The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian (16 page)

He closed his eyes tightly, grimacing, after Rione ended her call. After a long moment, he straightened and refocused on the Marine situation map.

Aboard
Invincible
, the Marines had closed and tightened their spherical cordon around the area where Major Dietz had estimated the Syndics would be holed up, sealing off passageways and compartments on all sides and above and below the enemy-held compartments. On Geary’s image of
Invincible
’s deck plan, those five compartments were now marked as enemy-occupied. “We
know
that’s where they are?” Geary asked Major Dietz.

“Yes, sir,” Dietz reported. “We managed some recon, but with the Syndics still in stealth mode, it’s hard to get a good count. Our best guess is about twenty of them are in there, Admiral.”

“Good call on where they would hole up, Major. Do we know if they’ve really got a third nuke?”

Major Dietz flushed slightly at the praise from Geary, then hesitated. “Admiral, we’ve sent in gnat sensors, which were all we could get in through the bug-netting countermeasures the Syndics have hung across the accesses into there. The gnats aren’t picking up any extra radiation that would indicate the presence of a nuke. But gnat sensors are limited because of size and power issues, and if the Syndics have the nuke under extra shielding, it would be very hard to spot even with better gear.”

“What would it take to be sure?”

“To be absolutely sure? Fight our way in there and look, Admiral.”

Admiral Lagemann was studying the deck plan for the
Invincible
. “I was thinking about something,” he said. “We’ve got a good picture of how
Invincible
looks inside because it’s based on our patrolling of the ship and automated mapping drones. We’ve got a solid picture of the deck plan. Watch this.”

On the deck plan, dots began appearing. “Each of these,” Lagemann said, “is an indication of Syndic presence. If you look at how the detections develop, they show us where the Syndics went initially.”

“What are these detections based on?” Geary asked.

“Lamarr sensor spoofing and fragmentary indications picked up by other sensors,” Admiral Lagemann explained. “Not a perfect picture, but the best we can expect when dealing with stealthy opponents in an environment like
Invincible
. Watch the paths the Syndics followed. They converged on the decoy main engineering control and the decoy bridge simultaneously, using a variety of routes that in some cases must indicate backtracking because the Syndics knew nothing about
Invincible
’s layout. But, as spread out as they were, everything we spotted was headed for those two compartments. After they occupied the two decoy spaces, they spread out again and moved along this axis.”

Major Dietz nodded. “Roughly toward the living and operations spaces we actually occupy. The emissions from the Donkeys helped mask our own actual presence. The Syndics must have picked up some trace indications of our real location on board once the Donkeys were shut down.”

“The point being,” Lagemann continued, “they only went for
two
locations initially instead of a third grouping trying to also seize the weapons control compartment they would have expected to find.”

“Which would argue in favor of their only having two nukes?” General Carabali asked. “That analysis makes sense, but do we want to bet the farm on it?”

Lagemann smiled crookedly. “If we’re wrong, and they do have a nuke, I’ll be buying the farm.”

“We wouldn’t be in this position if they hadn’t tried to farm our ship,” Dietz pointed out.

“Are you all done?” Geary asked, exasperated.

“Sorry,” Admiral Lagemann said. “Those jokes weren’t exactly breaking new ground. Sorry, sorry. But I think I can be forgiven for a little levity to distract me from the possible consequences for me and the rest of my crew of urging you to order the Marines to go in.”

Geary let his eyes rest on the deck plan of
Invincible
. “Does anyone think time is on our side?”

Only Carabali answered, and that was in the negative. “No, sir. If they’re ready to die carrying out their mission, and if they’ve got a nuke, we need to hit them as soon as possible before the nature of
Invincible
drives them crazy enough to just set it off.”

“They can certainly feel the ghosts in those compartments they’re in,” Major Dietz agreed. “Since we powered down a lot of the gear in here and shut off life support, they’ve been crowding in with us. Having a bunch of people here helps, but it doesn’t stop the spooky sensation.”

