“Water masses much more than atmosphere,” Tulev objected. “Would this not have a negative effect on their maneuverability?”
“If the hulls were big enough. The amount of water increases dramatically as the internal volume of the hull balloons in response to larger external dimensions.”
“No battleships,” Desjani commented. “That’s why they don’t have anything much bigger than a cruiser.”
Neeson was frowning as he studied something. “Even with the water insulation, having power cores that size in hulls that small wouldn’t be good for the crews over the long run.”
“Maybe they’re not as vulnerable to the emissions,” Smythe suggested, looking to the surgeon, who just shook his head to indicate an inability to answer that.
“More likely, they don’t care that much about the welfare of their crews,” Captain Vitali said.
Dr. Setin spoke with exaggerated diplomacy. “Clearly, the enigma race has a high level of willingness to sacrifice individuals for the good of the race as a whole. Admiral Geary asked my group to assess what we believe would happen if this fleet attempted to get close to some other installation, or a planet, to learn more about the enigma race. We have concluded that there is a high probability of mass destruction initiated by the enigma race to avoid leaving anything that will allow us to learn more.”
“What if they knew we already had this body?” Duellos asked. “Would that make them conclude there was no sense in committing mass suicide to prevent us learning more?”
“I don’t know. It depends on the nature of what drives their obsession with remaining hidden. If it is deeply engraven in their very nature, then knowing that we have learned what we have might cause them to react with even higher levels of violence. I’m basing that on what we know of human and animal psychology, but that’s all we have to go with.”
“They’re crazy,” Badaya said, drawing nods of agreement.
“They’re different,” Dr. Shwartz replied. “This obsession with remaining hidden could be very deeply ingrained in them, something they don’t question and can’t deviate from because it was written in their distant ancestry as they evolved. Try to imagine how humans would look to aliens, with our constant, overriding obsession with sex.”
General Carabali snorted derisively. “Humans are occasionally capable of going a short time without thinking about sex or letting it drive their actions. I’m speaking for the female of the species, of course.”
“I once went several seconds without thinking about sex,” Duellos retorted. “Though it did cause me to question my own masculinity. The fact is, though, that whatever drives the enigmas’ obsession with privacy, it’s something so powerful they are quite literally willing to die for it. And to kill to preserve it. No matter how much we may speculate on other aspects of the enigmas, there is now no doubt that much is true of them.”
“Speaking of motivations,” Jane Geary said, “does anyone have any idea why that particular alien tried to escape from the freighter?”
A long pause ensued, then Shwartz nodded toward Setin. “Perhaps this particular alien was crazy, by the standards of the enigma race, that is. He, she, it . . . didn’t want to die for the purpose of keeping us in the dark about their race.”
“A coward?” Badaya laughed. “Mind you, I’d say that particular alien had more common sense than the others, not wanting to die for that reason, but they’d call it a coward, wouldn’t they?”
“Doubtless,” Setin agreed.
Geary looked down the length of the table, seeing everyone looking back at him for his decision. “I see no purpose to be served in trying to examine more closely the remaining enigma presence in this star system. They might have trouble totally wiping out their own towns and cities, but they might also have the means to do just as much damage as they did to their installation. We’re here to learn what we can, and it seems we aren’t likely to learn much more detail. If what we’re speculating about their technology is true, the main thing we’d still want to get our hands on is their faster-than-light communications system, but the odds of getting that seem too small to measure even on a quantum scale. Therefore, I’m going to order the fleet on a series of jumps, seeing how many more enigma-controlled star systems we can look over before heading back for Alliance space. Our single goal now is to gain more understanding of the strength and size of the enigma-controlled region though our emissaries will continue to broadcast what I suspect are futile offers to establish meaningful contact.”
He waited for comments or questions, but none came. “Thank you. I’ll issue maneuvering orders soon.”
After most of the officers had vanished, Dr. Setin lingered while Dr. Shwartz whispered furiously at him. “Admiral, there is something I wish to discuss,” Setin said. “Perhaps, a single human, left behind when the fleet leaves, could learn more about—”
“No.”
“I would be volunteering. The opportunity—”
“I can’t allow that, Doctor. I’m sorry. From what the Syndics told us, the enigmas have already captured any number of humans. They would have no reason at all to keep you alive.”
Setin still stood there, irresolute, until Dr. Shwartz said something else to him. “Yes, that’s so,” Setin conceded. “Perhaps we’ll find another intelligent species on one of these jumps you’re planning.”
“That would be nice, Doctor.” Especially if it was an alien race that wasn’t insane by human standards.
THE fleet took a long jump toward a star newly christened as Tartarus, Captain Desjani having been disappointed to discover that there was already a star in Syndic space named Purgatory. Although, as she pointed out, Syndic space was exactly where anyone would expect to find a star with the name Purgatory.
Tartarus resembled Limbo in its population of enigmas though Geary was bothered that the number of warships following the Alliance fleet was steadily growing and now numbered thirty-five. But there was no hypernet gate there, and after Dr. Setin begged, Geary agreed to linger in the star system long enough to send out surveillance probes and try one last time to establish meaningful communications with the aliens.
Neither method having discovered anything over the course of several days, he was preparing to order the fleet to depart when an urgent call came for him.
“Sir?” Lieutenant Iger seemed to be breathless for a moment. “Admiral, we’ve found some humans.”
THIRTEEN
A single image appeared beside Iger, showing some blurred figures. “We only discovered it by chance,” Iger explained. “One of the surveillance probes we launched cut across a data feed coming from this asteroid.” Another image popped up, showing an asteroid about forty kilometers across, which was rotating at a decent rate of speed. “The intercept only lasted a fraction of a second, but we caught an encrypted video stream and were able to break out enough detail to see this.”
Geary squinted at the ill-defined shapes. Definitely not the enigmas, and apparently human despite the lack of clear detail. “They’re on that asteroid?”
“In that asteroid, Admiral,” Iger said. “We’re certain that’s been hollowed out. We checked the rotation, and it’s enough to provide roughly three-quarters of a standard gravity to someone standing on the inside surface of the asteroid.” Symbols glowed on the asteroid’s outer surface. “We’ve been able to spot some anomalies that probably represent enigma communications and sensor antennas. It’s not unusual to find artifacts like that on asteroids in human-occupied star systems, items left behind by miners, but these are well concealed, and the enigmas don’t usually seem to leave anything lying around.”