“Yes. So?”
“So, in a couple of more days you’ll be back with your first love.”
“Dauntless is not my first love, but go ahead and keep believing that.”
He studied her, thinking about the future. “What will you do when the command of Dauntless passes to someone else?”
“That’s when I’ll leave the fleet,” Tanya said in a matter-of-fact way. “It would’ve been different if the war was still going on, but now I can do that with a clean conscience. I can’t think of any other job in the fleet that I wouldn’t feel was a step down after having commanded Dauntless. So I’ll put in my resignation and move on.” She smiled. “Or rather, move here, I guess. Not alone, I hope.”
“When you leave the fleet, so do I,” Geary said. “We’ll be here together, carrying on the family tree.” Unexpectedly, the conversation reminded him of something. A thing that had happened while growing up. He stood up. “There’s something out back I need to check.”
She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him, having apparently picked up something in his voice. “Can I come with?”
“Sure.” Outside, vision of the area beyond the yard blocked by trees and fences, only the sound filtering past telling them bystanders were still gathered and police still in place, Geary led the way toward a particular spot, glad that enough daylight remained to see.
“They should be here.” He stopped, looking at one old tree, rising into the sky, its leaves thick. “There should be two trees. We planted them here. My brother Michael and I. It was a tradition. The Geary children always planted a tree.” He looked around again, knowing it was absurd, but not willing to accept that there was only one tree here. “I guess . . . one of the trees died.”
She watched him, staying silent.
He reached out and touched the old bark, pressing his hand against it, trying to feel something. “I bet this is Mike’s tree. I think his is the one that survived.”
“Yeah,” Tanya said. “That must be his tree.”
“Because we each planted one,” Geary said, realizing he was repeating himself and not able to stop. “And whenever I was back on this planet Michael would come by, too, and we’d stand here and look at them and how tall they were getting.” His voice broke. The things he tried not to think about filled him, all that had been lost in the century he was frozen in survival sleep, the deaths of everyone he’d ever known, all summed up in this old tree that was left to stand alone, and for a moment he couldn’t speak at all.
Tanya’s arms came around him, holding tight. She said nothing, just holding him as the light faded and darkness settled on the yard.
After a while, he moved a bit and she let go. “Thanks,” Geary said. “I know you’ve lost a lot of people, too.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier,” she said.
“No. It never does, I guess.” They walked back inside.
The kitchen had been stocked with more than just food. “We have beer,” Geary said.
“They know how to keep sailors happy, don’t they?” Tanya said, taking a bottle and eyeing the label. “Martin Page’s India Pale Ale. Is he a local celebrity?”
“A legendary brewer on Glenlyon over a century ago,” Geary said. “This is top shelf. Martin Page was also reputedly the finest knife fighter on two worlds in his prime.”
“Knife fighter? The same Page our boarding party instructors kept quoting?”
“That’s the guy.”
“Then here’s to him.” She took a drink. “It’s good all right. I have to admire anyone who masters two such socially significant areas of expertise.”
They sat down, he still brooding over the tree, she apparently not certain what to say. Finally, Tanya touched the remote. “Do you mind if I check the local news? I want to see if my crew is behaving.”
“Be my guest,” he said.
“Crew, liberty, Dauntless,” Tanya said as the room’s main display lit up. A moment later scenes appeared of sailors partying amid crowds of Glenlyon natives. “That’s a relief. I was afraid the first link those words brought up would be about arrests.”
Geary noticed that just about every sailor had at least one similarly aged companion from planetside. “I wonder how many members of your crew will fall in love before we leave Glenlyon?”
“There are always at least a few sailors who think they’ve found their soul mate on liberty,” Tanya said. “Even in a rotten port. Great liberty like this ought to produce a lot of spur-of-the-moment engagements.”
Geary smiled, glad to have something else, something pleasant, to focus on. “I remember after one great liberty almost half of my division was ready to get married then and there.”
“That must have been a really great liberty,” she said, taking another drink of the ale. “Do you remember where it was?”
“Kosatka,” he said, smiling at her reaction. “Remember me telling you my ship was there for a royal wedding? I was a lieutenant back then.”
“Oh, yeah.” She grinned. “That’s why my world created a royal family. To serve as a nonpolitical symbol of the planet for everybody on Kosatka, and to be a reason to hold big parties whenever one of them was crowned, or got married, or had a kid, or whatever. The whole planet gets to let its hair down.”
“I don’t know about the whole planet. We had liberty in Lodz, the capital.”
“My hometown.” Tanya turned an arch look on him. “How about you? Did you meet any girls in Lodz?”
“No.” He hesitated as the memories came back. “Well, yes. One of the times I was on the surface I’d wandered away from the parties and ended up in a museum.”
“You haven’t changed much, have you? And you found a nice girl in the museum?”
“She was interested in history, too,” Geary said. “We ended up talking for hours.” Should he say the rest? Best to get it all out so it wouldn’t slip out later and cause problems. “I had to leave, to get back to the ship for duty. She gave me her contact info for the next day I was supposed to have free, but as it turned out a critical piece of equipment broke on the ship and I had to stay aboard to oversee the repairs. Then we left. So I never saw her again.”
