The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

Yet another reason why I love that woman, Geary thought, trying not to get angry at this unexpected delay or too worried yet about the consequences if this fleet had to jump star by star back to Alliance space.

“Admiral,” Captain Hiyen said as his image appeared in a virtual window before Geary, “a hypernet cannot be reprogrammed. Not unless everything we know is wrong.”

“You’re saying the problem cannot be with our key, or with the Syndic hypernet having been set to not accept our key?”

“Yes, Admiral. Not unless the key has failed, and we would know if that had happened because a broken key wouldn’t even link to the gate here.”

Commander Neeson’s face had appeared next to Captain Hiyen’s. “I agree, Admiral. I suggest a test, though. Try a gate near here, somewhere not too far from Midway.”

Geary frowned, turning to Desjani. “What’s the closest hypernet gate?”

“Taniwah.” She tapped in the commands. “Nope. No access.”

“Admiral,” Neeson said, “try the ‘gate listing’ command.”

“There’s a gate listing command?” Desjani asked. “What do you know. There is. Admiral, when the Syndics told you they had a device to keep anyone like the enigmas from collapsing their entire hypernet by remote signal, did they say they had actually installed that device?”

“Yes,” Geary said. “Aren’t there any gates showing up?”

“One. Sobek.”

“Only one? Sobek?” Not remembering from the name where it was, he had to enter that one into his display, seeing a star illuminate in response. “That’s not too far from the border. Not as close as Indras, but only . . . three or four jumps from Varandal.” His relief rapidly sank beneath a wave of anxiety. “How could the Syndics only have one gate left in their hypernet? Two, counting this one.”

“I don’t know, sir,” Captain Hiyen said. “If the Syndics have lost the rest of their hypernet, it will have catastrophic impacts on their economy as well as on their ability to move military forces. They could not have deliberately done that just to limit our options to only Sobek.”

Neeson shook his head. “When that Syndic flotilla used the gate to leave here, they didn’t seem to run into any difficulties.”

“Then what is going on?” Geary demanded.

“I don’t know, Admiral.”

Wishing for the thousandth time that the brilliant theorist Captain Cresida had not died during the battle at Varandal, Geary hit a different comm control. “President Iceni, we have encountered an unusual situation.”

—

HYPERNET gates were always positioned near the outer edges of a star system, and Midway’s was no exception. It took several hours for Geary’s message to reach the primary inhabited world and an answer to be received.

With a restive fleet at Geary’s back, eager to head home and abruptly stymied in its departure, it was amazing how long that period of time could feel.

When her reply eventually showed up, President Iceni did not look any happier than Geary felt. “A freighter arrived two days ago from the gate with Nanggal and did not report any problems. I assure you that we are extremely concerned by the news you have given us. We cannot explain the problems you are having accessing gates elsewhere in the Syndicate hypernet. My information prior to our break with the Syndicate was that every standing gate had already been equipped to prevent collapse by remote means. I cannot believe that the new government on Prime would have deliberately destroyed almost all of their hypernet. The impact on corporate activity and profits would be incalculable.

“That said, we have no idea what has happened. There are no indications that our own gate is suffering any problems or malfunctions. We have closely monitored it for any signs of software or hardware sabotage, especially during the period when CEO Boyens’s flotilla was in this star system.

“If you discover anything, or find any anomalies in the operation of the gate, we would be grateful if you would provide us with that information. For the people. Iceni, out.”

Geary rubbed his mouth and chin with one hand, trying to think. “Emissary Rione, I would appreciate your assessment of President Iceni’s latest message.”

“She could be lying,” Rione began, “but I don’t think she is. Iceni does appear to be genuinely worried.”

“They want us to stay here,” Geary said. “This problem with the gate could offer them the means to keep us here.”

“She asked us to tell her what was wrong,” Rione reminded him. “She did not say they were working on it, did not claim any malfunction here, did not do any of the things someone would do if they were trying to string us along. Moreover, one other gate has been left accessible. Why would they allow access to any gate, especially one in the region we wish to go to, if they wished to keep us here?”