Rione stayed silent a little longer before answering. “That’s hardly a promise, Captain Geary.”
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep. I can’t control what the Syndics do, and I can’t be certain what kind of situations we’ll face. Surely you understand military realities enough to know that sometimes units must be risked?”
“Units like Repulse?”
Geary glared at her. “Yes,” he rasped.
Instead of speaking again, Rione just seemed to study Geary for several seconds. “Very well, Captain Geary. I must add that in the case of the Repulse, I have been remiss.” She inclined her head slightly toward him. “May I offer my personal condolences on your family’s loss, as well as my official condolences, and thanks for your family’s sacrifice, on behalf of the Callas Republic.”
He looked down at the deck, composing himself, then nodded back. “Thank you, Madam Co-President. I didn’t know you were aware I was related to the commander of the Repulse.” He knew his voice sounded rough and knew he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Yes. I should’ve expressed my sympathies much earlier, and beg your forgiveness.”
“That’s all right.” He straightened himself and took a deep breath. “There’ve been many, many sacrifices.” Rione still didn’t look friendly, but she seemed perhaps a few degrees warmer. The last thing he wanted to do now, though, was talk about the dead, so he changed the subject without worrying about being obvious. “As I said earlier, I’d appreciate your assessment on something.” Looking away from her, Geary concentrated on the controls for the table and once again called up a display of stars. “We’re jumping in here, inside Corvus System. We’ll swing through, picking up whatever supplies we can grab in the time available.”
He indicated the jump exit, then swung his finger to point out another area. “This is the jump point out of Corvus. We’ve got three possible destinations.” He highlighted a star. “Yuon’s one of them, and it’s pretty near along a straight shot back to Alliance space.” Another star. “Voss, which goes a bit back the other way, deeper into Syndic territory.” And the third. “Kaliban. Which just sort of carries us along inside Syndic space, but sets us up to potentially jump to four other stars.” He paused. “Suppose you were the Syndic commanders, Co-President Rione. Where would you expect us to go?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yuon.”
“Because?”
“We’re running, Captain Geary. The fleet is running for its life. And Yuon offers the fastest route home. Not fast, by any means, compared to hypernet. But significantly faster than the alternatives.”
He looked down at the display, rubbing his jaw. “Doesn’t that make it too obvious a choice? Too obvious a place for the Syndic fleet to jump into and wait for us?”
“I repeat, our fleet fled the Syndic home system. We’re in hostile territory. Running is the only reasonable option.”
“Alright, I agree we need to run. We also need to avoid getting caught, which means we need to steer clear of an obvious route.”
“In theory, yes. But we’re constrained by the realities of our condition. The Syndics will know you want to go to Yuon, Captain Geary.”
Geary gave her a twisted smile. “But I don’t want to go to Yuon, Madam Co-President.”
She stiffened, and Geary could swear he saw ice forming inside her eyes. “Voss! You’re planning on jumping back toward the Syndic home system, then jumping in again, hoping the defenses will be surprised and the fleet off chasing us—”
Geary held up both hands, palms out. “No.”
“No?” Rione took a step to the side, as if circling him warily, and watched his face.
“No. In a perfect world, maybe.” In a perfect world, we wouldn’t be fighting a war that’s a century old. “But I can read those damage reports on our ships, and I can total up the weapons we’ve expended and the state of our supplies. Just as well as I can guess at the current ability of this fleet to handle another major battle.” Geary shook his head. “It’d be an insane risk.”
“I agree.” Rione said that cautiously, as if still waiting for Geary to spring a trap.
“But the Syndics will have to defend against that chance, won’t they? That means putting a blocking force in Voss and keeping some reinforcements for their home system close at hand. Just in case I’m insane,” he added dryly. “That’ll deplete the forces they have to chase us.”
“So you are going to Yuon?”
“No. I want to go to Kaliban.”
“Kaliban?” Rione’s eyes shifted rapidly from Geary to the star display. “What does Kaliban grant us?”
“Time and the greatest degree of relative safety.” He raised another palm, forestalling more objections. “I know time is our enemy, too. But it gives the fleet more time to recover. Our auxiliaries are building more expendable weaponry now, grapeshot and specters, and we’ll pick up materials to build more while we’re in Corvus, I hope. We’ll get more damage fixed. Yes, once we reach Kaliban, we’ll need to jog toward home. And we’ll be in desperate need of resupply, so we have to find enough of what we need there. But we’ll have a couple of good star options for our next jump, one okay option, and one risky option. That’ll leave the Syndics with four places to guard even if they’ve been able to localize our fleet by then.”
Rione looked thoughtful as she nodded. “And what of this degree of relative safety?”
Geary indicated the stars again. “We’ve been beat up, and the Syndics have us badly outnumbered. But the Syndic fleet doesn’t have an infinite number of ships. The more they divide what they’ve got to try to catch us, the better the odds we’ll face if they do catch us. Here,” he pointed to Yuon. “They need to put enough ships there to at least hurt us a lot more if we go through that system. But they also need to put ships into Voss to protect against that possibility. And they’ve got to keep the pressure on us, which means a strong force pursuing us through Corvus.”
“I see. That leaves little for Kaliban. If you’re right. But how sure can you be that the Syndics will disregard the chance you’ll go to Kaliban?”
“I don’t think they’ll disregard it,” Geary corrected. “I think they’ll consider it by far the least likely objective for us, and they’ll regard it as much less critical a matter than if we went to Yuon or Voss. Going to either of those stars would create an immediate problem for the Syndics. If we go to Kaliban, we’re still a problem, but one they’ll think leaves them time to deal with us.” He stared down at the representation of Kaliban. I just wish I knew what the Syndics had at Kaliban. The little intelligence we have is more than a half-century old. Hell, I wish I knew what they had at Corvus.
“Why are you explaining this to me?”
He glanced at her. “As I said, I want your opinion.”
“You sound like you’ve already made up your mind.”
He tried not to sound irritated. “No. I’m trying to formulate a plan, and I’m thinking through options. You have a different way of looking at things, so I value your impressions.”
For a moment, Geary could swear Rione looked slightly amused. “Then I tell you that I’d go through Yuon.”
“I see—”
“I’m not finished. I’d go through Yuon. But what you’ve said is true, and I myself warned you that we must avoid a major battle. I now believe as you do that Kaliban will be the best option.”
Geary gave her a wry smile. “Then may I assume the ships of the Republic and the Rift will follow my orders and go to Kaliban?”