Tanya smiled, drinking more beer. “I told you we were fated to be together. What was her name?”
“Ummm . . . Sonia.”
Tanya, in the middle of another drink of beer, nearly choked. She managed to swallow her drink, looking at Geary with wide eyes. “Sonia?” she asked in a hoarse voice. “Sonia was my grandmother’s name.”
He stared back at her, his mind momentarily blank. When it started working again, he shook his head. “No. She was not your grandmother.”
“What was her last name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you make out with her?”
“No!” He glared at Tanya. “This is getting weird.”
“You think this is weird? When I’m the one who just found out my husband could’ve been my grandfather?” Tanya sat back with a groan. “The last several times I’ve communed with my ancestors I’ve felt like Bobcha Sonia was irritated with me. Now I know why! I need to apologize to Granmama the next time I speak with her. So do you.”
“Why do I need to apologize to your grandmother’s spirit?”
“For standing her up!”
There were times when the only right strategy involved surrender. This was one of those times. “Okay.”
NINE
HE’D feared that each day on Glenlyon would drag, that he’d welcome the chance to finally leave again and be a little less deluged by the idolization of Black Jack, but on the last morning at home Geary found himself saddened at the thought of leaving. “Tanya, there’s something I never told you.”
“There’s just one thing you never told me?” she asked, sitting in the main room drinking coffee.
“
Well . . . I’ll get around to everything someday.” He hesitated, looking about him. “One of the reasons I didn’t want to come home was because as long as I didn’t, I could pretend in my head that everything was still the same. That Mom and Dad were still here. Coming here meant confronting reality. Meant visiting their memorial.”
“Are you okay?” Tanya asked.
“Yeah. I think I am. Because now I realize holding on to them, keeping them here, wasn’t fair to them. And because I couldn’t move on with my life as long as I couldn’t accept what had already happened.”
She sighed, standing up and coming over to him. “You moved on enough to marry me, but I’m glad this is closing the circle for you. Hold me tight, will you? In a few hours we’ll be back on board and not even able to give each other meaningful glances.”
“That’s one of the reasons I’m reluctant to leave,” he admitted.
“As long as we’re confessing,” Tanya said, her voice low as she held him close, “I should tell you that I needed this. I was starting to wonder if we could be a real couple. If the whole captain-and-admiral thing was all we were, keeping each other at arm’s length. And I know we still did a lot of that here whenever we were in public, but in this house we were able to be close and I’m grateful for that.”
They stood there a little longer before he sighed and moved away. “I need to make sure I’ve packed everything I want to take.”
Tanya frowned. “You’re not thinking of taking some of those century-old civilian clothes that were still stored in your room, are you?”
“I think those are a little outdated.”
“Yeah, maybe just a little.”
An hour later they left the house. As he locked it with his palm on the security plate, Lyn’s voice wished him a safe trip.
Waiting at the gate was the usual limo, this time once more part of a procession for the farewell events. More crowds, more waving, another speech, this time saying he couldn’t wait until he could return and meaning every word of it, then into the VIP shuttle and up through atmosphere.
As the shuttle approached Dauntless’s dock, Tanya leaned close and kissed him, holding it until the shuttle reached the ship.
The shuttle docked, the ramp lowered, and they walked off onto the decks of the battle cruiser once more, Geary in the lead in accordance with military etiquette and Desjani following. “Admiral, Alliance fleet, arriving, Dauntless arriving,” the all-hands circuit told everyone on the ship as the ship’s bell was sounded six times to mark Geary’s rank, then four times for Desjani’s.
They both returned salutes from the officer of the watch. “I’ll be on the bridge preparing the ship for departure, Admiral,” Desjani said to him.
“Thank you, Captain,” he said. “I’m going by my stateroom before joining you on the bridge. I want to be on the bridge when we leave orbit.”
“Understood. I’ll see you there.”
Everything was the same as before, and nothing would ever be the same.
But they still had the same job to do back at Varandal.
* * *
GEARY had gotten more and more restless on the trip back. No longer distracted by worries about visiting Glenlyon or looking forward to time with Tanya off the ship, he could only focus on the preparations for the upcoming mission, painfully aware that his information was already more than two weeks old. A lot could happen in two or three weeks.
Dauntless’s crew, though, seemed to have exceptionally high morale. It appeared none of them had paid for a single drink or a meal while on the surface at Glenlyon. And as predicted a fair number of requests had been submitted for extra leave justified by either an impending engagement or impending marriage. Those requests, in turn, generated the only negative moments on the trip back to Varandal, as senior enlisted and officers counseled smitten sailors (with varying degrees of success) on the necessity of thinking about how enduring love born of a few days of planetside liberty might turn out to be.
Geary nerved himself for the worst as he sat on the bridge, awaiting the exit from the hypernet. In just a few moments he’d learn what had happened while he was away from Varandal.
“Exiting hypernet in three . . . two . . . one.”
