Relentless (34 page)

Desjani answered first, her voice strained. “The Alliance hypernet gate at Varandal. They’re going to try to collapse the gate in retaliation for Kalixa because they think we did it.”

“Exactly.” Rione was almost trembling with suppressed emotion. “The cycle of retaliation has already begun what may be humanity’s last offensive. The aliens have gotten their wish. It’s already in motion. We’re too late.”

“IT’S not too late!” Geary snapped. “The Syndics haven’t blown that gate at Varandal yet, and if we can there get fast enough, we can stop them. We can stop this whole thing, and we will!”

“How?” Rione demanded.

“Captain Cresida has reported that she’s been able to make enough progress on her design to protect against gate collapse. We’ll need to get one installed on Varandal and every other hypernet gate we can as fast as we can and hope the aliens don’t realize what we’re doing until too late.”

“What about Captain Tulev’s list?”

“It’s been overtaken by events. We don’t have any time left, and a priority list would be too complicated to get across in the time we have available. If we spread the word that the hypernet gates are threats, everyone will start putting up those systems of Cresida’s.”

Desjani pressed her palms against her forehead. “Even if we do stop the Syndics, why wouldn’t the aliens blow the gate as soon as they know we’re in Varandal? No, they won’t know. It’ll take them a while to learn. Long enough to install Cresida’s system?”

“We’ll have to hope so. We’re lucky we picked up that Syndic,” he added. “If not, we wouldn’t have known about Kalixa.”

“If her ship hadn’t survived and told the Syndic reserve flotilla about Kalixa,” Desjani pointed out coldly, “then they wouldn’t have gone off to collapse the Alliance gate at Varandal. I personally could have waited to hear about Kalixa if it would have avoided that.”

“She told us something else important.” Rione’s eyes were still hooded with gloom. “A Syndic merchant ship there had copies of our records from Lakota. That confirms that the information is being spread throughout the Syndicate Worlds, even though the Syndic leaders are doubtless trying to stop it.”

Geary walked to the comm panel. “We need a meeting. Now.” Less than ten minutes later he was facing the virtual presences of Captains Cresida, Duellos, and Tulev, as well as Desjani and Rione. It took only a couple of minutes to explain what they’d learned from the Syndic commander, then Geary turned to Cresida. “You told me the basic work was done. How close are you to having a design that can be fabricated and installed as soon as we reach Alliance space?”

“Close enough, sir.” She shrugged apologetically. “It can be refined, but it’s done. It’s got a lot of estimates factored in, but it should be effective enough to dampen the shock wave to levels low enough not to threaten a star system. There’s a basic emergency level add-on that will at least lower the intensity of the energy discharge so it won’t cause significant harm, and a more elaborate system that can be installed afterward on top of the other. That should guarantee the gate collapse is completely harmless.”

“How fast can they be made and placed on hypernet gates?” Rione asked.

“As fast as their priority level, Madam Co-President.” Cresida shrugged again. “We just need to convince the Alliance political authorities and our military chain of command of the urgency.”

The sarcasm in her words didn’t need to be emphasized. Rione looked angry but not at Cresida. “That may not be a problem if we lose Varandal, but it would be best not to have that kind of example to point to. We’ve already got Lakota and Kalixa, but since those occurred in enemy territory, their significance will be debated. We need to go around the Alliance bureaucracy.”

“Captain Geary could order it.”

“That’s no guarantee it would happen,” Geary interrupted. “Especially if it becomes a matter of people arguing about me instead of installing the . . .”

“Safe-fail systems,” Cresida supplied.

Tulev smiled without humor. “We just tell everyone. Broadcast it. Here’s what happened at Lakota and Kalixa. It could happen to
your
star system. At any minute. Unless you get this modification installed on your hypernet gate as fast as possible. People will pick it up, carry it onward.”

Desjani was shaking her head. “We have to maintain security.”

“If you do,” Tulev stated calmly, “then the political and military authorities will classify it
divine eyes only
, then sit on it and study it and consider it until Alliance star systems are destroyed by the score. All in the name of security and avoiding a panic, of course.”

