The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian (40 page)

Geary was the first to speak when the transmission ended. “What the hell is a tramontane?”

Rione answered. “I just looked it up. An ancient term which literally means ‘from over the mountains.’ Newer meanings, and by newer I mean quite a few centuries ago, are ‘foreigner,’ ‘barbarian,’ or ‘alien.’”

“They couldn’t just say ‘alien’?” Charban asked. “I assume they are referring to the Dancers.”

“Vulgar craft?” Desjani said in a dangerous voice. “Did they call
Dauntless
a vulgar craft?”

Uncharacteristically, Rione answered again, speaking directly to Desjani. “They appear to feel superior to us in all ways.”

“How many awards did that clown have displayed on his chest?” Charban, who rarely spoke so bluntly, let his words drip with scorn. “He must be the greatest hero by far in the history of humanity.”

“Give me a background shot from that transmission,” Geary ordered.

Without the image of the “Captain Commodore” in the foreground, they could much more easily make out the figures of the others on the bridge of his ship. All of them displayed large panels of awards on their uniforms, though none as large and sparkly as that of their leader.

“Make that a crew of amazing heroes,” Desjani said contemptuously. “They must hand out medals for getting up in the morning.”

“From the looks of it,” Geary said, “they may hand out medals for displaying your prior medals properly.”

Senator Suva spoke angrily. “Are you all done mocking him? You do realize he ordered us to surrender this ship? And that we are very badly outnumbered?”

“He’s over half a light-hour distant,” Geary pointed out. “I don’t know what velocity he will accelerate to, but his ships seem to be maneuvering comparably to our ships. It’s going to take him a while to catch us even if we don’t speed up.”

“Speed up? Are you talking about resisting his orders?”

Rione sounded more annoyed than angry as she answered. “We have no obligation to follow his orders. Nor do I trust him to abide by his claim that he would let us go after disabling our weapons and after we beg his forgiveness for breaking rules we did not know of and are not required to follow.”

“He can enforce those rules,” Charban said in a heavy voice. “He has the firepower to do so.”

“We cannot fight in Sol Star System!” Suva cried. “Even those who do not consider it sacrilegious would be outraged!”

Geary spoke loudly enough to shut down the conversation. “We don’t intend fighting. I’m going to answer that overdressed clown, telling him politely that as a warship of the Alliance we are not subject to his authority in a neutral star system. I will further tell him that the business of the Dancers is with the authorities here, not with his . . . whatever it is.”

“He didn’t address his message to you, so you shouldn’t answer it,” Costa said sharply. “He specifically said it was for the representatives of the—” She broke off, looking startled.

Sakai nodded slowly. “How did he know this ship carried representatives of the Alliance government?”

“Could someone have gotten here ahead of us?” Costa demanded.

“Someone must have. Someone who left Varandal allegedly en route a different destination came to Sol instead, and left before we arrived.” Sakai’s face had become as unrevealing of emotion as stone. “Those ships were awaiting our arrival and, immediately upon seeing us, acted aggressively. I wonder what would become of each of us if we surrendered to their demands?”

“Who would want all three of us—” Suva began, then also ceased speaking abruptly.

Sakai nodded again. “Perhaps not all three of us are in peril. Perhaps one, or two, would be released safely. Perhaps not. There may be those who want none of us to come home.”

“You know there are,” Costa spat. “And some of them have a lot of money. That overdressed buffoon may act contemptuous of the lowly government of the inconsequential Alliance, but I’ll bet you he accepted a handsome bribe from . . . some person.” She looked around, half-defiant and half-worried, becoming aware again that others were listening to the discussion.

Desjani’s eyes went to Geary. He could read the message in them.
You’re the target of this, too. You and
Dauntless
.

He nodded back to her in wordless agreement, trying not to let his expression become too grim. Black Jack without a fleet at his back. A single battle cruiser, outnumbered and isolated. The politicians on board might be targets, Costa, Suva, Sakai, and Rione, but were they the primary targets? Or would they and
Dauntless
’s crew be more collateral damage of attempts to “stop” Black Jack?

