Tanya looked directly at Rione, speaking sternly. “If your presence on Dauntless is judged as needed by Admiral Geary, then you are more than welcome to stay here. You will be treated with every professional courtesy.”
“You know how much that aggravates me, don’t you?” Rione said dryly. “Admiral, I cannot help you in a fight against the dark ships. There is nothing to negotiate with. But I can be of great help to the Marines. I am asking to be allowed to assist them.”
“What about talking to the Dancers? You were one of our primary points of contact with them,” Geary pointed out.
“You don’t need me for that now,” Rione said. “The Dancers are finally speaking plainly enough to those with the skill to phrase the questions right. I wouldn’t dream of crowding Lieutenant Iger and that lieutenant with the lovely emerald hair, who seem to prefer being alone together in that comm room.”
It all made excellent sense. There was no reason to object. And yet Geary felt an odd sense of disquiet as he considered his answer. Discounting that feeling as the result of having to face the uncertainties of another battle with the dark ships, Geary nodded to Rione. “You make a good case. There is plenty of room aboard Mistral for you since they are only carrying two battalions of Marines. I don’t know why I haven’t already thought to ask you to transfer to Mistral.”
“I know how much you personally enjoy having me around, Admiral,” Rione said, smiling as Desjani’s glower deepened.
“I’ll have to do without your immediate company for a while for the benefit of the Alliance,” Geary said. “I will let Colonel Rico and Commander Young know that you are coming to work with them. Captain Desjani, can you arrange an immediate shuttle lift to Mistral for Senator Rione?”
“With pleasure,” Tanya snapped. “By your leave, sir.” She saluted, then walked off rapidly down the passageway, crew members scattering as they saw her coming and judged her mood.
“Do you have to do that kind of thing?” Geary asked Rione heavily.
“It may be some sort of compulsion,” Rione said. “I’m sorry. It’s a shabby way to repay your hospitality.” She met his eyes. “Good luck, Admiral. Tell Captain Desjani I regret the difficulties that I have caused her.”
Rione walked off as well, leaving Geary staring after her and trying to recall the last time that Rione had used Desjani’s name.
He had been wondering what he would do if the dark ships erupted from Varandal’s hypernet gate as his fleet was approaching it. But as the First Fleet and the Dancer armada grew closer to the huge structure humans called a gate, which was actually a vast ring of hundreds of tethers that held a particle matrix in the desired form, no threat emanated from it.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can complete the mission,” Geary sent in a message to Admiral Timbale that would not reach Ambaru Station for hours.
Desjani had already called up the hypernet key controls. “Unity Alternate is selected as the fleet’s destination, Admiral. The hypernet field is set wide enough to include the entire fleet as well as the Dancer ships. We’re ready to go whenever you give the word.”
“Thank you, Captain. Activate hypernet.”
She touched the command, and the stars vanished.
Twelve
There was none of the mind-dazing shock of transitioning into and out of jump space, no gray haze filling jump space around them, no mysterious lights. Outside the bubble in which the fleet traveled, there was, literally, nothing. In fact, as it had been explained to Geary, the fleet wasn’t really traveling. It had been at one gate, at Varandal, and after a few days all of the human warships would be at the other gate, at Unity Alternate, without technically having traveled between those gates.
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?”