Rione nodded. “Captain Tulev is right. We need to generate a level of urgency to get this done, hopefully get these systems on our hypernet gates before the aliens realize what we’re doing and before the Syndics collapse any of them. The only way to do that is to make sure as many people as possible know of the danger.”

“Urgency and hysteria may be hard to tell apart. Won’t the authorities still attempt to downplay the danger?” Duellos asked.

“Of course they will. They’ll try to claim that the gates are one hundred percent safe, perhaps by saying our hypernet gates are different from Syndic gates.”

“That’s nonsense,” Cresida objected.

“Yes, it is. They’ll say it anyway, and also try personally to discredit anyone saying the gates are a threat.” Rione paused, then turned a sardonic smile on Geary. “Fortunately, the person declaring the gates to be a threat and offering the means to deal with that threat will be Black Jack Geary, returned from the dead to save the Alliance fleet and the Alliance.”

All of the others nodded in a satisfied way. “She’s right, sir,” Desjani added.

He should have expected that if Rione and Desjani ever started agreeing with each other, it would be on things that he didn’t like. But as Geary thought about it, he realized the truth of Rione’s statements. This was no time to try to hide from the legacy of Black Jack. “All right. As soon as we arrive at Varandal, we start broadcasting our reports to anyone and everyone as well as the instructions on how to build Cresida’s safe-fail systems. With my name on them.”

Then Cresida surprised them all. “What about the Syndics?”

“I’m sure they’ll hear about it eventually,” Duellos offered.

“No, I mean, do we give it to them, too? Before we leave this star system.” Cresida looked around at the shocked expressions that greeted her question. “I’ve been thinking about it. Sure, the Syndics are the enemy. But their hypernet gates are being used as weapons against
us
by a third party. There’s less and less chance that any Syndic CEO would blow one of their own hypernet gates because word is getting around about what happens. But the aliens can still do it, like they did at Kalixa. If they know we’re in a Syndic star system with a hypernet gate, they’ll target us, and they’ll keep collapsing Syndic gates in an attempt to goad the Syndics into trying to collapse more of our gates.”

Tulev watched her intently. “You’re suggesting the Syndic gates are now weapons that would only be employed by an enemy common to us and the Syndics.”

“That’s right. In which case, humanitarian considerations completely aside, we still need to disarm those weapons. And the surest way to do that is by giving the safe-fail system design to the Syndics.”

“But you’re talking treason,” Desjani objected.

“It . . . could be interpreted that way.”

Silence stretched for a moment before Duellos spoke again. “I believe that Captain Cresida has a good point. She’s talking about neutralizing a hugely dangerous weapon that could be employed against us. If we don’t provide it to the Syndics, we and they both suffer.”

“The Alliance grand council is unlikely to see it in those terms,” Rione said in a quiet voice. “They’ll want to reserve the ability to use those gates as weapons against the Syndics.”

“And how do you feel about that?” Geary asked.

“You know how I feel. They’re too horrible and too dangerous to employ.”

Tulev’s head was bowed, his eyes on the deck, as he spoke. “As an officer of the Alliance fleet, I am sworn to protect the Alliance. It’s not always easy to know the best way to do so, especially when that could be interpreted as aiding the enemy.” He raised his eyes and regarded the others, his expression as impassive as it had ever been. “I have no love for them, but this is as much a matter of self-interest as it is humanitarian. Our leaders are unlikely to accept that argument without extended debate and delay, which could be fatal for billions. As I have nothing left to lose, I can be the one to release the information to the Syndics.”

Desjani turned an anguished look on Tulev. “You’ve given enough to the Alliance! I won’t hide behind you!”

“How do you feel about it?” Geary asked her.

She looked away, breathing heavily. “I . . . Damn. Damn the Syndics and their leaders to hell. After all the misery they’ve inflicted, now they require us to commit treason in the name of protecting what we care for.” Desjani turned her gaze on Geary, her expression intense. “The Syndic hypernet key.”

“What about it?”

“It’s useless right now. We’ve been considering it a war-winning advantage if we could get it back to Alliance space and duplicate it, but right now it’s
useless
.”

