The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

“Admiral,” Emissary Charban began diffidently, “if this is the work of the Syndic government, and if it were a ground forces situation, and if all paths in the direction I wanted to go but one were blocked, I would wonder why that one path had been left open.”

Geary lowered his hand and gazed at Charban. “A trap? An ambush?”

“I would expect such, yes.”

“He’s right,” Desjani said. Her once-low opinion of Charban had improved a great deal lately. “As much as I don’t trust the used-to-be Syndics here at Midway, I can’t think of any reason they would leave us a path out if they wanted us to stay.”

“And we know,” Charban continued, “who controls the gates to which we no longer have access.”

“The Syndics,” Geary said. “But that comes back to the initial problem. How could slowing us down, or luring us into an ambush, possibly be worth the cost to the Syndic government of destroying almost their entire hypernet?”

“We can’t know the answer to that,” Rione said. “Even the presence of the captured Kick warship and the Dancer emissaries with us could not explain it. I agree that whatever led to this, it appears designed to force us to go to Sobek. We have to assume that something awaits us there.”

“But what?” Geary demanded. “The Syndics couldn’t possibly have enough warships to threaten this fleet.”

“They still have the gate at Sobek,” Desjani pointed out. “They could collapse it and wipe us out, along with the Dancer ships and Invincible.”

“Which would also render the hypernet gate here at Midway useless,” Rione said. “Since it would no longer be connected to any other gates. Yet such a strategy would be like committing suicide to prevent your enemy from killing you. Without the Syndic hypernet, the Syndicate Worlds’ government would have no hope of holding together what is left of their empire.”

“The Syndics have done stupid things before,” Geary said.

“Such as starting the war that only recently ended?” Rione replied. “That is true. But the CEOs ruling the Syndicate Worlds a century ago could have deluded themselves into believing they could win that war. There is no possible scenario in which the Syndicate Worlds today could survive the loss of its entire hypernet.”

He glowered at his display. The commanding officers of his ships were reporting that their crews were restless, agitated over the abrupt halt to their voyage home. Even if that weren’t a consideration, even if morale were excellent, it would leave the same dilemma. The only Syndic gate they could access was at Sobek. If they didn’t use Sobek, they would have to spend several months jumping from star to star to reach Alliance space again, opening themselves up to additional obstacles and dangers at every star. “What is your recommendation, Captain Desjani?”

Tanya made a face. “We have to go to Sobek. But we need to be ready for a fight there.”

“I agree,” Charban said.

“Emissary Rione?” Geary asked.

She took a moment to answer, gazing fixedly outward, then nodded. “I cannot see any alternative that is realistic. I agree we must go to Sobek.”

“We could wait here,” Geary pointed out.

“For how long, Admiral?”

“That’s my concern. If the gates except for Sobek are gone, sitting here won’t buy us anything. It will just delay our getting home. But I wanted to hear someone else say it so I’d know it wasn’t just my impatience talking to me.” He gestured to Tanya. “Captain Desjani, enter Sobek as our destination. I’m going to arrange the fleet in a combat formation.”

“Sobek entered,” she replied. “What do you think might be waiting at Sobek?”

“I have no idea. Maybe nothing is waiting there for us. There’s always a chance the enigmas figured out a way around the Syndic anticollapse gear, and Sobek somehow didn’t get the message.”

“If that were the case, Midway didn’t, either,” Desjani pointed out. “And Midway is the closest to enigma space.”

“Yeah. Sort of weakens that theory, doesn’t it?” How do I arrange the fleet to deal with an indeterminate threat? “Maybe we’d be best off staying in this formation and doing an evasive maneuver as we leave the gate at Sobek.”

“Maybe. Which way do you want to evade? You can be sure the Syndics are trying to spot patterns in which way you go.”

Geary hesitated, then looked at Charban. “Pick a number between one and three hundred fifty-nine.”

Charban raised his eyebrows in question, but after a moment spoke up. “Two hundred six.”

“Down and to the right,” Geary said to Desjani as he input the maneuver. “Is that random enough?”

“Asking a politician who’s a retired grand-forces officer? Yeah, that’s random.”

He got the fleet turned around again, accelerating toward the hypernet gate once more. “We’ll be just under point one light speed when we enter the gate. I guess I should tell Iceni what we’re doing.”

“Or you could let them guess,” Desjani suggested.

“Not this time.” Geary sent off a brief message to Iceni, then sat back to wait.