Wonderful, Geary thought. He’d missed the rest of the night, skipping into the afternoon of the next day but not far enough to justify getting sleep anytime soon.
Commander Young’s face appeared on the comm panel, looking startled. “You’re leaving, sir?”
“I’ll explain later,” Geary said. “Urgent orders, no local danger. I’ve been assured that Mistral and all aboard her will follow to Varandal as soon as your off-load is complete.”
That call finished, he tapped the command to speak to Desjani.
She was in her captain’s seat on the bridge, of course. “Welcome aboard, Admiral.”
“Thank you. I’m currently stuck in the hangar dock due to high acceleration forces.”
“I was told to get you and Dauntless to the hypernet gate in an expeditious manner,” Tanya said.
“I don’t think the person who gave you those orders understood how you interpret the word ‘expeditious,’” Geary said.
“It’ll ease up in another twenty minutes.” She gave him an intent look. “Nice to see you again. Alive.”
“Likewise.”
“How was headquarters?”
“Complicated,” Geary said. “But I think it may be in good hands at the moment.”
“Oh? Who’s in charge? I had trouble getting a straight answer.”
“As of yesterday, Admiral Baxter and Admiral Rojo. It’s a co-command.”
“Co-comm—?” She stared at him in shock. “Baxter and Rojo? Were they together in the same room?”
“I guess you’ve heard about their, um, feelings regarding each other?” Geary said.
“Are you kidding? Rumor has it when they were in command of ships, their ships were never assigned to the same force for fear they’d start shooting at each other instead of the enemy. You need to tell me about this.”
“I will,” Geary said. “As soon as the acceleration lets up.”
“Which it will as soon as we’re on vector,” Desjani said, smiling.
He laughed, glad to be back aboard Dauntless.
* * *
IT took another hour before things had settled enough for Geary to get to his stateroom and collapse into his chair. Not five seconds later the alert on his hatch chimed. Groaning, he tabbed the open command.
Tanya Desjani entered, leaving the hatch open behind her, and giving him a disapproving look. “You’re a fine-looking example for the sailors, Admiral. What’s the expression horse people use? Rode hard and put away wet?”
“Thanks,” Geary said, relaxing again. “I feel exactly like that. It’s been a rough few days. I forgot to ask earlier. Did your relief show up?”
Desjani grinned. “He sure did. Commander William T. Door. I knew him when he was an ensign. He kept insisting his orders to take over command of Dauntless had precedence, and I kept pointing out that my orders had precedence. Since the crew only listened to me, Door had to get back in his shuttle and fly home.”
“Good. Why didn’t you warn me I’d encounter your godmother?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Nana Nakamura? Did she Old Family you?”
“What does that mean?” Geary asked.
Desjani shrugged. “A bit imperious, a bit condescending, a bit ‘who are you again and why should I pay attention to you?’”
“Yeah, pretty much. I don’t think she likes me.”
“She doesn’t really like anybody,” Tanya said. “And you marrying into another Kosatkan family really dims her status by comparison, which I’m sure makes her particularly unhappy with you.”
“Wonderful. Anyway, I’ve got another decision to make before we leave Unity,” Geary said, rubbing his forehead. “Numos was finally court-martialed. And sentenced to death.”
“Great! What’s the problem?” Tanya asked, sitting down opposite him.
“I have to confirm the death sentence,” Geary said.
“Great. What’s the problem?” she repeated. Her puzzlement shifted to startlement. “Hold on. Are you seriously considering changing it to dismissal from the service?”
He sighed, thinking he knew the argument that was about to play out. “Why does that surprise you?”
“I didn’t think you were that cold-blooded.”
“What?” Geary dropped his hand, staring at her. “Changing his sentence to dismissal from the service would be cold-blooded compared to death?”
She stared back at him. “Yes. Of course. Ancestors save me, you don’t get it? Dismissal from the service is a fate worse than death. He’ll be totally dishonored, and that’ll hang around his neck for however long the rest of his life is. His family and friends will disown him, no one will give him a job, so he’ll have to live on basic welfare, and everyone he meets will treat him with contempt. It’s a living hell.”
“But . . .” Sometimes the future floored him. He’d thought he was past such moments. But, no.
Desjani sighed, looking up at the overhead. “You thought sparing his life would be merciful. Is that really how they thought a century ago? I don’t know why you’d want to be merciful given what Numos did, of which desertion in the face of the enemy is just a small part, but if you do, then let him die and go to his ancestors.”
“I hate this job,” Geary muttered.
“Really?” She was angry now. “Numos’s life means that much? If he’d done his duty, if he’d been a good officer, he’d have still been in command of Orion when Orion was destroyed. Instead, Shen died. His blood is on Numos’s hands, along with that of a lot of other fleet sailors. And you’re hesitating to punish Numos because his failures and misconduct meant he managed to survive where others died?”
