The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught (35 page)

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Authors: Jack Campbell

BOOK: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught
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Benan, already rigid, somehow stiffened even more. “I would never—
Nothing
would excuse such an action.”
“An action that was justified by those who committed it on the grounds that they didn’t believe I should be in command,” Geary said.
“So I have been informed. I repeat, I would never commit such an act.”
“I believe you, Commander. Would you inform me or someone else in authority if you are again approached to assist in actions contrary to regulations?”
Benan didn’t answer at first, looking over at Rione, who looked steadily back at him. “Yes. My wife’s honor has suffered enough.”
That could have been a barb aimed at Geary, but he let it pass. “You are a man of honor, so your word will not be questioned. Emissary Rione has asked that you remain on this ship with her, and in light of her long and distinguished service to the Alliance, I have no trouble granting that request. You’ve both been separated for too long as it is.” He looked at Rione, wondering what impact his words about her service to the Alliance had on her in light of the secrets she seemed to be keeping.
He had long since recalled the advice given him after other prisoners were liberated during earlier voyages, to give them something meaningful to do, and had regretted not being able to find tasks for so many high-ranking individuals. But perhaps it was time to offer something, anything. “Commander Benan, I regret that there are no positions on
Dauntless
appropriate to your rank and experience. However, the engineering department is in need of officers to inspect and test newly installed and upgraded equipment. If you are willing to undertake that assignment, Captain Desjani will assign you to that task.” It hadn’t been too easy to get Tanya to agree to that, but he had managed to convince her that useful employment and a sign of trust would both be a good idea.
Benan finally looked directly at Geary. “You’re offering to let me work directly on ship’s systems?”
“I either accept your word that you will not violate regulations again, or I don’t, Commander. And I have accepted it.”
A long pause, then Benan nodded. “I would be happy to contribute in any way I can to the readiness of an Alliance warship.”
“I’ll notify Captain Desjani. Thank you, Commander. Thank you, Madam Emissary.”
They left without saying anything more though Rione gave him a glance whose meaning was unclear.
 
 
IT
took a total of six days to reach the jump point for Hina. Six days of futile searching for any sign of human or alien constructs. If wreckage from Syndic ships floated among the asteroids and smaller rocks of the star system, it was so old and slight that it had dispersed beyond long-range identification.
“If they wanted planets that were also suitable for human habitation, they’ll be at Hina,” Geary advised his fleet. “If there are still humans held captive by the aliens, they might well be at Hina, too. Be ready for action upon exiting jump.”
 
