The sarcasm in her words didn’t need to be emphasized. Rione looked angry but not at Cresida. “That may not be a problem if we lose Varandal, but it would be best not to have that kind of example to point to. We’ve already got Lakota and Kalixa, but since those occurred in enemy territory, their significance will be debated. We need to go around the Alliance bureaucracy.”
“Captain Geary could order it.”
“That’s no guarantee it would happen,” Geary interrupted. “Especially if it becomes a matter of people arguing about me instead of installing the…”
“Safe-fail systems,” Cresida supplied.
Tulev smiled without humor. “We just tell everyone. Broadcast it. Here’s what happened at Lakota and Kalixa. It could happen to your star system. At any minute. Unless you get this modification installed on your hypernet gate as fast as possible. People will pick it up, carry it onward.”
Desjani was shaking her head. “We have to maintain security.”
“If you do,” Tulev stated calmly, “then the political and military authorities will classify it divine eyes only, then sit on it and study it and consider it until Alliance star systems are destroyed by the score. All in the name of security and avoiding a panic, of course.”
Rione nodded. “Captain Tulev is right. We need to generate a level of urgency to get this done, hopefully get these systems on our hypernet gates before the aliens realize what we’re doing and before the Syndics collapse any of them. The only way to do that is to make sure as many people as possible know of the danger.”
“Urgency and hysteria may be hard to tell apart. Won’t the authorities still attempt to downplay the danger?” Duellos asked.
“Of course they will. They’ll try to claim that the gates are one hundred percent safe, perhaps by saying our hypernet gates are different from Syndic gates.”
“That’s nonsense,” Cresida objected.
“Yes, it is. They’ll say it anyway, and also try personally to discredit anyone saying the gates are a threat.” Rione paused, then turned a sardonic smile on Geary. “Fortunately, the person declaring the gates to be a threat and offering the means to deal with that threat will be Black Jack Geary, returned from the dead to save the Alliance fleet and the Alliance.”
All of the others nodded in a satisfied way. “She’s right, sir,” Desjani added. He should have expected that if Rione and Desjani ever started agreeing with each other, it would be on things that he didn’t like. But as Geary thought about it, he realized the truth of Rione’s statements. This was no time to try to hide from the legacy of Black Jack. “All right. As soon as we arrive at Varandal, we start broadcasting our reports to anyone and everyone as well as the instructions on how to build Cresida’s safe-fail systems. With my name on them.”
Then Cresida surprised them all. “What about the Syndics?”
“I’m sure they’ll hear about it eventually,” Duellos offered.
“No, I mean, do we give it to them, too? Before we leave this star system.” Cresida looked around at the shocked expressions that greeted her question. “I’ve been thinking about it. Sure, the Syndics are the enemy. But their hypernet gates are being used as weapons against us by a third party. There’s less and less chance that any Syndic CEO would blow one of their own hypernet gates because word is getting around about what happens. But the aliens can still do it, like they did at Kalixa. If they know we’re in a Syndic star system with a hypernet gate, they’ll target us, and they’ll keep collapsing Syndic gates in an attempt to goad the Syndics into trying to collapse more of our gates.”
Tulev watched her intently. “You’re suggesting the Syndic gates are now weapons that would only be employed by an enemy common to us and the Syndics.”
“That’s right. In which case, humanitarian considerations completely aside, we still need to disarm those weapons. And the surest way to do that is by giving the safe-fail system design to the Syndics.”
“But you’re talking treason,” Desjani objected.
“It… could be interpreted that way.”
Silence stretched for a moment before Duellos spoke again. “I believe that Captain Cresida has a good point. She’s talking about neutralizing a hugely dangerous weapon that could be employed against us. If we don’t provide it to the Syndics, we and they both suffer.”
“The Alliance grand council is unlikely to see it in those terms,” Rione said in a quiet voice. “They’ll want to reserve the ability to use those gates as weapons against the Syndics.”
“And how do you feel about that?” Geary asked.
“You know how I feel. They’re too horrible and too dangerous to employ.”
Tulev’s head was bowed, his eyes on the deck, as he spoke. “As an officer of the Alliance fleet, I am sworn to protect the Alliance. It’s not always easy to know the best way to do so, especially when that could be interpreted as aiding the enemy.” He raised his eyes and regarded the others, his expression as impassive as it had ever been. “I have no love for them, but this is as much a matter of self-interest as it is humanitarian. Our leaders are unlikely to accept that argument without extended debate and delay, which could be fatal for billions. As I have nothing left to lose, I can be the one to release the information to the Syndics.”
Desjani turned an anguished look on Tulev. “You’ve given enough to the Alliance! I won’t hide behind you!”
“How do you feel about it?” Geary asked her.
She looked away, breathing heavily. “I… Damn. Damn the Syndics and their leaders to hell. After all the misery they’ve inflicted, now they require us to commit treason in the name of protecting what we care for.” Desjani turned her gaze on Geary, her expression intense. “The Syndic hypernet key.”
“What about it?”
“It’s useless right now. We’ve been considering it a war-winning advantage if we could get it back to Alliance space and duplicate it, but right now it’s useless.”
Cresida laughed bitterly and nodded. “Of course. I hadn’t gotten that far yet. We can’t employ the Syndic hypernet using that key because we don’t dare go into Syndic star systems with gates. If we did, the gate could collapse as we approached and wipe out the entire fleet. In order for the key to provide us a war-winning advantage, the Syndics have to own hypernet gates that the aliens can’t collapse on command.”
“We have to give the Syndics the safe-fail system in order to ensure we can beat them?” Duellos laughed briefly, too. “And the Syndics will be forced to install such systems on their gates because the alternative to having the Alliance fleet arrive by using them is having the gates exist as bombs capable of going off at any moment and annihilating the star systems they’re supposed to serve. That should be an easy question for even a Syndic CEO to answer. The living stars love irony, don’t they?”
“Why wouldn’t the Syndic bureaucracy balk at installing the safe-fail systems?” Desjani asked.
“Oh, they would. They’d try even harder than the Alliance bureaucracy to keep it very, very quiet until star systems started going out like bad lights and the Syndic leaders had to start pretending they had no warning or idea why it was happening prior to that time. Unfortunately, that’s already begun.” Duellos gestured to Rione. “But what’s good for the Alliance is just as effective for the Syndics. Broadcast the events at Lakota, as we already have elsewhere, along with the design for the safe-fail system, and it will all spread virally. Local leaders will find ways to justify installing the systems, either voluntarily or to prevent mass rioting on their worlds. By the time the Syndic leaders at the home star system hear of it, there will probably be safe-fails on most of the gates in the Syndic hypernet.”