“Go ahead and power up your gear again,” Carabali ordered. “Get your life support going, too. If there are any Syndics who avoided the Marine sweeps and haven’t been driven crazy by the ghosts, they might come your way once your emissions get stronger. That will give you a chance to take them out. Admiral, I want to go in after those twenty Syndics forted up in those five compartments as soon as we’re ready.”

Geary had to pause to think. He couldn’t spend too much time dwelling on the consequences if the Syndics did have a third nuke and did detonate it, because visualizing that would be certain to unnerve him. Part of him remained very angry with the Syndics, determined that they not win in any way, shape, or form as a result of their sneak attacks here at Sobek. He knew that was also the wrong grounds for making the decision, though.

Invincible
was immensely valuable to humanity, even if the cost to this fleet in the taking of the superbattleship from the Kicks wasn’t counted in. Dared he risk the destruction of everything humanity might learn from
Invincible
?

On the other hand, did he dare give that up? Suppose
Invincible
did hold somewhere inside the secret to the Kick planetary-defense system? Suppose the Syndics acquired that? The same Syndic CEOs willing to order suicide attacks and willing to threaten the destruction of
Invincible
’s trove of knowledge?

“Go in as soon you’re ready,” Geary said. “If you can take any more prisoners, it would be nice because I want living bodies who can hang this operation on the Syndicate Worlds, but the primary goal is ensuring a quick takedown, so if they do have a nuke, they don’t have time to activate it.” He didn’t ask what the odds of success were, knowing that any reply would only be guesswork.

Major Dietz saluted. “Five minutes, Admiral. We’ve already prepared the assault plan. We’ll hit them from every direction at once.”

“Good.” Geary pulled himself back to awareness of the larger situation again, trying to block out mental images of what might soon happen if he had decided wrong. “Still quiet?” he asked Desjani.

“Yeah. I ordered a saturation bombardment of the primary inhabited world. We launched that ten minutes ago, but it will take another half a day to get there, so there’s nothing to see yet.”

He glared at her. “That’s not funny. Is there a reason why everybody has suddenly decided to start making bad jokes?”

She met his eyes. “Because we’re scared.”

“Oh.” Geary couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“They’re hitting us in unusual ways,” Desjani explained. “We don’t know what’s coming next. We don’t know if all of the sacrifice required to get possession of
Invincible
is about to be negated by a little fusion star blooming inside the ship. We want to get home, and we don’t know what else the damned Syndics have thrown in our way. All right?”

“All right.” He made an apologetic gesture. “I’ve been too busy to think about those things.”

“Too busy commanding? You’ve got your nerve.” Desjani smiled briefly. “We’d be a lot more scared if you weren’t in command.”

“The Marines are going to take out the remaining Syndics on
Invincible
in . . . four minutes.”

“Should we move the destroyers away from her? There are still several real close in that search pattern.”

He had to think about that, balancing the possible risk to the destroyers against the impact on morale of those aboard
Invincible
if they saw such tangible evidence that Geary suspected the worst. If people were already scared, it wouldn’t do much good for them to see that their commander was worried that
Invincible
would blow up. “No. The Marines will take care of the threat.”
Besides, there are four battleships literally tethered to
Invincible
. There’s no time to get them loose and away.

“Go ahead and get back into the Marine situation,” Desjani urged. “I’ve got the bubble for the fleet.”

He gave her a startled look. “Wait a minute. Are you acting as second in command of the fleet?”

“Duh. Did you just figure that out, sir?”

“No one is objecting?”

“And why would they object?” After waiting a couple of seconds for Geary to search in vain for a safe reply, Desjani went on. “Badaya, Tulev, Duellos, and Armus are fine with it, and as long as they accept it, no one else will complain.” She paused again. “Jane Geary is not objecting, either, so I’ve got the Gearys backing me. I almost feel like family.”

“Uh-huh. Well, uh, keep on doing . . . what you were doing.”

“Yes, sir, Admiral.” Desjani glanced at the time. “You’ve got two minutes before the grunts go in.”

“Thanks.” He focused back on the Marines, identifying the unit leaders among those ranged near the Syndic stronghold and choosing one at random.

