The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

“No, sir,” Tulev said. “I must also decline.”

Annoyance was becoming anger. Why did something so simple have to be so difficult? “Why?” Geary demanded.

“Because I am a man with no world,” Tulev said, betraying no hint of the feelings that statement must evoke in him. “The Syndics destroyed my home planet during the war. There are portions of the fleet that regard me as only belonging to the Alliance now, without loyalty to a home world to counterbalance that.”

Geary tamped down his anger. If Tulev could speak so calmly about something so personally painful to him, upset by others for lesser reasons could only seem petty. “Should I bother naming a third choice, or have you all decided on that for me?”

“This isn’t a mutiny,” Duellos pointed out. “You chose to gather us now instead of just announcing your decision to everyone in the fleet because you trust our judgment, and we are giving you that judgment. You wanted to see what we would say about selecting Captain Badaya as acting commander, didn’t you?”

After a brief hesitation, Geary nodded. “I suppose I did. What’s your advice then?”

“It would help,” Captain Tulev said, “if the fleet remained under command of a Geary.”

To Geary’s surprise, the others nodded, while Jane Geary looked uncomfortable. “She’s not senior to any of you,” he pointed out to the others.

“She has the name,” Badaya said. “As well as an impressive record. And we will all back her. Together, those things will keep the fleet safe until you return.”

Duellos was examining one hand intently as he spoke with studied casualness. “Tanya agrees, too.”

It would have been nice if she had told me about that before this. “This fleet shouldn’t be commanded on the basis of some family hierarchy,” Geary protested.

“It’s not that,” Duellos said. “Jane has earned her right to the position, and because for a long time she was not part of this fleet, she has no baggage from earlier political squabbles. But the name is important not just to the fleet. If anyone in the government or at fleet headquarters is planning any surprises after you and Tanya leave on Dauntless, they would not reconsider their plans on the basis of going up against a Captain Badaya, or a Captain Tulev or Armus or Duellos. But if the fleet commander is named Geary? Then the political fallout becomes much greater, because a descendant of Black Jack has a standing with the populace that no one else can match except Black Jack himself.”

Jane Geary nodded, looking unhappy. “I spent a lifetime running away from the name because I knew how much power it held. I did not suggest this to anyone, and I agreed only reluctantly, but I have to admit the strength of the reasoning behind it.”

“I see.” And I don’t like it. It gives me, and it gives Jane, too much power. But that’s the point. It’s the sort of power that might give pause to anyone planning on doing anything stupid. “All right. Tomorrow morning, I’ll hold a meeting, Captain Badaya will decline the role of acting commander in my absence, then—”

“I will nominate Captain Geary in your stead,” Armus said. “I belong to no faction. Everyone knows I’m just about getting the job done. It will come best from me.”

The others nodded in agreement, and the next morning the deal was done.

As Dauntless approached the hypernet gate, the six Dancer ships came zooming in from one side and below to take up station in a ring about the Alliance battle cruiser. Senators Sakai, Suva, and Costa came crowding onto the bridge to watch the event, Captain Desjani greeting them with respectful but cool formality before turning back to her duties.

Geary nodded to her. “Enter the destination, Captain Desjani.” He felt a strange sense of fate hovering about them as Tanya manipulated the simple hypernet key controls.

Tanya gave him a half smile and a sidelong look as Sol appeared on the hypernet control. “I never expected to enter this destination,” she murmured, then spoke more loudly. “Request permission to enter hypernet, destination Sol Star System.”

Geary nodded again. “Permission granted.”

She entered the command, and the stars vanished.

They weren’t in jump space this time. They were, literally, nowhere. There was nothing outside the bubble in which Dauntless and the six Dancer ships existed. They weren’t moving. They would instead simply be at their destination after the proper amount of time had elapsed, having gone from Varandal to Sol without (as far as the physics were concerned) having traveled between those two places. It didn’t make any sense, but then a lot of things about physics didn’t make sense to humans once you went far enough up or down the scale from the narrow band of reality in which humans normally operated.