Jack Campbell - Guardian

Geary did his best not to sound defensive. “They were all citizens of the Syndicate Worlds.”

“They could have provided us with critical information about the enigmas!”

“They knew nothing about the enigmas!” Geary controlled his anger before saying more. “Absolutely nothing. If you read my report—”

“You gave away—”

“I am NOT finished answering you, sir!” Everyone was staring at him. Fine. Let them stare. He had been through too much to put up with this. “Before you question me, read the available information so you know what you’re talking about. Then permit me to answer you in full without interruption. Every one of those humans we liberated from the enigma prison asteroid was a citizen of the Syndicate Worlds. I had no right to hold them against their will. None of them knew anything about the enigmas. None had ever seen an enigma, or spoken with one, or even seen any of their artifacts. They knew far less than we did even before the First Fleet entered enigma space. But the most important factor in my decision was that I had no right to hold them . They were free to make their own decisions about their fates.”

Navarro spoke with an unusual level of sarcasm. “Are we to condemn Admiral Geary for acting in accordance with Alliance law? With Alliance principles?”

“Since you brought up Alliance law,” Senator Costa said, “and the subject of leaving people with the Syndics has already been raised, I wonder if the Admiral would care to explain leaving one of his senior officers in the custody of the Syndics?”

“One of my officers?” Geary asked. “We lost far too many officers in combat, and most of those received honorable burials in space. The only living officer who did not accompany the fleet home was Captain Bradamont. She has been assigned as liaison officer for the Alliance to the Midway Star System.”

“Who approved leaving a liaison officer at Midway, Admiral?” Senator Costa asked, her voice harsh.

“I wrote the orders,” Geary said in his blandest voice. “The idea was mine.” That was the official story he and Rione had agreed upon, and he was going to stick to it. One or more of the senators he was facing might have been among those planning on blackmailing Bradamont over her work for Alliance intelligence during the war. “Naturally, I first gained approval from the representatives of the government who accompanied the fleet.”

“That would be me, and Emissary Charban,” Rione said brightly.

“Your instructions as emissaries—” Costa began.

“Granted us full discretion,” Rione finished. “Instructions approved by the grand council as a whole, I might add.”

“Why was Captain Bradamont chosen to operate with the Syndics?” Senator Wilkes demanded. “There has been information circulating which raises serious questions regarding Bradamont’s loyalty to the Alliance.”

Geary let his gaze, hard and unyielding, rest on Wilkes for a long moment before replying. “As I said earlier, and as my report states clearly, Captain Bradamont is liaison officer to the newly independent Midway Star System. The authorities and the people at Midway are extremely hostile toward the Syndicate Worlds’ government, which I also put in my report. I have no doubts as to the loyalty of Captain Bradamont, and if you indeed have information impugning her honor, you should present it openly. I assure you and everyone else here that I have more than adequate information to rebut any charges against Captain Bradamont, and I will present such information openly if required.”

Senator Wilkes glowered at Geary, plainly searching for words, but Navarro spoke first. “You have attacked the honor of one of the Admiral’s officers,” he chided Wilkes, speaking as if to a small child. “I have no doubt the Admiral will do exactly as he promised to defend that officer. Are we ready to have all of that information publicly disclosed?”

“Are there not restrictions on what can be discussed?” Costa asked.

“What restrictions and pertaining to what information?” Senator Suva demanded.

A few silent seconds passed as senators exchanged meaningful looks, then Wilkes waved an irritated hand. “We can discuss it later. I cannot see what possible benefit the Alliance gains from leaving a senior fleet officer deep in enemy territory.”

“We’ve already gained some very important information from her,” Rione said. “Thanks to Captain Bradamont, we have confirmed that the Syndics have learned how to selectively block access to individual gates in their hypernet.”

“I saw that in your reporting,” Navarro said, leaning back and eyeing Rione and Geary keenly. “That is extremely important. How do they do it?”

“We don’t know. It’s obviously something our hypernet experts should be looking into.”

Senator Unruh shook her head. “Government-funded hypernet research has been drastically scaled back in order to save money.” She turned a long, slow look at her fellow senators. “How fortunate that Admiral Geary also brought back a Syndic-designed system to prevent gates from being collapsed by remote signals. How fortunate that the Syndics continue to invest in research that we have decided is beyond the proper scope of the Alliance government.”

“We’ve been over this,” Suva complained. “We have to set priorities.”

“Our fleet was almost trapped again deep in enemy territory,” Unruh said. “I wonder at the priorities that produce such great benefits and advantages to our enemies.”

Suva’s face flushed with anger. “Are you implying that I—”

“I’m certain that Senator Unruh is not implying anything about anyone,” Senator Navarro said.

“If I were, I certainly wouldn’t be limiting the implications to one senator,” Unruh said.

“From what we could learn,” Geary said to fill the awkward silence that followed Unruh’s statement, “our best estimate is that the Syndics can’t tell who is trying to use a gate. All they can do is block a gate to access, which will only benefit them if they know where we are and where we need to go. They had that advantage at Midway. Even if we face that situation again, we now know that we can use jumps to reach other gates and zigzag our way through their space without following a path they want us to take.”

“A path littered with traps,” Costa growled.

“Are we at peace with the Syndicate Worlds or not?” Suva asked, sounding almost plaintive.

“We’re at peace,” Navarro replied. “I don’t think the Syndics are.”

“We brought back two prisoners taken aboard Invincible ,” Geary pointed out.

“Who can tell us nothing,” Navarro said with obvious distaste. “They’ve been mentally conditioned so severely that one has gone catatonic on us, and the second is barely functional. We can’t prove any official Syndic involvement in that or the other attacks.”

“Screw proof! We know the truth! They need to be destroyed. We need to finish them,” Costa insisted.

“We can’t break the peace agreement!” Senator Suva cried. “The people would not stand for it!”

A babble of voices sounded as senators broke in from all sides.

“What peace?”

“Ask the people of the Alliance!”

“We can’t restart the war! The government would collapse!”

“Fellow Senators,” Sakai said in a calm voice that somehow carried over that of his colleagues. “As has been noted, we must at a minimum pursue the liberation of those Alliance citizens still held within Syndic and formerly Syndic space before we give the Syndics legal grounds to discard the peace agreement. Perhaps we should move on to another topic.”

Geary waited while the senators considered Sakai’s advice. He wondered if any of the senators could tell that he was nervous, that he was worried that someone would ask what the rulers of Midway had asked of him in exchange for the Syndic device that would prevent a gate collapse by remote signal.