“Why don’t we know more about these people?” Rione complained, glaring at her data pad. She had been furiously tapping in search commands and now looked toward Lieutenant Iger’s image. “There’s nothing here about star systems beyond Sol except literally
ancient
summaries.”

Iger made an apologetic gesture. “Everything for the last century has been focused on the Syndicate Worlds. Even before that, I would guess that acquiring new data about star systems so far distant from the Alliance was given a very low priority. They were a long way away. They didn’t matter.”

“They matter,” Senator Suva said angrily, “if they act as some sort of police force in Sol Star System and threaten us!”

“There is no record of that before this,” Senator Sakai mused, gazing at his own data pad. “These ships, it is like viewing an alternate version of what we have become. It is remarkable to see living history like this.”

“I prefer my living history less well armed and less aggressive,” Geary replied.

“I agree,” Sakai said. “The last visit here by an Alliance warship was over a century ago, but at that time and prior to that there is no record of encountering outer-star warships in Sol Star System.”

“A vacuum of power?” Geary asked. “We weren’t here, so someone else came in?”

“And someone else took advantage of their presence here to endanger us?” Rione made an angry gesture. “It’s not that simple. Not where Sol and Old Earth are concerned. They are supposed to be separate from politics. They are supposed to be kept free of involvement in disputes. I am very surprised that anyone made such a blatant move to claim some sort of authority here.”

“The Alliance built a hypernet gate here,” Geary said.

“Yes. Forty-five years ago,” Rione said, her eyes on her data pad again. “A serious investment of money and resources at a time when the Alliance did not have any of either to spare.”

“Then why did the Alliance build it?” Geary asked.

Apparently unaware of how everyone else was watching her, awaiting an answer, Rione shrugged. “From what I have been told, it was a political ploy. A desperate one, but judged worth trying as a means of possibly gaining external support against the Syndics and as a way to boost morale within the Alliance. Sol is a special place to humanity. The Alliance publicly proclaimed it was building the gate here to benefit Sol and to make it easier for humans to visit the Home of us all. Very altruistic. The actual intent of the hypernet gate was to symbolically tie Sol to the Alliance, even though no one said that, and symbolically tie the Alliance to Sol. The Syndics couldn’t play that game since we sat between them and Sol.”

“Sol must have approved letting the gate be built,” Charban pointed out.

“You don’t understand. Sol is still fragmented. There are dozens of different sovereign governments in this star system, and on Old Earth itself, legacies from ancient times. They get along now, having warred to exhaustion centuries ago, but they’re probably still debating whether or not to approve letting the Alliance build the gate here. The authorities at Old Earth are the voice of an organization built on the ashes of the last wars here, an organization designed to
prevent
the projection of power by any government in Sol Star System.” Rione stopped speaking, looking appalled, then slapped a palm against her forehead so hard that the sound of the gesture reverberated around the bridge. “
Stupid!
We should have realized this would happen!”

“What do you mean?” Senator Sakai asked, while everyone else stared at Rione.

“We caused this!” Rione said. “We built the hypernet gate as a symbol. That’s what it is, a symbol whose meaning could provoke others but bring us no certain benefit. Why are these outer-star warships here? Why do they claim to protect Sol Star System and Old Earth? Because the Alliance staked a symbolic claim that other star systems near here could not ignore. They are here because we built that gate even though we should have known that Sol could not stop anyone else from doing what we did, acting unilaterally in the supposed best interests of Sol.”

After a long moment, Sakai nodded. “I believe that your reasoning is correct.”

“Then,” Senator Suva insisted, “this may be a misunderstanding.”

“I’m happy to go with that,” Geary said. “But we have to convince those outer-star people to laugh it off as well.”

“They’re not going to accept anything that we say!” Rione replied. “As far as they are concerned, we planted a flag here, in Sol Star System. They are going to assert their own authority to counter our claim. Even if they haven’t been bribed, they would contest our presence here. If they have been paid to ensure we don’t leave this star system alive, it would only reinforce their own agenda of keeping the Alliance out. For all we know, whoever tipped them off that we were coming also claimed that we were coming to establish a permanent military presence here.”

