorization code.” Desjani tapped her controls.

“Nothing that threatens my ship or the fleet. I have more critical issues to deal with.”

“Agreed.” He wondered how Rione had managed to trick the communications system on Dauntless into sending a broadcast without an authorization. Despite the things that Rione had already admitted she could do with the supposedly secure systems throughout the fleet, Geary suspected there were plenty of other capabilities available to Rione that she had never disclosed.

He studied his display, taking a last look at the situation in Atalia. Task Force Illustrious, now a good two light-hours behind the fleet’s main body, was still collecting escape pods. The survivors from Intractable weren’t far from the fleet’s main body, but picking them up would be impossible at the speed the fleet was traveling. They’d have to wait for Illustrious and her companions to get here. Fuel-cell reserve levels were hovering around 20 percent on most of the warships, though some like Rifle were significantly lower. Only three specter missiles were left in the fleet. Grapeshot inventories were at 60 percent.

On the fringes of Atalia Star System, Syndic HuKs, couriers, and merchant ships were still heading for jump points, racing either to escape or carry word of the Alliance fleet’s movements. Most of them would receive the broadcasts from Dauntless before they jumped. There hadn’t been any communications from the Syndic authorities in Atalia. No demands for surrender. Nothing. He wondered if the highest-ranking CEOs in this star system knew about the reserve flotilla’s mission, if they had been told about Kalixa. They’d know now.

“Five minutes to jump.”

Geary tapped his controls. “Captain Badaya, we’re about to jump for Varandal. We’ll see you there. Good luck.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say, and in any case Badaya wouldn’t receive the message for close to two hours.

“Four. Days.” Desjani closed her eyes in resignation.

“Yeah. It’s going to be the longest four days in jump that I’ve ever spent,” Geary agreed. The Syndic reserve flotilla was still in jump space, still headed for Varandal. So were the Alliance warships ahead of the Syndics. Now the fleet would join them. The maneuvering system flashed an alert, and Geary sent another message. “All ships, jump at time two zero four nine. We’ll see you in Varandal. Be prepared for combat immediately upon arrival.”

A few minutes later the stars vanished, and Geary was gazing upon the drab gray of jump space again. Thinking of the Syndic reserve flotilla’s mission and their superiority in numbers, and the state of the Alliance fleet, he couldn’t help wondering if this would be his last jump.

FOUR apparently endless days later, they sat in their seats on the bridge of Dauntless again, counting down the minutes until they left jump. Geary took long, slow breaths to relax, rolling his shoulders as if preparing for hand-to-hand combat. Desjani sat with her eyes glued to her display, her face calm, her eyes lit with excitement. At the back of the bridge, Rione remained silent, but tension seemed to radiate from her. The watch-standers were poised at their stations. Dauntless’s entire crew stood on duty throughout the ship, ready for action.

“All weapons ready. Set to fire on automatic,” Desjani said with a coolness that felt eerie amid the stress-filled atmosphere.

Ahead of them, in the gray emptiness of jump space, one of the mysterious lights seemed to bloom across their path. It could have been close or immensely distant, but it hung there a moment as if waiting for Dauntless. Geary heard almost everyone’s breath catch at the mystifying omen.

“Exiting jump space.”

The endless gray and the inexplicable light before them vanished as the stars appeared. Dauntless yawed around, seeking to avoid possible mines and enemy fire. Braced against the maneuver, Desjani was still eyeing her display. “They’re not at the jump point.”

Geary stared at his display, unable to speak for a moment as he looked upon Varandal Star System. After so many jumps, so many light-years crossed, so many Syndic-controlled star systems transited, the Alliance fleet had finally reached Alliance territory. Varandal, home of a regional fleet headquarters and many fleet installations along with strong defenses. He’d studied the database on Dauntless, seen how those installations and defenses had multiplied since the last time he had been to Varandal a hundred years before, but seeing it now for real still felt disorienting. Familiar and yet greatly changed. Alerts sounded and symbols pulsed. Geary watched updates rapidly proliferating across his display as the fleet’s sensors evaluated everything they could see. “We’re in time.”

The hypernet gate still stood, just under six light-hours distant.

Three light-hours away, the Syndic reserve flotilla orbited the star Varandal. Seven light-minutes from the box of enemy warships a small formation of Alliance warships hovered, the survivors of those who had attacked Atalia, then tried to defend Varandal. “Two battleships, one battle cruiser, six heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, nine destroyers,” Desjani read off. “That’s all that’s left.”

Geary looked at the display, feeling a growing sense of unease. “Why haven’t the Syndics destroyed everything? A lot of the defenses in this system have been hit by kinetic bombardment, but the Syndics haven’t hit a lot of other things. All of the other facilities seem intact.”

“What are they up to?” Desjani muttered.

“Alliance fleet!” The incoming transmission surprised Geary, who only then realized that a destroyer had been positioned near the jump point as a scout, the lone Alliance ship lost in the midst of the scores of warships that had just arrived. Now the voice of Howitzer’s commanding officer rang out. “Praise the living stars!”

