Dreadnaught tlfbtf-1

by Jack Campbell

  “Emissary of the grand council?” Geary asked. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Whatever the grand council, and I, wish it to mean.”

  She’s enjoying this, Geary realized.

  Desjani had clearly come to same conclusion and was struggling to keep her temper in check. “I’m certain that you’ll need to complete your business with the admiral before the shuttle departs, so—”

  “I will be staying,” Rione interrupted, speaking again to Geary. “The grand council wishes that I stay on the same ship with the admiral for the duration of its next mission.”

  Worrying that Desjani would actually explode on the spot, Geary frowned at Rione. “You’ll leave when we return to Alliance space?”

  Did something else show in her then? Something too strong to completely hide but so well concealed that he couldn’t even be certain that he had seen it? “That depends upon my orders from the grand council,” Rione said.

  Ancestors preserve us. Stuck on the same ship with Desjani and Rione again. Stuck on the same ship between those two women. “I will send a message—”

  “Don’t bother. Really. It would be a waste of time. The grand council wants me here. The other emissary appointed by the grand council will be arriving soon.” Rione finally acknowledged Desjani, turning a frosty smile upon her. “But I have been remiss. Congratulations to you both. How fortunate that everything worked out when the fleet last returned to Varandal.”

  Desjani stiffened again, her eyes going to Geary for a moment while he now tried to avoid showing any reaction. If she ever guessed that Rione had played a role in helping him catch up with Desjani that day, there would be hell to pay. And Rione knows that, so why did she hint at it in front of Desjani? What’s going on inside her head this time? “What exactly is your role supposed to be?” Geary demanded.

  “Representing the government,” she said, glancing toward Desjani.

  Tanya got the message, glowering as she turned to face Geary. “By your leave, sir, I will return to my duties.”

  “Thank you, Tanya.” He tried to put extra meaning into the words and perhaps succeeded, because her rage seemed to subside a little.

  The hatch had no sooner sealed behind Desjani than Rione flopped down in a chair, her expression suddenly haggard. “I’m truly sorry for the lack of warning about my arrival.”

  “You didn’t need to provoke Tanya that way.”

  “No, but I’m a bitch, and I have to stay in practice. As for why you got no warning, that wasn’t my doing. The grand council is doing a lot of shooting from the hip these days. My co-emissary should be arriving within the next couple of days.”

  “He’d better, because we’re leaving in about a week. Is it anyone I know?” Geary asked, sitting down opposite her.

  “I doubt that you know him. Retired General Hyser Charban.” Rione smiled sardonically. “He’s not trying to achieve power by the coup route, but in the old-fashioned way, accumulating favors from powerful politicians before he runs for office on his own.”

  “General? A Marine?”

  She laughed. “No. Ground forces. I don’t know Charban personally, either. The reports I’ve seen characterize him as a ‘pragmatic dove, sadder and wiser for his experience with the limitations of firepower when it comes to achieving end-goals.’ ” Rione recited the words with an ironic lilt.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being aware of the limitations of firepower,” Geary observed.

  “Not if that’s what you truly believe.”

  “What exactly are you emissaries coming along with the fleet to do?”

  She paused, as if deciding what to say. “Our job is to represent the government.”

  “That’s what you said before,” Geary pointed out. “It tells me nothing.”

  “You’re getting better at this. Let’s put it this way. Since neither Charban nor I holds elective office, we can’t be voted out of power while in the middle of a voyage, something that would cast our legitimacy as representatives in doubt if it did happen.”

  “Victoria, tell me why you’re coming with the fleet.”

  She looked into a corner, her expression guarded. “Perhaps you should ask me instead what it is the government really wants accomplished on this mission.”

  He took his own time answering, making sure he framed the words right. “My understanding is that I’m to learn more about the alien race, especially about their technology and strength, and attempt to establish peaceful relations with them.”

  “More or less.” Rione closed her eyes, looking tired again. “What the government really wants is the cheapest, easiest solution to a big, complicated, and possibly very expensive problem. That should mean talking to the aliens and stopping any conflict. But maybe not. The aliens will surely want something in return. They may need to be pressured. It is the task of myself and Charban to make sure you take the path with the least costs and least risks up front.”

  Geary blew out a derisive breath. “What about the long-term costs and risks?”

  “Long-term problems can be confronted when they get here,” she said, her voice once again betraying no hint of her own feelings, “with more cheap and easy short-term solutions that push the problems further down the road for someone else to handle someday. That’s how politicians think. I thought you knew that by now.”

  “You’re a politician.”

  “One who got voted out of office.” She smiled without humor. “The government, all of the governments in the Alliance, are in survival mode right now. They’re afraid of you, but they also need you. So you’re being sent off to be heroic, far, far from any opportunities to cause problems.”

  “I already knew that. Sort of like when I was dead. The government got the benefit of who they claimed I was but didn’t have to worry about what I’d actually do.”

