The Lost Fleet: Courageous

“Which he survived by running from,” Captain Cresida snarled. “That’s exactly what he wanted to do at the Syndic home system, too! Every ship for itself!”

Voices erupted all around the table, some shouting at Yin, some at Cresida. Geary searched his controls and punched the command override, quieting all the noise instantly. The ability to shut everyone up at times like this was about the only thing about being fleet commander that he liked. “Everyone listen. This kind of debate isn’t doing us any good. Our enemies are the Syndics. Captain Cresida, it’s true that Captain Numos has been charged with abandoning his responsibilities in the face of the enemy, but he has not yet been convicted of that.”

Cresida looked unhappy but nodded. “I apologize for my remark about a fellow officer, sir.”

“Thank you. Now, Commander Yin, Captain Numos is supposed to have only enough human contact to meet the requirements for humane treatment. He is not supposed to be giving advice on the running of your ship or of this fleet. Are you in fact consulting with him on those matters?”

Yin’s eyes were everywhere but on Geary’s. “No. No, sir.”

If he could only contrive a way to get Commander Yin down to the interrogation room in the intelligence section on Dauntless and see how the sensors there evaluated answers like that. But then Geary was already certain Yin was lying. Duellos was right-the words and the proposed course of action sounded very much like Captain Numos. Numos would have presented the words with a superior sneer rather than obvious anxiety as Commander Yin had, but then Geary suspected that Numos had a lot more experience with lying to his own advantage.

If Geary had needed any confirmation that Numos was still working against him despite being relieved of command of Orion and arrested, he now had it.

Duellos spoke in a professionally detached tone. “I’d recommend against doing as Commander Yin proposed. How could we be certain we’d be able to rejoin with the damaged ships and auxiliaries? That force would be well enough off, since they would have all the supply capability in the fleet to themselves and would even be capable of reaching Alliance home space with those supplies, though I am of course speaking purely theoretically, since I know Commander Yin would never consider abandoning the rest of the fleet. Though of course the rest of the fleet would be fighting to the death here, and there probably wouldn’t be many Syndic forces able to mount a rapid pursuit of the ships that had gone ahead to Ixion. But that is, as I said, purely a matter of theory and not something I would think any fleet officer would consider doing.”

Yin was pale as death now, staring at Duellos. His emphasis on her name had clearly conveyed the idea that another officer with that force might try to abandon the fleet. Numos remained under arrest on Orion, but if Orion were detached from the rest of the fleet, how long would he remain confined?

And despite requiring Cresida to apologize, Geary knew damned well that Numos would run like a rabbit if he had command of that formation and the auxiliaries and their supplies with him.

Nobody was saying anything. Rione gave Geary an impatient look and jerked her head as if to remind him that there was a fleet conference going on.

Geary studied the expressions around the table, relieved to be finding little apparent support for Commander Yin’s proposal. “Thank you, Commander,” he stated flatly. “I don’t think it would be wise to adopt your proposal. This fleet will remain together and return to Alliance space together.” He saw instantly on the faces of the others that it had been the right thing to say. “I know you are all inspired by the sacrifices of Renown and Paladin. Let’s take out plenty of more Syndic ships in the names of those brave warships.” He felt like a hypocrite praising Paladin, but her crew had died bravely enough. They shouldn’t suffer in anyone’s estimation because their captain had failed them. “But let us also learn from the example of Paladin. Hold together, and we can destroy the Syndics. Fail to do that, and they can destroy us.”

No one seemed ready to debate that point with the images of the death of Paladin still vivid in their minds, but Captain Armus of the battleship Colossus frowned at the display as if still thinking. “Captain Geary, that new Syndic strike force, the one that outnumbers us, can intercept us prior to our reaching the jump exit for Ixion.”

“That’s true, if we hold the same course and speed. We’re going to try to throw off any attempted Syndic intercept.” He indicated the display. “They’re five light-hours away from us, so they won’t even know we’re headed for that jump point for another five hours. We’ll make some minor adjustments on the way to the jump point, just enough to confuse a Syndic intercept that’s reacting hours later.”