“Costa suggested I run the wording past them, Sakai was ambivalent, and Rione was strongly against it, saying that I needed to sound like myself, not like some politician.”
“Damn. I’m agreeing with that woman again.”
“It does take getting used to.” Geary sat silently for a little while, trying to get in the right frame of mind, then checked the time. Good enough. His statement wouldn’t arrive at the ships carrying the Syndic leaders until after they saw most of the Alliance fleet on its way to safety, and would reach most other occupants of the star system well before that. His taunting of CEO Shalin at the Syndic flotilla hadn’t produced any apparent results as of yet. It would be interesting to see what this message did.
Two long, slow breaths to calm himself and prepare for speaking, then Geary triggered the circuit to broadcast to every Syndic receiver within the star system. “People of the Syndicate Worlds, this is Admiral John Geary. It is my sad duty to report that your leaders are planning not only to abandon you, but to annihilate every living thing in this star system in an attempt to destroy my fleet.
“You have a system installed on your hypernet gate that was designed to reduce any energy discharge created by the collapse of the gate. However, that same system can be used in reverse, to increase the level of the energy discharge and ensure that the resulting destruction would be close to that caused by your star going nova. Your own leaders intend taking this action, trading all of your lives for the chance to catch the Alliance fleet in the same destruction, and have only delayed in it because they first wish to have their flotilla of Syndicate Worlds’ warships in this star system reach a jump point and jump to another star. Instead of using the flotilla to defend you, they want to save it so they can use it to enforce their rule in other star systems.
“Your own leaders don’t fear being caught in the destruction because they are out of harm’s way aboard the battleship lingering at the jump point for Mandalon, from which they will jump to safety, leaving you all to die. There would be no witnesses to what happened here, every human dead and every device destroyed, so your leaders could continue pursuing a war with no purpose.
“We have offered to negotiate an end to the war, and the terms the Alliance has offered your Executive Council have already been broadcast throughout this star system. At the conclusion of this message, I will have them repeated, and you will see that they are aimed at ending the war on terms with which both sides can live. But your leaders have refused to negotiate, and instead intend wiping out this star system rather than admit error or accept terms they themselves have not dictated.
“By the time you receive this message, most of the Alliance fleet will be safe from the planned assault, in a location where your own star will protect us. But none of you will be safe, not unless you act in your own interests and those of the Syndicate Worlds. You know me by reputation. You know what your current leaders have done in the past. You have to decide which of us to trust. Your lives and the future of the Syndicate Worlds depend on your decision.
“To the honor of our ancestors.”
Desjani smiled reassuringly as Geary slumped backward after the end of his message. “Now all we have to do is hope the Syndics actually use their heads instead of just following orders.”
ONCE again, hours had to pass before anything could happen. Geary couldn’t roam the passageways of Dauntless without encountering members of her crew who might pick up on his edginess, but he also couldn’t stand just sitting on the bridge, so he took breaks down in his stateroom, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. He was there when Lieutenant Iger called. “There’s been some unusual activity in the Syndic comm net, Admiral. Another site is now trying to establish priority over the site at the Mandalon jump point.”
“Where’s this other site located?”
“Somewhere on the primary inhabited world, but they’re using lots of relays, so it took us a little while even to get that.” Lieutenant Iger flashed a quick smile. “The primary world received your transmission about two hours ago, sir.”
Long enough for someone to get moving with a takeover, especially with the Syndic Executive Council about five light-hours distant from the planet and unable directly to monitor events there in real time. “There’s been nothing overt that we’ve picked up?”
“No, sir. No transmissions about revolutions or new leaders or anything like that, and no signs of actual conflict or security forces being deployed. But our political-analysis routines estimate that whoever is trying to supplant the Executive Council is probably still lining up support among the various military commanders in the star system and with other important players. They’ll try to stay quiet until they have all of those backers in hand rather than tip off the Executive Council too early.”
A trap being sprung on the Syndic leaders who had been waiting to spring a trap on the Alliance fleet. “Let me know the instant you get anything else.”
But his next message was from Desjani. “The fleet is entering the lee of the star, Admiral,” she announced triumphantly. “We’re in the clear.”
“Except for the strike force.”
“Yes, sir, but Duellos can take care of himself. No reactions noted from the Syndic flotilla or the battleship at the jump point yet.”
Everything seemed to be going well again. He wondered what he might have missed this time.
EIGHT
“THE battleship is moving,” Desjani reported, interrupting Geary’s restless attempts to get some sleep in his stateroom. He wondered if she had left the bridge at all in the last twenty-four hours. “The heavy cruisers are accompanying it.”
He tried to shake fatigue out of his brain. “What’s their vector?”
“It looks like they’re heading for the primary inhabited world.”