Costa grimaced. “I’d like to tell them to eat ground glass, but they outnumber us considerably.”

“We must consider the appropriate course of action,” Sakai agreed. “For safeguarding the interests of the Alliance, for the safety of the mission, and for the safety of all aboard this ship.”

“Nothing must be done until the governmental representatives on this vessel reach a decision,” Suva said, her eyes on Geary. “Our lives are on the line here as well.”

Geary could feel the fleet personnel on the bridge stiffening at the words, but before he could speak, Rione did, her tone serious and agreeable.

“You are right, Senator,” Rione said. “This must be debated and discussed. We must come up with a policy to address these unanticipated circumstances, and we should begin that discussion immediately.”

“You have no vote in the matter,” Suva said with disdain.

“Actually, I do. Senator Navarro gave me his proxy before we left.”

“He—!”

“But I don’t wish to use that proxy in haste. We need to talk about this. About who might have tried to ensure the failure of this mission and the destruction of this ship. About our best course of action. But we must talk in private.”

“I don’t—” Costa began.

“Of course we need to meet in private,” Suva declared, looking around the bridge, then pointedly at Costa. “Senator Sakai?”

“Of course,” Sakai echoed.

“Admiral Geary,” Rione said, “until we return with further guidance, you are to adhere strictly to the instructions the government already gave you.”

“Yes!” Suva agreed. “Strictly adhere to them, Admiral.”

“I will,” Geary said, trying not to smile. Rione was keeping a straight face, and if she could, so could he.

Charban watched the three senators leave, then gave a rueful look to Geary. “Not being actually elected to anything, or holding any proxies for anyone who was, I have no role in the debate. I will instead attempt to pass your earlier message on to the Dancers, unless you believe it should be changed.”

“Please do, General.” Geary indicated the Dancer ships on his display. “The Dancers still need to be told to stay well clear of the outer-star warships. But in light of that message we received, tell them there is some sort of misunderstanding that we need to work out, and until we do, it would be dangerous to approach those other ships.”

“I will do my best to get the message across, Admiral,” Charban said. He paused, then saluted with a wry smile before leaving the bridge.

Geary glanced at Desjani, who was staring stiff-jawed at her display. “What’s the matter?”

She turned her glare on him. “They tied your hands. Or did you miss that?”

“No, they didn’t. I was told to continue to follow previous instructions. Rione made sure that was emphasized before she and the others departed.”

The glare shifted to realization. “And your previous instructions allow you to act as you see fit in unanticipated circumstances.”

“Right.”

“Damn!” Desjani seemed even more upset now. “I hate it when that woman does that!”

“Does what?”

“Does something that’s . . . not evil. It makes me wonder what she’s actually up to.” Desjani settled back, her expression becoming thoughtful. “What will you do?”

“I could talk to them,” Geary said.

“That didn’t work with the enigmas or the Kicks. It has rarely worked with the Syndics. And as much as I don’t want to agree with anything those politicians said, it is very suspicious that those ships knew we were coming and who would be aboard. If they knew that, and have taken the actions they already have, they’re not going to listen to anything we say.”

“That’s a point. How about if I talk to them in a way they might understand? I’ll avoid admitting there are any Alliance governmental representatives aboard. That might confuse them. While we’re talking, we’ll keep heading for Old Earth.”

“And if they’re after you?”

“I’ll let them know we won’t roll over without a fight.”

He took another long look at the image of the flashy, overdressed, and over-medaled commander of the outer-star warships, then hit the reply command. “Captain Commodore Tavistorevas, this is Admiral Geary of the Alliance fleet. As I am sure you understand, this warship is a sovereign extension of the Alliance itself. I cannot permit this battle cruiser to be boarded by a foreign power operating in a neutral star system. I am also charged by my government to safely escort to Old Earth the ships carrying emissaries from the alien species we know as Dancers. The Dancers are the only intelligent alien species with which humanity has yet managed to establish friendly relations. In accordance with my orders, I must protect them from any interference or harm, and I will do so.