Cresida laughed bitterly and nodded. “Of course. I hadn’t gotten that far yet. We can’t employ the Syndic hypernet using that key because we don’t dare go into Syndic star systems with gates. If we did, the gate could collapse as we approached and wipe out the entire fleet. In order for the key to provide us a war-winning advantage, the Syndics have to own hypernet gates that the aliens can’t collapse on command.”

“We have to give the Syndics the safe-fail system in order to ensure we can beat them?” Duellos laughed briefly, too. “And the Syndics will be forced to install such systems on their gates because the alternative to having the Alliance fleet arrive by using them is having the gates exist as bombs capable of going off at any moment and annihilating the star systems they’re supposed to serve. That should be an easy question for even a Syndic CEO to answer. The living stars love irony, don’t they?”

“Why wouldn’t the Syndic bureaucracy balk at installing the safe-fail systems?” Desjani asked.

“Oh, they would. They’d try even harder than the Alliance bureaucracy to keep it very, very quiet until star systems started going out like bad lights and the Syndic leaders had to start pretending they had no warning or idea why it was happening prior to that time. Unfortunately, that’s already begun.” Duellos gestured to Rione. “But what’s good for the Alliance is just as effective for the Syndics. Broadcast the events at Lakota, as we already have elsewhere, along with the design for the safe-fail system, and it will all spread virally. Local leaders will find ways to justify installing the systems, either voluntarily or to prevent mass rioting on their worlds. By the time the Syndic leaders at the home star system hear of it, there will probably be safe-fails on most of the gates in the Syndic hypernet.”

“Will the Syndics trust our design?” Desjani pressed.

Cresida answered. “Any team of halfway-competent engineers will be able to see that it’s a closed system that does what it’s advertised to do and nothing more. Hell, the Syndics are probably already working on their own safe-fail system, but odds are it’s caught up in that bureaucracy and the bureaucratic mania to keep things secret from your own side.”

Desjani exhaled slowly. “Then my answer is yes. Give it to the Syndics. Because ultimately that decision protects the
Alliance
.”

“All right.” Geary looked around, knowing what he had to do. “Thank you for volunteering, Captain Tulev, but I won’t ask you to take an action that’s my responsibility. I’ll—”

“No, you won’t.” Rione interrupted, then sighed. “I should lecture you all on your duty and remind you of your oaths and the laws of the Alliance and regulations of the fleet. But I’m a politician, so who am I to speak of honoring oaths? Enough has already been asked of you all, and of your ancestors, in a hundred years of war. Let this politician prove to you that all honor is not dead among your elected leaders.
I
will release the information to the Syndics.”

“Madam Co-President,” Geary began, as the other officers present looked at Rione with varied looks of surprise.

“I am
not
under your command, Captain Geary. You cannot order me not to do it. The arguments made here are convincing, but we don’t have time to try to convince the authorities back home. Not just the fate of this fleet but the lives of untold billions of people ride on this decision being made quickly. If it is seen as treason, you must remain unstained by it for the good of the Alliance. Unless you are prepared to arrest me and openly charge me with treason, I will do this.” Rione turned to Cresida. “Captain, is your design within the fleet database?”

Cresida nodded, her eyes on Rione. “Yes, Madam Co-President. Under the file name ‘Safe-fail’ in my personal files.”

“Then I will acquire it without your assistance since I have the means to access those files. Your hands will be clean.”

“Clean? But we know you’re going to do this,” Duellos pointed out.

“No, you don’t.”

“You told us.”

“The words of a politician?” Rione smiled again, almost as if she were enjoying this. “You have no reason to believe anything I say is true. You probably think I’m just trying to entrap you by urging a course of action I won’t actually carry out. You can’t be absolutely certain I’m not doing that.”

She left quickly, before anything else could be said. Cresida, a pondering expression on her face, suddenly nodded, looking from Geary to the door by which Rione had left. “I finally understand why—”

Biting off the words and reddening slightly, doing her best not to look at Desjani, Cresida rose to her feet, saluted hastily, then her image vanished.