Jack Campbell - Leviathan

Sixth…

Dammit, why didn’t you place your trust in the citizens of the Alliance rather than in secrecy and technology?

The courier ship carrying Captain Jane Geary and multiple copies of Geary’s report on multiple backup systems departed through the hypernet gate three days later. “There have been a lot of civilian ships leaving since we got back,” Desjani commented, “but this should be the first official reporting of what has happened that gets to the government at Unity and fleet headquarters.”

“What have I done, Tanya?” Geary asked. “I’ve knocked over the first domino. How far and how wide will the reaction be?”

“You didn’t knock over the first domino,” she replied, giving him a crooked smile. “Whoever sent out those dark ships to hit Indras… no, whoever authorized the whole dark ship program… the war… there was a century of dominos falling in that war.” Her gaze on him shifted, becoming appraising. “Or maybe the first domino fell when you were the last person off Merlon a century ago, and your damaged escape pod put you into survival sleep, to be lost until the fleet found you on our way to Prime to try to beat the Syndics once and for all. Maybe that’s when this whole thing got put into motion.”

He made a scoffing sound. “You make it sound like a plan.”

“Maybe it was. Maybe the living stars knew that we’d need you, and for some reason that I admit I don’t understand, maybe they thought that we deserved being saved from our own follies.” Desjani smiled again. “And if that’s true, then you’ll figure out a way to stop the dark ships.”

Geary shook his head at her. “No pressure, huh? Tanya, right now I have no idea how to stop them.”

He looked back at the depiction of the hypernet gate, knowing that at any moment a fleet of dark ships might erupt from it, and wondering what he could do to lessen the disaster if that did happen.

Captain Tulev’s battle cruisers arrived at the jump point from Atalia a few days later. His own ships battered in the fight with the dark ships at Atalia, Tulev had been left behind to assist damaged ships, pick up survivors of destroyed ships, and provide what pitifully small aid he could to the ravaged human cities in Atalia.

He had come aboard Dauntless to provide additional details because recent experience had only emphasized for them all that even the supposedly most secure forms of conferencing and communication were not truly safe from eavesdroppers. Geary had invited Desjani to attend the meeting in his stateroom as well, they sitting on the short couch together while Tulev occupied the chair opposite them. Tulev rarely displayed much emotion, but even he could not avoid occasional flashes of anger and distress as he reported in detail on the damage done to Atalia by the rogue dark ships. “The only good thing, and this only from the perspective of the Alliance, is that the people of Atalia are convinced that the dark ships must be Syndic in origin because they attacked us and we destroyed many of the dark ships in the subsequent fighting.”

“At least we finished off the dark ships that escaped from Atalia,” Geary told him.

“Yes. I regret missing that action.” Tulev paused, thoughts moving behind his eyes. “Can it be called vengeance when what was destroyed were only machines?”

“I derived some satisfaction from it,” Desjani said.

“But of course, Tanya. I would expect nothing else from you.” Tulev bent the corners of his mouth in the briefest of smiles at her.

“I’ll be even happier if I get to blow away the fools who thought building those dark ships was a good idea,” she added.

“This, too, I would expect of you,” Tulev said, then looked at Geary. “Do we have plans, Admiral?”

“I’m trying to get the fleet in the best possible state of readiness,” Geary replied. “I’ve sent a very detailed report on what happened at Indras, at Atalia, and here at Varandal, to the government and to fleet headquarters. They will realize that we have to do something. Hopefully, they can deactivate the surviving dark ships. If not…”

“It will be difficult,” Tulev observed with typical understatement. “My ships will be ready, Admiral.”

Desjani had been watching Tulev closely. “Is everything all right, Kostya?” she asked.

Tulev glanced at her. “Has everything ever been all right, Tanya?”

“Not in my memory.” She leaned forward a bit toward him. “We’ve been through a lot, you and me. Fought in a lot of battles, lost a lot of friends, seen a lot of things we’d rather forget having seen. I’m a little worried about what I think I’m seeing now. Is anything in particular wrong?”

This time Tulev took a few seconds to answer, his gaze distant, then he looked back at her, then at Geary. “I’m waiting for the war to end.”

Geary nodded. “I know that this peace feels a lot like a war at times.”

“That is not what I meant, Admiral.” Tulev frowned slightly, his eyes on the table before him. “I’m waiting for the war with the Syndicate Worlds to end. The war that destroyed my home, and so much else. A peace agreement was signed. Officially, the war is no more. But that happened outside of me. Inside… the war remains. It still goes on. It doesn’t end. I don’t think it will ever end, in here.” He tapped his chest with one forefinger.

Geary looked away, trying to find words. “I’m sorry.”

“I know how you feel,” Desjani said. “If not for—” She broke off, looking away, uncharacteristically embarrassed-looking.

Tulev showed that shadow of a smile again. “It’s not something that should not be said, Tanya. You found someone.” He nodded very fractionally toward Geary. “It must help a great deal.”

“It does,” she whispered, still not looking at him, and sounding guilty now. “There’s something in my soul besides the war.”

“And that is a good thing, what I would want a friend to have, just as you would be pleased if it were me who had found someone.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Geary asked.

“Thank you, Admiral, but you are not my type.”

Desjani snorted a brief laugh and shook her head at Tulev. “That’s the guy I used to know.”

“He is still inside there. But… so is something else. It is war.” Tulev shrugged. “In the histories, they give dates. A war begins on this day, at this hour, and then it ends at some precise date and time. All very neat and clean. But you and I, all of us who have fought, we know that wars don’t end at some moment dictated by a peace treaty. There’s nothing neat about the endings, if they truly end at all. I remember too many things, Admiral. I remember too many people. Many of them I don’t want to forget. But I cannot forget any of them. I have no home left to me. And so the war goes on, inside.”

Geary nodded. Tulev did not often talk about the destruction of his home world during the war. It was something everyone knew about him, so it did not need to be discussed. “The price of war goes on, too. Histories tend to calculate that in terms of money and casualties during the war, not in terms of what it does to those who fight and experience the wars. We’ve been… talking to… some official representatives who were involved with supporting the dark ship program on Ambaru Station. They haven’t told us much, but one thing we did get out of them was one of the concepts behind the dark ships, that by turning fighting over to artificial intelligences we would eliminate the impact of the killing on humans. They said it would make war less horrible.”

Tulev fixed his eyes on Geary. “They said that? Tell me, Admiral, what would you call a person, a man or a woman, who killed without concern, without thought or regret, simply because they had orders to do so? What would you call someone who felt nothing at all when they killed, never questioned an order to kill, and never hesitated, but simply killed, then moved on to the next target?”