Jack Campbell - Leviathan

As odd as jump space was, the quantum mechanics behind the hypernet were in some ways even odder.

Geary got up, relaxing with the knowledge that for the next few days nothing could get at them, and they could get at nothing. Whatever was going to happen, would happen. “It’s a relief to be on our way,” he commented to Desjani.

She looked over and up at him. “Are you going to get some sleep?”

“Yes, I am. Even if I have to call Dr. Nasr and ask for a patch to knock me out for a while.”

“Good. That means I won’t have to call Dr. Nasr and tell him to knock you out. Hopefully, you won’t dream about dark ships.”

“I imagine I’ll be dreaming about something else entirely,” Geary said, giving her a look.

She shook her head, exasperated. “You’re still on my ship, Admiral. Keep your dreams professional.”

“You’re kidding, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer because he couldn’t be certain and didn’t want to find out otherwise.

Once he got to his stateroom, he lay down in the bunk, gazing at the overhead, hoping that he had made the right decisions. He couldn’t recall how many nights had been spent like this since he had been awakened after his century of survival sleep. There had been too many. And this night was one more.

“So the Dancers did jump all the way from their own region of space to that jump point that exited at Varandal?” Geary shook his head in disbelief. “How?”

“We’ve been having some trouble getting the technical explanation rendered into the form of a haiku,” Lieutenant Iger confessed.

“There was a warning though,” Lieutenant Jamenson added. “The Dancers said ‘you should not attempt that jump.’ They were very insistent.”

“Lieutenant, two weeks in jump space is as much as I ever want to spend there in one stretch,” Geary said. “How are you two doing?”

“Sir?” Lieutenant Iger asked, worried.

“I mean working conditions. I want you both rested and ready when we leave the hypernet.”

“We’ll be ready,” Lieutenant Jamenson said. “Admiral, the Dancers are worried. We put this in our reports, but you may not have had time to review them. They say ‘cold minds,’ the sort of thing they call the dark ships, have more than once proven to be much harder to stop than anyone expected.”

“Believe me,” Geary said, “after Bhavan, I’m not expecting any free rides. If we can knock out the support structure for the dark ships, we’ll be able to stop them.”

“What if we can’t knock out that support structure, Admiral?”

“Then it will be much harder,” Geary said.

Two days later, he sat on the bridge, waiting to leave the hypernet. He wondered what was happening at Unity right now. Had the Senate already moved against the covert structure that had gained too much power in the last several decades? He had no doubt that General Carabali would provide the support that the Senate needed. He wondered whether the dark ships had already launched another attack designed to draw him into battle. Had they gone to Varandal? Back to Bhavan? Or maybe to Unity itself? And he wondered how many dark ships would be awaiting them at Unity Alternate.

At least he would get the answer to one of those questions soon.

“Ten minutes until exit from hyperspace,” Lieutenant Castries said.

“ Dauntless is at maximum combat readiness,” Desjani reported.

“The Dancers have done this before,” Geary said, talking to fill the time. “They’ve already dealt with this kind of threat.”

“So have we,” Desjani said. “Remember that place with the rocks?”

“Stonehenge. Yes. Maybe we’ll get the lesson this time.”

“I bet you we won’t. For a little while, maybe,” she said.

“You are probably right once more,” Geary said.

“Two minutes until exit from hyperspace.”

They waited silently as the final minutes counted down.

At zero, the stars suddenly appeared again. Behind them was a hypernet gate, and before them were two stars orbiting in what was known as a close binary.

“I have never seen that before,” Desjani said in an awed voice.

The displays updated rapidly as the fleet’s sensors consolidated, analyzed, and assessed everything that could be seen. Geary saw large installations appearing on his display, their orbits centered on the larger of the two stars, which must sometimes bring them uncomfortably close to the smaller. Six planets, varying in size from a rocky, barren half Earth-standard to what had once been a gas giant but had apparently been losing its atmosphere at intervals to one of the stars. A host of smaller natural objects also orbited within the system, some of them following eccentric orbits that swung them past both stars. “We’re not seeing anything on the planets,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “There are some very large facilities in orbit. Docks. Warehouses.”

“They could maintain a fleet four times the size of ours here,” Geary said, amazed. “For a long time.”

“They were ready to keep the war going if the worst happened,” Desjani said with grudging admiration. “Look at those orbits! This system is a mess. No wonder they didn’t put anything on the planets. Ah, look what else we found, Admiral.”

He didn’t have to ask what she was referring to. The same symbol had appeared on his display. “ Invincible . They did bring her here.”

The alien superbattleship, much larger than any human warship, was hanging in its own orbit a few light-minutes from the dockyards. “Even those docks couldn’t hold something the size of that Kick ship,” Desjani commented. “Is this right? The ship is cold?”

“Yes, Captain,” Lieutenant Yuon replied. “Our sensors aren’t picking up any signs of active power aboard Invincible , or any other activity. No heat being radiated. The ship is still completely shut down and apparently has no one aboard.”

“What about those tugs?” Desjani asked. The many heavy-duty tugs that had been fastened about the hull of Invincible to move her from Varandal were still there, forming two rings about the alien battleship’s hull. “They’re cold, too?”

“Just standby power, from what our sensors can see,” Yuon reported. “Aside from that, all systems inactive and life support not running. No indications of crews or caretakers present. The tugs appear to have been put into stand-down.”

“They were supposed to be taking Invincible somewhere to study the Kick technology and try to learn more about the Kicks,” Desjani complained to Geary. “Instead, they just hauled her here and forgot about her!”

“Maybe they had to shut down research efforts when the dark ships started causing problems,” Geary speculated.

“If that’s the case, they didn’t shut down anything in a hurry. Everything about Invincible and those tugs reflects methodical deactivation.”

“That’s so. And they parked Invincible a fair ways from anything else, as if they were afraid of the ship.” Geary felt a wry smile on his face. “Maybe they were afraid of the Kick ghosts.”

“It would be nice to know the Kick ghosts spooked whichever human spooks have been busy at Unity Alternate,” Desjani commented, using the common slang term for undercover operatives. She looked over her display again. “But they’re all we’re picking up. No other shipping.”

“There aren’t any dark ships here at all?” Geary asked, staring at his display with a mingled sense of relief and mild disappointment. It would have been nice to catch a small force of dark ships and wipe it out along with their support facilities.

“We’re not seeing anything,” Yuon confirmed. “We can’t see inside the docks, though. All of them appear to have power active but no life support running.”