But Desjani answered anyway. “He was executed on the spot per orders from Admiral Bloch,” she said in a toneless voice. “The spot in question being three meters behind and one-half meter to the left of the fleet commander’s seat on the bridge.”
It took Geary a moment to get it. “He was sitting in the observer’s seat?” He couldn’t help looking at Rione, who had customarily used that same seat ever since Geary had assumed command, but she seemed both unsurprised and unmoved by the news.
“We burned the seat cushions,” Desjani added. “The bloodstains would’ve come out, but nobody wanted to use them again.” She paused at whatever she saw in Geary’s eyes. “No, sir. I was busy trying to fight my ship through the ambush. The execution was carried out by the Marine guarding the traitor.”
He looked away for a moment. “It was a lawful order. I couldn’t have blamed you if you had carried it out.” It wasn’t hard to remember the shell-shocked expressions of the crew after the Syndic ambush, how badly they’d been stressed by the sudden loss of so many of their sister ships in the fleet. None of them would have hesitated for a moment to take revenge on an individual in great part responsible for that. “We won’t let this Syndic do the same.”
“We can’t trust him,” Desjani repeated.
“I have no intention of trusting him.” Desjani seemed slightly mollified by Geary’s words, so he turned and walked into the interrogation room while Desjani and Rione remained behind, along with the intelligence personnel, to watch the monitors.
CEO Boyens stood up when Geary entered the room. He looked nervous, which was understandable. One leg was still in a light flex cast, revealing battle injuries that hadn’t quite healed. The CEO hesitated at the sight of Geary’s insignia. “Admiral Geary?”
“Yes.” Geary kept his voice hard. “What’s the deal you want?”
The Syndic took a deep breath before speaking again. “I have information you need. In exchange for it, I want your agreement to defend human space against the aliens.”
He took a moment to absorb that. “You’re the first Syndic to openly admit they exist, and you want us to commit to protecting the Syndicate Worlds from them?”
“Yes.”
He’s telling the truth so far, Lieutenant Iger’s voice whispered to Geary through the comm link.
On the heels of Iger came Rione’s voice. How much does he really know?
That was a good question. Geary frowned at the Syndic CEO. “How do I know that you know all that much?”
Boyens smiled crookedly. “I’ve been second in command of the reserve flotilla for ten years. I know as much as our Executive Council told anyone and as much as I could personally observe.”
Ten years? Desjani’s voice demanded.
Geary understood her question. “That’s a very long time for anyone to serve in any assignment. Why were you there that long?”
This time Boyens shrugged. “I was exiled to that assignment, for want of a better word. I’m an engineer by training, and I’d established a promising start-up company. A much-bigger corporation wanted our business, and the CEOs running that corporation had the ears of the CEOs running the Syndicate Worlds. My company got taken from me. Instead of being smart and lying low while I worked my way up the CEO ladder until I could exact revenge in a few decades, I made a fuss over it, citing the Syndicate Worlds’ laws that had been ignored. Before I knew it, I’d been ordered to a position in the reserve flotilla.” The CEO shrugged again. “An assignment out on a border far from any chance for advancement. I couldn’t even tell anyone why I was really there since officially the reserve flotilla only existed as a backup against the Alliance. I also couldn’t get transferred out, thanks to the people I’d ticked off earlier.”
It all reads out as truthful, Iger advised.
Geary sat down and leaned back slightly, eyeing Boyens. “And now you want the Alliance fleet to help you get revenge against those people?”
The CEO shook his head. “No. That’s not what this is about. Those people are part of a ruling group that has driven the Syndicate Worlds into this war and fumbled its execution time and again. I don’t expect you to believe me when I say this, but I’m also motivated by a desire to protect my own home from the corruption and idiocy of the people who’ve been leading the Syndicate Worlds.”
“Do you consider yourself a patriot, then?” Geary asked.
Boyens flinched. “I don’t know. I do know that thanks to the decisions of the Syndicate Worlds’ leaders, and thanks to the victories you’ve won, we’re wide open to attack by not only the Alliance but also the aliens. I know how they act as well as any human does. That’s not very well, and no one really understands how they think, but I’m very worried.”
“Which ‘they’ do you mean?” Geary asked. “The aliens or the leaders of the Syndicate Worlds?”
The CEO flashed an anxious smile. “Both. I’d bet my life that right now the CEOs on the Executive Council are gathering in the home star system every remaining warship in the Syndicate Worlds’ mobile forces.”
Geary snorted. “You are betting your life.”
“That’s what I figured.”
As CEOs went, this one seemed both candid and shrewd. As Geary paused to think, rubbing his chin, Rione’s voice whispered to him again. He’s reading out as honest in his statements. He’s also worried, but that could be because of fears for personal safety rather than fears for the people of the Syndicate Worlds.
Give us more readings, sir, Iger urged. Ask him about the aliens.
