The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan (20 page)

“No. If nothing else, what you don’t do is always important. Which means you are doing the right things. I thought you needed to hear that.” Rione looked down at her hands as she intertwined her fingers in a twisting pattern. “I couldn’t find him.”

“Your husband?”

“Not a trace. Paol has disappeared.”

Geary fought down a wave of anger. “They promised they would cure him. They promised they could lift the mental block that was put on him for security purposes, a mental block that was illegal under Alliance law, and correct the mental damage that block was causing.”

“Some of them may have been sincere in their promises. Others lied. All I know is that I cannot find any clue to my husband’s fate. Even if they had killed him, I should have been able to find some sign of that.” She clenched her hands into fists. “I’m sure it is not a coincidence that I’ve been marked for disappearance by someone or something. Some part of the government that doesn’t want questions asked or information revealed.”

“We’ve encountered some agents of that,” Geary said. “I’ve got two under detention.”

Rione gave him a keen look. “And no one has shown up demanding their release?”

“Apparently, they’re not supposed to exist,” Geary replied. “So no one has claimed them or been willing to admit they do exist.”

“That must pose an awful dilemma for someone.” Rione laughed harshly. “What are you going to do, Admiral? Go on following orders like a good little officer?”

“It’s that or resign,” Geary said. “But, so far, there aren’t a lot of orders showing up. I can’t be sure, but I think the government has tied itself in a knot over the dark ships. They don’t want to admit they built the dark ships, they don’t want to admit the dark ships are running amuck, they don’t want to admit my available ships are weaker than the surviving dark ship force. They’re not throwing up barriers, not telling me I can’t deal with the dark ships in any way necessary to stop them, but they seem to be hoping I’ll just do that as part of my standing orders to defend the Alliance.”

She smiled. “Isn’t it amazing how many very powerful people confronted with an adverse outcome suddenly find themselves unable to do anything? How they suddenly declare themselves powerless? You’re going to stop the dark ships, then? How?”

It was his turn to shrug. “You said that you listened in to the conference.”

“Yes. A secret base. One you apparently cannot reach.” Rione pondered that. “I have to admit that you have a better plan so far than I do. I know that I’m going to find my husband, that I’m going to make those responsible pay, but I am currently at a total loss for the details on how to do that.” She looked around. “Didn’t you used to keep wine in here?”

“Not at the moment.” Geary regarded her, resting his chin on his interlaced hands, and decided to confide completely in Rione. “What do you know about Unity Alternate?”

Rione paused, then shot a sharp look his way. “A myth, I thought, though there were some classified programs and expenditures I became aware of during the war that led me to wonder about that.”

“They never briefed you on it?”

“Me?” Rione asked. “I may have been a senator of the Alliance, and co-president of the Callas Republic, and briefly a member of the grand
council, but I was also a citizen of an allied power, not a citizen of the Alliance itself. There were things I was never officially told but learned about anyway. I have no idea how many things there were that I wasn’t told about and never found out about. Are you saying that you’ve actually found Unity Alternate?”

“We think we know where it is, and we think we know why no one has ever been able to find it. But we don’t know everything that might be there,” Geary added. “Anything you can suggest would be useful.”

She spent nearly a minute thinking, her eyes now focused on a far corner. “Supposedly enough to keep the government and the military running if Unity fell to the Syndics. That’s the long-running legend, anyway. But however many people they planned for if the worst happened, there can’t be that many there on a routine basis. They couldn’t keep the secret if masses of people were being shuttled in and out.”

“A skeleton crew running things?”

“That’s what I would guess.”

“It has occurred to me that other things beside the dark ships, other people, could be hidden at Unity Alternate,” Geary said.

Rione inhaled slowly and deeply, her only external reaction to the news. “People whose existence elsewhere would create problems? That’s very insightful, Admiral. That is where my husband must be. The one place I haven’t looked, because I didn’t think it really existed.”

“We think
Invincible
is there as well. It has also disappeared without a trace.”

“The alien battleship? Something that massive would be very, very hard to hide. All right, do you want me to beg? Where is it?”

“At a binary star system,” Geary said. “Not too far from here as interstellar distances go.”

She gazed back at him, then laughed softly. “Oh, they were clever. How did you figure it out?”

“The Dancers practically drew a bull’s-eye on it for us.”

“I owe them.” Rione smiled winningly at him. “You’re going there?”

“We’re going there. To destroy the dark ship base.”

“And how, Admiral Black Jack, do you intend justifying attacking Unity Alternate?” Rione asked.

He spread his hands. “As far as we can determine, Unity Alternate has been occupied and is being used by a hostile force. The only way to save Unity Alternate is . . .”

