Boyens stared at the disc, then reached slowly to take it as if expecting it to be yanked away at the last moment. “Why are you giving us this?”
“Because you can’t conduct an effective defense of the border without it,” Geary explained. “And as a sign of goodwill to the people here.” He didn’t mention that he, Sakai, and Rione had concluded that with what Boyens could tell them, the Syndics here were eventually likely to figure out on their own that the worms existed. This way the Syndics would hopefully feel a debt of gratitude to the Alliance. But he also hadn’t wanted to leave Alliance warships behind, isolated far from home and dependent on the goodwill of Syndics, to ensure that the aliens didn’t run roughshod over the Syndics in the near future. Far better that the Syndics be given a tool to allow them successfully to face the aliens. “That disc doesn’t explain how the worms work, because we don’t know. If you figure it out, we’d appreciate your returning the favor and telling us.”
“I’ll certainly encourage my people to do that.” Boyens stared glumly at the data disc. “We’ve been in contact with them for a century, and we never figured this out. How did you do it?”
“We were looking at the problem from a fresh perspective. Maybe that helped. We didn’t have a century of experience and assumptions that pointed us in the wrong direction. It was perfectly plausible that the aliens possessed something on their ships that blocked your ability to see them, and a hundred years ago the means to identify the quantum-probability worms might not have been available. You reached conclusions that drove all of your research from that point onward.”
Boyens nodded, his expression rueful. “Like that ancient saying goes, sometimes it’s not what you don’t know that’s dangerous, it’s the things you think you know that aren’t really true.”
“Exactly. But the worms were also found because a brilliant officer in the Alliance fleet looked for something she suspected might be there without limiting herself to where she expected to find it.”
“A single brilliant individual can make a big difference,” Boyens agreed. “I’d like to thank her, too, sometime.”
Geary kept his expression rigid. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. She died during the battle with your flotilla at Varandal.”
The Syndic CEO met Geary’s eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I lost friends in that battle, too. I wish all of them, yours and mine, were still with us.”
“Then,” Rione said in a firm voice, “do what you can to ensure that our peoples work together in the future rather than meet in battle. We can’t bring back those who have died, but we can prevent more deaths.”
Boyens closed his hand around the data disc. “Yes. I can’t speak for all of Syndicate Worlds’ space, just for this region near the border with the aliens, but I will try.” His gaze lingered on Geary. “Are you going to remain in command of the Alliance military? People are going to want to know.”
Geary phrased his answer carefully. “I serve at the pleasure of the Alliance Senate. I currently command only this fleet, not the entire Alliance military. I don’t know what will be asked of me after this.”
“Fair enough. I’ll be blunt. People here will trust you. I hope the Alliance government keeps that in mind.” Boyens nodded to Geary and the three senators, then turned and walked onto the shuttle.
They watched the inner dock seal, then the shuttle depart, and Geary felt some of the tension leave him. Somehow, returning the Syndic CEO here, to where the reserve flotilla had come from, completed a necessary circle.
“It is a shame no Alliance POW camps exist this far from the Alliance,” Sakai remarked. “We could have asked for all of those captured personnel now while these Syndics are still grateful.”
“They’ll be grateful just as long as we’ve got our guns trained on them,” Costa grumbled. “I still think we were foolish to tell them about the worms. We could have studied them, learned how to use them, then employed the worms against the Syndics if necessary.”
“We have another enemy now,” Rione replied. “A mutual enemy, it seems, whether we desire it or not. And these particular Syndics would be very useful allies.”
Costa’s glower deepened. “I can’t think in terms of Syndics being allies.”
“They may not be Syndics much longer, if that makes it any easier.”
“A wolf can call itself a dog, but it’s still a wolf.” Costa gave Geary a sour look. “I hope you’re not planning on retiring soon, Admiral. I can guarantee that won’t be approved.”
Geary kept his own expression unrevealing. “I expected as much. But I do have certain agreements with the council.”
Costa didn’t quite conceal a flash of sardonic amusement at Geary’s words. “Of course,” she said, while Sakai avoided showing any reaction. Rione, for her part, managed to flick a warning glance at Geary without either of her fellow senators noticing.
Any lingering doubts he had felt that the grand council was going to play games with their promises to him vanished.
But he could play games, too. He had managed to defeat the tricks played on him by the Syndics and the aliens, and he would do the same with the grand council.
As he left the shuttle dock, Geary couldn’t help noticing the irony that just like Badaya, he was now seeing the Alliance government as one more obstacle to overcome. Unlike Badaya, though, his goals were purely personal. The government could make policy, but Geary wanted at least a little control over his own life.
He figured that he had earned that much.
Geary rejoined Desjani on the bridge, watching as the Alliance shuttle mated with the Syndic heavy cruiser, Desjani seeming ready to launch specters in an instant if the heavy cruiser opened fire on the shuttle. But after several minutes the shuttle reported a successful transfer and broke away from the Syndic warship, heading back to Dauntless.
As the shuttle reentered the dock on Dauntless, Desjani herself finally seemed to relax. “Are we going home now?”
“Yes.” He leaned back, gazing at the images of the fleet on the display. “We’re going home.”
TWELVE
It felt odd to be going home with no immediate prospect of combat facing them, to be using the Syndic hypernet, to transit Syndic star systems (or former Syndic star systems) without fear of attack. Some of the Syndic CEOs even offered to sell raw materials to restock the bunkers on the fleet’s auxiliaries, but no one in the Alliance fleet was willing to trust in such a transaction yet.
As they crossed the last Syndic star system before jumping for Varandal in Alliance space, Geary held what felt like a last meeting with his most trusted advisers. Desjani appeared pensive, but she had been finding reasons not to talk to him lately, so he didn’t know why. Duellos had lost the air of melancholy that had always been mostly hidden behind his jauntiness. Tulev seemed like he was considering relearning how to smile but hadn’t yet convinced himself. “Is this what peace feels like?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Geary confessed. “To me, with all of the threats that still remain, it’s not peace.”
“But the Syndicate Worlds will be a shadow of its former self.”
“The Alliance may face the same pressures. Rione expects a lot of star systems, and larger groupings like the Rift Federation and her own Callas Republic, to push for more autonomy and fewer commitments to the Alliance.”
“Fewer commitments,” Desjani said scornfully. “You mean less money. Now that they’ll feel safe, they’ll still want the Alliance to keep defending them, but they won’t want to have to pay to be defended.”
“That’s pretty much it, yeah. The big common threat is gone, and getting across the need to deal with the successor states to the Syndicate Worlds as well as the unknown size of the alien threat isn’t going to be easy with such a war-weary population.”