He sat silently for a long moment, thoughts tumbling through his mind, aware of her anger radiating through the compartment. Two things finally stood out clearly. This was part of his responsibilities, and keeping faith with those who’d died meant holding accountable those who’d failed them. That didn’t mean consigning someone to a living hell, though. “You’re right,” he finally said. “But you’re okay with Numos being executed? You’re not pushing for dismissal?”
Tanya looked back at him, her jaw still tight, but gradually relaxed. “No, I’m not pushing for dismissal. I don’t think my ancestors would approve of me wanting to torment someone in the name of justice.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Uh-huh. Right.”
“I mean it.” He nodded her way. “I needed to hear that.”
“Okay.” She looked away, plainly seeking to change the subject. “I heard Carabali got shot. How is she?”
“Out of danger,” Geary said. “We should be getting updates on her status.”
“Good.” Desjani shifted her gaze to the starscape on one wall. “Are we really going out far into the dark again? Out to Dancer territory?”
“That’s right. After our ships have had a chance to refit and repair.”
She nodded. “I recommend, Admiral, that our refit and repair period be stretched out to around three months. That’ll give the crews a chance to rotate through leave sections so they can all get home for a little while before we head out again. We’ll probably need that much time for repairs anyway given how hard our ships have been used in the last several months.”
“Good idea. Oh, one other thing. Lieutenant Jamenson needs to talk to the accountants at fleet staff.”
“The accountants already called,” Desjani said, unexpectedly smiling. “Apparently they wanted to ambush Jamenson. I listened in on some of it as Jamenson ‘explained’ things as only she can. I seriously thought my head was going to explode. Those accountants may have post-traumatic stress. I don’t think they’ll bother us again.”
* * *
EVEN with Dauntless accelerating up to point three light speed to shave some time off the transit, the need to first accelerate and then brake velocity when
approaching the hypernet gate meant it would take eighteen hours before the ship could leave this star system.
Eighteen hours could be a very long time.
Every high-priority message that arrived on Dauntless addressed to him (and every message for him was high priority) caused Geary to tense up until he checked who the message had originated from. Then, if it was directly from the Senate, he had to tense up some more until he read it.
But each of those messages were only updates. Senator Unruh had apparently decided that he needed frequent updates, which meant frequent alarming moments until he found out whether he’d be stuck at Unity for “more like decades.”
However, each update only contained information on parliamentary maneuvers employed by one side of the debate to put off a vote, while the other pressed for a vote as soon as possible. Fortunately for Geary, his side seemed to be extremely good at preventing anything from being done. He had a suspicion that the other side probably was as well. It was a wonder that the Senate ever accomplished anything.
But then that had probably been the intent of the founders of the Alliance, to prevent a too enthusiastic government from acting heedlessly, and prevent any one person from having enough power to act like a dictator.
With one hour to go until Dauntless reached the hypernet gate, the ship now stern-first toward the gate as the main propulsion units worked to slow her down, Geary went up to the bridge. His composure wasn’t helped by knowing he had a responsibility to confirm Captain Numos’s death sentence before Dauntless entered the hypernet gate. Well aware of how raw his nerves were, he tried to avoid snapping at anyone. The bridge watch standers (whose survival skills included being able to sense the moods of senior officers), were nonetheless very careful not to attract his attention.
Unity Star System normally had a lot of space traffic, much like other heavily populated places. But a surprising number of the ships here stood out for their speed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many ships boosting to point three light speed and above.”
Tanya Desjani, in her command seat next to him, nodded. “Courier ships belonging to press organizations, trying to get the latest news from Unity out to the rest of the Alliance.” She glanced at him. “The latest news being about you, of course.”
“Great.” With the hypernet still the quickest form of transport between the stars, followed by the jump drive, small and fast ships were the best way to get news around the Alliance as quickly as possible. Even that meant delays of weeks getting news to some star systems. He studied the fast-moving ships shown on his display, wondering exactly what news reports they were carrying. “I see a couple of small, fast ships just hanging around the hypernet gate.”
“Sure,” Tanya said. “That’s normal. If some hot news comes out of Unity it gets sent to those ships at speed of light, faster than any ship can travel in normal space, and when they get the news, they enter the gate to be the first to carry it to important markets. I’m surprised there are still two ships there with all of the news you’ve been generating.”
“I guess they had extras on hand,” Geary said, shifting his attention back to the fast-moving ships. “There’s a couple with diplomatic tags. Oh. Callas Republic and the Rift Federation.”
“They’re still associated with the Alliance,” she said.
“I wonder what news the one from Callas is carrying back home?” Any mention of the Callas Republic brought up thoughts of Rione, who’d been a co-president of the republic as well as an Alliance senator before being voted out of office after the end of the war. “Are they rethinking their desire to leave the Alliance?”
“They’re not technically part of the Alliance,” Desjani said. “No matter how close they got while we were fighting the Syndics.”
“I’m still getting routine status reports from Captain Hiyen,” Geary said. He had ordered home the warships the Callas Republic had contributed to the fleet during the war, in great part to prevent mutinies by their crews over their long absence from their families even after the emergency of the war had ended. “Which means the republic hasn’t detached them from the fleet yet.”
