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Synopsis

Geary knows that some political factions in the Alliance were just trying to get rid of him when he was assigned to escort a diplomatic and scientific mission to the far reaches of humanity's expansion into the galaxy... and beyond. But he views his mission as both a duty and an opportunity to make things better wherever he can. And when a crippled Rift Federation ship tumbles out of jump space, Geary leaps into action. But the survivors' story isn't completely adding up.

As Geary investigates, he soon finds himself fending off spies and assassins while leading the fleet as it fights its way across space controlled by the mysterious and hostile aliens whom humans call enigmas. Challenges arrive at every turn, including an unknown alien species that invites the fleet to visit one of their star systems. With little information to go on, Geary must weigh the benefits of potential new allies against the possibility of a trap. The fate of the fleet--and perhaps even the future of humanity--will depend on him making the right decision.

If he can stay alive long enough to do that.

Excerpt

One

The blare of an urgent call alert shattered the quiet of "night" routine in the admiral's stateroom aboard the Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless. John "Black Jack" Geary, out of his bunk within seconds of the alarm beginning to sound, yanked on his uniform at the same time as his stateroom's display lit up. "Admiral, a ship has arrived at the jump point from Pele."

Usually, the arrival of a ship from another star wouldn't trigger an urgent alert. Especially when that ship had arrived at an area one light hour, or roughly one billion kilometers, from where Dauntless and the rest of the Alliance ships were orbiting. But the Alliance fleet was very far from home, orbiting the star named Midway on the very edge of human expansion into the galaxy. And Pele, where that ship had come from, was controlled by the mysterious enigma race that had launched repeated attacks on humanity.

"Just one ship?" Geary demanded. "It's an enigma?" The aliens had been known to send ships to Midway just long enough to take a look at things in the star system before jumping back to Pele.

"No, sir," the bridge watch stander replied. "It's human design. A heavy cruiser. It's not transmitting any identification. We just got a tentative ID from the fleet's sensors that it's the Passguard."

"The Passguard," Geary repeated, feeling an emptiness inside. The Passguard had been the flagship of an attempt by the Rift Federation to independently contact the alien Dancers who were (apparently) well-disposed toward humans. When last seen, the Passguard had been in the company of six other ships, two of them light cruisers and the other four destroyers. But getting to the Dancers required crossing through space controlled by the enigmas, and the enigmas had earned their name because of their fanatical attempts to hide all information about themselves from humanity. "Alone?"

"Yes, Admiral. No other ships have come out of jump. If that is Passguard, she's displaying serious external damage. We're not detecting any indications of active systems aboard her."

A dead ship? But dead ships didn't exit jump space. That required a working jump drive and either a human or a still-functioning navigation system to trigger it. "I'm on my way to the bridge," Geary said, moving quickly into the passageway outside his stateroom. The passageway was nearly empty at this time of the ship's night, only a couple of sailors some distance away who were running checks on equipment. They looked his way as Geary left his stateroom, their expressions too far off to see clearly, but probably worried about anything that brought the admiral rushing out of his stateroom.

They'd been in this orbit for over a week, waiting for proof that the project to entangle the hypernet gate at Midway with the Alliance hypernet had succeeded. A strangely monotonous week, given that they were so far from the Alliance and so close to the danger posed by the enigmas. Time on a warship was a strange thing, even when not considering the changes to the way time flowed when a ship accelerated to a tenth or two-tenths of the speed of light. The days could fly by in a blur of duties and watches to be stood and necessary things to be done. But those same days could drag, the duties and the watches and the necessary things pretty much the same from one day to the next. Even the hardest work could get boring when it didn't change, and that created another unchanging problem, because there were few things in the universe as dangerous as sailors or Marines who were bored and liable to come up with something that "seemed like a good idea at the time."

So Geary found himself both worried by this newly arrived ship, and relieved that something had happened to cause a break in the routine.

Getting to the bridge took only a minute, but he wasn't surprised to see that he hadn't beaten Dauntless's commanding officer getting there.

Captain Tanya Desjani, in her ship's command seat next to his, was eyeing her display. "Passguard, if that is Passguard, hasn't maneuvered since leaving jump. Our sensors aren't picking up any indications of active systems operating aboard her." Desjani shook her head. "If that ship hadn't just left jump I'd assess it as completely dead, a derelict. But they must still have a working jump drive."

