The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan (33 page)

“Keep the hatch open. Do you mind if I sit down?”

“Feel free, Captain.”

“Thank you, Admiral.” Desjani took a seat at her desk, sighing. “Speaking of patterns, and destiny, I had a thought. The enigmas covertly gave humanity hypernet technology not only to keep the war between the Alliance and the Syndicate worlds going, but also in the hope that we would first build hypernet gates in all of our star systems, then discover what excellent weapons they made for destroying those star systems that belonged to our human foes. The enigmas wanted humanity to wipe itself out.”

“Right,” Geary said, leaning against the side of the open hatch.

“But the hypernet gate here was what allowed us to survive, the only thing powerful enough to annihilate the dark ships. The enigmas
gave us that weapon
in the hope that we would destroy ourselves with it, and instead, we used it to save ourselves.”

“That’s ironic,” Geary said. “I hadn’t thought about it, but that’s true.”

“But it wouldn’t have happened,” Desjani continued, “if the same people who created and funded and pushed the dark ship program, as well as other really stupid and ugly things, had not also targeted Victoria Rione and motivated her to act as she did.”

He stared at her. “You said her name.”

“So what? I honor her memory. The point is, the enigmas gave us the weapon, and the people who sought to undermine the Alliance gave us the person who would pull the trigger on it.”

He kept staring. “Our enemies gave us the means to frustrate their plans.”

“Do you still believe that there has been no larger plan involving you?” Desjani pressed. “A plan by powers compared to whom the enigmas and the suits are nothing?”

“Tanya, I will never be able to believe that I am special,” Geary said.

“And that’s why they chose you,” she concluded. “I know you are going to miss her. That’s all right. She was part of the plan, too.”

“So were you,” he said.

“I just helped keep you alive, Black Jack. Alive and with your head on straight.”

He glanced over at the remembrance plaque that Tanya Desjani kept on one bulkhead. It held a list of names, a heartbreakingly long list of names, of comrades of hers who had died in battle. Two new names were on it. Victoria Rione. Captain Tulev. “Rione is not the only one I’m going to miss.”

“No.” Desjani looked away, blinking rapidly. “It’s as I said when Kostya died when
Leviathan
was destroyed,” she whispered. “His war is finally over. He had nowhere else. His home world destroyed. All but one member of his extended family dead. The fleet was all he had. Someday, had he lived, he would have had to leave the fleet, then he would have had nothing. Now, he is at home with his ancestors, and I pray he knows peace.”

“Peace would be nice,” Geary said in a quiet voice.

“What’s next?” she asked.

“We jump for Drezwin. Once at Drezwin,
Dauntless
will escort
Mistral
to Unity, just in case anyone tries to keep
Mistral
and what she carries from reaching there. The rest of the fleet will return to Varandal.”

“That’s a pretty short-term set of plans,” Desjani said. “What about after?”

“I don’t know. I’ll leave it to Senators like Navarro, Sakai, and Unruh to put the Alliance government in order. We shut down the biggest threats, but there are still other problems out there, still more of the galaxy to see, still Syndics causing trouble.” He smiled slightly. “I wouldn’t mind a little rest, though. Do you think the human-occupied portion of the galaxy will be able to manage for a few months without us rushing around, fixing things that keep breaking?”

“Probably not.” She smiled back. “You really are Black Jack, you know.”

“No, I’m not.”

“I wouldn’t have married anyone else,” Desjani said.

“Then, yes, I am Black Jack.” Geary stood straight and nodded to her. “I’m going to get some rest.”

Desjani’s comm panel suddenly came to life. “Captain? A jump point for Drezwin just appeared less than a light-minute away from us.”

“I’ll let the Admiral know,” Desjani said, then smiled once more at Geary. “What was that about getting some
rest?”

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