Geary was the first to speak when the transmission ended. “What the hell is a tramontane?”
Rione answered. “I just looked it up. An ancient term which literally means ‘from over the mountains.’ Newer meanings, and by newer I mean quite a few centuries ago, are ‘foreigner,’ ‘barbarian,’ or ‘alien.’”
“They couldn’t just say ‘alien’?” Charban asked. “I assume they are referring to the Dancers.”
“Vulgar craft?” Desjani said in a dangerous voice. “Did they call Dauntless a vulgar craft?”
Uncharacteristically, Rione answered again, speaking directly to Desjani. “They appear to feel superior to us in all ways.”
“How many awards did that clown have displayed on his chest?” Charban, who rarely spoke so bluntly, let his words drip with scorn. “He must be the greatest hero by far in the history of humanity.”
“Give me a background shot from that transmission,” Geary ordered.
Without the image of the “Captain Commodore” in the foreground, they could much more easily make out the figures of the others on the bridge of his ship. All of them displayed large panels of awards on their uniforms, though none as large and sparkly as that of their leader.
“Make that a crew of amazing heroes,” Desjani said contemptuously. “They must hand out medals for getting up in the morning.”
“From the looks of it,” Geary said, “they may hand out medals for displaying your prior medals properly.”
Senator Suva spoke angrily. “Are you all done mocking him? You do realize he ordered us to surrender this ship? And that we are very badly outnumbered?”
“He’s over half a light-hour distant,” Geary pointed out. “I don’t know what velocity he will accelerate to, but his ships seem to be maneuvering comparably to our ships. It’s going to take him a while to catch us even if we don’t speed up.”
“Speed up? Are you talking about resisting his orders?”
Rione sounded more annoyed than angry as she answered. “We have no obligation to follow his orders. Nor do I trust him to abide by his claim that he would let us go after disabling our weapons and after we beg his forgiveness for breaking rules we did not know of and are not required to follow.”
“He can enforce those rules,” Charban said in a heavy voice. “He has the firepower to do so.”
“We cannot fight in Sol Star System!” Suva cried. “Even those who do not consider it sacrilegious would be outraged!”
Geary spoke loudly enough to shut down the conversation. “We don’t intend fighting. I’m going to answer that overdressed clown, telling him politely that as a warship of the Alliance we are not subject to his authority in a neutral star system. I will further tell him that the business of the Dancers is with the authorities here, not with his… whatever it is.”
“He didn’t address his message to you, so you shouldn’t answer it,” Costa said sharply. “He specifically said it was for the representatives of the—” She broke off, looking startled.
Sakai nodded slowly. “How did he know this ship carried representatives of the Alliance government?”
“Could someone have gotten here ahead of us?” Costa demanded.
“Someone must have. Someone who left Varandal allegedly en route a different destination came to Sol instead, and left before we arrived.” Sakai’s face had become as unrevealing of emotion as stone. “Those ships were awaiting our arrival and, immediately upon seeing us, acted aggressively. I wonder what would become of each of us if we surrendered to their demands?”
“Who would want all three of us—” Suva began, then also ceased speaking abruptly.
Sakai nodded again. “Perhaps not all three of us are in peril. Perhaps one, or two, would be released safely. Perhaps not. There may be those who want none of us to come home.”
“You know there are,” Costa spat. “And some of them have a lot of money. That overdressed buffoon may act contemptuous of the lowly government of the inconsequential Alliance, but I’ll bet you he accepted a handsome bribe from… some person.” She looked around, half-defiant and half-worried, becoming aware again that others were listening to the discussion.
Desjani’s eyes went to Geary. He could read the message in them. You’re the target of this, too. You and Dauntless.
He nodded back to her in wordless agreement, trying not to let his expression become too grim. Black Jack without a fleet at his back. A single battle cruiser, outnumbered and isolated. The politicians on board might be targets, Costa, Suva, Sakai, and Rione, but were they the primary targets? Or would they and Dauntless’s crew be more collateral damage of attempts to “stop” Black Jack?
“Why don’t we know more about these people?” Rione complained, glaring at her data pad. She had been furiously tapping in search commands and now looked toward Lieutenant Iger’s image. “There’s nothing here about star systems beyond Sol except literally ancient summaries.”
Iger made an apologetic gesture. “Everything for the last century has been focused on the Syndicate Worlds. Even before that, I would guess that acquiring new data about star systems so far distant from the Alliance was given a very low priority. They were a long way away. They didn’t matter.”
“They matter,” Senator Suva said angrily, “if they act as some sort of police force in Sol Star System and threaten us!”
“There is no record of that before this,” Senator Sakai mused, gazing at his own data pad. “These ships, it is like viewing an alternate version of what we have become. It is remarkable to see living history like this.”
“I prefer my living history less well armed and less aggressive,” Geary replied.
“I agree,” Sakai said. “The last visit here by an Alliance warship was over a century ago, but at that time and prior to that there is no record of encountering outer-star warships in Sol Star System.”
“A vacuum of power?” Geary asked. “We weren’t here, so someone else came in?”
“And someone else took advantage of their presence here to endanger us?” Rione made an angry gesture. “It’s not that simple. Not where Sol and Old Earth are concerned. They are supposed to be separate from politics. They are supposed to be kept free of involvement in disputes. I am very surprised that anyone made such a blatant move to claim some sort of authority here.”
“The Alliance built a hypernet gate here,” Geary said.
“Yes. Forty-five years ago,” Rione said, her eyes on her data pad again. “A serious investment of money and resources at a time when the Alliance did not have any of either to spare.”
“Then why did the Alliance build it?” Geary asked.
Apparently unaware of how everyone else was watching her, awaiting an answer, Rione shrugged. “From what I have been told, it was a political ploy. A desperate one, but judged worth trying as a means of possibly gaining external support against the Syndics and as a way to boost morale within the Alliance. Sol is a special place to humanity. The Alliance publicly proclaimed it was building the gate here to benefit Sol and to make it easier for humans to visit the Home of us all. Very altruistic. The actual intent of the hypernet gate was to symbolically tie Sol to the Alliance, even though no one said that, and symbolically tie the Alliance to Sol. The Syndics couldn’t play that game since we sat between them and Sol.”