“To destroy it?” Rione smiled again. “Please let me come along and assist in your efforts.”

Geary smiled back. “You’d come along whether I said you could or not, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d find a way, yes.”

“Then I’d much rather have you out in the open, where I can keep my eyes on you. I’ll notify the commanding officer of
Dauntless
that you’re aboard again and need a stateroom.”

“And won’t she be thrilled to hear that.”

“Actually,” Geary said, “she’s been worried about you and your husband.”

Rione twisted her mouth and looked off at an angle. “Despite everything.”

“She doesn’t like you or trust you much, but Tanya doesn’t like seeing people hurt.”

“Unless she’s the one hurting them, you mean? With some large weapon?” Rione sighed. “I’m a rotten bitch. I use people. I don’t know why anyone should care what happens to me.”

“You’ve got some redeeming qualities,” Geary said. “I know you deserve better than you’ve received from the Alliance. And I mean to do what I can to make things right.”

“The Alliance . . . the Alliance is more than some of the people who claim to represent its interests. I’ll take care of making things right, Admiral. Just get me where I can find my husband, and where I’m within reach of some of those who decided they had the right to play God with his life and mine.”

“I’ll do my best,” Geary said. “If you have any sources who can help us find out how to access the hypernet gate that must be at Unity Alternate, it would help get us all there.”

“I’ll do everything I can.” Rione stood up, her eyes downcast. “I long since gave up on the idea that common decency existed in most people, and I . . . don’t tend to make friends easily. I don’t know entirely why you are helping me, but I do appreciate it. Thank you.”

Geary smiled sardonically at her even though he felt the pain coming off Rione. He knew she wouldn’t want sympathy, wouldn’t want any acknowledgment that she had betrayed vulnerability. “To be honest, Madam Co-President, Senator, Emissary, you do make some friends. Not easily, but it happens occasionally despite your best efforts.”

Rione laughed. “We’ve come a long ways, Admiral. Now let’s go to Unity Alternate. But first, I happen to know there’s another visitor on the way for you, due here tomorrow.”

“Who?” Geary asked.

“Someone important. She might even have what you and I most want at this moment.”

THE
next day, Geary was not surprised to get a call from Admiral Timbale asking him to stop by Ambaru Station for a vaguely defined liaison conference. Timbale met him at the shuttle dock, waved away the Marines and soldiers providing security for Geary and Timbale, and led the way deeper inside Ambaru, along passageways that had a curious absence of other pedestrians. “How does everything look?” Timbale asked as they walked. “There’s something I wanted to show you,” he added before Geary could respond.

Timbale offered a stream of remarks about the status of Ambaru and the forces at Varandal under his command, but nothing of great consequence. Geary tried to restrain his curiosity as he walked with Timbale into an area of Ambaru he thought he recognized.

They came to a stop before a high-security hatch that Geary knew he had seen before. Outside of it stood several special forces ground troops, none of them armored but all carrying weapons, and all alert in the manner of men and women trained to be aware of their surroundings and any potential threat.

“Who’s in there?” Geary asked.

“No one,” Timbale replied. “I thought you might want to go inside for a few minutes, though.” He leaned close and murmured more of an explanation. “There’s no one in there, but the person who isn’t in there has come here to speak to you.”

“I see,” Geary said. “I guess I’ll take a look around in there, then.” One of the special forces soldiers opened the hatch without looking inside, then saluted as Geary walked in.

There was one person sitting in the room that supposedly contained no one. Geary stood still as the hatch sealed behind him. “Senator Unruh. I’ve seen you before, but we haven’t formally met before this.”

Unruh smiled briefly. “We still haven’t met. I’m not here.” Her eyes challenged him to debate the point.

Instead, he nodded again. This sort of thing would have flummoxed him once, but after his experiences in the last year, he had learned to roll with whatever happened until he figured out why it was happening. “You’re not here. Why isn’t Senator Navarro or Senator Sakai not here?”

“Because they’re both seen as tied to you,” Unruh explained, leaning back in her seat. “Yes, even ‘Slick’ Sakai, who as a rule keeps his every thought and preference carefully concealed, has betrayed what can only be described as trust in Admiral Black Jack Geary. I, on the other hand, have only personally seen you once, during that interrogation of you by representatives of the grand council, and I have never exchanged messages with you. No one is watching me to see if I am sneaking away to talk to the great Black Jack instead of sneaking away to plot my political future with rich and influential donors whose identities are best kept hidden.”

“Why are you not here instead of plotting with those donors?” Geary asked.

“Because most of those donors don’t actually exist in my case, and because we, the Senate, have created a monster, and you are just about our only hope for dealing with it,” Unruh explained.

