Geary made an uncertain gesture with one hand. “Probably. But even with three battle cruisers it won’t be easy. And I am not authorized to stay here any longer than necessary to get those refugees back to Batara. Fleet accounts have been hit by serious funding reductions. I’m scrambling to keep as much of my fleet operational as possible.”
“Surely there is still enough money for the most important purposes!”
“I can’t swear that what money is left is being spent wisely,” Geary said. “I can only say that any money being spent on my fleet is being used as carefully as possible, and there isn’t enough. More to the point, I’ve got orders to take care of the refugee problem here, then leave. If we don’t figure out how to not only neutralize the refugee problem but also that battleship, you are very likely to be facing it alone when it finally comes here.”
He gestured to the nameplate at his seat, proclaiming him commander of fleet forces in this star system. “Adriana is used to having fleet forces committed to its defense. That has changed. I’m not happy to be the one who has to tell you that. I’m going to work to get some fleet units positioned near here again full-time, but I don’t know when that will happen or how strong they will be.”
“Colonel Galland,” one of the government men spoke in pleading tones, “your craft can stop a Syndic battleship, right?”
Galland laughed briefly, as if she were genuinely amused. “Under ideal conditions, if the battleship came into low orbit, and if I have every single craft under my command available to me, there would be about a twenty-five percent chance that we could cripple or destroy a battleship. Our losses under those conditions would run between seventy and ninety percent.”
“And, if conditions are not ideal?” the man pressed. “What are your chances of success under other situations?”
“How many ways can you say zero?” Galland replied. “My FACs are not designed to engage something like a battleship. That’s not their function. We’ll do it. Do not mistake me on that.” She looked somberly around the table. “If a hostile battleship shows up here, my people will go out to engage it to the best of their ability. They’ll do that knowing that the odds of success are tiny and the chances of death are very high. But their sacrifices will not guarantee victory. Far from it. They can buy time, they can harass, they can disrupt attempts by the battleship to bombard targets on this planet from low orbit. But they can’t win. Not under almost every possible scenario.”
“Ground forces can’t make any difference at all against that kind of threat,” General Sissons broke in. “That does not fall under my responsibilities. It is the duty of the fleet to stop major enemy warships from ever reaching this star system.”
President Astrida sighed, shaking her head. “Admiral, you’ve given us a lot of bad news. But, if even a small part of your reputation is true, you must have some ideas, some plans for defending us.”
Almost everyone cheered up at those words, looking to Geary with the sort of hope he remembered seeing too many times before. That faith in him, that hope centered on him, had often threatened to unnerve him, but this time he just met it. His growing sense of confidence, of purpose, was crystallizing. This is just like commanding a ship, or the fleet. They need to see confidence, they need to see competence. And it’s my job to give them those things. I’ve been lucky so far. I haven’t let anyone down. Someday, I’m going to fail. It has to happen. But not this day.
“The fleet will stop this threat,” Geary said, seeing the immediate elation his words generated. “But I need the help of Adriana to do it. As far as the refugee problem, Adriana can help with that, too. Otherwise, I can take those people back to Batara, but they’ll just show up here again.”
“What can Adriana do?” the thin man asked.
“I need three things. I need some ground forces in enough numbers to board all of the refugee ships, maintain order aboard them, and ensure that they all come along when we go back to Batara. I also need ground forces to back up our demands to Batara’s current government that they stop shoving people toward Adriana and provide security on the ground while we’re dropping off the refugees. Those ground forces will need transport.” They were already adding that up, some looking unhappy once more, but Geary plowed ahead. “And we need something at Yokai to stop threats coming this way before they get here.”
“And you have no extra funding,” President Astrida said.
“I have no extra funding. You can request reimbursement from the Alliance government, but I cannot promise that you will be repaid.”
“What exactly do you need from us?” the old woman asked. “How many ground forces?”
“I need two regiments of ground forces, fully combat outfitted, and I need shipping sufficient to carry those ground forces.”
“You said one regiment would be dispersed among the refugee ships to keep them under control while you take the Syndic refugees back to Batara,” the very well dressed officer protested. “They won’t need separate shipping.”
“They will if you want me to bring that regiment home once we drop off the refugees and let those beat-up ships the refugees are on go about their business,” Geary said.
“The request is impossible,” General Sissons said. “I don’t have the available assets to spare. My soldiers are committed to defense of this star system.”
“General,” the president said in something very close to a growl, “if the Alliance ground forces in Adriana are incapable of offering any support to an Alliance military operation in defense of this star system, I can promise you that information will be widely reported and discussed on the floor of the Alliance Senate at Unity. Are you prepared to answer the questions that will be asked by the Senate if that happens?”
Sissons got the look of a deer in the headlights as he saw his career being threatened. “That isn’t needed. We’re on the same team. What you were told isn’t entirely accurate. That’s all I was trying to say.”
“What was inaccurate?” President Astrida pressed him.
“I still have personnel equivalent to two brigades. I don’t have two combat brigades,” Sissons explained hastily. “There are support personnel, my headquarters, intelligence, military police—”
“What can you provide?”
“A regiment. One regiment. I can provide that.” Sissons smiled as if expecting praise.
Astrida turned to General Shwartz. “Do we have a regiment from the self-defense forces that can go on this mission?”
Shwartz pursed her lips and looked unhappy. “As you know, Madam President, our self-defense forces have also suffered from significant spending reductions in the last several months.”
“I know we still have an entire division on the books, General Shwartz.”
“Yes. But self-defense, and deployment on an offensive mission, are two different things,” Shwartz explained. She took a deep breath, then nodded. “We can provide a regiment. I’ll build it out of smaller units with the necessary training. But, Madam President, I must advise you that there may be political costs involved with deploying so many of our forces.”
“I’ll take those costs,” the president said. “At least we know that the men and women we send on this mission will be under the command of Black Jack and not at the mercy of one of the clumsy, dim-witted butchers who never seemed to care how many died.”
No one looked at General Sissons, and he once again avoided looking at anyone else.
But one of the female officials spoke up. “The Admiral is a fleet officer, not a ground forces commander. How do we know—?”
“We know,” another official broke in. “A couple of the Marines who accompanied Admiral Geary’s fleet have families in this star system. When I learned that Admiral Geary was here, I talked to those families. I asked them what they had heard, and they told me it sounded like every Marine in the Admiral’s fleet would go through hell for him.”