Implacable, page 17
“Do you call her that?” Geary asked, amused.
“Umm . . . yes.”
Ambassador Rycerz rapped her knuckles on her desk. “Getting back on topic. Admiral, I’m glad you asked the Taon representative about the Wooareek. The vague responses make it clear we’re not just dealing with a Dancer attitude when it comes to other species. That and having the Taon there, but none of the other non-Dancer species that the Taon’s presence implies might be in that city as ambassadors. There seems to be some protocol no one has told us about. If a new-to-us species chooses to make contact with us, the other species we know will acknowledge them to us, but they still won’t share any information that new species hasn’t chosen to tell us directly.”
“It’s an understandable policy,” Charban pointed out. “Much like our own instructions regarding the Dancers. We’re not supposed to give them data dumps about humans.”
“That’s correct,” Rycerz conceded. “It would be immensely helpful, though, if the Dancers or anyone else explained that policy rather than leaving it to us to figure out. If we’re even right about that. What’s frustrating . . .” She paused, sighing. “One of the other things that are frustrating is the lack of any obvious diplomatic quarter in the city. The Taon are there, but where? And how many other species have ambassadors in that city, ambassadors we haven’t seen any trace of?”
“Our historian,” Charban said, nodding toward John Senn, “says there used to be parts of human cities where people of different cultures congregated, sometimes having different architecture.”
“Shaniatowns,” Senn said.
“Who was Shania?” Rycerz asked.
“No idea.” Senn spread his hands. “It’s one of those words that might have changed over time.”
Captain Smythe was gazing at something in front of him. “Based on what the admiral saw, the inside of some of these buildings, behind the identical exteriors, might well be unique to different species.”
“We might have rolled right past a dozen embassies like that,” Captain Desjani said. “Since we couldn’t see through the windows, and the signs were all those color bar codes and nothing else, there was no way to tell.”
Rycerz nodded as if tired. “My staff will keep going over what you saw and heard, looking for insights. The Dancers considered your visit ‘useful,’ so maybe we’ll see some more cracks in the dam after this. I . . . appreciate your continued support. All of you.”
Desjani glanced down at her comm pad as it buzzed. “Another human ship has arrived at the hypernet gate, escorted by a Dancer ship. It’s not a warship, though. It looks like a hybrid passenger and cargo ship manufactured in parts of the Alliance. That couldn’t have made it through enigma space on its own.”
“Meaning it used those long jumps,” Geary said, his mind already generating many possible, ugly problems this ship’s arrival might create. “If you’ll excuse us, Ambassador, we need to find out what this ship is and how badly Severe Jump Space Syndrome might have impacted its crew.”
NINE
AS Geary and Desjani walked quickly toward the bridge, she muttered something under her breath.
“What was that?” Geary asked.
“Jazz,” Desjani said. “Ancestors help us. He likes her?”
“They’re the only two civilians on the ship,” Geary pointed out. “It was probably inevitable that they’d be drawn together.”
“That sort of thing is never inevitable,” Desjani said. “Remember when Lieutenant Castries and Lieutenant Yuon had to be confined together for decontamination? More than once Castries nearly murdered Yuon. The only way she was drawn to him was in imagining different ways to kill him.”
Reaching the bridge, they both shifted fully into focusing on the new ship.
“We haven’t received any message from the new ship yet?” Desjani asked.
“Nothing, Captain.”
Geary tried not to frown as deeply as he wanted to. A message announcing your arrival, who you were, and why you were here was routine for ships reaching a new star system. Granted, the laws that required such a message didn’t have standing in a Dancer-controlled star system, but it was still smart to follow them. Especially when the new ship must have seen how many Alliance warships were here the moment it arrived.
Unfortunately, there was a strong possible reason why the ship hadn’t done the commonsense thing.
Desjani had reached the same conclusion. “Jump space syndrome.”
“I think that’s a certainty,” Geary said. “What is that ship?”
“It’s a Volodymyr-class mixed passenger and cargo vessel, Admiral,” Lieutenant Castries reported. “A model six, constructed between twenty and thirty years ago. Our sensors have identified a symbol on the bow which corresponds to the logo of the Aurelius Corporation, a multi-star-system-spanning conglomerate inside the Alliance.”
“Under normal circumstances,” Geary said, “we wouldn’t have to worry about them. But this isn’t normal.”
Desjani nodded, her mouth pursed. “Temporarily insane people controlling a large ship. And the engineering section of that large ship. They could override safeties and blow the power core. How do we make sure they don’t kill each other, or someone else, or damage a Dancer orbital facility, without killing all of them?”
“Let’s see if we can find out who we’re dealing with.” The Aurelius Corporation ship wasn’t as slow as a typical freighter but was still moving at only point zero four light speed. At that velocity, it would take more than four and a half days for the ship to reach the vicinity of Geary’s fleet. But that assumed he wouldn’t have to try to intercept that ship as soon as possible to save the people aboard it from themselves. “Give me a tight transmission beam to intercept that ship.”
“Ready, Admiral,” the comms watch said. “Channel six.”
