The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian (32 page)

“Are you expecting an argument from me?” She stood up. “The usual response nowadays is to classify everything so everyone can pretend nothing actually happened. Good luck keeping this incident quiet if all of those ships had mutinied within Alliance space, though.”

Geary stared at her, the mention of mutiny calling to mind past events. “When Captain Numos participated in the mutiny led by Captain Falco, that was outside Alliance space. Not too many people know about that, or exactly what led to the loss of ships like
Triumph
,
Polaris
, and
Vanguard
. Do you think that’s why Numos hasn’t been court-martialed yet?”

She paused. “Yes, now that you mention it. Too many details of what happened would make high-ranking people look bad. With Falco dead, Numos stands to take full blame for the mutiny, so he wouldn’t hesitate to make as big a public stink as possible. And now that Admiral Bloch is back, he sure as hell wouldn’t want word getting out about what a mess he got the fleet into.”

That news had come in, too. Admiral Bloch, released as a goodwill gesture by the Syndics along with a hundred other Alliance prisoners. But just where Bloch was at the moment and what he was doing remained a mystery that not even Rione’s sources had been able to penetrate. “If they weren’t going to arrest Bloch,” Geary said, “they should at least have retired him.”

“There you go, expecting the government to do the rational thing.” Desjani paused, then spoke light words with a spine of steel running through them. “Oh, that reminds me. When we were having that discussion about averting the mutiny, I could have sworn that you spoke to me in a tone of voice more appropriate to a chief chewing out a deckhand who had made a dumb mistake.”

“I . . . would not . . .” Geary fumbled.

“And I seem to recall that you spoke to me that way while that woman was in here listening.”

Ancestors, please save me.

Her eyes were locked on him. “Well?”

“I . . .”

An urgent alert sounded. Geary lunged for the comm panel as if it were the last source of air in a spacecraft losing atmosphere.

“Admiral, a delegation from the grand council of the Alliance has arrived at Varandal and wants to meet with you on Ambaru station as soon as possible.”

“All right. Thank you.” The call ended and he stood up. “There’s an important—”

“I’d like an answer, Admiral,” Desjani said, her tone polite but unyielding.

He pressed his lips tightly together, then nodded. “My behavior toward you was disrespectful and unprofessional. I apologize for that.”

She nodded in return. “Yes. Disrespectful. If you want to chew me out, do it in private. In public, treat me with the respect I have earned and deserve. You already know you should do that with me and with every other subordinate of yours.”

“Yes, I do,” Geary said. “I shouldn’t have to be reminded of it.”

“Then we understand each other.” Desjani jerked her head toward the hatch.

He reached for it, then paused and looked at her. “You’re letting me off rather easy.”

“Oh? You think so? We’ve only addressed your actions in terms of our professional relationship, Admiral. The next time we’re alone together, off my ship and in a private status, we’ll discuss your actions in terms of our personal relationship.”

Maybe I shouldn’t look forward to being alone with Tanya off
Dauntless
.

Oh, hell. You screwed up. Face it like a man.
“After you, Captain. We’ve got work to do.”

“Sure do,” she agreed, as they left the room. “Are you going to tell the grand council’s representatives that a bunch of this fleet’s warships are going to be heading real soon for the hypernet gate and their homes?”

Geary thought about that, then shook his head. “They might try to stop it if they know it’s going to happen. Let’s save it for a surprise.”

Once more, the Grand Council had sent a delegation to see him instead of the grand council’s summoning him to go to them at Unity. Was that good or bad?

“A
couple of other people needed a ride to Ambaru, so I arranged for them to be on this one,” Desjani remarked, as they waited to board the shuttle that was coming to dock aboard
Dauntless
.

“I wish you had asked me about that first,” Geary grumbled. “I am not looking forward to this meeting. I don’t even know which senators will be here as representatives of the grand council.”