“The dark ships?”

“Yes. The dark ships, as you call them. The product of an entire covert structure that made that construction program possible and allowed it to be hidden. A covert structure that has proven unexpectedly hard to direct.” She grimaced. “It shouldn’t have been unexpected. Over the last several decades, the Alliance government built something that was designed to operate invisibly. It’s gotten so good at that we can no longer be certain what it is doing.”

“They’re not required to report to anyone?”

“Different theys are indeed required to report to different someones,” Unruh agreed. “But it has only recently occurred to a variety of senior officials that they have no way of knowing whether or not those organizations are indeed making the reports they are supposed to make. I know what I’ve been told about my own piece of that covert pie, but there is no means for me to learn whether I’ve been told all I should have been or what else is happening outside of my supposed oversight.”

“Can’t you demand answers?” Geary said. “Fire people who don’t provide the answers?”

Unruh leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and gazing at Geary. “I have more than sufficient grounds for assuming that some of those people already regard me as one of the enemies their organizations were designed to protect the Alliance against. If I go after them, I don’t know what might happen.”

“Then there has already been a coup against the government,” Geary said angrily. “Who is giving the orders at Unity?”

“The Senate will be, soon enough, as we should have been all along. Why do you think the government wanted not just most of your assault transports but also most of your Marines, Admiral? It wasn’t because we wanted to disarm you.” Unruh smiled, a baring of her incisors that held no humor at all. “On the contrary. It finally occurred to enough people in high places that the people they have been worried about, the front-line combatants who long ago decided the Alliance government
was a big part of the problems they faced, are actually among the people we can completely trust. You have provided a powerful example of support for the government. We know that your Marines will follow orders from the government.”

“Lawful orders,” Geary said.

“Absolutely,” Unruh agreed. “To put it bluntly, we want those Marines to protect the government against some of the other forces we created in the name of protecting the Alliance. When we move against the people who misled us as to the programs we were approving, and who have acted with far too much autonomy under the veils of excessive secrecy, we want those Marines guarding us and our offices.”

“You’ve finally figured out that they aren’t the enemy?” Geary asked. “That I’m not the enemy?”

“We’ve spent a century at war, Admiral,” Unruh said. “A century of fear and death and attacks and reprisals and a foe who would do anything except stop fighting us. After a while, everyone and everything looks dangerous. I want your promise, your word of honor, that you will follow lawful orders and will not move against the government.”

Geary scowled at the senator. “Why do I need to do that? How many times have I said exactly that in public and to representatives of the government? How many times have I clearly demonstrated that I would follow orders and support the government?”

“You have done that,” Unruh conceded. “But I ask for the affirmation once again because there are still some who fear you. I apologize for the implied insult to your honor. I apologize to your ancestors, who are also insulted by the implication that you would act in a dishonorable manner. Will you give me that statement?”

“I’ll give it to you. Will they listen this time?”

“Let’s hope so.” Unruh rubbed her mouth, then focused back on him. “We need you to stop them. The Defender Fleet.”

“That’s the official name of the dark ships?” Geary asked.

“Yes. Can you do it? I’ve seen some reports from Bhavan.”

“My fleet very nearly got destroyed at Bhavan.” He saw the worry flare in Senator Unruh’s eyes. “The dark ships outnumber my own forces, they’re brand-new where my warships have seen a lot of damage which I have never had the money, time, or resources to get completely repaired, I have only received a few replacements for the losses the fleet has suffered, and the artificial intelligences running the dark ships are programmed specifically to counter me. Since Bhavan, I have been unable to come up with any battle scenario in which my fleet can triumph without being practically wiped out itself.”

“You must have a plan. You’re Black Jack.”

“I’ve never been the imaginary hero the government created to inspire its people,” Geary said. “I do have a plan, but it’s risky. We’re going to try to destroy the base of the dark ships, deny them the means to repair and resupply themselves, then try to fend off any more attacks until their fuel cells are exhausted. But for that to work, we have to figure out how to get to that base, then hit that base while the dark ships are elsewhere.”

“You know where the base is?” Unruh asked.

“We’re pretty certain,” Geary said. “I could use confirmation. I could also use a means to get there.”

She reached out and touched controls, bringing the star display to life between them. Unruh moved one finger to indicate the binary star system. “Here.”

Geary nodded. “That was our guess.”

“You found Unity Alternate? I’m impressed. I was anticipating a long and difficult discussion to get you to believe that was where you needed to go.”

“I already had that discussion. Otherwise, you might have had trouble convincing me. To be honest, the Dancers pointed us there.”

