“Provocative actions?” Senator Costa asked. Geary had learned enough to know that Costa was not so much defending him as reflexively attacking Suva.
“We entered space occupied by them without permission—” Suva plowed on.
“Didn’t you push for Admiral Geary’s fleet to be given that exact mission?” Costa needled.
Geary wondered whether anyone would notice if he got up and left the room. The senators were all locked in verbal combat now, each shouting over the others.
“I really didn’t miss this,” Rione commented. She rested her right elbow on the palm of her left hand, lowered her chin into her right hand, and closed her eyes. “Wake me up when they’re done.”
“You can sleep through this?”
“It beats staying awake through it.”
A sudden lack of noise caught Geary’s attention. He looked toward the table, where the various senators were all glaring at each other but no longer yelling. Senator Sakai, standing, was looking down at the seated senators with an expression that as usual revealed little but this time somehow conveyed disapproval. “Was there a question for Admiral Geary?” Sakai asked as he sat down again.
Wilkes spoke up first, chastened but still aggressive. “We are now at war with two other species. I trust no one will argue that? Why was our first encounter with the bov-ursoids a deadly battle?”
“Bov-ursoids?” Geary asked. “You mean the Kicks?”
“That is an insulting term. I will not tolerate its use here.”
Costa laughed harshly. “No one cares whether your feelings are bruised by the nickname given to that maniacal species.”
Another verbal riot seemed about to erupt, only to be quelled when Sakai bent cold looks down each side of the table.
Geary glanced at Rione as he began speaking again. “We did everything we could to try to communicate with them. The first thing they did was attack us the instant they saw us. We took the actions necessary to defend ourselves. We kept trying to talk with them as long as we were in their star system. They never responded in any way except with further attacks.”
“You all saw the reports,” Rione added in a matter-of-fact voice. “They attacked us, they pursued us, they continued the pursuit into another star system; even when facing certain defeat and death, they would not communicate with us, preferring suicide. You cannot talk to those who refuse to reply with anything other than further attempts to kill you.”
“Perhaps they were frightened of us!” Wilkes insisted.
“Perhaps they were. They may well have had what were for them excellent reasons for not communicating with us and fighting us to the death,” Rione said. “However, I did not feel any obligation to die simply because they thought they had a good reason to kill us.”
“If you had not barged into their star system with all weapons blazing—”
“We did not fire first,” Geary said.
“Admiral,” Senator Navarro said, “did you enter, where was it, Honor Star System, in the same fashion as you did the enigma and uh, other alien species star systems that you visited?”
“Yes, Senator. In a defensive formation.”
“And at Honor, the representatives of the Dancers there welcomed you.”
“They helped our fleet there!” Senator Costa declared triumphantly.
“But…” another senator began, “these Dancers. They’re…”
Costa kept grinning. “What’s the matter, Tsen? Would saying they’re ugly as sin be politically incorrect?”
“We cannot judge them by appearances!”
“But you are doing just that, aren’t you? And it’s tearing you apart, isn’t it?”
“Senator Costa,” a tall, dark woman said wearily, “you might win more converts if you didn’t take such obvious joy in ripping your opponents’ arms off and beating them with the bloody stumps.”
“I have a statement to make!” Senator Suva insisted.
“We’ve hardly asked any questions, Senator,” the dark woman said. “Could we break with long-standing precedent and actually learn something about a subject before we make statements about it?”
“Senator Unruh has a point,” Navarro said.
Wilkes erupted again before anyone else could, pointing at Geary. “Why did you turn over every human liberated from the enigmas to the Syndics?” The senator’s tone was accusing, making the words sound as if a capital murder charge were being leveled against Geary.
Geary did his best not to sound defensive. “They were all citizens of the Syndicate Worlds.”
“They could have provided us with critical information about the enigmas!”
“They knew nothing about the enigmas!” Geary controlled his anger before saying more. “Absolutely nothing. If you read my report—”
“You gave away—”
“I am NOT finished answering you, sir!” Everyone was staring at him. Fine. Let them stare. He had been through too much to put up with this. “Before you question me, read the available information so you know what you’re talking about. Then permit me to answer you in full without interruption. Every one of those humans we liberated from the enigma prison asteroid was a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds. I had no right to hold them against their will. None of them knew anything about the enigmas. None had ever seen an enigma, or spoken with one, or even seen any of their artifacts. They knew far less than we did even before the First Fleet entered enigma space. But the most important factor in my decision was that I had no right to hold them. They were free to make their own decisions about their fates.”
Navarro spoke with an unusual level of sarcasm. “Are we to condemn Admiral Geary for acting in accordance with Alliance law? With Alliance principles?”
“Since you brought up Alliance law,” Senator Costa said, “and the subject of leaving people with the Syndics has already been raised, I wonder if the Admiral would care to explain leaving one of his senior officers in the custody of the Syndics?”
“One of my officers?” Geary asked. “We lost far too many officers in combat, and most of those received honorable burials in space. The only living officer who did not accompany the fleet home was Captain Bradamont. She has been assigned as liaison officer for the Alliance to the Midway Star System.”
“Who approved leaving a liaison officer at Midway, Admiral?” Senator Costa asked, her voice harsh.
“I wrote the orders,” Geary said in his blandest voice. “The idea was mine.” That was the official story he and Rione had agreed upon, and he was going to stick to it. One or more of the senators he was facing might have been among those planning on blackmailing Bradamont over her work for Alliance intelligence during the war. “Naturally, I first gained approval from the representatives of the government who accompanied the fleet.”
“That would be me, and Emissary Charban,” Rione said brightly.
“Your instructions as emissaries—” Costa began.
“Granted us full discretion,” Rione finished. “Instructions approved by the grand council as a whole, I might add.”
“Why was Captain Bradamont chosen to operate with the Syndics?” Senator Wilkes demanded. “There has been information circulating which raises serious questions regarding Bradamont’s loyalty to the Alliance.”
Geary let his gaze, hard and unyielding, rest on Wilkes for a long moment before replying. “As I said earlier, and as my report states clearly, Captain Bradamont is liaison officer to the newly independent Midway Star System. The authorities and the people at Midway are extremely hostile toward the Syndicate Worlds’ government, which I also put in my report. I have no doubts as to the loyalty of Captain Bradamont, and if you indeed have information impugning her honor, you should present it openly. I assure you and everyone else here that I have more than adequate information to rebut any charges against Captain Bradamont, and I will present such information openly if required.”