“It scarcely matters,” Rione said as she walked up to them. “Some will trust you, some will mistrust you, and all will be scheming and plotting. Do you mind if I tag along? I received a rather urgent invitation.”

Whatever Desjani was about to reply went unsaid as a medical team entered the dock with a stretcher on which Commander Benan lay. Rione’s husband was unconscious, but the readouts on the stretcher indicated he was physically healthy aside from the sedation keeping him insensible.

“An invitation for me to be at the grand council meeting,” Rione continued, and an . . . invitation for my husband to proceed for emergency, specialized medical treatment.” Only the uncharacteristic catch in her voice when she spoke of Commander Benan betrayed Rione’s emotions.

“It’s what we demanded?” Geary asked.

“It is,” Rione confirmed. “That ill will be removed.” Neither of them would openly refer to the mental block that the Alliance itself had placed on Benan to ensure the secrecy of a forbidden research program. “That won’t cure the damage that was done, but it will allow the damage to finally be effectively treated.”

One of the corpsmen with the stretcher spoke apologetically. “Ma’am, we’re going to have to go straight from the dock at Ambaru to another dock for the shuttle down to the surface. If you want to say anything to him before you’re separated for a while, we can rouse him enough.”

“I . . .” Rione glanced at Geary and Desjani. “Yes. I don’t want to risk him awakening at the treatment facility and not knowing.”

The corpsman worked for several seconds, then both medical personnel stepped away to give her and Benan some privacy. Geary and Desjani started to do the same, but Rione forestalled them.

“Paol,” she whispered, kneeling beside the stretcher.

Benan’s eyes opened, looking about with a puzzled expression. “Vic?”

“You’re on your way to get the block removed. I’ll join you there, after I take care of something else. You’ll be all right.”

Benan smiled at her with a gentleness surprising to those who had seen the rages the mental block had created in him. “Not totally useless yet, huh?” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “Not yet. Shot to hell and barely operational, but you think I’m still worth fixing.” He blinked. “You’ll be there?”

“As soon as possible,” Rione promised.

Commander Benan twitched, and a low tone sounded from the stretcher’s monitor. The corpsmen hurried back. “His brain’s ramping up, ma’am. We’ve got to get him quiet, or he’ll lose it.”

Within another couple of seconds after the corpsman adjusted a setting, Benan had closed his eyes, out cold again.

The shuttle had landed and extended its ramp. Geary indicated Rione and the corpsmen with the stretcher. “You go on board first.”

Desjani stood gazing at them as they headed for the shuttle, her expression tight with anger. “No one should be used that way.”

“The block, you mean?”

“Yeah. To one of our own. What do you want to bet that the rules prevented whoever ordered that block put on him from doing to Syndic prisoners what they did to a fleet officer?”

“I won’t take that bet.”

“Sometimes I feel sorry for that woman,” Desjani admitted of Rione. “Sometimes she seems almost human.”

“Sometimes she is,” Geary said. “But don’t let her know you spotted that.”

He and Desjani walked up to the shuttle ramp and inside, joining those already there. Geary’s misgivings at having other company evaporated as he saw Dr. Shwartz and Admiral Lagemann. “You’re both leaving?” Geary asked as he sat down and strapped in.

Lagemann smiled lopsidedly. “I have been relieved of command. The good ship
Invincible
has been officially reclassified as an artifact.”

“I thought the government techs were going to take over
Invincible
a week ago.”

“They were.” Lagemann winked. “We suggested they might want to take a little time to get accustomed to
Invincible
, but they brushed aside our superstitious concerns, came charging on board to take custody and eject us, then went charging back into their shuttles much faster than they had come aboard. After a week spent working out how they would deal with the Kick ghosts, the techs finally took full custody late yesterday. The last fleet sailors, Marines, and I left this morning.”

“Maybe the techs will figure out what the ghosts are.”

Lagemann looked into the distance. “Would you think it odd if I wanted the ghosts to remain a mystery? To maybe fade away and disappear, their cause and their nature remaining unknown?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Desjani tossed in, “if that’s exactly what happens.”