Desjani turned to her operations watch. “Get a full record from that destroyer of what’s happened here since the Syndics arrived. We need to see it now.”

“Linking to their combat systems now,” the watch reported. “On your display.”

“Maintain station, Howitzer,” Geary ordered, then concentrated on his own display, where historical events were playing at an accelerated pace. The Alliance defenders had made a stand half a light-hour from the jump point, losing another battle cruiser and a battleship along with numerous escorts. “Odds that bad, and they charged right at the enemy again,” Geary grumbled. Admiral Tethys had commanded that action, but had died when Encourage was destroyed. Captain Deccan on the Contort had assumed command then, until Contort was blown apart during another Syndic firing pass. Then Captain Barrabin on the Chastise took charge, but Chastise’s power core had overloaded during another clash well over two light-hours from the jump exit. According to the records from Howitzer, since the destruction of Chastise, the remaining warships in Varandal had been commanded by Captain Jane Geary on Dreadnaught. Aside from Dreadnaught, only the battleship Dependable, the battle cruiser Intemperate, and their surviving escorts still faced the enemy.

Between those events, the Syndic reserve flotilla had launched kinetic bombardments, leveling the Alliance defenses in the star system. But they hadn’t launched any subsequent bombardments, nor had the reserve flotilla yet closed with the few surviving Alliance defending warships even though to Geary it seemed that there had been opportunities to do so.

Why hadn’t the Syndics finished off the defenders? Why hadn’t they destroyed more of the Alliance facilities here? Of course the images they were seeing of the enemy were three hours old. It was possible that had happened by now.

“What the hell.” Desjani had been watching her display intently, and now her hands moved rapidly, replaying part of the record. “Look at this. After the last clash with the Alliance defenders here.”

Geary peered at the detail she was highlighting, zooming in on the Syndic reserve flotilla. The fleet’s optical sensors were sensitive enough to pick out small details across immense distances of airless space.

“Shuttles? What are they doing?”

“From heavy cruisers to other ships,” Desjani murmured, then she entered more commands, and the view tightened even more, showing the access points where shuttles had been next to one of the heavy cruisers. “Personnel. See? They’re taking personnel off the heavy cruisers.”

“Why?”

Rione answered, her voice stressed. “Automated controls. You told me the Syndics can automate their ships and command them by remote.”

“But why would they want to automate heavy—” The reason hit him and Desjani at the same moment.

“They’re going to use those heavy cruisers to take down the hypernet gate,” Desjani said. “It makes sense. It all ties together. Look. The Syndics have penetrated deep within the star system, but they haven’t wiped out the Alliance defenders or heavily bombarded the Alliance facilities here.”

“Bait,” Geary breathed.

“Right. If they’d wiped out the defenders and destroyed most of the facilities in this star system, we might well hang around this jump point when we arrived, knowing that the Syndics would have to come back here through us sooner or later. But if there’s still someone and something to save—”

“We’re going to come charging at them.” Geary ran a finger across his display, imagining the fleet movements. “When they see us, they wait until the right moment, then they hit the remaining defenders hard enough to wipe them out and send those heavy cruisers toward the hypernet gate. The rest of their force heads for the jump point, tearing past us. By the time we know what’s happening, the shock wave is on its way, and the Syndics can jump out just ahead of it. If we hadn’t already figured out they intended to collapse the hypernet gate here, their plan might well have worked.”

“They get us and the entire star system.” Desjani looked ready to kill Syndics with her bare hands. “How can they be sure the gate does enough damage though? That’s the flaw in their plan.”

“It’s possible to scale up the level of an energy discharge from a gate collapse just like it’s possible to scale it down,” Geary replied. He didn’t look back at Rione. When Cresida had worked up the calculations on how to scale down a gate energy discharge, she’d had to work up the reverse solution as well. Geary had entrusted that doomsday program to Rione, hoping it would never be used by anyone.

“We have to assume the Syndics have figured out how to do that, too.”

They’d already been here for fifteen minutes. The enemy wouldn’t see the fleet for another two hours and thirty minutes, but he couldn’t afford to waste another second of that time, since any orders he sent would require the same amount of time to reach the remnants of the defenders in this star system. The first priority had to be orders to the remaining defenders of Varandal. “This is Captain John Geary, acting commanding officer of the Alliance fleet, to Captain Jane Geary, commanding the Alliance task force defending Varandal. The Syndic objective is to collapse the hypernet gate in this star system by destroying enough of the tethers on the gate. If the gate collapses, the resulting energy discharge will annihilate everything within this star system. We assess that the Syndics plan to collapse the gate using uncrewed heavy cruisers operating on automatic controls since any ship near the gate when it collapses will be destroyed. You are ordered to protect that gate,” his voice caught for an instant before he could say the next part, “at all costs. Protection of the gate takes priority over all other actions, including the destruction of Syndic warships not menacing the gate and protection of other Alliance assets within this star system. Do not allow your force to be eliminated as a threat unless that is required to protect the gate. Hold out. Help is on the way. To the honor of our ancestors. Geary out.”