 
STARS
once more filled a living universe as the fleet arrived at Hina.
“Yes!” Desjani cried as the displays updated.
An alien ship, matching the turtle-like outlines of the ships seen at Midway, was right on top of the jump exit and immediately opened fire on the Alliance ships, particle beams and solid projectiles lashing at
Relentless
. That battleship and every other warship within range of the alien returned fire within less than a second, reducing the alien craft to a ruin. Before Geary could open his mouth to order probes sent over to the wreck, it exploded into tiny fragments.
“Core overload,” one of the watch-standers reported. “Very powerful for a ship that size. Impossible to determine if it was accidental or deliberate.”
An urgent tone drew Geary’s attention to information popping up on one side of the display.
Relentless
hadn’t taken any damage in the brief engagement, but the core overload of the alien ship had occurred while it was surrounded by Alliance warships. A light cruiser and a destroyer had suffered minor damage, and another destroyer had been badly damaged. “Captain Smythe, get repair assistance to
Sabar
. I want that destroyer patched up as fast as you can do it.”
“That alien ship was very close to the jump point,” Desjani said. “As if it was preparing to jump out, and this jump point only leads to Pele.”
Geary considered that. “A picket ship that was supposed to be on station but was delayed?”
“Or else the aliens did have a surveillance satellite at Pele, one so low-power and carefully disguised as a natural asteroid that we couldn’t spot it. One of their faster-than-light alerts to here, and that ship could have been on its way to finding out what humans were doing at Pele.”
“I think you’re right. There’s not much else here, is there?” His display was changing, reflecting what was in this star system now instead of what the Syndics had once had here. “Three ships that seem to be freighters or some other kind of merchant ship, one other warship, and what’s on the planets and moons.”
“And that,” Desjani added, pointing to the hypernet gate suspended on the opposite side of the star system, a good eleven light hours distant. “That’s not a Syndic gate.”
“It doesn’t have a safe-fail system on it that we can recognize,” one of her officers reported. “But there are other modifications to it that don’t match the gates we or the Syndics have built.”
“Nothing like arriving in a new star system and finding a great big bomb pointed at you,” Desjani said.
“Yeah,” Geary agreed. The alien species had been willing to kill all of the wounded on its wrecked ships at Midway rather than let humans learn anything about them. They might not hesitate at all to destroy this star system if it meant also wiping out a human fleet. “We’ll have to stay close to the jump exit while we look over this star system.”
Rione and Charban had both come to the bridge, and Charban shook his head. “A pity our first contact with these beings had to involve our destruction of their ship.”
“Our first contact happened some time ago,” Geary pointed out. “When they attacked the Midway Star System. I assume you two will now attempt to speak with the aliens?”
“If they will speak with us,” Rione replied.
A window holding Dr. Setin appeared. “This is astounding, Admiral. Have you looked at the primary planet in this star system?”
“We were just getting to that, Doctor.”
“The towns the Syndics placed on the second planet are completely gone. There’s no trace that the places they occupied ever had anything built there. The enigma race must have gone to great effort to erase any trace of previous human presence.”
That was interesting as well as disturbing. Maybe having these experts along would turn out to be a useful thing.
“Have you examined the images of the alien towns on the visible portions of the planet?” Setin asked. “The images are very blurry, but the towns are not very large given how many years the enigma race has controlled this star system.”
“Why are the images so blurry?” Geary asked the bridge watch-standers.
“It doesn’t seem to be normal atmospherics,” the sensor watch answered. “We’re trying to get clearer images, but it’s as if there’s something fogging the imagery.”
“We’re sure the systems are clear of worms?” Desjani asked.
“Yes, Captain. This looks like something on the planet itself, maybe something positioned over those towns that lets through light but blocks details for anyone looking down at them.”
Geary passed that on to Dr. Setin, who excitedly broke the contact to confer with his colleagues, then Geary called Intelligence. “Lieutenant Iger, what do the comms in this star system look like? Any good video transmissions we can exploit?”
Iger appeared baffled. “There’s no video at all, Admiral. It’s all text, and that’s encoded.”
Desjani blew out an exasperated breath. “No wonder the Syndics called these things the enigma race. They give paranoia a bad name.”
“We can’t judge them by our standards,” Charban cautioned.
“I’m aware of that,” Geary said. “But Captain Desjani has a point. These aren’t countermeasures put into place after our arrival. The light from that planet is five hours old. The messages we’re picking up are at least that old as well. These seem to be normal, routine behaviors for this species. Lieutenant Iger, I want you to look for anything that might indicate humans are still somewhere in this star system.”
“We haven’t seen anything that indicates that yet, Admiral.”
Dr. Setin was back. “Very focused on privacy. Remarkable. Have you observed what can be seen of the towns? They are right on the coastline. As hard as it is to make out details, they seem to build right to the water’s edge. What’s that?” Setin seemed to be listening to someone. “Yes. Admiral, it looks like they may build
into
the water. What we’re seeing continuing into the water might be piers, but it almost looks like the same construction simply continues from dry land right into the water, and those images going into water become even harder to make out before becoming impossible to interpret, which would be consistent with them continuing into deeper water.”
“What would that mean, Doctor?”
“Well, one obvious possibility is that the enigma race is amphibious. Clearly, they value being close to water and may need that proximity to water. We heard an alien ship was encountered at the jump exit, Admiral. Will we be able to examine it and meet with its crew?”
Geary shook his head. “I’m afraid that ship self-destructed.”
“Oh. Did it evidence antagonistic or disputatious behaviors?”
“Excuse me?”
“Did it . . . attack . . . us?”
“Yes, Doctor. It opened fire the moment it saw us.”
The system techs played with the sensors, trying to get clearer images but having no success. Geary waited with a growing sense of impatience, watching the alien spacecraft reacting to the arrival of the fleet but unable to move his own ships away from the jump point without risking total destruction from the hypernet gate. “Captain?” the combat systems watch said after four futile hours, her voice thoughtful. “I’ve noticed something in the actions of the aliens. I may be wrong, but—”
“If you’ve noticed anything, I’d like to hear it,” Desjani said.
“Yes, ma’am. The thing is, if you look at the reactions of the alien ships, the probable freighters are reacting as the light of our arrival reaches them; but then this alien warship one and a half light hours distant also didn’t react until they could see us. And a few minutes ago, we got light back from this second alien warship, about forty-five light minutes from the first warship, which showed it reacting only a few minutes after the first alien warship would have seen light from our arrival.”
Desjani nodded, studying her own display. “That’s consistent with our belief that they have a faster-than-light communications capability, but it looks like they don’t have any faster-than-light sensors, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, Captain. That first warship needed to see our light get to him before he knew we were here. But it tells us something else,” the lieutenant added, “that their merchant ships don’t have the FTL comms. It wasn’t until one warship saw us that the other warship reacted.”
“That’s important to know. Excellent job, Lieutenant Castries.”
Rione and Charban sent out messages, drafted much earlier, regretting past warfare, expressing interest in real dialogue, and offering to negotiate terms for peaceful coexistence.
Five hours after the fleet’s arrival, a message arrived from the aliens, one definitely sent before the aliens heard the communications from the fleet. Geary saw the same sort of human avatars the aliens had used at Midway, false fronts that concealed the true appearance of the enigmas.
A “human” sat in the command seat of a virtual ship’s bridge cobbled together digitally from Syndic transmissions. He frowned and made a gesture that was probably meant to be threatening but was subtly wrong to the real humans watching the message. “Go. Go now. Stay, and you will die. This star is ours. Not yours. Go or you will die. This star is ours. Go or die.”
“Not much room for negotiation,” Desjani commented.
“No,” Geary agreed. “Route that message to the civilian experts for their input and make sure our emissaries see it.” His eyes came to rest on the depiction of alien warships on his display. All of the enigma warships in this star system were headed toward the Alliance fleet, but the closest ones had veered off to hold positions a light hour distant. They either weren’t planning a hopelessly outnumbered attack on the Alliance fleet or were waiting for every one of their own warships in this star system to join up before launching a still-futile attack.
“Admiral?”
He blinked, focusing on Desjani and realizing that he’d been lost in thought. “Sorry.”
“You’re all right?” Desjani asked. “You were out of comms for quite a while.”
“I was just thinking,” Geary assured her.

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