“Are you going home?” Geary asked Lagemann.

“Yes. For a brief visit with those who thought me dead. Then I have to report for extensive debriefing on everything I learned about
Invincible
while serving as her commanding officer.”

“That should be fun,” Geary remarked. “What about you, Doctor?”

Shwartz gazed longingly around her. “I will miss being here, Admiral. Here with your ships. No luxuries at all, and food worse than even universities provide in their cafeterias, but I finally had the opportunity to really work in my field! And I
enjoyed
working with you, against all expectations about rigid military minds and institutions. Now we must go our separate ways and fight our separate battles.”

“You have battles?”

“Vicious and ugly battles,” she confirmed. “Battles for academic primacy, battles for credit for discoveries, findings, and interpretations, battles for positions on boards and study groups. There will be ambushes to strike the unwary, no end of verbal and written atrocities inflicted on the combatants and innocent bystanders, and horrible barrages of rhetoric exchanged in unending debate until some bloodied figures manage to surmount the smoking wreckage of truth and declare themselves authorities over the scholarly rubble that remains.”

Geary smiled. “You make it sound worse than actual warfare.”

“Having seen both academic and real warfare, Admiral, I find the relative honesty of the real thing something of a relief.” Shwartz gestured vaguely. “The fight for access to that Kick superbattleship has just begun, and the amount of academic bloodletting over that alone will probably exceed what your Marines encountered. I only hope the entire ship is not declared classified and off-limits to scientific inquiry.”

“The military and the government wouldn’t do something that stupid—”

Lagemann intervened. “Sad to say, I think the techs may have intended doing that until they got aboard and realized the enormity of what was inside that ship. Before I left, the most common comment among the techs was
we’re going to need a lot of help
.”

“Good,” Desjani said. “Personally, I think the limits of enigma space were a lot easier to find than the limits of official stupidity would be.”

“You know,” Professor Shwartz said with a wicked smile, “you might
want
anyone working against you to get their hooks into that Kick warship. The superbattleship looks so terribly powerful. And yet it is helpless, a burden to whoever has it.”

“Yes,” Geary agreed, remembering the long and difficult journey to get
Invincible
back here in one piece. “Having the ship with us was a real headache.”

“A white elephant.” Her smiled broadened. “I’m going to be an academic and lecture you, Admiral. Do you know where the term ‘white elephant’ originated? Back on Old Earth. It literally referred to an elephant who was white. In one particular civilization in ancient times, an elephant who was naturally white was regarded as sacred. Such an animal required no end of caring for and rituals and special treatment. It was ruinously expensive. Because of that, when a white elephant was born, the rulers of that land would bestow it as a gift upon their richest, most powerful enemy, who would be forced by law and custom to drain their fortune on the upkeep of the animal. No one could refuse such a gift, and no one could afford to keep it. Do you have any powerful enemies who could benefit from the gift of your white elephant, Admiral?” Shwartz finished in teasing tone. “You might try to lure them into seeking that prize.”

Geary laughed. “I might be able to think of some who would benefit from that sort of thing. If the opportunity arises, would you be open to being invited to return to work with the Dancers?”

“Admiral, if you arrange such an invitation I will be here so fast that even the hypernet will look slow by comparison.” Shwartz hesitated. “Admiral, I really don’t know how to thank you. You found them. You found three intelligent, nonhuman species, and even though only one of those will speak to us, you still found all of them.”

“We all found them. I’m just glad we survived the experience.”

After the shuttle docked, the corpsmen raced off with the stretcher while Rione watched them go with a blank expression.

Dr. Shwartz ambled away, waving farewell and looking around like a tourist as she went.

Admiral Lagemann saluted Geary, then grabbed his hand. “Thank the living stars, I’m home. And thank you. A rescue, an astounding adventure, and a final command that no one else can match. I hope to see you and your, uh, Captain Desjani again.”

