Geary shook his head as he stared grimly at his display. “He was smart enough to see that someone wanted him to screw up.”
“Why would anyone want to encourage someone to try to overthrow the government?” Desjani asked. “Or just act against the government? I don’t get it. Who wins if that happens?”
“Nobody.” But as soon as he had said it, he realized that was wrong. Some people might imagine they would win in the short haul. And the Syndics, who had everything to gain by sowing the same kind of chaos in Alliance space as now afflicted many areas of Syndicate Worlds space, might win in the long haul as well. He couldn’t believe that any senior officer or politician in the Alliance would collude with known Syndic agents, but those working on behalf of the Syndics who had kept that relationship secret probably were whispering the wrong things into the right ears. If nothing else, those agents would be feeding any fears of what Black Jack might do, and urging actions that would only make sense inside bubbles of secrecy and paranoia.
The war had ended in victory, but the peace might still be lost.
“Admiral?”
Geary had forgotten that General Charban was still on the bridge. He turned to see Charban holding out a data pad. “What is it?”
“A message from the Dancers.”
“For me?” The screen displayed a string of symbols along the top, and a line of words beneath them. Happy. Home. You. Good. Complete. “They’re congratulating us on getting home?”
“Yes,” Charban said. “Though we’re still uncertain exactly what the Dancers mean by concepts like happy and good. Sometimes their happy seems to mean something more like appropriate or even finishing a task. Good appears to be tied up with their concept of patterns. If what happened fits the pattern they see, it’s good. But other times good seems to be referring to some other concepts that we’re still trying to work out.”
“All right.” Geary looked at the message again. “Complete. What does that mean?”
“Something is done,” Charban replied. “Their task? Our task? A pattern? It’s hard to say.”
Tanya shook her head. “The Dancers can’t spell it out any more clearly than that?”
“I think they could,” Charban said. “I’m certain that they could. But they won’t. As I’ve said, they are keeping communications with us at a very basic level for reasons of their own.”
“Have you asked the Dancers why they’re doing that?” Geary said.
Charban smiled. “Not being a diplomat by training, I have asked that question. Every time I have done so, the answer has been the same. Good.”
“Good?”
“Maybe they’re praising you for asking the question,” Desjani suggested wryly.
Charban grinned. “It’s possible. I’m inclined to think they are telling us that they are acting the way they are for good reasons. All that we have to do is figure out what those reasons are.”
It was Geary’s turn to shake his head. “General, I can’t figure out the reasons why some of our fellow humans are doing what they’re doing.”
“Yes. We keep looking for the mirrors that will show us important things about ourselves, but instead the images we see raise as many questions as they do answers. Sometimes I think the universe and the living stars are laughing at us, and we won’t really understand anything until we get the joke. You know, like that old Catch 42 expression that stands for the meaning of life is that in the end you always get screwed.”
“Let’s hope that’s not it,” Geary said.
The next day, a government courier ship reached them and came alongside Dauntless. Geary, resplendent in a full-dress uniform, which Tanya had inspected with a critical eye before grudgingly approving of his appearance, went to the shuttle dock for an official farewell to the three senators.
Costa looked as confident as always, Sakai was once more revealing little, but for the first time that Geary could recall, Suva had an uncharacteristic sense of uncertainty to her.
“When will the Dancers proceed to Unity?” Costa asked.
Envoys Charban and Rione were both present as well, and at the senator’s question Charban turned a pleading eye on Rione.
“We have asked,” Rione said. “The Dancers have not given any clear reply until half an hour ago, when they communicated that they will not be going to Unity.”
“Why not?” Senator Suva demanded. “Unity is the capital star system of the Alliance. They need to see it. The rest of the Senate and the full Grand Council should meet with them.”
“We have told them that,” Rione replied. “Their answer today was Varandal good now.”
“It seems to me,” Costa said, “that we need some new people communicating with the Dancers.” Even though she could not hide her amusement at Suva’s unhappiness, Costa clearly was not pleased with Rione’s news.
Charban smiled apologetically. “The Dancers have to want to communicate with them. They prefer to speak with certain humans.”
“We have only your word for that!”
“The academic experts who accompanied the fleet into Dancer territory said the same thing in their reports,” Geary said.
“Not all of the experts agreed with what was in those reports.”
“Senator,” Rione said, “you are welcome to have anyone speak directly to the Dancers and ask any questions they desire. Envoy Charban and I will assist in any way that we can. But I can safely predict that the answers you get will be the same as we have received.”
Sakai glanced from Rione, to Charban, to Geary. “Do you have any better guesses as to why the Dancers came to human space? Was it primarily to return the remains to Old Earth? Or was there more involved?”
“I believe,” Charban said slowly, his eyes gazing into the distance as he formed the words with care, “that there was a great deal more involved. Things that matter a great deal to the Dancers. I am not confident that all of those things would be recognizable to humans, but I have no doubt the Dancers came here to accomplish something they thought important to us and to them.”
Suva studied Charban closely. “You have words from them that talk about such things?”
“No, Senator. No direct statements. Just a growing feeling from my many attempts to communicate with them and understand them.”
“I wish whatever you had was more definitive than that,” she replied, her voice flat.
“Believe me, Senator,” Charban replied with the same polite deference, “I wish I had something more definitive as well. We know what we have seen them do. That is the only certainty.”
Costa looked around with a warning gaze. “Speaking of what the Dancers have done, I am officially notifying everyone here that all activity within Sol Star System has been classified by order of the Grand Council. No one is to speak to the media about it, no videos or other records are to be released, and no one not present at Sol is to be informed of anything that happened there without the prior approval of the Grand Council. You are not even to discuss those matters among yourselves because of the possibility of being overheard by someone not cleared for the information.”
“You can’t do that!” Charban said with unaccustomed heat, his earlier respectful demeanor vanished.
“Yes, we can,” Costa said, nailing him with a glare. “And we have. Do you understand, Admiral?”
“I understand,” Geary said, trying not to let his voice tremble with anger. “But I would like to know what possible reason there would be for such an action.”
“It is vital to the security of the Alliance,” Senator Suva said, “that the activity in Sol Star System be fully analyzed and evaluated by those responsible for the safety and security of us all before raw data is set loose to be misinterpreted and misunderstood.” It was hard to tell how much she actually believed what she was saying.