Jack Campbell - Invincible

“Make that as little as ten hours if any of those warships report in via faster-than-light comms,” Desjani warned.

Geary looked over the star system as the fleet’s sensors continued to fill in details. Not wealthy or heavily populated with planets but a reasonably well-off star system. One planet had the veiled cities and towns of the enigmas straddling the borders of land and some impressive oceans. “We don’t have any idea what level of detail their faster-than-light comms can provide. Would they blow this away without confirming whatever their ship reported? Especially if they saw us heading straight for a jump point out of here instead of lingering at all or heading for somewhere within the star system?”

“Using human logic hasn’t always worked well when it comes to enigmas,” Desjani pointed out.

“Granted. But we know that the number of star systems available to them is limited because they’ve got us on one border, the bear-cows on another, and the spider-wolves facing them elsewhere. And in our travels through their space, we didn’t find any enigma star systems that had suffered through the collapse of a gate. They can’t be authorized to blow up star systems unless as a last resort.”

A vulnerability period of anywhere from two to five hours. But nothing could be done about that except what he was already doing, getting to that next jump point and getting out of here as fast as the fleet could manage it.

He hadn’t slept well in the day before they arrived, and now nothing could happen to threaten the fleet for hours. “Captain Desjani, I am going down to my stateroom to get some rest. I encourage you to stand down your crew for the next few hours as well.”

Desjani frowned at him, pretending to be unaware of the desperate efforts of every crew member within sight to avoid looking hopeful. “Let my crew rest?”

“If you’re comfortable with that.” He knew how hard they had been working to get every system ready for arrival here, testing and repairing and tweaking to bring Dauntless to the highest possible combat readiness.

“Yes, Admiral, I am. They earned it. All hands, this is the Captain. Stand down from normal work routine for three hours. Normal workday routine is to resume at the end of that time.” She released the general announcing system control and winked at Geary in such a way that no one else could see. “Enjoy your rest, Admiral. I’ll be keeping an eye on things.”

“Tanya, you should—”

“I got plenty of rest last night.”

She was probably exaggerating wildly when she said “plenty,” but he couldn’t very well call her a liar in front of her crew.

He was actually back on the bridge after only two hours, noticing as he traveled from his stateroom that numerous members of the crew had also drifted back to duty stations earlier than required.

“What do you suppose they’re thinking?” Desjani asked. “The enigmas, I mean. We show up here with six spider-wolf ships along for the ride, and towing a Kick superbattleship that’s obviously seen better days.”

“What I hope,” Geary replied, “is that the enigmas are seeing we have new allies and that we not only beat the Kicks but acquired a very impressive souvenir from them.” He wondered for a moment by what name the enigmas called the Kicks. “Either one of those things might have influenced the enigmas to seriously negotiate with us. Taken together, maybe they’ll be enough to convince the enigmas not to mess with us anymore.”

“It doesn’t sound like you believe that, though,” Desjani commented, sitting back in her seat, her eyes on her display.

“No.” Geary felt the old sense of futility. “General Charban thinks the enigmas will have to be beaten badly at least one more time in order to get across that they can’t defeat us militarily.”

“How did that ground-forces general get so good at figuring out how alien species think?”

“I have no idea. And, yet, he’s single,” Geary couldn’t help adding.

Desjani didn’t turn her head, just cutting him a look from the corners of her eyes. “Women are not an alien species.”

“Did I say that? Is anything important happening?”

“Aside from an admiral skating on thin ice? No. You would have been informed, sir.” She indicated one of the enigma warships. “This guy is closest to us. He will see us first, anytime now, as a matter of fact, and when we see his reaction in a few hours, it may give us some indication of what the enigmas are going to do.”

Geary rubbed his lower face with one hand, wishing he had some more definitive and timely information. You would think I would be used to this kind of time lag in information by now. He tapped an internal comm circuit. “Emissary Rione? General Charban? Have we heard anything from the spider-wolves?”

Dr. Shwartz answered. “I’m the only one here at the moment, Admiral. We haven’t heard a thing.”

“What have we sent them?”

“Upon our arrival here, we sent a message trying to ask the spider-wolves what they would do. It’s still hard to format the pictograms and other symbols in ways that we know get across anything but the simplest concepts. About an hour ago, we sent another message, asking them if they knew what the enigmas would do. We asked them that before we left spider-wolf space, of course, but they didn’t answer us then. We thought it wouldn’t hurt to repeat the question.”

“Not too friendly,” Geary muttered.

Dr. Shwartz must have heard. “We don’t know that we’re getting across the right question, and we don’t know their social protocols. If you ask a human something, and they don’t know the answer, the polite thing for them to do is say, ‘I don’t know,’ or something like that. For spider-wolves, the polite thing might be to say nothing if you can’t provide a meaningful answer.”

“But we don’t know if that’s how they do things.”

“No, Admiral, we don’t know.” Dr. Shwartz shook her head ruefully. “It’s much easier dealing with imaginary aliens. They somehow always come around to acting the way you want them to act. That’s what all of us ‘experts’ found during our careers prior to this, that is. But the enigmas, the bear-cows, and the spider-wolves persist in doing things that don’t fit the molds we’re trying to create for them. Some of my colleagues are having a great deal of trouble with that. They keep trying to make the aliens fit the mold rather than the mold fit the aliens. I can’t blame them for that. It’s how we all worked for a long time.”

“Do you think that’s why General Charban is coming up with some of the insights he’s having? Because he’s not an expert with a lifetime of trying to figure out how an alien species would think to hinder his ability to see how these aliens really are?”

Shwartz looked startled, then thoughtful. “That is possible, Admiral. Would it be immodest of me to point out that I’ve also come up with a few insights?”

Geary smiled. “You have indeed, Doctor. I am grateful for your presence with us and will ensure that everyone back in Alliance space knows how much you have contributed to our mission.”

She laughed. “At which point my colleagues will all develop legendary levels of hatred for me! Have you ever seen the knives come out among academics? I’m not sure that I should thank you. Well, I will. If the government decides to send a delegation to the spider-wolves, I hope my name will be considered as a participant.”

“If I have any say in it, you’ll be part of such a delegation.”

There had still been nothing from the spider-wolves, whose ships had maintained a steady vector aimed at the jump point for Pele, when a reaction from the enigmas could finally be seen. “He’s coming around,” Desjani said. “Looks like… I’ll bet you he’s coming to an intercept with us or something a few light-minutes short of an intercept.”