“No,” Geary said, holding up one hand, palm out, to emphasize the word. “I’m waiting here. Anything you have to tell me you can say here and now.”
“I’m sorry, Admiral, but we’re not allowed to,” the elder explained. “Please. We don’t want to have to insist.”
“I don’t want you to have to insist, either,” Geary said. “What’s wrong with the comm systems on Ambaru?”
“Once you are read into the appropriate programs and swear to the nondisclosure requirements—”
“No,” Geary repeated.
“Admiral,” the oldest official said with what seemed to be feigned reluctance, “now I must insist. If we have to arrest you, we will. We have that authority from the government.”
Geary gestured toward some of the nearest Marines in their battle armor. “These Marines are loyal to the Alliance, but I think you’ll find that they aren’t inclined to trust you.”
The younger official smiled. “What they think doesn’t matter. They can’t even see us or hear us.”
“You think so?” Geary activated a comm circuit. “Captain, have two of your Marines target these two, one on each.”
“Yes, sir.”
Two rifles came up and around, each centering on one of the officials, whose expressions had gone from smug to worried. “You can get away with a lot when you control the software,” Geary said to them. “But when other people figure out that there’s another source of malware, one coming through official channels, they can figure out ways to block it. Now, you two are under arrest for threatening an officer of the fleet. You will stand to one side of the dock under the close personal attention of some of my Marines. I assume you know that there are very few people who actively seek out close personal attention from Marines? You will wait there until I have had a chance to find out exactly what is going on here and have been able to get security reestablished on Ambaru.”
“Admiral,” the eldest official said, “you are risking the compromise of the most important secret programs—”
“You mean the programs that may have just restarted the war with the Syndicate Worlds?” Geary asked, surprised that his voice didn’t tremble with anger. “Did you bother looking at the vids that were sent here of what happened at Indras and Atalia?”
“We were not authorized—”
“You weren’t authorized to pay attention to what was happening, but you were authorized to risk the lives of everyone on this station?” From their expressions, Geary realized that his voice had gotten a lot louder. He scaled it back. “You idiots. We barely managed to stop an attack on this station, an attack the station was blind to because of your actions. Literally blind obedience is not a virtue. Don’t say another word to me until I ask you to, and don’t do anything until I tell you to, or you will both regret it.”
After only a couple of minutes, another ground forces soldier appeared. The soldier advanced with open hands held out, then popped his face shield when close to Geary. “Colonel Kochte, commander of the ground forces with primary responsibility for defense of Ambaru,” he introduced himself.
“Are we good, Colonel?” Geary asked.
“I’m not moving my people until we get things cleared up, Admiral. Our systems are a mess,” Kochte complained. “The problems seem to be spreading throughout Ambaru and the star system.”
“You’ve got official software fighting official software,” Geary said. “I provided Major Problem with software patches that will fix the problems.”
“Yes, sir, but with all due respect, since you’re not in my chain of command, and as far as we can determine the patches are not officially approved or authorized, that creates some other problems for me.”
“Colonel, I want to ensure that no Alliance troops end up shooting at each other because of the problems with the software on this station and their battle armor.”
“We are in agreement with that, sir.” Kochte hesitated. “Admiral, if this was some Syndic sabotage, I could act immediately.”
Geary considered that. “I cannot rule out Syndic involvement in one way or another. I don’t know with absolute certainty who has been creating this problem.”
Kochte smiled. “Then I can have those patches installed, based on your assurances that they are necessary to the defense of this station.”
“They definitely are necessary, Colonel. I understand in their current configurations, your battle-armor systems are designating Alliance Marines as hostile forces.”
“And the Marines are not. Or they shouldn’t be.” Colonel Kochte looked at Geary. “Admiral, since you got back, it has looked like you and your ships were doing some sort of fleet mime game, pretending you were fighting something that wasn’t there. But our systems spotted damage occurring to some of your ships even though there was no indication of anything firing at them. Does this have anything to do with any of the aliens?”
“I don’t think so, Colonel.” He couldn’t rule it out, of course. Maybe the enigmas had figured out a different way to mess with humanity. But he had no evidence for that, and substantial evidence in the other direction. “I suspect this is purely human mischief, but by whom I do not yet have sufficient information.”
The colonel’s eyes went to the two officials standing stiffly with Marine rifles held in ways that covered any movement they might make. “Who are they, sir, if I may ask?”
“I don’t know. They thought they could give me orders.”
Kochte looked uncertain again. “Is it happening, Admiral? They said you wouldn’t.”
“Happening?” The meaning of the question hit Geary. “Do you mean am I moving against the government? No. I am acting lawfully, dealing with threats to my forces and to the Alliance. I am still trying to sort out who is behind this. Even if these two are legitimate, which I think is far from a settled question, I do not think the government really understands what has happened, that layers and layers of secrecy have kept too many people in the dark about what I suspect was actually going on, and that too many other people have used secrecy as a way of avoiding having their actions questioned. I am not moving against the government. I am still trying my best to defend the Alliance.”
“But if those two really are from the government—”
“I know what they claim. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t know where they are from,” Geary said. “Do you recognize them?”
“No, sir.” The colonel took a deep breath. “I do know I still haven’t been able to get comms with my general. Therefore, I am placing my forces under your command as senior officer present. What exactly are we doing?”
“Making sure no Alliance soldiers trade fire with Alliance Marines. I’ll stand down my Marines. You do the same with your soldiers as fast as you can get those software patches loaded. After that, our priorities are to get Ambaru Station working again, find Admiral Timbale, make sure Varandal Star System is ready to defend against any Syndic retaliatory raids—”
“Syndic—?” Colonel Kochte again looked at the two officials standing stiffly to one side. “Retaliation for what? Something they did?”
“Something they’re involved with,” Geary said. “They may not even know about it even though they’ve been helping to make it occur.”
“Ancestors. What the hell happened?”
“A century of war. I keep discovering more people who seem to have learned all of the wrong lessons from it.”
“He’s in there,” the Marine sergeant declared confidently as he worked on a panel next to the hatch for Admiral Timbale’s private quarters. “There’s some kind of override on the security software that is locking him inside and blocking comms in or out.”