Implacable, page 26
“I will follow orders,” Captain Plant said. Heads turned to look at her, while Geary tried not to show his disappointment.
“I am an officer of the Alliance,” Plant continued. “Sworn to uphold the laws and principles of the Alliance.”
“But—” Captain Badaya began.
Captain Plant silenced Badaya with a gesture and a stern look. “I’ve made my decision. Which, as has been pointed out, is my responsibility under Article 16.” She looked at Geary. “I will follow your orders, Admiral.”
Badaya barked a relieved laugh. “You did that on purpose, Nanami.”
“I do everything on purpose,” Captain Plant replied.
“And you are now also relieved of command,” General Julian said.
Captain Armus exhaled like a bull seeing a red flag. “That is enough. Despite my respect for Admiral Geary, I was not prepared to endorse his decision. Even though these orders seem designed to cause new wars and to force the Alliance into a different entity than it has always been. But Admiral Geary reminded us of something soon after he assumed command. He reminded us that we cannot become like our enemies. We cannot justify our actions by necessity. We must look to what the living stars demand of us, to what our ancestors would view with pride, to what our honor requires. And we must look to what the founders of the Alliance believed, and how they incorporated those beliefs into our laws and regulations. Including Article 16.”
Armus fixed Julian with a hard look. “I will not be party to turning the Alliance fleet into something indistinguishable from a Syndic flotilla. Run by those who demand obedience to every order without question. I also now question the legitimacy of these orders. Either they are divorced from any consideration of their terrible consequences, or else they are designed to produce exactly those consequences. Admiral Geary is right to refuse to follow them without confirmation of their accuracy and confirmation of whether they were genuinely issued by the government as claimed.”
Captain Armus came to his feet, slowly and steadily, turning to face Geary. “I await your orders, Admiral.”
Duellos and Badaya stood up quickly, Desjani joining them, along with Parr, Smythe, Jane Geary, Vitali, and the other senior fleet captains. Geary saw ripples of movement down the table. Whether from peer pressure or genuine commitment, the other commanding officers of the fleet stood up en masse, looking to Geary. “That decides me as well,” one announced. “I’m taking orders from the admiral.”
But, aside from the now-gone commanding officers of Gusoku and Citadel, the other captains who had come with General Julian remained seated.
General Julian glared down the table. “So, you’ve made your decisions, have you? You’re going to surrender the Alliance, surrender all humanity, to these ugly aliens? To these monsters? You’re willing to have your families, your children, turned into meals for their ravenous appetites?”
“The Dancers are vegetarians,” General Charban said.
“They— That’s irrelevant!”
Geary shook his head, letting his feelings about Julian show. “You don’t know even basic facts about the aliens, yet you feel confident you know exactly how to handle them, exactly what we should do. That is lousy tactics and horrible strategy. I saved this fleet once when reckless thinking trapped it deep inside enemy space. I won’t see this fleet destroyed because you want to repeat that mistake with a species that isn’t even our enemy. If you want to fight some aliens that badly, go visit a Kick star system. They’ll be happy to accommodate you with a battle to the death.”
He gazed at the still-seated officers. “If you change your minds, you will be welcomed by your fellow officers. If you are afraid to change your minds, you might ask yourselves why you would follow the orders of someone who threatens you for standing up for the Alliance.”
“This meeting is over,” General Julian announced. He sent a demanding look along the row of seated officers, waiting as their virtual presences rapidly disappeared. When Captain Rogov, the last, had gone, Julian pointed at Geary. “I trust that you know the fate of traitors.”
“I trust that you know that fate as well,” Geary said. “To the honor of our ancestors.”
The other remaining officers chorused the phrase en masse. The last reverberations of “ancestors” were still ringing through the compartment when General Julian’s presence vanished.
It was a great moment.
It was a great moment that might mark the beginning of a civil war within the Alliance, unless he managed to defang Julian and deal with the substantial number of warships following his commands.
* * *
ENDING the meeting (which would all too likely also go down in the history books, though hopefully as a good thing) took a while. “Let your crews know what has happened, what my decision was, and why I made that decision. If you think I should speak to your crew, let me know.” When it was done, Geary still had with him General Charban, Captain Desjani, and Dr. Cresida in person, and the virtual presences of the rest of the fleet’s senior captains.
“What’s the plan, Admiral?” Captain Badaya asked.
“The plan,” Geary admitted, “had to wait on the outcome of the meeting. I didn’t know what situation I’d face when it was over.”
“Your opponents made the case for you,” Captain Jane Geary said. He knew why she hadn’t jumped in more forcefully during the debate. Her support for him would be assumed, but too much vocal support from her could well have been seen as the Gearys trying to muscle the others present.
“Do you believe General Julian will order an attack on us?” Captain Armus said, still looking unhappy.
“No,” Geary said. “I think he’s capable of such an act, but even someone like Captain Rogov would push back against an order like that. Given the odds against the forces answering to Julian’s orders, an attack on the rest of the fleet could have only one end.”
