Jack Campbell - Invincible

A buzz sounded in Dr. Nasr’s office, and he jerked in reaction. “My surgery. Admiral, I must go.”

“All right, Doctor. Make sure the remaining five bear-cows are kept sedated, kept unconscious.”

Dr. Nasr paused in midreach to end the call. “You realize that we know so little of their physiology, of how they react to medications, that we might easily kill them by trying to keep them sedated.”

“I understand, Doctor.” Damned if we do and damned if we don’t. “Unless we want the other five to kill themselves, or die of other causes, I don’t see any alternative at this point.”

Geary sat brooding after the call ended. What could he do with the bear-cows? An attempted humanitarian gesture had turned into a need to keep them in a state of living death to keep them from actually dying. Would letting them die be the humane thing to do?

He realized that he was thinking of them as bear-cows again, not as Kicks, after speaking with the scientists and the doctor. But no matter what they were called, the same problems remained.

And the talk with Dr. Nasr about Commander Benan hadn’t exactly been comforting, either.

He had no doubt that someone, or more likely a number of important someones, had convinced themselves that the use of mental blocks in a few cases was a justified and humane way to handle knowledge too explosive to risk its ending up in the wrong hands.

But at least one someone who knew about Benan’s involvement in Brass Prince hadn’t been blocked, and had been able to use their knowledge to blackmail Rione. Furthermore, everything pointed to that someone being a very high-ranking individual in the fleet or the government.

It was long past time to shine some light on an ugly shadow. He could ask Lieutenant Iger about proper security procedures, and would undoubtedly be told that proper procedures required Geary to say nothing to anyone though he did wonder if even the intelligence officer knew about this particular thing. No. He wouldn’t do that. “Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to know the answer,” a chief had advised him when he was just an ensign. It felt like that conversation had taken place a hundred years ago.

Actually, he realized, it had taken place a hundred years ago. But it would take a lot longer than that for him to forget that particular wise advice.

When I get back to Alliance space, there will be changes made, and people like Commander Benan will be helped. I’ll tell anyone I need to in order for that to happen. Security is not a license for people in authority to hide tactics they would never openly admit to using.

The next morning, he was stopping by Dauntless ’s bridge, trying to look rested and confident while he checked on the latest status of everything. He could have done those same checks from inside his stateroom, but leaders had to get out among their people, had to show that they were engaged and involved.

“I hope to hear today that we’ve got clearance to head home through spider-wolf-controlled territory,” he told Tanya.

“Good,” she replied. “Before you make any agreements with them, though, Lieutenant Yuon has something to tell you.” Desjani gestured to her combat systems watch-stander.

Lieutenant Yuon blinked, stood a bit straighter, then nodded toward his display. “Admiral, Captain Desjani asked us to take a real good look at the jump points in this star system. There wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen already at the one we arrived at, but we eventually found something at each of the other ones.”

Geary saw new symbols appear on his display, glowing red with familiar danger markers. “Mines?”

“A mine, Admiral. Just one. At each jump exit. Hidden by some really impressive stealth technology. A really big mine.”

That made no sense at all. One really big mine? Geary bent a puzzled look on Desjani.

She waved toward Yuon again. “Make your report, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, Captain. I had the sensors report everything on the mines, but nothing unusual registered. So then I had them scan the areas right around the mines for anything unusual. And eventually the fleet’s sensors spotted some space-time distortion.”

“Space-time distortion? Around a mine? How could—? Wait a minute. Space-time distortion. Isn’t that what happens close to a hypernet gate?”

Desjani mimed applause. “You got it. Or rather, Lieutenant Yuon got it.”

“They’re weaponized versions of the gates, Admiral,” Yuon explained eagerly. “No transportation capability, just a means to set off incredibly powerful bursts of energy.”

“What do the weapons engineers say about this?”

“We asked Captain Smythe,” Desjani said. “His people first denied that you could put that sort of thing in something the size of those mines, big as they are, then conceded that really good engineers might be able to do it.”

“Really good engineers,” Geary repeated. “Like the spider-wolves.”

“And that,” Desjani concluded, “is why the bear-cows haven’t just waltzed through this star system and jumped onward. If anybody tries to use one of those jump points without spider-wolf permission, it’s boom boom out go the lights. I thought you should know that.”

“Thanks. And thank you, Lieutenant Yuon. That was an impressive piece of research and analysis.”

Yuon beamed, and Lieutenant Castries raised a congratulatory fist toward him.

“Just remember when dealing with these guys,” Desjani said, “that they have tricks up their sleeves. And they have more sleeves than we do. How do we know what they’re thinking?”

“The civilian experts believe that the spider-wolves think in patterns, and that they see us as having a role in keeping that pattern stable. As if we help anchor the pattern.”

Desjani raised her eyebrows skeptically. “A stable pattern? You mean, like, everything?”

“Yeah. Everything. Life. The universe.”

“How can they think that’s stable? There’s nothing stable about life, the universe, or anything else. Everything is always changing. They can’t believe that some pattern exists and never alters as long as it is anchored well enough.”

“No,” Geary said. “They said something about the pattern changing but remaining. It can change. But to them, reality is that pattern.”

“Hmmph.” Her skepticism was clear enough. “I’m not saying they’re bear-cows, or enigmas, but they’re still aliens.”

“You don’t have to remind me of that.”

Her reply was interrupted by an incoming call from Rione, with Charban visible in the background. “The spider-wolves are willing to let us transit their territory,” Rione told Geary slightly breathlessly.

“Thank the living stars. How soon—”

“There’s more.” The corners of her mouth bent upward in a triumphant smile. “They have a hypernet. They will use some of their ships to escort us through it to some location much, much closer to human territory.”

Geary stared, unable to believe their luck. “That’s absolutely wonderful. When—”

“There’s more,” Rione broke in again. “They have two conditions. The first condition is that one of their ships, carrying a diplomatic delegation, accompany us home.”

“Agreed,” Geary said immediately.

“Such an agreement would allow the spider-wolves to know exactly where human space is located, Admiral.”

“I suspect they already had an idea of that if their border with the enigmas runs that close to Pele. Maybe they’ve never actually come into contact with us, but they must have picked up some indications of another race confronting the enigmas in that region. What’s the other condition?”

“They want something from us,” Charban said.