He’d made it back, reached the star system where his grandniece was located, and his first words to her had been orders to sacrifice herself if necessary to defend the hypernet gate here.

“Are you sure your orders won’t be overridden?” Rione asked. “There may still be a surviving admiral within this star system.”

“No one’s asserted command over Jane Geary yet,” Desjani pointed out as if answering something that someone else had said. “But we’re back in home territory, and someone might try to order senseless assaults by the defenders or by this fleet.” Desjani turned to face her communications watch. “Should any orders come for Captain Geary from any officer senior to him within this star system, I want to ensure that this ship does not develop a serious problem with receipt and relay of incoming messages. Any error would be unacceptable. Under the circumstances, I will personally screen all such messages before receipt is acknowledged and before they are relayed to any other ships in the fleet to ensure they aren’t garbled and that Captain Geary isn’t distracted at an inopportune moment.”

The communications watch-stander seemed momentarily startled, then nodded with a serious expression.

“I understand, Captain. If I see such a message, I should pass it on to you alone so that you can see how badly garbled it is.”

“Yes. Exactly. You are not to bother Captain Geary with anything like that until we’ve finished with the Syndics in this star system.” Desjani settled back in her captain’s seat and saw Geary’s expression. “Is there a problem, sir?”

“Only that I may still have been underestimating you, Captain Desjani.”

She raised one eyebrow at him. “That can be dangerous, sir.”

“I won’t argue that.” Geary turned, looking toward Rione. “Madam Co-President, while I’m engaging the Syndics, I’d appreciate it if you could find out what we’re dealing with in this star system on the Alliance side.”

Rione made a noncommittal gesture. “That’s already under way. As far as I can tell at this point, I’m the senior political figure present, so you need not worry about additional political thorns in your side for the time being.”

“That leaves the Syndics. How do we short-circuit their plans, Tanya?” He already knew the answer, the only one available. “We have to reinforce the defending task force and bring the rest of the fleet against the Syndics. Stop them from collapsing the gate and hurt them badly enough that they can’t carry out their plans.”

Desjani gave him a challenging look. “You know what battle cruisers do, Captain Geary.”

“Yeah.” He had twelve battle cruisers left with the fleet, several of those still bearing significant damage. But they had the firepower he needed, and they could get it where it was needed. “How fast can we go without running out of fuel cells once we get to the Syndics?”

She ran the calculations. “Point one four light speed. Dauntless is accompanying them?” The question was tinged with worry and hope.

“You bet she is.” He started working up new formations. “We need to split the fleet. One formation consisting of the twelve battle cruisers accompanied by the light cruisers and some of the destroyers. The other made up of the battleships, the heavy cruisers, and the rest of the destroyers.”

“Got it. I’ll make sure the Twelfth Light Cruiser and Twenty-third Destroyer Squadrons stay with the battleships. They’re too low on fuel cells to accompany the battle cruisers.”

“Good catch.” They worked frantically, double-checked their work against each other’s, then Geary transmitted the orders. “All units in the Alliance fleet, execute attached maneuvering orders at time two one zero five.” He paused, eyes running down the list of battleships. Warspite. She’d done very well.

“Captain Plant, you are designated the commander of the battleship formation. If something happens to me, you are to make every effort to prevent the Syndics from destroying the hypernet gate here.”

“I understand,” Plant replied several seconds later. “Good hunting, sir.”

Rione was by his side again, speaking urgently in a hushed voice only he could hear. “Captain Geary, you can’t send Dauntless into that kind of danger.”

“Madam Co-President,” he responded in equally quiet tones, “if that hypernet gate collapses, then Dauntless will be in peril no matter where in this star system she is located. We have to stop the Syndics from succeeding in that, and Dauntless is now one-twelfth of my battle-cruiser force. She is needed with her sister ships.”

Rione exhaled in exasperation but didn’t argue further, going back to her observer’s seat.

“Thank you, sir,” Desjani breathed.

“We need to beat the Syndics and survive, Captain Desjani. Can we do that?”

“We’ll do our damnedest, sir.”

On the display the smooth shapes of the Alliance subformations came apart, roughly half of the ships collapsing in toward a single disc holding every surviving battleship and the heavy cruisers along with a healthy number of destroyers. The battle cruisers, most of the light cruisers, and the rest of the destroyers surged forward, sliding together into their own smaller disc as all of them accelerated along a vector aimed at reaching a projected position between the Syndic reserve flotilla and Varandal’s hypernet gate. Geary felt a thrill as the battle cruisers surged forward, hurtling toward the enemy at an acceleration that battleships could never match. He’d never really experienced the charge of a massed battle-cruiser formation, and even though the rational part of him saw the weakness of the armor and shields in the battle cruisers and knew this force couldn’t sustain much more damage, his emotions watched the display as the battle cruisers charged and felt an irrational thrill at the courage and glory of it all. It wasn’t smart, but by his ancestors, it was magnificent.

He wondered how many of the battle cruisers would survive this charge.