“We can get it done in five minutes,” Desjani said. “Captain Hiyen, get the word spread of what’s happening just in case we don’t have five minutes. Admiral, you need to talk to the Rift Federation ships, too.”
“Who is the senior officer from the Rift now?” Geary asked, scanning the display.
Hiyen answered. “Commander Kapelka on the Passguard.”
It took a moment to review Kapelka’s record before calling Passguard. Kapelka had a decent record, too. She probably never would have risen beyond command of the heavy cruiser Passguard, but among the few star systems belonging to the Rift Federation, that was a substantial command.
Geary put in a high-priority call to Passguard.
Less than a minute later, the image of Commander Kapelka appeared. She was sitting at a conference table, too, and had a harried look to her. Geary wondered who else was sitting at that table and what they had just been arguing about.
“Your pardon, Admiral, for taking this call here, but it was marked for immediate reply,” Kapelka said. The stress in her voice was obvious, and that stress clearly wasn’t because the admiral had just called.
“That’s fine,” Geary said, trying to sound calm and routine. “I wanted to notify you of orders for all ships from the Rift Federation. Effective immediately, you are appointed commander of a task force composed of all of the ships from the Rift Federation. That task force is to detach from the main body of the fleet and proceed as soon as possible back to the Rift Federation for refit, repair, and resupply. Your ships are to remain in the Federation until further notice.”
Kapelka’s jaw literally dropped, hanging there for several seconds until she managed to recover enough to snap it shut. “Immediately? You are ordering us to go home immediately?”
“As soon as possible,” Geary corrected. “Your ships need a lot of work. Ensure all of your ships have the necessary provisions and fuel for the trip home before you depart, but I don’t want any unnecessary delays.”
“Thank the living stars!” Commander Kapelka looked around, though not at those with Geary. She was plainly looking at the others at her own conference table. “You heard?” she told them. “Get the word to all ships. Now.”
“You will be receiving your formal orders within a few minutes,” Geary continued, as if this was all routine, and as if he hadn’t noticed Kapelka’s reaction. “Let me know if there are any difficulties.”
Ending that call, Geary looked back at Captain Hiyen’s image. “You’ll get the detailed orders within a few minutes as well. Notify your crew and the other Callas Republic ships.”
An unexpected reprieve had occurred, a pardon had appeared at the last minute, the rifles of the firing squad had jammed. Captain Hiyen smiled in wonderment as he saluted, then his image vanished.
“Not to throw a monkey wrench into the only solution we had, but are you certain this won’t make you look weak?” Desjani asked. “Everybody in the fleet knows how the ships from the republic and the federation felt. They might well guess that your hand was forced.”
He gave her an irritated look. “What else was I supposed to do?”
“Every other option was worse. A lot worse. But do we know this solution won’t still create some problems?”
Why was she—? Because she can read my attitude. I’m so relieved that we defused this situation that I’m not thinking about possible consequences. Trust Tanya to keep me grounded when I was ready to bask in the glory of disaster averted. “It might,” Geary conceded. “How do I handle that?”
“I’ll handle it,” Rione said, pretending not to notice Desjani’s reflexive frown. “All we have to do is start the right rumors on your Alliance warships. I have people in place who can do that.”
“Which rumors?” Geary asked, wishing he knew more about the agents that Rione had scattered through his fleet.
“Rumors that Black Jack is tired of the governments of the Callas Republic and the Rift Federation not pulling their share in supporting their own warships. You’ll remember I told you that funding for upkeep and repair would not be forthcoming in the expectation that the ships would wear out and eventually be useless.”
“In the hopes of that, you mean.”
Rione inclined her head in a small nod of agreement, her expression betraying no feeling. “But you, Admiral, are unhappy with this. You made the decision that you would force the issue when you returned to Alliance space.”
“No,” Desjani put in, her voice sharp. “Admiral Geary would be primarily motivated by the mistreatment of the crews of those ships who have been allowed very little time at home since the end of the war. The maintenance and funding issue would be secondary.”
“That’s true,” Geary agreed.
After a pause, Rione nodded. “That additional reason will only strengthen your position. You have made up your mind, you have the authority, and the decision is now being implemented by you, without anyone else having a say in the matter. It’s just what would be expected of Black Jack, isn’t it?”
“I hope so. That legend makes Black Jack a better officer than I’ll ever be.”
Desjani broke off her work on the orders to glare at him. “You are better than that legend.”
“Your Captain is right,” Rione said, then faced Desjani squarely. “You found the solution. I am deeply in your debt again.”
“That’s… all right,” Desjani mumbled, unsure how to respond.
“Don’t worry, Captain. I won’t start acting like we’re sisters.”
“Good. I couldn’t handle that.” Desjani grimaced. “Thank you for the assistance you have given the Admiral.”
Rione looked back at Geary. “I’ll go do my part.”
She left, and both Geary and Desjani bent back to frantically crafting the necessary orders. Fortunately, those orders could be fairly simple and fairly short, with the bulk of them made up of standard phrasing. “I think that’s good,” Geary said. “Let’s read them over slowly one more time.” He did, spotting a misplaced word and correcting that, then looked to Tanya. She nodded, and Geary hit the transmit command.
“Four and a half minutes,” Desjani said with satisfaction. “Even with the interruption.”
“The interruption? When Rione thanked you?”
“Whatever.”
Geary slumped back and rubbed his eyes with the palms of both hands. He had a feeling Rione would be similarly dismissive if he brought the matter up with her. “That was close. From the way Kapelka was acting, her crew was about to give her an ultimatum.”
“Yup.” Desjani leaned back as well, smiling. “And Hiyen was expecting you to shoot the messenger.”
“I’ve seen that done, Tanya. Too many times. Compared to now, they were about pretty minor issues, I guess. Problems being covered up with equipment on a single light cruiser, a destroyer commander whose own officers were reporting him as dangerously incompetent, that sort of thing. Sometimes the messenger is really exaggerating or even making things up, but all the more reason to find out if what you’ve been told is true or not.”
“Are you expecting an argument from me?” She stood up. “The usual response nowadays is to classify everything so everyone can pretend nothing actually happened. Good luck keeping this incident quiet if all of those ships had mutinied within Alliance space, though.”
Geary stared at her, the mention of mutiny calling to mind past events. “When Captain Numos participated in the mutiny led by Captain Falco, that was outside Alliance space. Not too many people know about that, or exactly what led to the loss of ships like Triumph, Polaris, and Vanguard. Do you think that’s why Numos hasn’t been court-martialed yet?”