What did that mean? Had the Syndic warships mutinied, and were they bringing the members of the Executive Council back to face whatever form of justice a new government would demand? Or were the members of the Syndic Executive Council still firmly in control of those warships and heading back to reassert their own authority?
Desjani had come up with another possibility, though. “Maybe they’re trying to lure us out from behind the star,” she suggested. “Get us moving to intercept them, then dart back to the jump point and escape while the hypernet gate collapses on us.”
He rubbed his eyes, then glared at the display over the table in his stateroom. “We don’t need to move. The strike force can handle that battleship.”
“Not if the flotilla joins it.”
As if in response to Desjani’s words, alerts flashed on the display as the Syndic flotilla’s vectors changed. Geary waited impatiently as the Syndics settled onto a new course and speed, the projected path of the flotilla swinging toward, then merging with the projected path of the battleship. “Did you have to say that?” he asked Desjani.
She smiled humorlessly. “It was easy to predict. Either the Syndic leaders are on their way to the primary world to kick butt and take names, in which case they want the flotilla with them, or the Syndic leaders are under arrest, in which case the flotilla will try to rescue them.”
One other path merged with that of the flotilla and the battleship. “The strike force will get to the battleship just before the flotilla intercepts it.”
“While we’re stuck here.”
“Sorry.”
“You owe me one.”
He smiled with an equal lack of humor. “Noted. I don’t think we should move yet. We need to hold here for several more hours, to ensure that we aren’t being lured out from this position.”
“The fleet won’t like it, sir, hiding behind the star while the Syndics move back toward us.”
“I don’t like it, either. But if the Syndic leaders are trying to lure us out, this time around they won’t waste any time sending the collapse order to the hypernet gate once we’re far enough from the star.” Unfortunately, that logic, and the results if he guessed wrong, could drive
him to stay in place indefinitely. “Tanya, if I seem to be hesitating too long on moving this fleet, call me on it.”
“I always do, sir.”
Another hour, while Geary waited with increasing anxiety and an increasingly bad mood. His comm status was set to rest so no messages would get through unless they came from Desjani, Rione, or Duellos. He didn’t feel like getting advice from Badaya or anyone else at the moment.
Though there was CEO Boyens. Would he be able to help? No. By his own admission, Boyens has been exiled on the far border for more than a decade. Even if we could trust him, and we can’t, he still doesn’t know the big players here.
Finally, Geary went back to the bridge and sat glumly in the fleet commander’s seat while the watch-standers, with well-honed survival instincts, all tried to avoid drawing his notice.
“Admiral.” Lieutenant Iger had a happy expression, which disappeared very quickly as he caught the look in Geary’s eyes. “Sir, there’s a great deal of communication going on between the battleship and the primary world.”
“What’s that mean?” Geary demanded. Realizing from Iger’s reaction how harsh his voice had been, Geary worked to get his tone back to normal. “Do we have any idea what they’re talking about?”
“No, sir. But there is a very interesting clue in the transmissions. The messages from the primary world are being given priority in the Syndic net over the communications from the battleship.”
“What about the flotilla? Who are they talking to?”
Lieutenant Iger shook his head. “We’ve seen some transmissions to the flotilla from the primary world but haven’t been able to spot anything from the flotilla in reply. Our ships and collection satellites aren’t in the right positions to tell if the flotilla and the battleship are talking directly to each other.”
“Thank you.” Geary rubbed his eyes, seriously considering asking the fleet medical personnel for the kind of painkiller only dispensed by doctors. “Captain Desjani, my guts are telling me that if nothing else has changed in half an hour, we should head out and aim to intercept that battleship. The battleship will still be about four light-hours distant then. What do you think?”
“I think,” she commented, “that if we try to wait until we feel safe, we’ll miss any opportunity to resolve this situation in our favor. The Syndic battleship won’t see us move for four hours. We’ll see the battleship’s reaction in another four hours. But the primary inhabited world will see us moving much sooner than that. It’s only about ten light-minutes from us now. When they see us heading for that battleship, anyone trying to supplant the Executive Council may well talk to us. They want us on their side, and as disgusting as the idea of allying with any Syndics is to me, we need someone to shut off the threat of that hypernet gate.”
“Then why not go now?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, Admiral. I concur.” Geary gave her a sour look and thought about double-checking with Tulev. It wouldn’t hurt to have another perspective on this, especially someone as solid as Tulev. But as he reached for his controls, a thought came to him that paused his movement. “Captain Desjani, have you already discussed this with Captain Tulev?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And would Captain Tulev’s advice be the same as yours?”
“Yes, sir.”