“Shouldn’t we go to alert status, anyway?” Captain Duellos asked. “So we won’t be caught flat-footed if it comes?”
“No,” Geary said again. “That might be read by Julian’s ships as preparations by us to attack. I don’t want to do anything to provoke combat between us and Julian’s ships.”
“Good,” Armus said.
“It might still come to that,” Captain Plant cautioned.
“Two of Julian’s loyalists were coming around before they were relieved,” General Charban said. “We should try to convince the others to listen to the admiral.”
“Those others seemed pretty hard-core in support of General Julian,” Captain Smythe observed.
“General Julian boasted to me that the officers and crews of those ships had been handpicked,” Geary said.
“Is that so?” Captain Duellos said. “It’s not very hard to guess what qualities they were handpicked for, is it?”
“No wonder we saw so few new replacements who were rabidly anti-alien,” Desjani said. “As many as possible were being identified and sent to those new-construction warships.”
“They’re still vulnerable to argument,” Charban said. “Those two ship commanders were surprised by the admiral’s objections and wanted to find out more.”
“How do we get through to them?”
“There are always channels,” Geary said. “We need to get the senior enlisted talking to their counterparts on those ships.”
“Are we certain the senior enlisted on our ships will follow our lead?” Armus asked.
“That’s highly likely when it comes to the admiral leading this,” Captain Duellos said. “But we should still be alert for, um, internal problems.”
“The last thing anyone wanted was for it ever to come to this,” Captain Plant said. She glanced at Badaya. “Most of us, anyway.”
Badaya grinned in reply. “I am a loyal supporter of the admiral and of the government.”
“Boundless is a problem,” Captain Jane Geary said. “She’s in Julian’s hands now?”
Geary nodded. “Apparently. We need to find out if it’s just Colonel Webb’s soldiers enforcing martial law on Boundless, or if other ground forces troops have been sent to reinforce them.”
General Carabali spread her open hands, palms down, in a warning gesture. “I see the need to retake Boundless, but doing that without creating combat between Webb’s soldiers and my Marines might be impossible. And if fighting starts on Boundless, it could easily spread. General Julian would try to reinforce Webb and move warships to interdict any movement by us toward Boundless. That’s not even bringing in the fact that Boundless is a very large hostage situation, with a lot of civilians we have to worry about.”
“Any losses of civilians on Boundless would look particularly bad after Fortuna,” Captain Plant added.
“Agreed. We need to avoid that,” Geary said. “See what options you can come up with that might allow us to regain control of Boundless and free the ambassador. Without triggering a big fight with Colonel Webb’s soldiers or creating conditions where the civilians aboard will be further endangered. I know how difficult this will be to carry off, if we can do it. I know it’ll take a miracle. But see what you can give me.”
“Certainly, Admiral. I’ll see what can be done.” General Carabali stood up, preparing to leave the meeting. “The Marines are used to being called on when someone needs a miracle.”
After Carabali’s virtual image vanished, Captain Duellos shook his head. “Do you suppose Marines ever have existential crises where they wonder if they’re good enough for the job?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Captain Desjani said.
Geary looked over at Dr. Cresida. “Doctor?”
She’d been listening silently since lambasting General Julian, but now turned a sharp gaze on him. “Admiral?”
“Thank you for making clear how unrealistic parts of General Julian’s plans are.”
“It was a pleasure,” Cresida said. “Really. It was.”
“Is what those orders called for possible, taking over the enigma hypernet gates and causing them to destructively collapse?”
Cresida hesitated for a long moment as if deciding what to reply. “I don’t know. Probably not. Surely you don’t expect me to assist in such an atrocity?”
“I am certain that you wouldn’t,” Geary said. “Others might. If those actions are possible, I want to know how they can be prevented. Your sister created the means to prevent using hypernet gates as weapons in human-occupied star systems. I want you, if possible, to help me ensure those gates can’t be used as weapons anywhere no matter who built them.”
“That’s probably impossible,” Dr. Cresida said.
“Then you’re probably the best person to see if it can be done,” Geary said. “Will you?”
Cresida eyed him for a long moment. “Since you’re asking, I’ll take a look at it. Am I right that all of you here have put your lives on the line by not following those apparently real orders?”
“I don’t think they are real,” Geary said. “But, yes.”
“You have my thanks. I’m sure my sister would be pleased.”
“Your sister would’ve been the first to stand by the admiral,” Captain Armus said.
Dr. Cresida stared at Armus for a moment before finally nodding once. Rising, she left the compartment.
“What do you need from me?” Charban asked.
“General,” Geary said, “I need you to get across to the Dancers that anything done by the ships responding to General Julian’s orders are not signs that any of my ships are a threat. Let them know we’re going to do everything we can to defuse this situation without any violence.”
Charban nodded. “The Dancers will just tell us ‘human problem, humans fix,’ but it won’t hurt to inform them of our current situation.”
“I’d also like you and your unique set of co-workers,” Geary added, “to put your minds to ways we can resolve this.”
