The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier Invincible

“That’s what the fleet sensors say, Admiral,” Lieutenant Yuon confirmed. “From analysis of the outer hull, it looks to be brand-new, but from everything the sensors can pick up in terms of activity and equipment, it’s estimated to still be under construction.”

“That would explain why it’s at Midway’s orbiting shipyard dock,” Desjani said. “The two heavy cruisers must be with it as protection, then.”

Lieutenant Iger’s face appeared near Geary. “Admiral, we’ve intercepted a message that was sent to the orbital dock near the gas giant from the Syndicate Worlds’ flotilla near the hypernet gate. We were close enough to the path of the transmission to grab it. The message identifies the commander of the flotilla near the gate as CEO Boyens.”

“I guess they didn’t shoot him,” Desjani said, sounding slightly disappointed.

“More importantly,” Iger continued, “is what the message said. We couldn’t break it completely, but we can say with confidence that it was a demand to surrender.”

It took Geary a moment to answer that. “Surrender? Was it aimed at the cruisers and battleship or the dock facility?”

“All of them, Admiral. We’re certain of that.”

“Who would be crazy enough to rebel with a battleship that wasn’t operational?” Desjani wondered. “So that force heading toward them from the planet is on their way to deal with the rebels there, too.”

“Perhaps not.” Lieutenant Iger spoke quickly. “Fleet sensors have spotted some indications of damage in several of the cities on the primary world. There’s repair work under way already, but the damage was extensive enough to still be apparent.”

“Bombardment by the enigmas?” Geary asked. “No. There hasn’t been enough time for a bombardment by that force to reach the inhabited world, hit, and repair work to begin.”

“That’s correct, sir. And there are no bombardment craters visible. It looks like the sort of damage that would be caused by serious ground fighting.”

Ground fighting. Who had been fighting whom? “Is there a civil war under way here?”

“No, sir. We’d have seen signs of that kind of fighting right away. Whatever happened is past.”

“Somebody won and somebody lost,” Desjani observed. “If the ships at the gas giant and the orbital dock are rebels, maybe they won there and lost on the planet.”

Iger was listening to someone with him and reading rapidly. “Admiral, there’s a lot of very unusual signal traffic in this star system, messages that predate our arrival and the arrival of the enigmas. That message from the flotilla led by CEO Boyens is in regular Syndic format, but the locals haven’t been using standard Syndic codes recently, though they still seem to be sticking to Syndic protocols. The news-media transmissions we’re picking up talk about ‘President’ Iceni and ‘General’ Drakon as if those two are in charge here. From the videos, those are the same people we knew as CEO Iceni and CEO Drakon.”

“Now we know who won,” Geary told Desjani.

“‘President’ Iceni”? Desjani asked. “Like someone elected her? Who are they kidding?”

“Wasn’t there another CEO on the planet?” Geary asked.

Lieutenant Iger answered. “Yes, sir. CEO Hardrad. I can’t find any mention of him in any of the current message traffic. Iceni was in overall charge of the star system, Drakon was the military ground forces commander, and Hardrad was in charge of Syndic internal security in this star system.”

Internal security. On a Syndicate Worlds’ planet, that meant a lot more than simply police. It meant someone who kept the population under control. But if Hardrad was gone . . .

“Hold on,” Geary said. “If the people running things here, Iceni and Drakon, revolted against the Syndics and got rid of Hardrad, then that flotilla with the working battleship in it, the one under Boyens’s command, might not have been reinforcements at all.”

Iger said something rapidly to someone beside him, got an answer, and nodded to Geary. “Yes, Admiral. That’s a real possibility. That flotilla may have been sent here to bring a system in revolt back under control of the Syndic government on Prime.”

“Do we know who owns the battleship that doesn’t work?” Desjani asked.

“Yes, Captain,” Iger replied. “From the communications patterns it is under the control of the authorities on the planet.”

Desjani gasped a short laugh. “This isn’t a three-way fight. It’s a four-way fight. Us, the enigmas, the Syndics, and the rebels. All we have to do is figure out what the other three are going to do.”