The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier Invincible

“Good.” Could he believe her? At least she was talking. “Are you working with anyone? I assume you still have agents in my fleet.”

“Perhaps.”

“Do you know what happened with Captain Jane Geary? Why she started acting so aggressively?”

Rione raised an eyebrow at him. “I had nothing to do with that. I don’t know of anyone’s influencing her to act like Captain Falco’s illegitimate offspring. That’s not to say there is no one, but as far as I know, she’s made that change on her own.”

He didn’t know why he believed Rione, but he did. Whatever had made Jane Geary change her behaviors couldn’t be blamed on Rione’s actions. “What do I need to know that I don’t know?”

“That’s another question.” Rione wagged an admonishing finger at him. “You’ve become pretty aggressive yourself, Admiral.”

He hunched forward, regarding her. “I’ve got a lot of lives riding on what I do, Madam Emissary.”

“So you do.” She paused, hidden thoughts passing behind her gaze, then focused on him again. “I honestly believe that you know everything that you need to know at the moment. You may know things that I don’t.”

“I wish I knew what was driving you these days.”

Her expression went somber. “My priorities have never changed.”

Which meant the Alliance, and one particular man. “How is Paol doing?” Her husband, captured during the war, presumed dead for years, and liberated not too long ago from a Syndic labor camp. Geary had received reports from medical on Paol Benan, so he knew Commander Benan’s status, but he wanted to see what Rione said.

She didn’t answer for a moment, then shook her head. “Medical is keeping an eye on him.” It was a statement, not a question. “Watch him.”

Geary felt unease at her tone. “Are you safe?”

“I don’t know. I believe so. I suspect things were done to him by the Syndics, things he cannot recall, things invisible to those who examine him for harm. He is still a very angry man, Admiral.” Rione looked directly at him again. “I have told him he must stay away from you, or I will leave him. That is why there have been no more confrontations. I am the last anchor to who he once was that he can grasp.”

With the vast responsibilities weighing on him, with all the lives hanging on his decisions, Geary still felt a great guilt and sorrow over this relatively small human drama. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I pursued you, and you cut it off before we knew Paol was still alive. Just get this fleet home.” She was all business again. “You are properly focused on the current situation. I believe that General Charban was right that the enigmas will not pursue us here. But you cannot forget them.”

Geary sighed, sitting back and rubbing his eyes. “There are a lot of immediate problems to address. What can the enigmas do now?”

“I don’t know. Neither do you. That should concern you.”

THREE

HE glared at Rione, angered as much by his realization of the truth of her statement as by his own failure to spot that earlier. “I can only deal with so many issues at once.” An excuse. Why was he offering an excuse instead of figuring out an answer?

Rione gave him an arch look. “A wise leader, which you usually are, doesn’t try to do everything. I would suggest that you tell someone you trust to evaluate what the enigmas are likely to do.”

“I can’t spare Tanya for that.”

“Is your captain the only person in your universe, Admiral? Is there no one else in this fleet who can think besides you and her?”

Geary smiled crookedly. “Maybe.” He reached out to hit a command link but paused before completing the gesture. “Those prisoners of war we picked up at Dunai.”

Rione nodded, her expression once again unrevealing. “The many generals, admirals, captains, and colonels who have made life difficult for you?”

“Yes. I want this question answered. Why did the government order me to pick them up on the way out here instead of letting me do it on the way home?”

“I’d just be speculating,” Rione answered after a moment.

“Go ahead and speculate.”

“There are undoubtedly some who would be happy if those senior officers never returned to trouble current high-ranking officers and officials.”

Geary nodded, his expression hardening. “Then those same officers and officials would also be happy if this fleet didn’t return?”

She stayed silent this time, as still and unrevealing as a statue.

“We are getting home,” Geary finally said. “With all of those officers, assuming none of them do anything that requires me to order them to be shot.” At the last moment he realized that statement applied very specifically as well to Rione’s husband, Commander Benan, and couldn’t avoid flinching.

Rione noticed. “You don’t want to shoot anyone.”

“I will order it done if it is necessary. You know that.”

She sat back, looking thoughtful. “Do you know how many people there are who believe that gaining great power and responsibility means you get to do whatever you want to do, and you never have to do things you don’t want to do?”