“I need to know more about what you’re offering,” Geary stated. “Tell me something about these aliens.”
Boyens hesitated. “The things I know are my bargaining chips. If I tell you enough, you might not need to make a deal.”
“CEO Boyens,” Geary said coldly, “I won’t make a trade no matter what information you have unless I know that what you’re proposing is in the best interests of the Alliance and humanity as a whole. So I suggest you start trying to convince me.”
The CEO watched Geary for several seconds, then nodded. “That matches what we’ve seen of your behavior. What do you want to know?”
“What do the aliens look like?” That maybe wasn’t the most important thing, but it was a question he had been wondering about for some time.
“I don’t know. As far as I can tell, no one does.” Boyens smiled crookedly at Geary’s reaction. “It’s true. If any human has ever personally encountered the aliens, they haven’t reported back on it. We have had ships vanish in the border regions, and long ago on exploration trips beyond the border. Maybe their crews are prisoners, maybe they’re dead. But none of them have come back.”
“Haven’t the Syndics talked to the aliens?”
“Comm links. Negotiations are pretty rare, but I’ve observed two of them.” Boyens spread his hands in a frustrated gesture. “I’m not talking virtual meetings, just viewing the other side on a screen. But what they show us are obviously human avatars, fake images of humans against fake backgrounds.”
How does he know they’re fake? Iger asked. Digital signals wouldn’t carry any means of knowing whether the content was real or altered.
“Fake?” Geary asked in turn. “What makes you certain that they’re fake?”
“They’re realistic enough to fool someone at first, but after a little while you start picking up on tiny inconsistencies and behaviors that feel wrong. It’s like . . . suppose you were pretending to be a cat. You could probably get good enough at it to fool other humans. But real cats would still know the difference.”
He believes that’s the truth, Iger assured Geary.
For his part, Geary locked his eyes on Boyens’. “Humans vary a great deal. How do you know they’re not really human?”
This time Boyens startled Geary by laughing, but the laughter held a sharp edge instead of humor. “If you ever see them, you’ll know. I’ve talked to people from different cultures. I know how points of view can vary. Bu
t there’s something about the aliens that goes beyond that, no matter how hard they try to hide it. Tru—” He laughed again, through clenched teeth. “I was about to say ‘trust me.’ But that’s not going to happen, is it?”
“No. Tell me what these aliens want. You must have some idea.”
The CEO frowned. “Only in general terms. From the records I’ve been able to access, and that’s too damned few since anything regarding the aliens is classified and compartmentalized as much as possible, after first contact it seemed that all the aliens wanted was for us not to push into their territory. In the next couple of decades they seemed to want to push into our territory, but very cautiously. About seventy years ago they stopped that, and aside from occasional tests of our defenses, they’ve been quiet. No one knows why, because whoever has talked to them gets the clear impression they want some of the star systems occupied by the Syndicate Worlds. But there hadn’t even been a feint within the last five or six months before we were ordered to leave that border and attack the Alliance.”
That didn’t tell Geary any more than he had already guessed. “What do their ships look like?”
“We don’t know. They’ve got some kind of stealth gear that’s a million light-years better than ours. You see nothing on sensors but a big blur on which our best gear can’t make out any details.” Boyens glared at Geary, plainly expecting this statement to be challenged. “We’ve tried everything we can think of to get a decent look at one of their ships. Decades ago, some volunteers in stealth suits were vectored toward some alien ships that had entered a Syndicate Worlds’ star system for negotiations. We hoped they would get close enough to get inside the alien stealth bubble, if that’s what it is, and get a real look at things, but they all died before they saw anything.”
“The Syndics have never destroyed an alien ship and had wreckage to examine?” Geary demanded.
“No.” The Syndic CEO stared at the deck.
He’s holding something back, Lieutenant Iger reported.
“Have you ever fought them?” Geary asked Boyens.
“No.”
That answer surprised Geary, so he waited for Iger to report that it was a lie, but no such statement came. He was still thinking about his next question when Rione spoke. Ask him if the Syndics have ever fought the aliens. Not him personally. The Syndics.
The deception was obvious once Rione pointed it out. Geary set his jaw angrily as he eyed the Syndic. “Have the Syndics ever fought the aliens?”
Boyens’s own jaw clenched for a moment, then he nodded. “Decades ago.”
“What happened?”
“I wasn’t there.”
Evasion, Iger announced.
“Do you know what happened?” The Syndic stood silently, and Geary got up. “You want us to trust you when you’re obviously withholding critical information? Why shouldn’t I leave the Syndic border area to its own devices?”
The Syndic flushed with what seemed to be a mix of anger and embarrassment. “They always seem one step ahead of us. I was briefed on one program that should have worked. We jumped ships into star systems only a light-year or so from alien-occupied star systems, then launched asteroids hollowed out to hold sensors at the alien star systems. Even at the speeds we launched them, they would have taken decades to reach their targets, but they should’ve looked like nothing but high-velocity rocks since all of their sensors were passive and their power systems were so heavily shielded. It didn’t work. Sensors tracking the trajectories of the rocks spotted their destruction short of the alien star systems.”