Geary touched his comm controls. “Aurelius Corporation ship, this is Admiral Geary, senior Alliance military commander in this star system. In accordance with instructions from the Alliance Senate, I am directing you to identify yourself and to explain the purpose of your presence here. You are to maneuver onto a vector intercepting this fleet in orbit. I await your reply. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
There wasn’t any sense in waiting for the reply, which would take at least nine hours, before planning for what was likely inevitable. Geary touched another comm control. “General Carabali, I want you to work up a plan for boarding that newly arrived ship. Control of the engineering section has to be achieved as quickly as possible to prevent any sabotage. Unless we learn otherwise, we need to plan for gaining control of the ship in a manner that minimizes any chance of injury to the people aboard it.”
Carabali nodded, thoughts moving behind her eyes. “I assume this will be a noncooperative boarding operation?”
“Your planning has to assume that, yes,” Geary said. “Everyone aboard that ship is probably temporarily insane.”
“And all of them are probably Alliance civilians.”
“All of them are probably Alliance civilians,” Geary agreed.
“Admiral, I feel obligated to point out that this is the very definition of the sort of police action the Alliance military is supposed to avoid any involvement in,” General Carabali said.
“I understand,” Geary said. “But we don’t have any police on hand, and the situation involves potentially life-threatening dangers to not only the humans on that ship but also Dancers in any of their ships or orbital facilities if the ship gets close to one of them and detonates its power core.”
“Admiral, I still need a clear declaration from you that we are in a war zone. That’s in order to protect my Marines from any legal fallout and to allow the use of a riot suppression agent against Alliance civilians. I wouldn’t need such a declaration to use CRX gas against Syndic civilians. But I must have it to use CRX against Alliance civilians.”
“We are in a war zone,” Geary said. Saying that shouldn’t have been necessary, not after the fight with the Syndics, but he knew legal requirements didn’t always mesh well with common sense. “This action, if I order it, will be necessary to protect Alliance citizens.”
“Thank you, Admiral. I will proceed with planning.”
“Admiral,” Captain Desjani said, “Ambassador Rycerz is trying to reach you.”
“Of course she is.” Geary accepted the link, seeing Rycerz’s image appear before him. “We’re still trying to identify the ship and who’s on it.”
“It looks like an Aurelius ship,” Rycerz said.
“Are you familiar with that company?”
Rycerz made a face. “One of my co-workers had a run-in with them over some of the company’s business practices. Our work also involves smoothing ruffled feathers among different star systems within the Alliance. Aurelius is . . . powerful.”
“How powerful?” Geary asked.
“It wouldn’t be diplomatic of me to say that Aurelius owns at least one Alliance senator, so I will not say that. But I’m not surprised it’s one of their ships. If any Alliance conglomerate was going to try those long jumps to Dancer space, it would be Aurelius.”
He tried to read between the lines of what she was saying. “Is that because the company is powerful or because it runs risks?”
“Both.” Rycerz gestured outward. “If Aurelius sent a ship, there’s a very good chance the senior person on that ship is their chief executive officer, Ronald Yangdi. He’s that sort of showboater. I’m sure he intends trying to overawe me. How he plans to approach you, I don’t know, but assume flattery.”
“He’s very likely temporarily insane,” Geary said. “Do you know if he has armed bodyguards?”
“That’s not a very common thing in the Alliance,” Rycerz said with a frown. “It would look very bad for any corporate official to be parading around with armed bodyguards. Naturally, he does have bodyguards. He’s extremely rich. Just not armed bodyguards.”
“Got it. Do you think he came charging out here hoping to cut exclusive deals with the Dancers?”
“I’d guarantee it,” Rycerz said.
“Unless Yangdi and the crew of that ship are somehow sane,” Geary said, “I’m going to have to use Marines to board it and take control in order to protect everyone aboard and everyone else in this star system, Dancers included.”
Rycerz froze for a long moment. “I hope that won’t be necessary,” she finally said.
“Me, too.”
While waiting to hear from the new ship (if it replied at all), Geary went ahead with planning an operation that even Marines were reluctant to undertake. Fleet planning tools had suggested he use sailors instead because that would represent less force being used against civilians. But sailors lacked the training, the equipment, and the experience that Marines would bring to the job.
An assault transport would be needed to carry enough Marines for the (hopefully not required but unfortunately likely) boarding and takeover of the ship. General Carabali had already expressed a desire for Tsunami to take on that role, saying that Colonel Savchenko and her battalion aboard that ship had a lot of experience with boarding operations. But Tsunami would need an escort. Not too big an escort, but enough to handle the new ship if it did something dangerous.
That meant at least one heavy cruiser.
Or two?
Maybe a battle cruiser.
That might look like overkill.
Or like a sign of how concerned he was for the safety of the Alliance citizens aboard that ship.
No matter what happened, a battle cruiser could handle it.
Fine. Marines and a battle cruiser. He wasn’t going to take any half measures for fear of being second-guessed far from here months from now.
Civilians were likely to get hurt.
