The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

Major Dietz nodded. “Roughly toward the living and operations spaces we actually occupy. The emissions from the Donkeys helped mask our own actual presence. The Syndics must have picked up some trace indications of our real location on board once the Donkeys were shut down.”

“The point being,” Lagemann continued, “they only went for two locations initially instead of a third grouping trying to also seize the weapons control compartment they would have expected to find.”

“Which would argue in favor of their only having two nukes?” General Carabali asked. “That analysis makes sense, but do we want to bet the farm on it?”

Lagemann smiled crookedly. “If we’re wrong, and they do have a nuke, I’ll be buying the farm.”

“We wouldn’t be in this position if they hadn’t tried to farm our ship,” Dietz pointed out.

“Are you all done?” Geary asked, exasperated.

“Sorry,” Admiral Lagemann said. “Those jokes weren’t exactly breaking new ground. Sorry, sorry. But I think I can be forgiven for a little levity to distract me from the possible consequences for me and the rest of my crew of urging you to order the Marines to go in.”

Geary let his eyes rest on the deck plan of Invincible. “Does anyone think time is on our side?”

Only Carabali answered, and that was in the negative. “No, sir. If they’re ready to die carrying out their mission, and if they’ve got a nuke, we need to hit them as soon as possible before the nature of Invincible drives them crazy enough to just set it off.”

“They can certainly feel the ghosts in those compartments they’re in,” Major Dietz agreed. “Since we powered down a lot of the gear in here and shut off life support, they’ve been crowding in with us. Having a bunch of people here helps, but it doesn’t stop the spooky sensation.”

“Go ahead and power up your gear again,” Carabali ordered. “Get your life support going, too. If there are any Syndics who avoided the Marine sweeps and haven’t been driven crazy by the ghosts, they might come your way once your emissions get stronger. That will give you a chance to take them out. Admiral, I want to go in after those twenty Syndics forted up in those five compartments as soon as we’re ready.”

Geary had to pause to think. He couldn’t spend too much time dwelling on the consequences if the Syndics did have a third nuke and did detonate it, because visualizing that would be certain to unnerve him. Part of him remained very angry with the Syndics, determined that they not win in any way, shape, or form as a result of their sneak attacks here at Sobek. He knew that was also the wrong grounds for making the decision, though.

Invincible was immensely valuable to humanity, even if the cost to this fleet in the taking of the superbattleship from the Kicks wasn’t counted in. Dared he risk the destruction of everything humanity might learn from Invincible?

On the other hand, did he dare give that up? Suppose Invincible did hold somewhere inside the secret to the Kick planetary-defense system? Suppose the Syndics acquired that? The same Syndic CEOs willing to order suicide attacks and willing to threaten the destruction of Invincible’s trove of knowledge?

“Go in as soon you’re ready,” Geary said. “If you can take any more prisoners, it would be nice because I want living bodies who can hang this operation on the Syndicate Worlds, but the primary goal is ensuring a quick takedown, so if they do have a nuke, they don’t have time to activate it.” He didn’t ask what the odds of success were, knowing that any reply would only be guesswork.

Major Dietz saluted. “Five minutes, Admiral. We’ve already prepared the assault plan. We’ll hit them from every direction at once.”

“Good.” Geary pulled himself back to awareness of the larger situation again, trying to block out mental images of what might soon happen if he had decided wrong. “Still quiet?” he asked Desjani.

“Yeah. I ordered a saturation bombardment of the primary inhabited world. We launched that ten minutes ago, but it will take another half a day to get there, so there’s nothing to see yet.”

He glared at her. “That’s not funny. Is there a reason why everybody has suddenly decided to start making bad jokes?”

She met his eyes. “Because we’re scared.”

“Oh.” Geary couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“They’re hitting us in unusual ways,” Desjani explained. “We don’t know what’s coming next. We don’t know if all of the sacrifice required to get possession of Invincible is about to be negated by a little fusion star blooming inside the ship. We want to get home, and we don’t know what else the damned Syndics have thrown in our way. All right?”

“All right.” He made an apologetic gesture. “I’ve been too busy to think about those things.”

“Too busy commanding? You’ve got your nerve.” Desjani smiled briefly. “We’d be a lot more scared if you weren’t in command.”

“The Marines are going to take out the remaining Syndics on Invincible in . . . four minutes.”