“No.” Geary met her eyes with his own. “I want you to know how the crew feels about the Alliance government.”
“And how they feel about you?” Costa said.
“There is no disloyalty to the Alliance here.”
Costa didn’t reply immediately, her false smile being replaced by an appraising look. “I know you toured as many ruins and wrecks on the surface of Old Earth as we did, Admiral. We didn’t have time to see a fraction of what was there, let alone the remnants of the devastation sometimes inflicted elsewhere in this star system.”
“I saw them,” Geary said. “It’s… sobering.”
“How much was built by the old, great empires, and how much destroyed when those empires fell? No one can calculate the answer to either question.” Costa leaned forward, her expression now challenging. “What will be the cost if the Alliance falls? We’ve seen examples of that in territory that once belonged to the Syndics. What would you do to prevent it, Admiral?”
“I don’t want it to happen,” Geary said.
“Everyone says that,” Costa said with a dismissive wave of one hand.
“The Dancers showed us that we have much in common as humans, that we need to see what we share rather than only the things that we differ on. You said so yourself.”
“Of course I did,” Costa admitted, with none of the emotion she had betrayed during that event on the surface of Old Earth. “But that doesn’t mean that I have to accept so-called solutions based on soft sentiment rather than hard reality. What will you do, Admiral? What is your solution?”
“I’m doing it,” Geary said. “I am supporting the government, I am following orders, and I am defending the Alliance against every threat I know of.”
“Every threat?” Costa’s gaze grew colder. “Are you issuing a warning to me?”
“That was not my intent,” Geary said. “I’m not threatening anyone. I am following orders and taking what measures I can to preserve the Alliance.”
“Passive measures! All of them! Would you block others from taking the actions needed to save the Alliance? Would you take the necessary actions yourself?” Senator Costa pressed.
Geary said his next words with great care. “Opinions differ on what will save the Alliance and what actions are necessary.”
“But you feel qualified to decide? You who slept through the long trauma of the war with the Syndics?”
“I experienced the beginning of that war,” Geary said, hearing a trace of anger enter his voice and trying to eliminate it. “I was there at the end of it, as well.” I brought about the end of it, but I won’t say that. I won’t boast about something like that which I survived and so many others did not. “When I awoke, I was told about a lot of things that had been done because they were judged necessary to win the war. None of them had worked, and some had, in my judgment, actually kept the war going. As a result, I am skeptical of things that are claimed to be necessary to save the Alliance.”
Costa smiled again, a movement of her lips only. Nothing else about her expression reflected emotions appropriate to a smile. “Modest words. But if you block others, you are yourself deciding what is necessary and what is not. Some of us do not want to see the Alliance go the way of those ancient empires, do not want to see the chaos and destruction that would follow. We will not permit that to happen. You know the need for a firm hand, the need to employ force without hesitation, just as we did on Europa.”
Just as we did? Senator Costa had apparently decided to claim ownership of that action now that it was successfully concluded. “Force should never be used except with wisdom and restraint,” Geary said. “What if the actions you deem necessary to save the Alliance actually bring about the chaos and destruction you want to prevent?” he asked, remembering when Senator Sakai had asked him pretty much that same question.
Another fake smile, as Costa leaned back with feigned informality. “Who said anything about me?”
Geary managed his own false smile. “No one. I’m sure you wouldn’t propose actions without concern for those who would pay the price for those actions.”
“We all have to be willing to sacrifice, Admiral.”
“It seems to me that some people are expected to sacrifice a great deal more than others.”
Costa’s look of benign superiority slipped. “That sounds like a very subversive sentiment from someone who claims to support the Alliance government.”
“Not at all,” Geary said. “The only sentiment I expressed was that I respect the people subject to my orders too much to be careless with their lives.”
The senator dropped all pretense of camaraderie, her gaze on Geary hardening. “You’re so very sure of yourself. Maybe you should be wondering, Admiral, why the actions I think are necessary have the backing of your fleet headquarters as well as ground forces headquarters. We could use your support as well. But we don’t need it.”
She stood up, waved a farewell, and walked off through the groups of sailors who opened a path through them for the senator.
Geary tried to keep his feelings from showing as he stood up. So, whatever actions Senator Costa is pushing aren’t being done behind the backs of fleet headquarters and ground forces headquarters. My own superiors are backing the construction of a secret fleet and support placing Admiral Bloch in command of that fleet even though Bloch planned to stage a military coup before he nearly destroyed the Alliance fleet and was captured by the Syndics.
Ancestors help us all.
Six
“Is there a reason you’ve been routing these lawsuit notifications to me?” Rione asked, both looking and sounding annoyed.
Geary rubbed his eyes before looking back at his stateroom comm panel and answering her. “What lawsuit notifications?”
“At last count, one thousand, three hundred and twelve.”
“Lawsuits? From who? About what?”
“Let’s see.” Rione pretended to study a screen in her own stateroom. “Third and fourth cousins of some of the criminals who died on Europa alleging wrongful death, property-damage claims, violation of ecological regulations—”
“Ecological regulations?”
“We left litter on Europa,” she explained. “Um… violation of medical quarantine, those brought on behalf of the entire population of Sol Star System, unlawful confiscation of personal weapons, violation of castle doctrine—”
“What?”
“It’s some law about being able to defend your home. Assorted lawyers are claiming that the stealth craft was the home in question and la-di-da.” Rione gave him a flat look. “It appears that a substantial fraction of the population of Sol Star System are lawyers, and it appears that many of them see the Alliance as a cash cow for lawsuits over our actions to recover our two officers and a few other events. You haven’t been forwarding these to me?”
“No,” Geary said. “I hadn’t seen them.” Which told him exactly who had been forwarding those messages to Rione. Tanya must have gotten quite a kick out of doing that. “But I guess you or the senators are the most appropriate recipients.”
“Given the lack of an Alliance embassy or interests section in this star system, I suppose we are.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
She pondered the question. “I’ll need to get agreement from our three senators on this—”
“Hell.”
Rione smiled. “It shouldn’t be that hard in this case. I think all three will agree that sovereign immunity doctrine applies, and therefore I should simply forward all of these notifications back to Sol Star System authorities to deal with. In a few centuries or so, the bureaucracy here will have finished deciding how to handle them, then everyone’s descendants can worry about it.”