“That’s obvious,” Desjani said. “The damage to her ship’s bow, as if from a single massive blow. Her heavy cruiser must have been far enough from the gate to survive, but took a lot of damage. That cruiser wasn’t shot up in Atalia fighting the Alliance ships from Varandal, it arrived here badly damaged.” She seemed to be thinking for a moment. “That amount of damage to a heavy cruiser. The energy discharge from the collapsing gate must have been significantly stronger at Kalixa than it was at Lakota.”
“But what made it collapse?” Geary demanded.
Lieutenant Iger was asking the same question at that moment. “Commander, were there Alliance warships in Kalixa Star System when its hypernet gate collapsed?”
“She’s considering a lie, Lieutenant,” the chief reported. “No. Going for truth.”
“No,” the Syndic officer said.
“Which warships were near the hypernet gate when it collapsed, then?”
“There weren’t any warships near it!” the Syndic screamed, her nerves suddenly breaking at the memories. “Nothing was near it! It just began collapsing, its tethers failing! A merchant ship elsewhere in the star system had seen images, from . . . from Lakota, and it sent out warnings. It asked for help. Everyone started asking for help! We were far out, near the jump point for Atalia. We went bow on and reinforced our shields and we barely survived! Kalixa . . .” She took a deep breath and shuddered. “It’s gone. Everything. Everybody. Dead. Gone.”
“Truth,” the chief reported to Iger in a small voice.
“No wonder she looked shell-shocked when we saw her,” Desjani commented softly. “Worse than Lakota. First time I ever pitied a Syndic.”
Iger was gazing at the commander, his own face pale now. “We didn’t do it.”
But the Syndic kept talking, her voice wavering with stress. “We jumped here. Orders. Go to Atalia. We found a lot of ships waiting here. Reserve flotilla, they said. Told the CEOs what happened. They didn’t believe us, insisted on seeing my ship’s records. Then they told us to proceed on duties assigned and turned and headed for the jump point for Varandal. Just left us. Then the Alliance appeared, and there was a fight.” The Syndic commander gulped and breathed deeply. “Afterward, our track crossed some Alliance escape pods. Standing orders. Take prisoners when possible. We did.”
Iger waited, looking slightly helpless as the Syndic sat shivering, her eyes haunted. Geary motioned to the chief. “Tell the lieutenant to give the Syndic a break. See if she needs any medical care. Captain Desjani, Co-President Rione, please come with me.”
They followed him out of the intelligence spaces, none of them speaking again until they reached the fleet conference room and Geary had sealed the hatch. “There only seems to be one possibility for what happened at Kalixa.”
“They did it,” Desjani said with a scowl. “The aliens thought we were going to Kalixa, or might go there. They eliminated a gate we could use.”
“Why not wait until we went there to do that? Then the gate’s energy discharge could have hit this fleet.”
Her scowl deepened. “They’d have to know . . . Sir, that’s the answer. They can’t track us anymore. They’re used to knowing where we are or where we’re going in something close enough to real time to be usable. But since we discovered the alien worms in the navigation and communications systems on our ships and scrubbed them out, they can’t do that. They made an estimate of when we’d arrive in Kalixa if we went straight there and blew the gate accordingly.”
“Do the travel times work for that?” Geary ran out the calculations, then shook his head. “Maybe your idea is correct, but they blew that gate long enough ago for the Syndic cruiser to have jumped here with the news before we arrived. That would’ve been too early to catch us.”
“Not if we hadn’t uncharacteristically lingered at Dilawa.” Desjani brought up the travel times and pointed to the result.
He started to answer, but no words came. The figures didn’t lie. A quick transit of Dilawa followed by a jump of the fleet directly on a path for Kalixa would have brought it there a little less than a week before now. Perfect timing.
Rione was shaking her head. “Even when you screw up, it turns out to be a good thing.”
“He’s guided,” Desjani insisted.
“Perhaps,” Rione replied. “Though I understand that good planning can have all the benefits of divine intervention without the arbitrary and capricious drawbacks. Be that as it may, uncharacteristic hesitation and characteristic avoidance of Syndic star systems with hypernet gates seems to have served this fleet well.” Her expression tightened. “An entire star system and every human in it wiped out. The aliens have started what we’ve feared, triggering the collapse of hypernet gates.”
“We’ve still got time to defuse this,” Geary insisted. “It was a shot in the dark, and it missed. By the time the aliens confirm that our fleet wasn’t at Kalixa—”
“This isn’t just about the aliens! Don’t you understand yet?” Rione glared at both of them. “The Syndic reserve flotilla was waiting here for this fleet, then when it received the report from that heavy cruiser about what happened at Kalixa, the reserve flotilla headed for Varandal. Obviously the news of the collapse of the hypernet gate at Kalixa triggered some modification of their orders. Now think! Why would they go to Varandal after hearing about Kalixa?”
Desjani answered first, her voice strained. “The Alliance hypernet gate at Varandal. They’re going to try to collapse the gate in retaliation for Kalixa because they think we did it.”
“Exactly.” Rione was almost trembling with suppressed emotion. “The cycle of retaliation has already begun what may be humanity’s last offensive. The aliens have gotten their wish. It’s already in motion. We’re too late.”
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 s
pace?”
“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?”
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