“They’re keeping their options open, I guess,” she said, disdain at the machinations of politicians creeping into her voice.
“Options.” He cast a glance her way. “The Callas Republic and the Rift Federation still have representatives in the Alliance Senate.”
Tanya paused, thinking about that. “Meaning that ship may be bringing the republic news of your orders?”
“Right. As well as my account of how Rione died.”
“Oh, that ought to go over well with the people who voted her out of office after the war.” Tanya grinned. “That woman knew how to serve up revenge.”
He gave her a surprised look. “That almost sounded like an admiring statement.”
She shrugged. “It was something she did well. And something she could’ve done to you. Which is why I never trusted her.”
His attempt to come up with a response ended as another message arrived. He bit off a curse before seeing it was from Fleet Headquarters. When had it become a relief instead of a major aggravation to get a message from Fleet Headquarters? He read the first lines, startled out of his grumpiness. “Captain Desjani, the death sentence for Captain Numos has been placed on indefinite suspension because he’s begun fully cooperating with the investigations into corruption at high levels of fleet leadership.”
Tanya glanced over at him. “Rats always turn on each other when the oxygen starts getting low.”
“I guess facing death caused him to rethink his allegiances,” Geary said.
She surprised him with a laugh. “You think that’s what made him decide to cooperate? Death is easy, Admiral. We’ve lived with it most of our lives and seen it take a lot of our friends. No, I’ll lay you odds that what changed Numos’s mind was the possibility that you’d change his sentence to dismissal from the service. You said that you’d asked Baxter and Rojo about alternatives to a death sentence, right? Don’t you think they found some opportunities to mention that to Numos, along with the chance he had to save himself from a fate literally worse than death?”
Once again, she’d thrown a curve at him. “Why would Numos believe that I’d do that? Choose to have him endure what you called a living hell?”
Tanya turned a look on him that combined tolerance with amusement. “You wouldn’t understand that, would you? He’d believe that you’d do it, because that’s what he’d do if your positions were reversed. You interacted enough with Numos to know that. He’s the sort of malfunctioning widget who doesn’t have enough imagination or empathy to realize that other people are different from him. Whereas you have so much empathy that you can even care about the fate of a broken switch like Numos.”
“Oh.” As faults go, too much empathy was probably better than most, he thought as he read on through the message. “General Carabali is doing fine and expected to make a full recovery and return to duty.”
“More good news!” Desjani said. “Are you sure that message is from Fleet Headquarters?”
He frowned as he read the next part. “Mistral’s departure from Unity has been delayed. Someone tried to smuggle a big EMP burster aboard her. If it had gone off inside the ship’s shields, it would’ve fried every circuit on the ship and destroyed all the files of evidence we collected.”
“You know what they say, if the evidence is against you, try to get rid of the evidence.” Desjani shook her head, looking unhappy. “I hope your pals in the Senate can keep the pressure on.”
“Me, too.” Geary paused on the next section of the message.
“What is it?” she asked.
“They were able to arrest a few people using leads gathered from the ones who were killed trying to kill me.” He read that portion again. “The security report says they identified a new group that poses a threat. They’re p
eople who are afraid of the Dancers.”
She frowned at him. “Afraid enough of the Dancers to try to kill you? Why?”
“According to what Carabali told me, they think the Dancers are really hostile rather than friends.” He sighed. “And they think I might be selling out humanity to them.”
Tanya Desjani slapped both of her palms against her forehead. “Because the Dancers look scary, am I right?”
“From what I heard when I was down on Unity, yes.” A warning ping announced the arrival of another high-priority message. “Damn. This one’s from the Senate.”
Desjani waited as he read.
“It’s okay,” Geary said, feeling his nerves subside a bit. “Senator Unruh says things were looking dicey if the vote was held for me to stay here until all legal proceedings were completed, but then Senator Sakai introduced a motion for a ‘cooling-off period’ and that passed. There can’t be a vote now for at least eight hours after Sakai’s motion passed.”
“That message took about five hours to get here from the planet,” Desjani said. “How long after the motion passed was the message sent?”
“Half an hour.”
She smiled. “Meaning the next vote can’t be for another two and a half hours, and we’re forty-five minutes from the hypernet gate.”
Geary felt himself smiling, too. “Which means we’re sa—” He bit off the next word. “I didn’t say it.”
Desjani glared at him. “You were about to say it! Hypernet is probably the most reliable transportation system in existence, but tempting fate is always a mistake. If you dare the universe to mess with you, the universe will find a way, because that is what the universe does.”
“Fortunately,” Geary said, “I have you here to remind me of that.”
“Yes, Admiral, you do.” She turned her head to speak to the back of the bridge. “Lieutenant Yuon, give me a status check on the hypernet key.”
“Hypernet key showing ready for gate entry,” Lieutenant Yuon responded.
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