Jack Campbell - Guardian

“An invitation for me to be at the grand council meeting,” Rione continued, and an… invitation for my husband to proceed for emergency, specialized medical treatment.” Only the uncharacteristic catch in her voice when she spoke of Commander Benan betrayed Rione’s emotions.

“It’s what we demanded?” Geary asked.

“It is,” Rione confirmed. “That ill will be removed.” Neither of them would openly refer to the mental block that the Alliance itself had placed on Benan to ensure the secrecy of a forbidden research program. “That won’t cure the damage that was done, but it will allow the damage to finally be effectively treated.”

One of the corpsmen with the stretcher spoke apologetically. “Ma’am, we’re going to have to go straight from the dock at Ambaru to another dock for the shuttle down to the surface. If you want to say anything to him before you’re separated for a while, we can rouse him enough.”

“I…” Rione glanced at Geary and Desjani. “Yes. I don’t want to risk him awakening at the treatment facility and not knowing.”

The corpsman worked for several seconds, then both medical personnel stepped away to give her and Benan some privacy. Geary and Desjani started to do the same, but Rione forestalled them.

“Paol,” she whispered, kneeling beside the stretcher.

Benan’s eyes opened, looking about with a puzzled expression. “Vic?”

“You’re on your way to get the block removed. I’ll join you there, after I take care of something else. You’ll be all right.”

Benan smiled at her with a gentleness surprising to those who had seen the rages the mental block had created in him. “Not totally useless yet, huh?” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “Not yet. Shot to hell and barely operational, but you think I’m still worth fixing.” He blinked. “You’ll be there?”

“As soon as possible,” Rione promised.

Commander Benan twitched, and a low tone sounded from the stretcher’s monitor. The corpsmen hurried back. “His brain’s ramping up, ma’am. We’ve got to get him quiet, or he’ll lose it.”

Within another couple of seconds after the corpsman adjusted a setting, Benan had closed his eyes, out cold again.

The shuttle had landed and extended its ramp. Geary indicated Rione and the corpsmen with the stretcher. “You go on board first.”

Desjani stood gazing at them as they headed for the shuttle, her expression tight with anger. “No one should be used that way.”

“The block, you mean?”

“Yeah. To one of our own. What do you want to bet that the rules prevented whoever ordered that block put on him from doing to Syndic prisoners what they did to a fleet officer?”

“I won’t take that bet.”

“Sometimes I feel sorry for that woman,” Desjani admitted of Rione. “Sometimes she seems almost human.”

“Sometimes she is,” Geary said. “But don’t let her know you spotted that.”

He and Desjani walked up to the shuttle ramp and inside, joining those already there. Geary’s misgivings at having other company evaporated as he saw Dr. Shwartz and Admiral Lagemann. “You’re both leaving?” Geary asked as he sat down and strapped in.

Lagemann smiled lopsidedly. “I have been relieved of command. The good ship Invincible has been officially reclassified as an artifact.”

“I thought the government techs were going to take over Invincible a week ago.”

“They were.” Lagemann winked. “We suggested they might want to take a little time to get accustomed to Invincible , but they brushed aside our superstitious concerns, came charging on board to take custody and eject us, then went charging back into their shuttles much faster than they had come aboard. After a week spent working out how they would deal with the Kick ghosts, the techs finally took full custody late yesterday. The last fleet sailors, Marines, and I left this morning.”

“Maybe the techs will figure out what the ghosts are.”

Lagemann looked into the distance. “Would you think it odd if I wanted the ghosts to remain a mystery? To maybe fade away and disappear, their cause and their nature remaining unknown?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Desjani tossed in, “if that’s exactly what happens.”

“Are you going home?” Geary asked Lagemann.

“Yes. For a brief visit with those who thought me dead. Then I have to report for extensive debriefing on everything I learned about Invincible while serving as her commanding officer.”

“That should be fun,” Geary remarked. “What about you, Doctor?”

Shwartz gazed longingly around her. “I will miss being here, Admiral. Here with your ships. No luxuries at all, and food worse than even universities provide in their cafeterias, but I finally had the opportunity to really work in my field! And I enjoyed working with you, against all expectations about rigid military minds and institutions. Now we must go our separate ways and fight our separate battles.”

“You have battles?”

“Vicious and ugly battles,” she confirmed. “Battles for academic primacy, battles for credit for discoveries, findings, and interpretations, battles for positions on boards and study groups. There will be ambushes to strike the unwary, no end of verbal and written atrocities inflicted on the combatants and innocent bystanders, and horrible barrages of rhetoric exchanged in unending debate until some bloodied figures manage to surmount the smoking wreckage of truth and declare themselves authorities over the scholarly rubble that remains.”

Geary smiled. “You make it sound worse than actual warfare.”

“Having seen both academic and real warfare, Admiral, I find the relative honesty of the real thing something of a relief.” Shwartz gestured vaguely. “The fight for access to that Kick superbattleship has just begun, and the amount of academic bloodletting over that alone will probably exceed what your Marines encountered. I only hope the entire ship is not declared classified and off-limits to scientific inquiry.”

“The military and the government wouldn’t do something that stupid—”

Lagemann intervened. “Sad to say, I think the techs may have intended doing that until they got aboard and realized the enormity of what was inside that ship. Before I left, the most common comment among the techs was we’re going to need a lot of help .”

“Good,” Desjani said. “Personally, I think the limits of enigma space were a lot easier to find than the limits of official stupidity would be.”

“You know,” Professor Shwartz said with a wicked smile, “you might want anyone working against you to get their hooks into that Kick warship. The superbattleship looks so terribly powerful. And yet it is helpless, a burden to whoever has it.”

“Yes,” Geary agreed, remembering the long and difficult journey to get Invincible back here in one piece. “Having the ship with us was a real headache.”

“A white elephant.” Her smiled broadened. “I’m going to be an academic and lecture you, Admiral. Do you know where the term ‘white elephant’ originated? Back on Old Earth. It literally referred to an elephant who was white. In one particular civilization in ancient times, an elephant who was naturally white was regarded as sacred. Such an animal required no end of caring for and rituals and special treatment. It was ruinously expensive. Because of that, when a white elephant was born, the rulers of that land would bestow it as a gift upon their richest, most powerful enemy, who would be forced by law and custom to drain their fortune on the upkeep of the animal. No one could refuse such a gift, and no one could afford to keep it. Do you have any powerful enemies who could benefit from the gift of your white elephant, Admiral?” Shwartz finished in teasing tone. “You might try to lure them into seeking that prize.”