The Lost Fleet – Dauntless

“Captain Geary?” Next to the scout’s window, a smaller one appeared, with images of Colonel Carabali and a Marine Major standing in it. Both Marines, in full armor, appeared to be in a Syndic facility somewhere. Geary checked the system display next to the picture, zooming it in on the location of Carabali. They were somewhere in the same facility as the scout Geary had just spoken to. “There’s something odd here.”

Geary felt a sudden heavy sensation in his guts. “Dangerous?”

“No, sir. We don’t think so. Just…odd.” Carabali gestured to her companion. “This is Major Rosado, my best expert on Syndic computer systems.” Rosado saluted smartly. “He tells me that not only have the data files for the Syndic systems been wiped clean and backup storage devices taken, but the operating systems have also been totally removed.”

Geary thought about that. “That’s odd?”

“Yes, sir,” Major Rosado stated. “There’s no sense in it. Why remove the operating systems? We’ve got copies of Syndic code that’ve been acquired by various means, so we can get the stuff working again. And not having operating systems loaded and configured would make it that much harder to get things going for any Syndics who came back.”

“The Syndics know we’ve got copies?”

“They know we’ve got copies of stuff a lot newer than what used to be on these antiques, sir.”

Those “antiques” are likely younger than I am. “You can’t think of any reason they would’ve wiped the operating systems?”

Major Rosado looked uncomfortable. “There’s only one reason I could think of, sir.”

“Which is?” Geary prodded.

“Sir,” Rosado stated reluctantly, “they would’ve removed the operating systems if they were worried about someone besides us accessing these systems after they were abandoned. Someone they didn’t think would have copies of their code.”

“Someone besides us?” Geary looked from Desjani to Carabali. “Who?”

“A…a third party.”

Desjani answered. “There isn’t any third party. There’s us and the planets allied with us, and there’s the Syndics. There isn’t anyone else.”

“There’s not supposed to be anyone else,” Carabali corrected. “But it appears the Syndics were worried about someone. Someone who didn’t have access to software that any human could be assumed to have.”

“You’re not suggesting intelligent nonhumans are you?” Desjani demanded. “We’ve never found any.”

Carabali shrugged. “No. We haven’t. But we don’t know what’s on the other side of Syndic space. They walled that off from us for so-called security reasons even before the war began.”

Geary pivoted to study the star display. Stars like Kaliban were far from Alliance space, but measured from the outer edge of Syndic territory, they weren’t all that far from the known limits of the Syndicate Worlds. “If this speculation was true, they’d have had to have known about these whatevers as of at least forty-two years ago when they shut down everything at Kaliban. Could they keep a secret like that for so long?”

The Marine commanding officer shrugged again. “It would depend on a lot of factors, sir. Neither I nor Major Rosado are saying such beings exist. We’re pointing out that this is the only explanation we’ve been able to come up with for what the Syndics did when they left Kaliban.”

“If there were such things out here,” Desjani countered, “wouldn’t we have run into them?”

“Maybe we will,” Geary replied. “Are there any fleet procedures for dealing with nonhuman contact?”

Desjani looked baffled. “I don’t know. There’s never been any call for them, so I don’t know of anyone who’s looked into it. Maybe something exists, but it’d be really ancient, from before the war.” Geary assumed he managed to conceal his reaction to that last statement since Desjani went on speaking, oblivious. “In any case, how could these nonhuman intelligences reach Kaliban if the Syndics didn’t want them to? Kaliban isn’t next door to the Syndic frontier.”

Colonel Carabali looked apologetic but spoke again. “If there were nonhuman intelligences out here, they might have a different means of faster-than-light travel. Right now, humans have two such means. There could be other means, and one of those might make Kaliban accessible from the Syndic frontier. But I’m not saying that’s the reason for the Syndics’ actions. I’m not saying nonhuman intelligences exist or have been encountered by the Syndics. I’m just saying that’s the only explanation we’ve been able to come up with that makes any sense at all for what the Syndics did here.”

Geary nodded. “Understood, Colonel. I appreciate your sharing that idea, even though as you say there’s no certainty at all to it. But you’re telling me that we can get any of the Syndic systems running again despite what they did?”

Major Rosado smiled confidently. “Yes, sir. If you want it up, we can get it working.”

“You’re talking to the scout teams from the fleet auxiliaries?”

“Yes, sir. There’s a team from Jinn with us here making an assessment on whether this site holds anything we can use.”