“The Dancers.” Senator Unruh looked at Geary for several seconds. “Do you know why?”

“No. How do I get my fleet to Unity Alternate?”

“Through the hypernet.” Unruh extended her other hand, showing that it held a data coin. “This has the code for the gate at Unity Alternate. It will allow the hypernet keys on your warships to access that gate.”

Geary took the coin, studying it. “I’ve been told that once a key was created, it could not be altered. How can this input a new gate?”

“It doesn’t. Ever since the gate was constructed at Unity Alternate, all Alliance hypernet keys have contained the data for that gate. But the data was blocked, concealed from the key controls. The code I’m giving you will simply allow your keys to finally see that gate data and give you the option of going there.” She gestured in the general direction of Syndic space. “It had to be designed that way. If the government had ever retreated to Unity Alternate to keep the war going, any surviving Alliance warships would have had to be able to get there as well. The capability has been built in, to be activated if and when it was needed.”

“And now it is,” Geary said, carefully putting away the coin. “But not because of the Syndics.”

“No.” Unruh made an angry gesture. “Self-inflicted wounds.”

“What can you tell me about Unity Alternate? What exactly is there?”

Unruh made a casting-away gesture this time. “I don’t know. There have been some extremely large construction projects hidden within the covert programs budget. Other work was done before my time and has since been buried in the mass of classified data that threatens to swallow the Alliance whole. There will be some orbiting facilities for a skeleton government to operate. How big are they? It depends upon what was demanded decades ago. It could be an orbiting city. Probably less than that, though, but still substantial. One of your tasks, if you can achieve it given the threat of the dark ships, is to find out everything that orbiting facility has been and is being used for, and what information is available in its databases.”

“It’s that bad?” Geary asked. “The government doesn’t know what’s going on there?”

“We don’t know whether we know, Admiral.” Senator Unruh appeared to be embarrassed to admit that. “It’s a big, big galaxy, and even though the Alliance occupies a pretty small portion of that galaxy, it still is immensely large by any human scale. The Alliance government expanded rapidly under the pressure of the war. With so many people, so many organizations and bureaus and offices and commands, in so many star systems, under constant attack and threat of attack by the Syndics, and the inevitable time lags involved in trying to coordinate and control events across so many light-years, the proverbial bubble broke a long time ago. We’re going to try to put it back together again, but it is a mammoth task.”

“I understand,” Geary said. “I just have to worry about orbiting facilities? There are no habitable planets there or installations on the six planets in that star system?”

“Not according to my information. That is hardly definitive, however.” The senator bent her lips in a sardonic smile. “I actually encountered one individual who refused to confirm or deny the existence of habitable planets at Unity itself.”

Geary stared at her in disbelief. “It’s common knowledge that there are two habitable worlds at Unity. Everyone knows that. It’s in every star guide.”

“Which did not impress that individual in the least, Admiral. Just because everyone knows something that is supposedly classified is no grounds for reconsidering whether it should be classified.” Unruh looked like she wanted to punch someone, then cleared her expression and focused back on Geary. “Ancestors alone know how much else has been classified. Now, back on topic. In the past, the government would have also built support facilities at Unity Alternate for whichever Alliance warships survived to join the government there. Important supplies would have been stockpiled there. We deliberately left you with the portion of your assigned Marines who would be best at storming the facilities at Unity Alternate if that proved necessary, as it has, and
believe me, working that out without anyone’s figuring out our intent was not easy. We have no idea what sort of defenses might be at those facilities, but we are fairly certain there is no actual military presence.”

She paused. “We think we have shut off resources and information intended for the Defender Fleet, but we can’t be certain they will not somehow hear of plans against them. I wish I could offer more assurances on that, but I can’t, not until we move at Unity, and there is a strong suspicion that our moves at Unity could trigger a Defender Fleet move against us. We’re hoping you can prevent that.

“Since Unity Alternate is the home base for the Defender Fleet, you can assume the facilities there have been automated to the maximum possible extent. There are strong indications the Defender Fleet was designed to operate totally autonomously for an extended period, without depending on human support at any level.”

Geary bit back his first words, carefully recasting them before speaking. “Do you know whose idea it was to cut humans out of the loop?”

“It seems to have been a group consensus,” Unruh replied. “Various contractors were wildly enthusiastic at the idea, complete with assurances that nothing could go wrong. What those assurances were worth we learned when our auditors discovered fine print in their contracts that, once translated from lawyer-speak, said if anything
did
go wrong it wouldn’t create any legal liability for the contractors. Your own fleet headquarters was also eager to embrace the idea. As their decision paper put it, totally automated systems would eliminate problems with field commanders who sometimes failed to execute their orders as given.”