“Yeah, he’s for the people,” Desjani commented sarcastically. “Are you going to bother answering?”
“Just with the standard legalities. But not yet. And apparently there are some intelligence reports I need to know about.”
“About Indras? Why didn’t they brief you before we got here?
“Ask the people who make up the rules the intelligence community has to follow. They’re probably the only ones who understand whatever logic is involved.”
A few hours later, Lieutenant Iger briefed Geary in his stateroom. “Thank you for taking the time for this, Admiral.” He brought up some images of individuals, star systems, and businesses, all connected by various colored strands. “This is the best picture we have at this time of Syndic covert operations in this region against the Alliance and their own rebellious star systems.”
The point of Iger’s presentation wasn’t hard to grasp. “It looks like Indras is at the center of a lot of that.”
“Yes, sir. We can’t tie CEO Yamada specifically to what is going on. He may not personally even know about some of the things being done by the central government, but it’s likely he knows about some of it. A lot of covert activity is being coordinated through Indras.”
Geary hunched forward a bit, resting his elbows on the table and gazing at the interrelationships and activities being shown. “Is there anything I can do about this? Is there anything I’m supposed to be doing about it?”
“No, sir,” Iger said with a regretful shake of his head. “This briefing is for informational purposes only. We are at peace with the Syndics. Alliance military forces can’t just launch open attacks on the basis of evidence like this which can’t even be shown to the average person. As for other alternatives, we don’t have the sort of proof that could be presented in any court, and there aren’t any courts that would handle this sort of thing between the Syndics and the Alliance anyway.”
“Is anybody else doing anything?”
Iger hesitated, then spoke slowly. “Admiral, I can’t say.”
“As in you don’t know, or you do, and I’m somehow not cleared for it?” Geary tried to keep from sounding angry and accusing. It wouldn’t be Iger’s fault if the matter was out of his hands, so Iger shouldn’t be personally held to account.
“I don’t honestly know anything, sir,” Lieutenant Iger protested. “I’ve heard rumors that counteroperations are under way, but nothing specific and nothing official.”
“Counteroperations? Aimed at what’s going on here?”
“Vague rumors, sir. That’s all I have.”
“I hope that’s all they are,” Geary said. “Because it would look very suspicious to everyone if something blew up in this star system while we were here or soon after we left.” He wanted to add that surely no one would plot covert actions that, by their timing and placement, would imply Geary’s ships were involved, at the very least not without warning him, but recent experience with the government’s mania for secrecy left him with no confidence on that count. “Let me know if anything else comes in that relates to this.”
Geary waited almost another day, until the Alliance warships and the Dancer ships were almost to the hypernet gate, before he called up the Syndic CEO’s message again and tapped the reply command. “CEO Yamada, this is Admiral Geary. We are permitted by the terms of the peace agreement with the Syndicate Worlds to transit Syndicate space to and from the Midway Star System, and to make use of the Syndicate Worlds’ hypernet system when we do so. We will continue to operate in accordance with our rights under the peace agreement. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
“They probably already knew we were going to Midway,” Desjani said.
“The longer we could keep them guessing, the better. Let’s get out of Indras before the Dancers decide to go sightseeing.” Or something blows up, he added to himself.
To his relief, the stolen hypernet key dialed up Midway without any problems, and a moment later they were safe inside the nowhere of the hypernet.
The hypernet allowed Geary’s ships to cover the distance to Midway in a few weeks, a voyage that would have required several months if conducted by jumping from star to star. Oddly enough, even though the other discomforts of jump space weren’t present, Geary had the same dream a couple of more times, ending in the same frustrating fashion. Whether it was his subconscious or something else trying to send him a message, the meaning of it wasn’t coming through.
As the Alliance ships left the hypernet, the stars reappeared around them, and displays began updating with the newest information. “It sounds like they’ve been busy around here,” Lieutenant Iger reported. “Lots of comm traffic, official and unofficial.”
“Anything bad?” Geary asked. “There’s a battle cruiser here. Whose is it?”
“We’re trying to ID it, Admiral. Wait. We’re picking up references to Pele.”
“That’s the next star system toward the enigmas,” Geary said with more patience than he felt.
“No, sir. I mean, yes, sir,” the intelligence officer corrected hastily. “This Pele is a ship. It looks like it correlates to that battle cruiser.”
“The Syndics don’t name their ships,” Desjani said.
“No, but the Midway people do,” Geary said. “To emphasize that they’re not Syndics anymore. Where did they get a battle cruiser?”
“No idea, Admiral,” Iger said. “It sounds like there are civil disturbances on the primary inhabited world. Rioting. The government is trying to deal with it.”
“How are they dealing with it?” Geary asked, his voice flat. There were Syndic ways of handling riots and rioters, and the rulers here had been Syndics not long ago.
“I can’t determine that yet, sir.”
“Hey!” Desjani’s startled exclamation drew Geary’s attention. “The Dancers just took off!”
Took off was putting it mildly. The alien ships had dashed away from the Alliance formation at the strongest acceleration they could manage, a rate of increase in velocity that even the Alliance battle cruisers couldn’t match. “They’re heading for the jump point for Pele. General Charban!”
“Here, Admiral,” Charban replied from the compartment where he and Lieutenant Jamenson were once again seated at their comm gear. “I just received a message from the Dancers. Watch the many stars.”
“The many stars? What does that—? Sorry.” For once, Geary avoided asking a question that he already knew Charban had no answer to. He stopped to think as he watched the Dancers tear away. “I guess they’re going home as fast as possible.”
“I concur,” Charban said. “I’ll try to get more out of them before they leave.”
“Thanks. If—”
“We just got another message from the Dancers,” Charban interrupted, looking startled. “It says until next time, see you later, good-bye for now.”
Tanya raised both eyebrows. “They’re not taking any chances that we won’t understand that.”
“No, they’re not,” Charban agreed. “They want us to know that they will be back.”
“Do they expect us to wait here?” Geary demanded, exasperated.
“I don’t—” Charban began, then paused again. “Another message. You go your home. See you there. Admiral, I don’t know why the Dancers have suddenly shifted from vague ambiguities to clear meaning, but I have no doubt that they mean exactly what these messages say. They are not mistakenly saying something we might misinterpret. They want us to go home, and they want us to know they will come back and meet us there.”