"Maybe it is dead," Geary said, "except for the jump drive."

"That's kind of hard to believe, Admiral, that the crew got wiped out and everything else got knocked out but the jump drive, and the jump drive's automated control also survived as well as emergency power for it." She shook her head again. "I think there are still people alive on that wreck, if Passguard managed to fight back to the jump point at Pele at the cost of the other ships with her. But it's also possible that Passguard was captured, and the enigmas rigged it to show up here as an apparent derelict to be used for a sneak attack."

Geary frowned. "If the wreck is rigged to explode, it could only take out whatever shuttle or ship came close to examine it. Maybe the enigmas sent it back as an object lesson? This is what happens to human ships that come to Pele?"

"Maybe," Desjani said. "There's only one way to get an answer, and if there are any humans still alive on that thing they probably need help as fast as possible."

Space offered few obstacles to a clear view of objects far more distant than Passguard was at the moment. Geary studied the external damage his fleet's sensors were evaluating on the heavy cruiser, wincing inside as he imagined the beating Passguard must have taken. He'd once been on the losing side of a fight with his own cruiser, the Merlon, the ugly memories of having his ship pounded until it was helpless flooding his mind.

He fought down the images of the past, knowing that Desjani was right, and if anyone remained alive aboard Passguard they were probably in desperate need of help.

But help would take a while to get to them. In human terms, space was almost unimaginably huge. One light hour, a billion kilometers, was nothing compared to a light year that equaled ten trillion kilometers. But to humans it was very far indeed. Even pouring on all the acceleration the latest warships could manage it would still take several hours to cover a light hour's distance and brake to match Passguard's own vector. And that was on top of the hour that had already passed while the light from the heavy cruiser's arrival was traveling from the jump point to where Dauntless was orbiting. "If there are still crew aboard, it's amazing anyone survived the jump."

"They were luckier than the ships with them," Desjani said, not trying to hide her bitter feelings. "A lot of good sailors must've died proving how stupid it was for the Rift Federation to try to get to Dancer space all on their own."

He couldn't argue the point because he felt the same way. The small force the Rift Federation sent had been able to bluff its way across human space, but hadn't stood a chance against the enigmas.

He knew what he needed to do: detach some of his ships to intercept Passguard and either assist any survivors or destroy any enigma traps on the ship. Geary began to run through the necessary steps in his mind before suddenly halting himself.

For a long time he'd been in command of a fleet operating on its own, making his own decisions on what needed to be done and then doing it. He'd fallen out of the habit of requesting permission before acting.

Geary touched his communication controls. "Boundless, this is Admiral Geary. I need to talk to Ambassador Rycerz as quickly as possible."

"We need permission?" Captain Desjani grumbled in a low voice so the others on the bridge couldn't hear. "Isn't this an emergency?"

"It's not that kind of emergency," Geary said. "Ambassador Rycerz is the highest-ranking civilian authority representing the Alliance here, and that means I request permission before I act on this."

Desjani looked annoyed but didn't try to argue. She knew how he felt about the importance of deferring to civilian authority, and showing others that he did so. A century of war had badly frayed ties between the fleet and the government, ties that Geary was determined to repair. His recent experiences on the Alliance capital world, Unity, had only reinforced that resolve. A more rational person probably would've been discouraged or deterred by assassination attempts aimed at him, as well as the betrayal of Alliance laws and principles by parts of the Senate, but then again a more rational person would've given up long ago.

A virtual window popped up on Geary's display, showing Ambassador Rycerz in her office aboard Boundless. She'd obviously also been awakened recently. "Admiral. Is this about that ship from Pele?"

"Yes," Geary said. "Our sensors have identified it as the Passguard, the cruiser that was leading the Rift Federation force trying to reach Dancer space. It's very badly damaged. Request permission to coordinate with Midway's authorities to send some of my ships to rescue any survivors."

Rycerz's eyes searched his own. "You think someone might still be alive on that ship?"

"It's possible. If so, they might be on their last legs."

"Then we have to do whatever we can." The ambassador paused, thinking, her expression somber. "Do you think the enigmas destroyed the other Rift Federation ships?"

"Yes," Geary said, not trying to cushion the blow of his assessment. "The enigmas have been utterly ruthless when it comes to dealing with humanity."

"Why?" Rycerz ran one hand through her hair. "Did the Syndics handle their contacts with the enigmas that badly?"