It took a few seconds to orient himself to the position of the Marine lieutenant whose view he could now see. Finally, Geary realized that this platoon was positioned above the Syndic-occupied compartments. A couple of combat engineers were finishing up laying hull-breach tape to frame a large area on the deck in the center of the compartment the Marines were in. The platoon, weapons at ready, were ranged around the top of the compartment, drifting weightlessly above the outlined center section.

A timer was running down, second by second, on the lieutenant’s helmet display. “One minute,” she warned her platoon. “You know the drill. Prisoners if possible, but priority is keeping anyone from setting off a nuke.”

“I don’t think they’ll have any trouble staying focused on that, Lieutenant,” the platoon sergeant remarked. He looked around, the motions a little jerky. “Let’s get this done and get off this ship.”

“They’re not real, Sergeant,” the lieutenant said in a voice that sounded as if she was trying to convince herself as well as him. “Remember, all of you,” she added, “
don’t touch any equipment
. It’s Kick gear.”

“No problem, Lieutenant,” a corporal said with his own nervous looks around. “Last thing I want is to make ’em madder.”

“Ten seconds, people!”

The combat engineers had pulled themselves back down to the deck and were holding the tape detonators while counting off the last seconds. “Fire in the hole,” one announced, then punched a detonator while the other engineer did the same.

Brilliant light flared where the breaching tape lay, almost instantly cutting through the deck. In gravity, the severed section would have dropped down to the next deck, but at zero g, it stayed in place until the entire platoon of Marines pushed off hard from the overhead, their armored boots slamming into the loose deck section so that they and the severed deck piece dropped through fast into the compartment beneath them.

Shots were blazing on all sides as the Marines faced outward and pumped out rounds at any indication of enemies. The deck section they were on was tilted up on one side, where it rested on a Syndic whose armor’s stealth features had failed when the mass of deck and a platoon of Marines in combat armor had landed on it.

“Got us a prisoner!” one of the Marines shouted, placing a rifle barrel against the helmet of the helpless Syndic.

Geary stared at the bolts of energy blazing through the compartment, through the hatches and through the compartments next to this one, wondering how anyone could remain standing in the blizzard of fire as Marines came in shooting from all sides. Then he saw the lieutenant’s weapon sight blink red as she tried to fire a shot and realized the Marine armor’s friendly-fire inhibitors were preventing anyone from shooting where another Marine was or would be.

The action lasted less than a minute as the Marines stormed into the compartments in overwhelming numbers. “Is there a nuke? Find the nuke!” someone ordered.

“Cease fire! Everyone cease fire! They’re all down.”

“Any left alive?”

“Just one. He’s not talking.”

Another shot went off. “I said cease fire, dammit!”

“I thought I saw— It’s those ghosts, Sarge—”

“Safe your weapons! Does anybody see a nuke?”

“Compartment alpha clear. No nuke.”

“Compartment bravo clear. No nuke.”

“Compartment cable clear. No nuke.”

“Compartment delta clear. No nuke.”

“Compartment echo clear. No nuke.”

Geary slumped in relief, taking a deep breath. The Syndic commander had been bluffing.

Somewhere inside those five compartments, that Syndic lay dead along with the rest of those who had followed her into
Invincible
. Had Rione still been talking to the Syndic commander when Marine firepower had put an end to the commander and the negotiations? The alien warship had picked up more scars and more internal damage, but in every way that counted,
Invincible
was still intact.

Your attack failed,
Geary thought, imagining he was speaking to the Syndic CEOs.
How many times do we have to beat you before you stop trying?

—

THERE
were still two captured Syndic nuclear munitions to dispose of. Geary looked at his display of Marine icons, choosing Corporal Maksomovic again.

Someone had vacuumed up a lot of the dust in the air created by the bounce grenades. Without that housecleaning, the dust would have drifted indefinitely like a slow-moving sandstorm through the compartments and passageways without working life support and made
Invincible
’s interior even more inhospitable.

Geary couldn’t see Maksomovic’s face, but he could sense the unhappiness of the corporal as he hung in midair right next to the Syndic nuke. How long had Corporal Maksomovic been babysitting the infernal device?