“We’ll look forward to it, Admiral,” Desjani said. As Lagemann left, she looked at Geary. “You’re welcome. I figured you could use some more pleasant diversion on the ride than worrying about politics.”

“And, as always, you were right. Here comes our escort.”

This time there were no armed soldiers threatening to arrest Geary, just some military police handling crowd control to keep a quickly gathering mass of people from swamping the area as they sought to meet and see Black Jack. From the happy buzz of conversation, Black Jack’s stock was still pretty high among the residents of Ambaru station.

“Admiral, Captain, Madam Emissary,” Admiral Timbale greeted them. “I was delayed seeing to the arrangements for the delegation from the grand council. I’m to bring you to them right away. Ah, that is, I’m to take Admiral Geary.”

“I received a late invitation,” Rione said. “Someone realized that they might want to have someone else present who has conversed extensively with the Dancers. I recommended Emissary Charban come as well, but that suggestion was vetoed.”

“I never get to go to these meetings,” Desjani said. “But I’m sure I’m happier as a result.”

Timbale grinned and gestured to them to accompany him as he began walking down a passageway cleared of other traffic. “Have you seen the news?” he asked.

“I’ve been trying to avoid it,” Geary admitted.

“Understandable. But you need to know what’s going on before you end up in front of the grand council.” Timbale exhaled heavily, gazing upward. “Here’s what they’ve been seeing. Cute aliens.
Really
cute aliens. We killed them. A lot of them. Ugly aliens.
Really
ugly aliens. We brought them home with us.”

Desjani hissed in exasperation. “Do they know that the really ugly aliens helped us kill the really cute aliens?”

“Thank the living stars, no. Even though the records of your encounters with the Kicks have been highly classified by the government, somehow detailed accounts of how hard you tried to communicate with them and avoid bloodshed have been leaked to the press.”

“Somehow?” Geary asked.

Timbale shrugged in reply, doing his best to look innocent. “The upshot is that people all around the Alliance are confused. Did Black Jack do the right thing? Or did his heavy-handed missteps cause another war? Many of the academic experts you had along are hinting broadly that if you had just listened to them in particular, then all would have been well.”

“What are they saying about the enigmas?”

“Hurrah! Black Jack rescued humans from the enigmas! Also highly classified by the government, also mysteriously leaked to the press.” Timbale scratched his nose thoughtfully. “I’m pretty certain that leak came out at Unity. Someone in the government is either your friend or playing their own games that happened to benefit you that time. Otherwise, the enigmas remain, well, enigmas, but the second attack on human space and the attempt by an alien race to bombard a human-occupied planet from space have aroused vast indignation.”

Geary shook his head in wonderment. “It’s okay if we bomb human planets but aliens can’t do it?”

“You have to keep things like that in the family,” Timbale advised mockingly. “Oh, the ugly aliens. Public opinion was very much against them, but—”

“Mysteriously,” Desjani guessed, “the information was leaked that they had prevented a bombardment of a human planet?”

“Very mysteriously,” Timbale agreed. “The Syndics. Everything you ran into in Syndic space has been classified above and beyond top secret, but . . .

“You’ve got a lot of leaks on this space station.”

“No one can prove any of them came from here.” Timbale eyed Geary. “You do realize how much of a role good press relations have played for the last few decades in promotions to the highest rank? No? I won’t burden you with that information, then. There have also been leaks with no basis in your reporting. A big story claims that you received direct communications from the lights while in jump space. There are all kinds of variations of that story circulating. The lights led you to the Kicks and the Dancers. The lights told you what to do. The lights told you to save the Alliance again—”

“Save the Alliance again?” Geary demanded. “From what?”

“If you had been reading the news, you could guess some of the possible answers to that question.” Timbale grinned crookedly. “The rather large number of VIP former prisoners you brought back have helped keep things confused. And the six thousand other liberated prisoners were a real shot in the arm for the government, an accomplishment it can claim credit for.”