  “Yes, it is sort of the same thing, isn’t it? But you are alive, and capable of doing all sorts of things. General Charban and I are to judiciously guide your choices into directions most beneficial to the government.”

  Maybe he had spent too much time around Rione because he immediately caught the significance of her words. “Beneficial to the government. As opposed to beneficial to the Alliance.”

  “But aren’t those the same thing?” she replied in a bland voice that confirmed his statement without actually saying so. “Now you know where you stand and where I stand.”

  “I know what you say your orders are,” Geary countered.

  Another smile, but one that could mean anything. “Yes.”

  “Why the hell did you come here, Victoria? You must have known how Tanya would feel.”

  “I had my reasons, and I had my orders from the grand council.” Rione made a casting-away gesture with one hand. “Since I was between jobs, I wasn’t in any position to turn down the grand council’s offer.”

  “I still can’t believe they really voted you out of office,” he said.

  “The gratitude of the people tends not to extend very far.” Bitterness crept into her voice. “I was willing to state unpleasant truths. Unfortunately, I’d been influenced in that regard by a certain relic from an earlier age, a man commonly known by the name ‘Black Jack.’ ” She fixed the cool look on him that he remembered all too well. “My opponent was willing to promise the voters anything they wanted, and promise that they wouldn’t have to sacrifice in any way for it. A majority of the voters thought that was a wonderful idea.”

  Geary looked back at her steadily. “So you lost the election because you insisted on being honest.”

  “That is ironic, isn’t it?”

  “As you once took pains to point out to me, some of the ships in this fleet are from the Callas Republic. Their crews, and the crews of the ships from the Rift Federation, are expecting orders to go home. They haven’t received them yet, and I’ve been trying to decide whether I should leave those ships at Varandal.”

  Rione looked away again and shook her head. “They’ll be wait
ing a long time for such orders. The government of the republic won’t be calling back those ships. Don’t expect me to say that publicly, and don’t expect any official acknowledgment of that policy from either the republic or the federation.”

  He thought about the hopeful looks on the faces of those commanding officers, who thought they would soon be returning to their home space. “That makes no sense at all. If they want to loosen ties with the Alliance, why should they leave the bulk of their warships under Alliance control?”

  “Because they fear those warships.” Rione turned her head and regarded him with a somber gaze. “The new government strongly suspects that the crews are more loyal to Black Jack Geary than they are to the government of the Callas Republic. They’re probably right.”

  His temper flared, all of the anger he had felt during his confrontation with the grand council surging to life again. “Suspicions don’t excuse treating those crews that way after all of their courage and sacrifice! How can they treat their own people like that? If they distrust me, fine! I’m getting used to it. But I will not allow those ships to be exiled from home because of vague concerns about what I might do someday!”

  She confronted his anger without flinching, simply gazing back at him, then shook her head slowly. “You’re letting the Alliance do it to their own warships, aren’t you, Admiral?”

  “My Alliance ships will be coming home between missions!”

  “Of course.” Her tone conveyed no hint of agreement or emotion.

  “I’ll send those ships home,” Geary said. “On my own authority. I’ll tell those ships to return to the Callas Republic and—”

  “I did bring orders with me, but the orders from the republic are for those ships to remain with the fleet. The orders imply the continued duty here is temporary but don’t actually say so.” Rione’s eyes were fixed on some point in one corner, avoiding his own gaze. “Understand this. You can’t change those orders without overriding political authority, and the new government in the republic has a lot of excellent-sounding reasons for keeping those ships with you.”

  “I don’t get it.” The flat anger in Geary’s voice drew her gaze back to him. “Nobody in the government trusts me, but they want all of these warships to remain under my command. The Callas Republic wants to loosen ties with the Alliance, but it also wants the bulk of its warships kept under my control. Are they all insane, or am I?”

  She closed her eyes once more for a moment. “You’ll keep the ships. Other admirals would consider that a gift.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  The silence dragged on for so long that he had decided she wouldn’t answer, but abruptly Rione did. “Don’t expect to see much support from the Callas Republic for those ships. The crews will be paid, but repairs and operating costs will be dealt with piecemeal, grudgingly, and slowly, and there will be no replacements to keep the crews up to strength.”

  It took a moment for that to sink in. “They’ll just be allowed to wither away, then? Until they’re destroyed in action or not worth keeping going and what remains of their crews are sent home, now safely diminished and without warships to threaten anyone.”

  Rione didn’t answer at all that time.

  “What about the Rift Federation ships and crews?” Geary asked.

  “I’m from the Callas Republic—”

  “I didn’t ask where you were from. Do you know anything about their government’s intentions for them?”

  Anger flared in her own eyes. “I have reasonably reliable reports that the Rift Federation will follow the same policies as the Callas Republic regarding the few ships it has left in this fleet.”

