“I thought the government techs were going to take over Invincible a week ago.”
“They were.” Lagemann winked. “We suggested they might want to take a little time to get accustomed to Invincible, but they brushed aside our superstitious concerns, came charging on board to take custody and eject us, then went charging back into their shuttles much faster than they had come aboard. After a week spent working out how they would deal with the Kick ghosts, the techs finally took full custody late yesterday. The last fleet sailors, Marines, and I left this morning.”
“Maybe the techs will figure out what the ghosts are.”
Lagemann looked into the distance. “Would you think it odd if I wanted the ghosts to remain a mystery? To maybe fade away and disappear, their cause and their nature remaining unknown?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Desjani tossed in, “if that’s exactly what happens.”
“Are you going home?” Geary asked Lagemann.
“Yes. For a brief visit with those who thought me dead. Then I have to report for extensive debriefing on everything I learned about Invincible while serving as her commanding officer.”
“That should be fun,” Geary remarked. “What about you, Doctor?”
Shwartz gazed longingly around her. “I will miss being here, Admiral. Here with your ships. No luxuries at all, and food worse than even universities provide in their cafeterias, but I finally had the opportunity to really work in my field! And I enjoyed working with you, against all expectations about rigid military minds and institutions. Now we must go our separate ways and fight our separate battles.”
“You have battles?”
“Vicious and ugly battles,” she confirmed. “Battles for academic primacy, battles for credit for discoveries, findings, and interpretations, battles for positions on boards and study groups. There will be ambushes to strike the unwary, no end of verbal and written atrocities inflicted on the combatants and innocent bystanders, and horrible barrages of rhetoric exchanged in unending debate until some bloodied figures manage to surmount the smoking wreckage of truth and declare themselves authorities over the scholarly rubble that remains.”
Geary smiled. “You make it sound worse than actual warfare.”
“Having seen both academic and real warfare, Admiral, I find the relative honesty of the real thing something of a relief.” Shwartz gestured vaguely. “The fight for access to that Kick superbattleship has just begun, and the amount of academic bloodletting over that alone will probably exceed what your Marines encountered. I only hope the entire ship is not declared classified and off-limits to scientific inquiry.”
“The military and the government wouldn’t do something that stupid—”
Lagemann intervened. “Sad to say, I think the techs may have intended doing that until they got aboard and realized the enormity of what was inside that ship. Before I left, the most common comment among the techs was we’re going to need a lot of help.”
“Good,” Desjani said. “Personally, I think the limits of enigma space were a lot easier to find than the limits of official stupidity would be.”
“You know,” Professor Shwartz said with a wicked smile, “you might want anyone working against you to get their hooks into that Kick warship. The superbattleship looks so terribly powerful. And yet it is helpless, a burden to whoever has it.”
“Yes,” Geary agreed, remembering the long and difficult journey to get Invincible back here in one piece. “Having the ship with us was a real headache.”
“A white elephant.” Her smiled broadened. “I’m going to be an academic and lecture you, Admiral. Do you know where the term ‘white elephant’ originated? Back on Old Earth. It literally referred to an elephant who was white. In one particular civilization in ancient times, an elephant who was naturally white was regarded as sacred. Such an animal required no end of caring for and rituals and special treatment. It was ruinously expensive. Because of that, when a white elephant was born, the rulers of that land would bestow it as a gift upon their richest, most powerful enemy, who would be forced by law and custom to drain their fortune on the upkeep of the animal. No one could refuse such a gift, and no one could afford to keep it. Do you have any powerful enemies who could benefit from the gift of your white elephant, Admiral?” Shwartz finished in teasing tone. “You might try to lure them into seeking that prize.”
Geary laughed. “I might be able to think of some who would benefit from that sort of thing. If the opportunity arises, would you be open to being invited to return to work with the Dancers?”
“Admiral, if you arrange such an invitation I will be here so fast that even the hypernet will look slow by comparison.” Shwartz hesitated. “Admiral, I really don’t know how to thank you. You found them. You found three intelligent, nonhuman species, and even though only one of those will speak to us, you still found all of them.”
“We all found them. I’m just glad we survived the experience.”
After the shuttle docked, the corpsmen raced off with the stretcher while Rione watched them go with a blank expression.
Dr. Shwartz ambled away, waving farewell and looking around like a tourist as she went.
Admiral Lagemann saluted Geary, then grabbed his hand. “Thank the living stars, I’m home. And thank you. A rescue, an astounding adventure, and a final command that no one else can match. I hope to see you and your, uh, Captain Desjani again.”
“We’ll look forward to it, Admiral,” Desjani said. As Lagemann left, she looked at Geary. “You’re welcome. I figured you could use some more pleasant diversion on the ride than worrying about politics.”
“And, as always, you were right. Here comes our escort.”
This time there were no armed soldiers threatening to arrest Geary, just some military police handling crowd control to keep a quickly gathering mass of people from swamping the area as they sought to meet and see Black Jack. From the happy buzz of conversation, Black Jack’s stock was still pretty high among the residents of Ambaru station.
“Admiral, Captain, Madam Emissary,” Admiral Timbale greeted them. “I was delayed seeing to the arrangements for the delegation from the grand council. I’m to bring you to them right away. Ah, that is, I’m to take Admiral Geary.”
“I received a late invitation,” Rione said. “Someone realized that they might want to have someone else present who has conversed extensively with the Dancers. I recommended Emissary Charban come as well, but that suggestion was vetoed.”
“I never get to go to these meetings,” Desjani said. “But I’m sure I’m happier as a result.”
Timbale grinned and gestured to them to accompany him as he began walking down a passageway cleared of other traffic. “Have you seen the news?” he asked.
“I’ve been trying to avoid it,” Geary admitted.
“Understandable. But you need to know what’s going on before you end up in front of the grand council.” Timbale exhaled heavily, gazing upward. “Here’s what they’ve been seeing. Cute aliens. Really cute aliens. We killed them. A lot of them. Ugly aliens. Really ugly aliens. We brought them home with us.”
Desjani hissed in exasperation. “Do they know that the really ugly aliens helped us kill the really cute aliens?”
“Thank the living stars, no. Even though the records of your encounters with the Kicks have been highly classified by the government, somehow detailed accounts of how hard you tried to communicate with them and avoid bloodshed have been leaked to the press.”