Interesting, Rione’s voice noted unemotionally, but also a diversion. He’s still avoiding talking about what happened when the Syndics fought these aliens.
Geary rubbed his chin as he thought about ways to get this Syndic to say more about the alien sensors and combat capabilities. “I assume the Syndicate Worlds has also tried crewed missions into alien-occupied star systems.”
“Right. None came back. We never heard anything from any of them.”
“What about the star systems you’ve abandoned to them? Did you try leaving anything on those that could report back?”
Boyens stared at Geary. “How did you—? Yes, we’ve abandoned some star systems to maintain peace on the border, and yes, sensors were left behind. We hid automated courier ships in the star systems to pick up what those sensors saw, then jump out with the information. None of those ships ever reported in. It’s like the damned aliens know everything we’re doing the moment we do it. Before we do it, even.”
“Is that what happened when the Syndics fought them?” Geary pressed.
The Syndic CEO seemed to spend a long moment deciding what to say, then he met Geary’s eyes. “Yes. And on those occasions when our warships could acquire targets and fire on them, the shots had no effect. Hell lances were absorbed with no indications of damage, grapeshot simply vanished against the alien screens, and our missiles were all destroyed short of their targets.”
Geary smiled thinly. “Why didn’t you want us to know that?”
“Because I wanted you to fight them. I was afraid if I told you, then you’d decide not to confront the aliens and leave the Syndicate Worlds to deal with the threat.”
“You think we can do what your warships couldn’t?”
Boyens’s face reddened. “Don’t toy with me. You’ve annihilated Syndic flotillas time and again, including flotillas that substantially outnumbered your own forces. I don’t know how. But you obviously have a major advantage over us.”
Rione’s voice came again, sounding amused this time. I wonder if he realizes that he’s looking at that advantage as he speaks.
Unable to give Rione an annoyed look, Geary stayed focused on the Syndic. “What else can you tell us?”
The CEO hesitated, then spoke roughly. “Not a lot. Most of what I have to offer is experience. Experience dealing with senior CEOs and the aliens. I can help. I just want you to help hold off the aliens.”
“Why?”
Boyens sighed, then spread his hands helplessly. “I helped defend them for ten years. I got to know them. I . . . feel responsible for them.”
“You say that like you should be apologizing for caring about them,” Geary challenged.
Boyens didn’t answer, looking away, then faced Geary again. “Mobile-forces CEOs, any mobile-forces officers and personnel, are discouraged from developing any personal ties with local populations . . . because it might lead to their hesitating when they have to take necessary internal-security actions.”
“Internal-security actions. Such as bombarding your own planets?”
“Yes.”
“How the hell does any human being agree to do that?” Geary demanded.
Once again, the CEO was silent for a while. “To keep everyone safe. I know how that sounds. Threaten to kill your own people to keep them safe. But it maintains order. It keeps us strong enough to face external threats. It’s about what’s best for the majority of the people. We can’t let small groups jeopardize the security of everyone else.”
Apparently the aliens weren’t the only beings with thought patterns hard to understand. Geary was trying to decide what else to ask, whether or not to order Boyens transferred off Dauntless again, when Rione spoke. Ask him about Senator Navarro, about the lack of attacks on Abassas.
Why did Rione want to know that? But maybe the answer would provide an important insight. “One more thing, CEO Boyens, and I’ll tell you frankly that if I don’t like the answer, you’ll be off this ship. Why hasn’t Abassas Star System been attacked for a while?”
Boyens looked perplexed. “Abassas? Is that near Syndicate Worlds’ space?”
“Yes. It’s the home star system of the current chair of the Alliance grand council.”
The Syndic CEO appeared puzzled a moment longer, then suddenly laughed. “You’re falling for that? Seriously? It’s the oldest trick in the book.”
“What is?” Geary demanded.
“Avoidin
g attacking property belonging to an enemy leader. It makes the enemy wonder what kind of deal that leader might have cut. I don’t have personal knowledge of Abassas, but that’s a common strategy for sowing dissension in the enemy ranks.” Boyens stopped laughing and spread his hands. “I don’t know if you like that answer or not, but that’s the only answer I know.”
Geary nodded abruptly. “Thank you. You’ll be taken to the brig on this ship while your offer is evaluated.”
He turned and left, trying to resist the urge to yell at the Syndic.
Halting in the observation room, Geary took in the displays. “What do you think?” he asked everyone there.
Rione answered first, her own eyes on the readouts. “He didn’t register as deceptive in his request for aid, though there were other places where he was clearly shading the truth and being certain to phrase his answers carefully.”