  “Damn.” There didn’t seem to be anything else to say. Geary felt pain in one hand and looked down to see that he had clenched one fist so hard it seemed locked into a single ball of muscle and bone. “How can the governments of the republic and the federation explain to their own people why their ships aren’t coming home?”

  “First of all, Admiral,” she said, “there aren’t that many ships left. Before you assumed command, many of the republic and federation contingents had already been lost. Some more were lost in subsequent battles. It’s not a matter of bringing home huge numbers of men and women, but rather the survivors. And measured against the populations of their homes, those survivors are very small in number.”

  His anger seemed to have burned out, replaced by a dull heat that brought no warmth. “Like the Alliance fleet, before the war. Most people didn’t have anyone closely related to them in the military back then.”

  “Yes. So you see the logic. Those two governments will keep the threat of the warships and their crews far from home, and few will complain because few still have a personal stake in their absence. But the presence of those warships with you will serve as a basis for proud declarations of their government’s continued support for the great hero, Black Jack.”

  “I’m still being used,” Geary said.

  “Yes, you are. What are you going to do about it?”

  “I could resign—”

  Emotion blazed in her again. “Who else could better keep them alive, Admiral? Resign, and they’ll be in the hands of some fool like Admiral Otropa. Do you want them dead?”

  “That’s completely unfair!”

  “You still believe in ‘fair’?” Rione asked.

  “Oddly enough, yes.” But she had spoken a truth. Their own people are casting them aside. Someone has to look out for them. Until I can think of somebody else, that someone has to be me. “I’ll do my job to the best of my ability.”

  “You’ll still follow your orders?” Rione asked, her voice growing softer but more intense.

  “Yes.” Geary bared his teeth at her. “As I see them. That means doing everything I legally can for the people under my command.”

  “And the aliens?”

  “You have your instructions, and I have mine. My orders require me to not only deal with short-term threats and problems, but also to handle them in ways that work in the long term. If the government or its emissaries have any problems with that, they can find someone else to use as their toy soldier.”

  Rione slowly smiled though she still looked tired and somehow older. “Everyone underestimates you. Everyone but me.”

  “And Tanya.”

  “Oh, but she also worships you. That I won’t do.” Rione hauled herself to her feet. “I need some rest. Charban shouldn’t show up before tomorrow at the earliest. You may consider yourself once more politician-free for a while.”

  “I’m sure your stateroom is ready.” He eyed her, wondering why he kept getting the impression that Rione was slightly different from when he had last seen her. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She smiled again, the gesture this time as empty of real feeling as the smile of a Syndic CEO, her eyes betraying nothing.

  After she left, he stayed seated for a while, thinking through their conversation. Some of the things she had said, like alluding in front of Tanya to her role in getting him and Desjani together, had been uncharacteristically reckless. But Rione had also given the impression at times of playing a more subtle game than in the past, even when she seemed to be speaking candidly. Why did you really come back to this fleet, Victoria? How much are you an ally of mine, how much are you following the government’s line, and how much are you working to further your own goals, whatever those are?

  Under the cover of what you did tell me, how did much did you not tell me?

  MUCH later that day, he met Tanya walking through the passageways again. “Did you get a chance to look at those special orders from the grand council?” The orders Rione had brought for him. The orders marked for his eyes only. To hell with that. I want other inputs on this.

  Desjani grimaced. “Yes. Painful.”

  “Yeah. A lot of ‘do this unless you shouldn’t and don’t do that unless you should’ directives.”

  She didn’t answer again for a moment, her eyes fixed straight ahea
d. “Please understand that my personal feelings aren’t factoring into this. That woman brought special orders for us. What are her orders?”

  “I’ve wondered the same thing.”

  “They didn’t need her just to be a courier. She’s here for another reason or reasons. Until we find out what those are, please treat her as a potential threat.”

  “I will,” Geary said. “I’m already unhappy enough with the orders she let us know about, or at least the part telling us to go to the Dunai Star System. I was planning on jumping to Indras in Syndic space and taking the Syndic hypernet from there all the way to Midway before jumping into alien space. Simple and as fast a journey as we can make it. But instead, the grand council wants the fleet to go via Dunai to pick up the Alliance prisoners at a Syndic POW camp there.” He felt angry and trapped. These orders he couldn’t ignore. “The extra stops and jumps will add three weeks to our journey before we reach Midway.”

  “Why Dunai?” Desjani pressed. “What makes the POW camp there more important than all of the other camps still full of Alliance prisoners in Syndic territory?”

  “The orders don’t say, and Rione insists that she doesn’t know.”

  “Let me put her in an interrogation cell for half an hour—”

  Geary made a helpless gesture. “I wish I could, but there are no grounds for treating a civilian and a governmental representative that way. We have to go to Dunai, Tanya.”

  “Then why aren’t we going by Dunai on our way home?” she asked. “The supplies we use during that extra travel time may be needed once we’re inside alien space, and it would make a lot more sense to pick up those POWs on our way home than it would to have them aboard our ships when we’re entering alien space.”