Jack Campbell - Guardian

“In the hopes of that, you mean.”

Rione inclined her head in a small nod of agreement, her expression betraying no feeling. “But you, Admiral, are unhappy with this. You made the decision that you would force the issue when you returned to Alliance space.”

“No,” Desjani put in, her voice sharp. “Admiral Geary would be primarily motivated by the mistreatment of the crews of those ships who have been allowed very little time at home since the end of the war. The maintenance and funding issue would be secondary.”

“That’s true,” Geary agreed.

After a pause, Rione nodded. “That additional reason will only strengthen your position. You have made up your mind, you have the authority, and the decision is now being implemented by you, without anyone else having a say in the matter. It’s just what would be expected of Black Jack, isn’t it?”

“I hope so. That legend makes Black Jack a better officer than I’ll ever be.”

Desjani broke off her work on the orders to glare at him. “You are better than that legend.”

“Your Captain is right,” Rione said, then faced Desjani squarely. “You found the solution. I am deeply in your debt again.”

“That’s… all right,” Desjani mumbled, unsure how to respond.

“Don’t worry, Captain. I won’t start acting like we’re sisters.”

“Good. I couldn’t handle that.” Desjani grimaced. “Thank you for the assistance you have given the Admiral.”

Rione looked back at Geary. “I’ll go do my part.”

She left, and both Geary and Desjani bent back to frantically crafting the necessary orders. Fortunately, those orders could be fairly simple and fairly short, with the bulk of them made up of standard phrasing. “I think that’s good,” Geary said. “Let’s read them over slowly one more time.” He did, spotting a misplaced word and correcting that, then looked to Tanya. She nodded, and Geary hit the transmit command.

“Four and a half minutes,” Desjani said with satisfaction. “Even with the interruption.”

“The interruption? When Rione thanked you?”

“Whatever.”

Geary slumped back and rubbed his eyes with the palms of both hands. He had a feeling Rione would be similarly dismissive if he brought the matter up with her. “That was close. From the way Kapelka was acting, her crew was about to give her an ultimatum.”

“Yup.” Desjani leaned back as well, smiling. “And Hiyen was expecting you to shoot the messenger.”

“I’ve seen that done, Tanya. Too many times. Compared to now, they were about pretty minor issues, I guess. Problems being covered up with equipment on a single light cruiser, a destroyer commander whose own officers were reporting him as dangerously incompetent, that sort of thing. Sometimes the messenger is really exaggerating or even making things up, but all the more reason to find out if what you’ve been told is true or not.”

“Are you expecting an argument from me?” She stood up. “The usual response nowadays is to classify everything so everyone can pretend nothing actually happened. Good luck keeping this incident quiet if all of those ships had mutinied within Alliance space, though.”

Geary stared at her, the mention of mutiny calling to mind past events. “When Captain Numos participated in the mutiny led by Captain Falco, that was outside Alliance space. Not too many people know about that, or exactly what led to the loss of ships like Triumph , Polaris , and Vanguard . Do you think that’s why Numos hasn’t been court-martialed yet?”

She paused. “Yes, now that you mention it. Too many details of what happened would make high-ranking people look bad. With Falco dead, Numos stands to take full blame for the mutiny, so he wouldn’t hesitate to make as big a public stink as possible. And now that Admiral Bloch is back, he sure as hell wouldn’t want word getting out about what a mess he got the fleet into.”

That news had come in, too. Admiral Bloch, released as a goodwill gesture by the Syndics along with a hundred other Alliance prisoners. But just where Bloch was at the moment and what he was doing remained a mystery that not even Rione’s sources had been able to penetrate. “If they weren’t going to arrest Bloch,” Geary said, “they should at least have retired him.”

“There you go, expecting the government to do the rational thing.” Desjani paused, then spoke light words with a spine of steel running through them. “Oh, that reminds me. When we were having that discussion about averting the mutiny, I could have sworn that you spoke to me in a tone of voice more appropriate to a chief chewing out a deckhand who had made a dumb mistake.”

“I… would not…” Geary fumbled.

“And I seem to recall that you spoke to me that way while that woman was in here listening.”

Ancestors, please save me.

Her eyes were locked on him. “Well?”

“I…”

An urgent alert sounded. Geary lunged for the comm panel as if it were the last source of air in a spacecraft losing atmosphere.

“Admiral, a delegation from the grand council of the Alliance has arrived at Varandal and wants to meet with you on Ambaru station as soon as possible.”

“All right. Thank you.” The call ended and he stood up. “There’s an important—”

“I’d like an answer, Admiral,” Desjani said, her tone polite but unyielding.

He pressed his lips tightly together, then nodded. “My behavior toward you was disrespectful and unprofessional. I apologize for that.”

She nodded in return. “Yes. Disrespectful. If you want to chew me out, do it in private. In public, treat me with the respect I have earned and deserve. You already know you should do that with me and with every other subordinate of yours.”

“Yes, I do,” Geary said. “I shouldn’t have to be reminded of it.”

“Then we understand each other.” Desjani jerked her head toward the hatch.

He reached for it, then paused and looked at her. “You’re letting me off rather easy.”

“Oh? You think so? We’ve only addressed your actions in terms of our professional relationship, Admiral. The next time we’re alone together, off my ship and in a private status, we’ll discuss your actions in terms of our personal relationship.”

Maybe I shouldn’t look forward to being alone with Tanya off Dauntless .

Oh, hell. You screwed up. Face it like a man. “After you, Captain. We’ve got work to do.”

“Sure do,” she agreed, as they left the room. “Are you going to tell the grand council’s representatives that a bunch of this fleet’s warships are going to be heading real soon for the hypernet gate and their homes?”

Geary thought about that, then shook his head. “They might try to stop it if they know it’s going to happen. Let’s save it for a surprise.”

Once more, the Grand Council had sent a delegation to see him instead of the grand council’s summoning him to go to them at Unity. Was that good or bad?

“A couple of other people needed a ride to Ambaru, so I arranged for them to be on this one,” Desjani remarked, as they waited to board the shuttle that was coming to dock aboard Dauntless .

“I wish you had asked me about that first,” Geary grumbled. “I am not looking forward to this meeting. I don’t even know which senators will be here as representatives of the grand council.”

“It scarcely matters,” Rione said as she walked up to them. “Some will trust you, some will mistrust you, and all will be scheming and plotting. Do you mind if I tag along? I received a rather urgent invitation.”

Whatever Desjani was about to reply went unsaid as a medical team entered the dock with a stretcher on which Commander Benan lay. Rione’s husband was unconscious, but the readouts on the stretcher indicated he was physically healthy aside from the sedation keeping him insensible.