Dreadnaught

“I understand,” Geary said. It made sense, and it was consistent with the news reports that he had seen. Even the reduced fleet the government was talking about would be a few times the size of the peacetime Alliance fleet a century ago. “But that will mean Second Fleet will be spread out a great deal, with few ships covering a very large region of space.”

“Well, yes. But that fleet will only have to deal with anything leaking over into Alliance space from the mess in what used to be the Syndicate Worlds.”

“Then you intend to have the First Fleet often operating outside Alliance space?” It seemed important to get that said up front.

“Yes,” Suva replied.

Geary eyed both Navarro and Sakai, but neither elaborated.

“There are some things you may not have heard,” Senator Suva added. “You should understand the situation that we are facing. There’s a growing faction within the Senate that believes our existing military forces should be cut far more than has been proposed so far. Some of them don’t trust the military, and others want to divert that money to other purposes or use it to cut taxes, and some are motivated by both reasons.”

“Yet,” Sakai said, “the external threats remain.”

“So, our problem,” Suva said, “is how do we justify the continued size of the Alliance fleet? We have to be seen using those warships, and using most of them, not just small portions of the existing fleet. Otherwise, there will be unbearable pressure to either decommission or scrap those warships.”

That, too, made perfect sense, except for the part about Senator Suva expressing concern for the fate of the military during peacetime. During Geary’s one earlier and admittedly fairly brief encounter with Senator Suva, she hadn’t impressed him as being deeply invested in the military. What had changed her mind, that now Suva wanted to provide reasons to keep the fleet at its present size? “Senator,” Geary said, “I do think the Alliance is going to need those warships.”

“Of course.” Outward agreement but little feeling of real concurrence. “There is another issue, bearing on events that have just occurred. We have numerous agents within the fleet, reporting on morale and other matters vital for the government to know. Loyalty to the government is not a powerful component of the fleet.” Suva turned a look upon Navarro, as if emphasizing some point they had argued before. “Those warships can be characterized as a threat to the government. If knowledge of that grows in the Senate, the pressure to eliminate those warships will become very strong.”

“ ‘Eliminate’?” Geary asked, surprised by the use of that term.

“Pardon me,” Suva said. “ ‘Decommission’ is the right term? That is one factor. The other thing our agents report is that the longer the fleet sits in orbit, the more restless its crews might become. If we keep those warships idle, their crews will become harder and harder to control. I assume you see the truth in this.”

Geary nodded back, the movement sharp. “I won’t argue that, Madam Senator. But the crews of those ships have had very little chance to visit homes or families during the war. They deserve that opportunity now. If they don’t get it, we’ll have big morale problems from that, likely even more quickly than from giving the crews too little to do.”

“What do you suggest, Admiral?” Navarro asked.

“More time at home for them. You say we need to carry out this mission into alien space quickly, but if we could delay that for a couple of more months—”

“No, no. That’s impossible. We have an active threat that needs to be investigated. I’ve been convinced of that by the other members of the council,” Navarro said, giving Geary the first hint that there had been debate within the council on his orders, “and I understand the need to act quickly. It cannot be months.”

Instead of arguing for a more specific time frame, Geary just nodded, suspecting that they would keep pushing for less than whatever he asked for. Ruling out “months” did not make a single month an unreasonable period for his own planning on when the fleet should leave. But if he asked for a month, the grand council and fleet headquarters might insist on a period of only a few weeks instead. Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. “Yes, sir.”

Senator Suva was watching him closely. “Admiral, if those warships are sitting inside the Alliance, they pose a great threat to the Alliance. Today’s events prove that.” She leaned forward. “You have surely heard that there are those who wish you to become ruler of the Alliance. With you and those warships outside the Alliance, the threat posed by you is much reduced. We have been told that matters to you, that you don’t wish to destabilize the government or cause a coup. Now is the time to prove that you truly believe that.”