But, then, given what had happened aboard the Syndic warships, civilians were probably already getting hurt on that ship.
It didn’t seem like this could get any more complicated.
But then it did.
* * *
“WE finally got a response from the new ship,” Captain Desjani told him.
Geary was already in a passageway, watching Ensign Duck parade by on the daily patrol, two Marines as watchful escorts, so he headed for the bridge to see the message.
Desjani was already there, of course. As soon as Geary sat down near her she called up the message.
The man whose image appeared before him was broadly built, his smile also broad. His eyes, though, squinted, as if he were facing a bright light. “Admiral! Black Jack! This is Ron! I am so excited to meet you at last! We’ve got so much to do!”
“We do?” Geary said, realizing that in his surprise at the statement he’d said that out loud.
“The deal,” Ron said, almost as if answering Geary’s question. “The deal! I’m glad you agreed to all my terms! It’ll be epic! Nothing like it ever! But, listen, these, uh, aliens aren’t talking! Gotta talk, right? I need you to hold up your end of things.”
Geary stared at the man in bafflement, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Ron Yangdi wasn’t on the bridge of the still-unidentified ship, but in some large room that, from what could be seen, was an elaborate office.
In the background, two people were struggling with a third.
A shape only partly visible on the floor behind some furniture might be a body.
Yangdi continued speaking as if nothing unusual was happening. “Get these aliens talking, Black Jack! They need to know who runs things around here, am I right? Of course I am! You’re going to be rich! Waiting for your comeback!”
The message ended.
“Deal?” Geary said. “Terms? I’ve never spoken to him. Is he . . .”
“Crazy?” Desjani said. “We know he is. He broadcast that reply, by the way. It went to every ship in the fleet.”
“He . . .” Geary struggled to control his temper. “He wants everyone in this fleet to think I negotiated some deal with him? When we’ve never exchanged any words before this?”
“It’s just good business,” someone said.
Geary looked to the back of the bridge, seeing that Colonel Rogero was there.
“Good business practices,” Rogero continued. “At least as practiced in the Syndicate. Put your opponent off-balance, imply wrongdoing on their part, pretend to agreements that no one agreed to.”
“This is an Alliance business,” Captain Desjani said. “He’s an Alliance business leader.”
“A CEO is a CEO,” Rogero stated flatly.
“CEOs in the Alliance aren’t . . .” Desjani began. “I mean, not all CEOs in the Alliance are . . . Some CEOs . . . Admiral, he’s right. We couldn’t trust this guy even if he was sane.”
“He’s put you on the defensive,” Colonel Rogero said. “Instead of simply refuting him, defending yourself, you need to make it clear why he cannot be trusted.”
“I don’t know anything about him as a person,” Geary protested. “He might not be someone like a Syndic CEO.”
“Even if he’s a decent guy,” Desjani said, “he’s temporarily insane. He might honestly believe you and he talked and made some agreement even though it all happened inside his own head. You still have to make it clear it’s all made-up.”
“You’d think people would know that without my saying it,” Geary said, hearing the resentment in his voice.
“Are you saying it’s unfair?” Desjani asked in an innocent-sounding voice.
He gave her a lowered brow in response. “Yes. The universe is being unfair. Again. All right. You’ve made your point.”
Yangdi’s wild statements had forced his hand. He could no longer pass this off to any on-scene commander. And the more he thought about it, the less Geary liked having only a couple of ships far from the rest of the fleet.
Bringing too many resources against the problem was better than bringing too few.
Geary touched his fleet command controls. “All units in the Alliance fleet, this is Admiral Geary. We have finally received a communication from the newly arrived human ship and confirmed that it is a private vessel owned by the Aurelius Corporation. Unfortunately, the message also confirmed that the senior individual aboard, a Ronald Yangdi, is not rational. He spoke of some agreement with me that doesn’t exist. We’ve never communicated prior to this. Background images in his message seem to show violence underway on the ship. We know from the Syndic prisoners what conditions were like aboard their ships when the crews were suffering from Severe Jump Space Syndrome. If anything like that is happening aboard this new ship, we have to take action to stop it and protect those aboard it.
“In light of this information, I am ordering an operation to board the civilian ship and ensure the safety of everyone on it. Given the uncertainties, even though the military threat appears minimal, the Second Battle Cruiser Division will escort Tsunami to intercept the new ship. Every possible precaution will be taken to minimize the danger to everyone involved. We have to save these people, and we will.
“To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
“You’re going to personally command this one?” Desjani asked.
“It looks like a unique opportunity to excel,” Geary said, using fleet slang for a rough job no one wanted. “Given how worried everyone is about this op, I don’t want anyone else to be stuck with any fallout from it. Speaking of things I don’t want anyone else stuck with, I need to reply to ‘Ron.’ Do we still not have ID on that ship?”
“We don’t have a solid ID, Admiral,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “But based on details of the hull, fleet sensors are estimating with eighty-six percent confidence that the ship is the Fortuna, belonging to the Aurelius Corporation. He’s still not broadcasting any standard identification, though.”