“We will do so.” Charban saluted and left.
Geary looked at those remaining. “Thank you all. I know this wasn’t an easy decision.”
Armus made a face. “As Captain Geary said, General Julian himself was your greatest ally in convincing us to accept your arguments. Admiral, if we end up shooting at other Alliance warships, it will open rifts that may never heal.”
“I know,” Geary said. “I’m going to do my best to avoid that happening.” He didn’t say, because they all knew, that awful outcome might happen anyway, because avoiding it might be beyond anyone’s power.
* * *
“CAPTAIN Rogov’s ships are increasing their shield strength.”
Geary had gone to Dauntless’s bridge to look at his display, viewing the formation that now consisted of the Alliance ships answering to his orders, and the bulge near the back of the formation that was made up of the ships answering to General Julian’s orders. The opposed sides were close enough to each other to make anyone nervous. And nervous people and weapons were usually a bad mix.
Either Julian or Rogov or both might feel the same. Their ships had braked a little, just enough so that those ships were drifting farther behind the main Alliance formation with every minute.
Every ship they controlled except Boundless, that is. Boundless remained in the back center of Geary’s formation, slightly cut off from Rogov’s ships, but close enough for them easily to react if they saw any attack developing against Boundless.
Captain Desjani, in her command seat next to his, looked over at him. “Should we raise shields to match?”
“No,” Geary said. “Rogov, and Julian, want to provoke something. If we match their moves we’ll be doing what they want. I bet once enough time goes by without us matching their increase in shield strength they’ll try powering up their hell lances.”
“That would certainly concern me,” Desjani said.
“If it comes to shooting,” Geary said, “there has to be absolutely no question that it was initiated without cause by Rogov and Julian.”
“Admiral?” Lieutenant Castries asked. “What are they going to do?”
He knew that question was also about What are we going to do? Which was more than fair, given that these officers had entrusted their fates to him in a situation that no one should have had to face.
“I think,” Geary said, “that they don’t know what they’re going to do. Their plan was to have me buy into those false orders.” He had decided from now on to simply call the orders false, because that was how they felt to him, and the Senate he had last met could not possibly have approved them. Which didn’t mean there wasn’t a chance some arms had been twisted and opponents sidelined to produce those orders. But if that was the case he would deal with it when the time came.
“Now they’re stuck,” Geary said. “They don’t have sufficient numbers to attack those ships loyal to the Alliance.” He had also decided to describe his ships in those terms from now on. “Their commanding officers may well be uncertain as to whether their crews would go along with orders to attack other Alliance ships. Without my backing, the Dancers are ignoring the ultimatum that General Julian sent. So the general is doubtless trying to come up with another set of ideas to advance their plan to start a war with the Dancers.”
“But why start a war with the Dancers?” Lieutenant Castries asked. “What would that gain us?”
“They’re ugly aliens,” Captain Desjani said. “And they have things we want. Their technology. What would a war accomplish? Maybe get us access to that technology. But it would also serve as justification for other actions.”
“Such as forcing Midway Star System to join the Alliance,” Geary said. “And, back in the Alliance, once the war begins it would considerably strengthen the hands of people who would use the war and the fear of aliens as reasons for gaining more power.”
“Admiral, they wouldn’t . . .” Castries paused. “The word going around is that General Julian threatened to take over the Callas Republic if they objected to any of this.”
“That word is accurate,” Geary said. “That’s what whoever issued those orders wants. To have the excuse and the power to remake the Alliance.”
“They won’t get what they want,” Lieutenant Castries said.
Desjani glanced at Geary and smiled. “My crew.”
“Any readouts so far about the reactions among other crews?” Geary said.
“Everything I’m hearing is they’re worried, but they’re putting their trust in you. They know Admiral Geary cares about them, and their lives. Having the alternative be the lead butcher at Bloody Malphas made that decision easier.” Desjani let her own concern show for a moment. “But I don’t know how far you can push that.”
“I understand. That’s why I want to avoid ordering any offensive action.”
“Then how do we get Boundless back?”
“Let’s hope General Carabali comes up with a brilliant idea.” Geary studied the image of Boundless, knowing his expression was as bleak as his thoughts. But something was teasing at his memory. Something . . . “Sergeant Tyminska.”
“Admiral?”
“I need to talk to Gunnery Sergeant Orvis. And Master Chief Gioninni.”
Ten minutes later, in Geary’s stateroom, Orvis listened intently, his brow furrowed. “Yes, Admiral. Sergeant Tyminska and I talked a bit when she was aboard to check on that prisoner.”
“What was your impression of her?” Geary asked.
“I thought she came across as a good, competent sergeant.”
“Is there any way you know of to get in contact with her?” Geary nodded toward Gioninni, who had been listening with a calculating expression. “Any back-channel, unauthorized means to allow you to talk to Sergeant Tyminska?”
Orvis glanced at Gioninni. “There might be such a means, Admiral. Why?”
