Jack Campbell - Guardian

“Something happened to the gate at Indras?”

“Must have.” She bit her lip, eyeing her display. “Kalixa would have been the next best alternative, but we know Kalixa’s gate is gone. How about Praja?”

He studied his own display, then nodded. “Go for Praja.”

Several seconds passed, then Desjani blew out a long breath. “No access to a gate at Praja.”

“Try Kachin.”

Another pause, then she shook her head. “No access.”

“Could there be something wrong with our key? Could the Syndics have somehow reprogrammed their hypernet so our key won’t work in it anymore?”

“Admiral, I have no idea. I’m just a ship driver.”

Already thrown off-balance by this totally unexpected hurdle, Geary felt an irrational stab of annoyance at her reply but recognized it as being candid and accurate. “Let’s ask someone who might know.” He tapped in some commands. “Captain Hiyen, Commander Neeson,” he said, as his message went out to the commanders of Reprisal and Implacable . “We have a problem.” He explained what had happened, then sat back to wait for replies that would take a few seconds at least. Hiyen and Neeson were the nearest things to experts on the hypernet that he had left. Having to depend on their limited expertise was not reassuring when something unusual happened, especially given how little humanity really understood about the hypernet.

“We’re getting close to the gate,” Desjani murmured, as if to herself.

Geary jerked, annoyed with himself this time at not staying on top of the entire situation. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, alter course starboard one eight zero, reduce velocity to point zero two light.” The entire formation would turn around, each individual ship pivoting in place, then using her main drives to first brake velocity in the fleet’s original direction, then accelerate back along the track they had come, though at a much slower pace. “Thank you, Captain Desjani,” he muttered.

She just nodded slightly in reply, eyes still on her display.

Yet another reason why I love that woman, Geary thought, trying not to get angry at this unexpected delay or too worried yet about the consequences if this fleet had to jump star by star back to Alliance space.

“Admiral,” Captain Hiyen said as his image appeared in a virtual window before Geary, “a hypernet cannot be reprogrammed. Not unless everything we know is wrong.”

“You’re saying the problem cannot be with our key, or with the Syndic hypernet having been set to not accept our key?”

“Yes, Admiral. Not unless the key has failed, and we would know if that had happened because a broken key wouldn’t even link to the gate here.”

Commander Neeson’s face had appeared next to Captain Hiyen’s. “I agree, Admiral. I suggest a test, though. Try a gate near here, somewhere not too far from Midway.”

Geary frowned, turning to Desjani. “What’s the closest hypernet gate?”

“Taniwah.” She tapped in the commands. “Nope. No access.”

“Admiral,” Neeson said, “try the ‘gate listing’ command.”

“There’s a gate listing command?” Desjani asked. “What do you know. There is. Admiral, when the Syndics told you they had a device to keep anyone like the enigmas from collapsing their entire hypernet by remote signal, did they say they had actually installed that device?”

“Yes,” Geary said. “Aren’t there any gates showing up?”

“One. Sobek.”

“Only one ? Sobek?” Not remembering from the name where it was, he had to enter that one into his display, seeing a star illuminate in response. “That’s not too far from the border. Not as close as Indras, but only… three or four jumps from Varandal.” His relief rapidly sank beneath a wave of anxiety. “How could the Syndics only have one gate left in their hypernet? Two, counting this one.”

“I don’t know, sir,” Captain Hiyen said. “If the Syndics have lost the rest of their hypernet, it will have catastrophic impacts on their economy as well as on their ability to move military forces. They could not have deliberately done that just to limit our options to only Sobek.”

Neeson shook his head. “When that Syndic flotilla used the gate to leave here, they didn’t seem to run into any difficulties.”

“Then what is going on?” Geary demanded.

“I don’t know, Admiral.”

Wishing for the thousandth time that the brilliant theorist Captain Cresida had not died during the battle at Varandal, Geary hit a different comm control. “President Iceni, we have encountered an unusual situation.”

Hypernet gates were always positioned near the outer edges of a star system, and Midway’s was no exception. It took several hours for Geary’s message to reach the primary inhabited world and an answer to be received.

With a restive fleet at Geary’s back, eager to head home and abruptly stymied in its departure, it was amazing how long that period of time could feel.

When her reply eventually showed up, President Iceni did not look any happier than Geary felt. “A freighter arrived two days ago from the gate with Nanggal and did not report any problems. I assure you that we are extremely concerned by the news you have given us. We cannot explain the problems you are having accessing gates elsewhere in the Syndicate hypernet. My information prior to our break with the Syndicate was that every standing gate had already been equipped to prevent collapse by remote means. I cannot believe that the new government on Prime would have deliberately destroyed almost all of their hypernet. The impact on corporate activity and profits would be incalculable.

“That said, we have no idea what has happened. There are no indications that our own gate is suffering any problems or malfunctions. We have closely monitored it for any signs of software or hardware sabotage, especially during the period when CEO Boyens’s flotilla was in this star system.

“If you discover anything, or find any anomalies in the operation of the gate, we would be grateful if you would provide us with that information. For the people. Iceni, out.”

Geary rubbed his mouth and chin with one hand, trying to think. “Emissary Rione, I would appreciate your assessment of President Iceni’s latest message.”

“She could be lying,” Rione began, “but I don’t think she is. Iceni does appear to be genuinely worried.”

“They want us to stay here,” Geary said. “This problem with the gate could offer them the means to keep us here.”

“She asked us to tell her what was wrong,” Rione reminded him. “She did not say they were working on it, did not claim any malfunction here, did not do any of the things someone would do if they were trying to string us along. Moreover, one other gate has been left accessible. Why would they allow access to any gate, especially one in the region we wish to go to, if they wished to keep us here?”

“Admiral,” Emissary Charban began diffidently, “if this is the work of the Syndic government, and if it were a ground forces situation, and if all paths in the direction I wanted to go but one were blocked, I would wonder why that one path had been left open.”

Geary lowered his hand and gazed at Charban. “A trap? An ambush?”

“I would expect such, yes.”

“He’s right,” Desjani said. Her once-low opinion of Charban had improved a great deal lately. “As much as I don’t trust the used-to-be Syndics here at Midway, I can’t think of any reason they would leave us a path out if they wanted us to stay.”

“And we know,” Charban continued, “who controls the gates to which we no longer have access.”