“The Syndicate will take a while to recover from its losses at Ulindi,” Malin said.
“I agree with that,” Gozen said. “My old unit was the strongest Syndicate ground force in the region. Add in the warships that were lost and the troop transports that were captured, and the Syndicate took a big hit.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” Iceni said. “The Syndicate still controls a lot of star systems with a lot of resources. Even if they can’t overwhelm us at the moment, they probably have the means to push us hard. We need to send a ship to contact Imallye, and if I weren’t worried about attacks on Midway by either the Syndicate or the enigmas I would send Midway or Pele. But I want both of those warships on hand. I can’t spare a heavy cruiser, either, but I’ll have to. I don’t want an official contact with this pirate queen or warlord or supreme dictator to be in anything smaller than a heavy cruiser.”
“You’ll need a high-ranking representative aboard the heavy cruiser,” Bradamont cautioned. “Imallye will more likely react positively to contact with a senior official than if someone of lower rank is sent.”
Iceni glared up at the stars in the display. “Which means Kommodor Marphissa, doesn’t it? Damn. I can’t afford to have her gone, either!”
“You have some good commanders in Kapitan Mercia and Kapitan Kontos,” Bradamont said.
“Neither of whom has decent experience in commanding formations of warships!” Iceni fixed her gaze on Bradamont. “But you do.”
Bradamont shook her head. “I’m not supposed to get directly involved in combat—”
“Oh, hell, Captain! You’re here to keep Midway from falling to the Syndicate or to the enigmas!”
“My orders—”
“And if Midway falls to either you know what will happen to Colonel Rogero! He will die heroically, I have no doubt. But he will die. And so would you. Is that really what Black Jack would want?”
Bradamont stared fixedly at the display for several seconds. “I am allowed to use my discretion in emergencies,” she finally said.
“Good.” Iceni nodded as if the matter was settled. “Then you will go aboard Midway or Pele, at your discretion, and if we are attacked you will assume overall command of our warships.”
Gozen was staring at everyone else. “You’re seriously talking about giving command of almost all of your mobile forces to an Alliance officer?”
The laughter from Drakon momentarily shocked everyone. “Yeah,” he said. “We are. Can you imagine this a year ago?”
“A lot has happened,” Iceni said, smiling thinly in response.
“Hell, yeah, a lot has happened.” Drakon looked at Gozen. “Colonel, this Alliance officer is Black Jack’s. As crazy as it sounds, she is the best choice for that assignment. We’re not Syndicate anymore. Our warship crews respect Captain Bradamont.”
“Not all of them,” Bradamont muttered. “I’ll need to take my bodyguards along if I’m going to be riding Midway or Pele,” she added in a normal voice.
Gozen smiled in turn. “Taking your bodyguards everywhere? So you’ve become a little bit Syndicate yourself?”
“Please do not say that.”
A week later, the war-damaged Dancer warships having crossed the star system and jumped for Pele without ever disclosing where they had been or whom they had fought, Kommodor Marphissa sat on the bridge of the heavy cruiser Manticore as the warship approached the jump point for Iwa. Beside her was Kapitan Diaz, who was frowning with clear unhappiness. “Kommodor,” he asked in a low voice, “what if the enigmas have already taken Iwa?”
“Then I am to evaluate the situation and either continue on to Moorea,” Marphissa answered, “or return immediately to Midway.”
“The president gave you that much discretion?” Diaz said, surprised.
“She did. We’re not working for the Syndicate anymore.”
“That never would have happened if we were,” Diaz agreed. “But what if the enigmas have already mined the jump point we’ll arrive at, or have some of their warships stationed at it to catch any human ship that arrives?”
Marphissa smiled humorlessly. “In that case, Kapitan, you are to avoid hitting any of the mines, and avoid being hit by any enigma weaponry, until this ship jumps back for Midway.”
Diaz stared, then grinned. “Now that sounds like a Syndicate order!”
“Bite your tongue, Kapitan. You may jump for Iwa.”
But Marphissa, despite the banter with Diaz, could not help a jolt of anxiety as the stars vanished and were replaced by the dull gray nothingness of jump space. Orders that left her the freedom to decide what to do also meant they left her the freedom to make the wrong choices. And if the enigmas were at Iwa when Manticore arrived, even one wrong choice might be one mistake too many.
Chapter Three
“We need to plan for an attack on Iwa. It might be against the Syndicate presence there, which would be an easy operation.” General Drakon looked from Colonel Rogero to Colonel Safir to Colonel Kai. His three brigade commanders. It still felt wrong, it would feel wrong for a long time, to see Safir there instead of Colonel Conner Gaiene. But Conner had died at Ulindi and would never be here again except in Drakon’s memories. “Or it might be against an enigma occupation force.”
“Which would not be easy,” Rogero commented.
“Has there ever been a ground fight with the enigmas?” Safir asked.
“None that we know of,” Drakon said. “To the best of our knowledge, some of the star systems they occupied over the last century had surviving Syndicate ground forces. But we have no idea what happened when the enigmas landed.”
“Black Jack’s information has nothing to offer?” Colonel Kai asked.
“No. They didn’t have any ground or ship-boarding operations, either,” Drakon said. “The one thing Black Jack’s reports emphasized was the enigmas will not surrender and will try to blow everything to hell before we can learn anything from it.”
“Themselves included?”
“Themselves included.”
“How much will we send?” Rogero asked.
“Plan on one brigade.” Drakon looked over his colonels again. “I don’t know which one of yours will be tapped for the operation if we go ahead with this. Each of you should assume it might be your brigade.”
“All of the brigades have been pushed hard over the last year,” Kai said.
“It hasn’t been as bad as some of the ops when we were under Syndicate control,” Safir pointed out.
“That’s not saying much.”
“No, it isn’t,” Safir conceded. Syndicate CEOs had never shown any worries about casualties, but then neither had Alliance generals as the apparently endless war had ground on. With vast populations to draw on, high-ranking leaders on both sides had developed a tendency to throw endless bodies into any fight in the hopes that enough deaths would choke the enemy killing machines.
Black Jack had been different, rumor said. But then, he was Black Jack.
And Drakon had been different as well, which was why these soldiers had followed him when he and Iceni rebelled against the Syndicate.
“We’ll get this done if it needs doing,” Drakon said. “We’ll do it smart, and we’ll do it right.”
The colonels could tell when Drakon had ended a discussion and issued an order. They all saluted in the Syndicate fashion, bringing their right fists across to rap their left breasts.