"When we went through enigma space, the civilian experts with us debated that question," Geary said. "We simply don't know enough about how the enigmas think, and they've refused to go beyond threats when dealing with us. The best guess our experts came up with is that the enigmas are so obsessed with protecting everything about themselves from any outsiders that they'll do anything to stop anyone who might learn anything. They've apparently had the same attitude toward the Dancers."

"You couldn't find any factions willing to speak with us? Are the enigmas that uniform a culture?"

"They're not united," Geary said. "We saw clear signs of heavily defended borders within enigma space. But when it comes to dealing with outsiders, they are apparently of one mind."

Rycerz made a face, looking to one side. "I've been reading all of the reports on the enigmas, including those by the civilian experts with you last time, and there's nothing in any of them that contradicts you. Murderously paranoid, by human standards."

"And probably perfectly rational by their standards," Geary said. "Not that that's much consolation for the humans that run afoul of the enigmas. Believe me, we tried to find ways to negotiate with the enigmas, to even just talk meaningfully with them. All they'd do was use human avatars to threaten us."

"Diplomacy requires some willingness on the other side to actually talk," Rycerz said. "Didn't the Rift Federation know about your experiences with the enigmas?"

"They did. Their senior officer on that cruiser, the Passguard, is Captain Kapelka, who was with us when we went through enigma space. She knew what she was heading into."

"And now we have a wreck returned to us," Rycerz said sadly. "Go ahead, Admiral. See if there's anyone left to save. Let me know if you run into any problems with Midway's people. If you do, I'll try a direct appeal to President Iceni."

"Thank you," Geary said, hoping it wouldn't come to that. Communications with the planet Iceni was on would require hours for light-speed communications to make the round trip.

He switched to a different circuit, the one used to communicate with the local authorities at Midway. Not part of the Alliance to which Geary's fleet belonged, Midway had once been part of the Syndicate Worlds empire. But the leaders of Midway had rebelled as the corporate empire of the Syndicate Worlds crumbled in the wake of the century-long war against the Alliance. And as they were sort-of friends and partners, he couldn't ignore their sovereignty over this star system.

Midway's small fleet was also orbiting, only about ten light minutes from Geary's fleet. Their heaviest warship, a single battleship, was too ponderous for quickly chasing down Passguard. And Midway's sole battle cruiser was near the primary inhabited world, another two light hours distant. But Midway also had a handful of cruisers and smaller Hunter-Killers if it decided to deal with Passguard and keep the Alliance warships out of the matter.

He tapped the control to send a message to the commander of Midway's flotilla. "Kommodor Marphissa, this is Admiral Geary. My fleet has identified the warship newly arrived from Pele as the Rift Federation cruiser Passguard. If any of the crew are still alive, they need assistance. I'm preparing to send a task force to intercept Passguard. Please advise if you have any objection to my dealing with this matter. Geary, out." Boundless had been close enough for real-time conversation, but the Midway flotilla was ten light minutes away, meaning every back-and-forth would take twenty minutes.

Desjani sat back, frowning. "I recommend one battle cruiser and a couple of heavy cruisers. The Marine detachment aboard Dauntless should be large enough to deal with anything aboard Passguard unless that wreck is crammed with enigmas. And if it is, we'd be smarter to stand off and blow it apart rather than engage in a hand-to-hand fight."

"Two battle cruisers," Geary said. "And four heavy cruisers. Just in case the enigmas have rigged a trap. I want enough force on hand to deal with any surprises."

"What if Kommodor Marphissa says no?" Desjani asked. "Midway is worried about the Alliance trying to take over here so they might want to demonstrate that they don't need us."

"They can also say that Passguard should be our problem, not theirs, and be glad to hand the whole problem over to us," Geary said. "We'll take Dauntless and Daring, along with the Fifth Heavy Cruiser Division. I'll have General Carabali scramble some reinforcements for the Marine detachments so we'll have some more muscle on hand if a boarding action is required."

"Lieutenant Castries," Desjani said to one of the bridge watch standers. "Notify Daring and the Fifth Heavy Cruiser Division that we're going after Passguard, then work out the intercept vector."

Geary himself called General Carabali, who promptly offered to come along in the assault transport Tsunami. "That'll give us plenty of Marines and the hospital facilities aboard this ship," she pointed out.

Copyright © 2022 by Jack Campbell

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