He could stay mad or see the humor in the situation. Staying mad hadn’t helped so far, so he might as well try laughing about it. “Thank you, Captain Desjani.” Geary took a look toward the back of the bridge, where Senator Sakai sat watching, his posture relaxed but eyes intent.
“We’re going to try to get the political games going on right now out into the open, Senator.”
Sakai nodded. “You mean the Syndic political games, I assume, Admiral?”
“Right.” It was nice to know Sakai had a sense of humor. Geary checked the maneuvering system, then called the fleet. “All units in the main formation of the Alliance fleet, this is Admiral Geary. Come starboard zero one three degrees, up zero two degrees, and accelerate to point one light speed at time four one.”
Another circuit. “Captain Duellos, the main body of the Alliance fleet will proceed to an intercept with the Syndic battleship coming from the Mandalon jump point.”
At time five one, Desjani ordered the course and speed changes for Dauntless, then yawned. “At least a day, maybe a day and a half until we meet up with that battleship. I think I’ll get some rest.”
“Good idea.” Now that the decision had been made, the tension level on the bridge had dropped dramatically. It was absurd, considering that he had just ordered the Alliance fleet out of its safe harbor, but Geary felt the same release in stress inside him. “Maybe I can sleep now, too.”
“Make it quick,” Desjani suggested. “We may hear from someone on the primary world in about half an hour.”
“I can live with that.”
As it turned out, something happened within ten minutes. Geary had barely reached his stateroom when an urgent notification arrived from Dauntless’s communications watch-stander. “Admiral, we have an incoming message from the Syndic battleship.”
The image this time wasn’t of a CEO, but of a Syndic military officer, his expression grim but otherwise unrevealing. “To the Alliance fleet, be advised that this warship and its accompanying heavy cruisers are responding to orders from the new Executive Council of the Syndicate Worlds. We are in the process of transporting the members of the old Executive Council back to Prime, the second planet from our star. Those members do not have access to any communications or transmission equipment. We—” The Syndic visibly had to brace himself to continue. “We request that you avoid interfering with our transit.”
That had to have been a hard message to send, but it must have been transmitted before the rebellious Syndic battleship had seen the Syndic flotilla turn to intercept it. Would there be a follow-up message, with the even-harder-to-make request that the Alliance fleet aid the battleship against the Syndic flotilla?
He was still considering that, and how he could phrase such orders, when the communications watch-stander announced another incoming message, this time from the primary inhabited world.
Geary saw a cluster of Syndic CEOs who appeared to be standing in an open area between low buildings, grass beneath their feet and an appealingly blue sky above their heads. They were wearing the usual flawlessly crafted outfits, but for once the polished, practiced, and insincere smiles weren’t present, the CEOs instead looking openly serious. “To Admiral Geary and the representatives of the Alliance grand council,” one of the CEOs announced, “we are the members of the new Executive Council of the Syndicate Worlds. We have reviewed your proposals and are willing seriously to negotiate their adoption as a basis for ending hostilities. We have ordered all Syndicate Worlds’ mobile and fixed forces within this star system to cease offensive action and ask that you suspend offensive action against any people or units of the Syndicate Worlds who have acknowledged our authority.”
The CEO put more earnestness into his words. “The programming for subverting what you call the safe-fail system has been disabled. The hypernet gate cannot now be used to destroy this star system and your fleet. We understand you have cause to doubt declarations from the Syndicate Worlds’ leaders. Our own location is on the surface of our world. We will remain here as living hostages to our word that your fleet is safe while we await your reply.”
That sounded promising. Getting the fleet moving had indeed provoked a response.
An image of Rione appeared on his screen. “I’ve seen the message. We can’t be certain that they’re really on the surface of the planet. They could be in a simulation chamber buried deep under the surface. But an analysis I had run indicated that even a deeply buried location wouldn’t stand a high chance of survival if a hypernet gate collapsed with an enhanced energy discharge. The Syndics may be treacherous, but their engineers are as good as ours. They’ll know that.”
“You’re saying w
e can trust them.”
“As much as we can trust any Syndic. There’s no reason to believe these CEOs are any more ethical, or any less self-interested than the ones they have replaced. In this case, physical survival and self-interest coincided nicely for us. They needed to disable that catastrophic-collapse routine to save themselves.” Rione took on a formal attitude. “Admiral Geary, I request permission for the Alliance grand council representatives accompanying this fleet to begin direct negotiations with the Syndicate Worlds’ CEOs of the new Executive Council.”
“Permission granted.”
“If I read between the lines properly, the Syndic flotilla is not acknowledging the authority of the new Executive Council. I anticipate the new Executive Council will request that we defend their planet against their own flotilla. How do you want me to deal with such a request, Admiral?”
His tension headache threatened to come back. “The Alliance fleet will engage any hostile forces in this star system.”
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