Dreadnaught

Her expression hardened slightly. “I wanted to inform you that Commander Benan has received a feeler about propagandizing for your replacement.”

“Am I going somewhere?”

She came inside his stateroom. “Accidents happen.”

“Is that a warning or a philosophical musing?”

Rione just shook her head. “I don’t know of any threats to you from within the fleet.”

His mind seized on part of that. “From within the fleet?”

“I said what I said. Who will assume command of this fleet if something does happen to you?”

Geary played with the idea of refusing to answer, giving back her own hidden agendas, but decided to try playing to his own strength of being honest. “Captain Badaya, who has promised to listen to the advice of Tulev and Duellos. Do you want to sit down?”

She took a seat, eyeing him. “No command role for your captain?”

“It’s a safe assumption that if something happens to me, it will also happen to her. She also lacks the necessary seniority, and diplomacy isn’t Tanya’s greatest strength.”

“Oh, you’ve noticed that? But, in the unfortunate event it happened, wouldn’t she benefit from being the widow of Black Jack?” Rione asked.

“Tanya would never use that.”

“If necessary, she should.” Rione hesitated, looking for a tiny moment as if she had said more than she ought to have. “What about all of the admirals waiting on the transports?”

“They’ve all been officially placed on medical holds, awaiting full evaluation before being certified as capable of enduring the strains of active duty.”

Rione laughed. “The great Black Jack is stooping to political games?”

“The great Black Jack knows how badly post-traumatic stress can impact someone. It’s a miracle that I was able to get the fleet away from the Syndics when I was thrown into command. And none of those liberated admirals understand tactics.” He leaned back. “I’m looking out for the fleet.”

“By putting Badaya in command?”

“Badaya isn’t stupid, and he knows that Tulev has enough seniority to challenge him if he veers off course. Badaya also knows that without me, he couldn’t hope to control the Alliance. Did you come by to talk politics?”

She locked eyes with him. “Are you turning the fleet around now?”

“No. A few more star systems, then we turn.”

A careful nod. “I am required to remind you that you were ordered to find the boundaries of enigma space.”

“And you have so reminded me. Victoria, why did they send you as one of the emissaries?”

For a moment, her carefully shielded emotions showed. “I volunteered, after receiving an offer I could not refuse. I might have refused anyway, but I didn’t know who would be sent in my place.”

“Did you know your husband was at Dunai?”

“No. I knew it was a VIP labor camp, but Paol was only a commander.”

“A commander married to the Co-President of the Callas Republic.”

She shrugged, the defenses falling back into place. “I really should have thought of that. These people we rescued. What will happen to them?”

“We’ll do our best to look out for them, but they’re all free human beings, so in the end the decisions will be theirs.”

“What deal did you make with CEO Iceni to get that Syndic device for preventing gate collapses?”

The question surprised him because he had thought Rione would already have discovered the answer. “Allowing the implication that I will not act against her. She is planning on breaking free from the Syndicate Worlds. It’s lucky the Syndics came up with that device, isn’t it? It would have been a long trip home without the Syndic hypernet,” he continued, deliberately making the dig to see how she would respond.

“Yes. It would have been a very long trip.” Another nod, then she stood up. “A few more star systems, Admiral? It might be tempting to keep going even after that.”

Her entire attitude conveyed that she thought that would be a mistake, though something was keeping her from saying it right out. “I understand. We’ve plotted out a track for seven more star systems, and the seventh is as far as we’re going.”

FOURTEEN

FROM Tartarus, the fleet jumped to Hades, only to find another hypernet gate there. Wondering if they were already nearing the other side of enigma-controlled space, they jumped to Perdition. There was little enigma presence there, but another hypernet gate. A jump from the same jump point almost sideways to the newly named star Gehenna found no gate in what seemed a fairly well-off star system. “Did we loop back deeper into enigma territory somehow?” Desjani wondered. But another jump to Inferno found a similarly long-settled star system, also lacking a gate.

And, at each jump, more and more alien warships could be seen trailing the fleet. As the fleet jumped away from Inferno, the alien armada had grown to more than sixty.

Two more stars, both with hypernet gates. The fleet made another risky dash to the next jump point and found itself at a star once again with a gate.

“Why should we keep going farther?” Armus asked.