The first thing he noticed was the absence of alarms that would’ve been triggered by any nearby threat. The second thing was that nothing seemed amiss as the ship’s sensors updated his display with all the information that could be seen. Some of it was hours time delayed because of how long it took light to cover the distance, of course, but it was still reassuring to see no sign of problems.
There was something off, though. Something unexpected. What was it?
“We have a new battleship,” Tanya remarked.
That was it. An extra battleship. Sort of a ridiculous thing not to key on immediately. “Audacious?” Geary wondered. “No, it’s . . . Reprisal. And she’s broadcasting ID as part of the fleet.” Reprisal, and the other warships the Callas Republic had once contributed to the Alliance fleet, had been sent home by Geary after the war to prevent their crews from mutinying at being forced to remain far from their families. “Why’d they send Reprisal back?”
“It looks like the Callas Republic wants in on whatever the fleet does next,” Desjani said. “Remember that diplomatic courier ship we saw racing to leave Unity? They found out what your mission is and they want a piece of it. So much for them reasserting their independence.”
“If that’s the only unexpected thing that took place while we were gone, I’m grateful,” Geary said. “It looks like everything else is fine.”
“Are you disappointed, Admiral?”
He laughed. “As someone reminded me, I shouldn’t be indispensible.”
It took close to two days for Dauntless to reach Ambaru Station, giving him time to get up to date on everything. “Nothing untoward to report,” Captain Badaya said (a bit smugly) in a welcoming message. “Except that I assume you’ve seen Reprisal showed up, along with four destroyers from the Callas Republic. Captain Hiyen and I agreed he should wait until you returned to make a formal visit with the fleet commander since I was only acting commander.”
Once Dauntless was close enough to Ambaru Station and the rest of the fleet, Reprisal sent a shuttle over. Captain Hiyen looked much the same as he had when the battleship had left, though he definitely seemed under a lot less strain. He exited his shuttle to a full compliment of honors before accompanying Geary back to his stateroom. “Welcome back to Varandal,” Geary said, waving Hiyen to a seat. “I admit I wasn’t expecting to see you or any Callas Republic warships again.”
Hiyen sat down carefully, and then spoke with the same care, as if choosing each word. “The Callas Republic has not forgotten how many sacrifices the Alliance made during the recently ended war. We want to continue to contribute to Alliance efforts.”
“Exactly how are you supposed to contribute?” Geary asked, also taking a seat. “Do you have specific instructions?”
“The warships under my command are to accompany you, Admiral, as part of the Alliance fleet. Just as before.”
“What if I want your ships to stay here and assist in the defense of the Alliance?” Geary pressed, already suspecting the answer.
“My ships are to accompany you, Admiral,” Hiyen repeated.
Geary leaned back, sighing. “In other words, the Callas Republic wants to be represented when I take a force to Midway Star System again, and when we go back to Dancer-controlled space.”
Captain Hiyen spread his hands. “I have my orders, Admiral. I don’t disagree with them. I’m . . . grateful that my government has seen fit to renew our cooperation with the Alliance. You know me. No Alliance commander I’ve served under has ever had any complaints about my performance.” He paused, a shadow crossing over his expression. “I also carry the republic’s condolences on the sacrifice of former co-president Victoria Rione.
Her death was a great loss for both the Callas Republic and the Alliance.”
“She spoke highly of you,” Geary said. “I think you know how difficult it was to gain Co-President Rione’s approval. Are there any diplomatic representatives of the republic’s government aboard your ship?”
“Yes,” Hiyen said without trying to deflect the question. “To meet with the Dancers. I’ve been told arrangements have already been made for his accommodations aboard the Alliance emissary ship when it arrives here.”
“There shouldn’t be any problems, then,” Geary said, wishing he had Rione at hand to tell him about whoever this Callas Republic representative was. “Captain, I don’t see any problem with including your ships in the mission to Dancer space. The Callas Republic does realize there are substantial hazards in this mission, correct? That you could suffer combat losses?”
“Yes,” Captain Hiyen said. “That is understood.” He frowned, gazing at the star display on one wall. “There’s something else that you should know. Officially, I’m not telling you this. It regards the Rift Federation.”
“Oh?” The Rift Federation was even smaller than the Callas Republic, and had also been distancing itself once more from the Alliance in the wake of the war.
“They also want a presence in Dancer space,” Captain Hiyen said. “But not as part of an Alliance fleet. They’re going to send their own ships independently.”
“Independently?” Geary let his alarm show. “How big a force do they have?”
“According to my information, one heavy cruiser, a couple of light cruisers, and five destroyers.”
Geary made a fist, bringing it down on one arm of his seat. “The odds of a force that small making it to Midway aren’t good. But making it past there, through enigma space to Dancer space? They won’t have a chance. The enigmas will wipe them out.”
Hiyen nodded slowly, his unhappiness clear. “I understand the commander of the Rift Federation force advised her superiors of that, and was told to go regardless. It’s Captain Kapelka, on the Passguard.”
Boundless Page 18
