"It's the only a.s.sessment that matches the message traffic, sir," Iger stated miserably. "We wanted to find something else to explain it. But nothing else matches."

"Fair enough." Geary stood up. "Good job on the a.n.a.lysis and good job on telling me the truth as you think it is. But you did miss something."

Iger looked even more worried. "What was that, sir?"

"You told me that there's no way to change the destination of ships in a hypernet in midjourney. If the intelligence you collected is right, and I know of no reason to doubt it, then there must be such a way. We just don't know what it is."

Iger looked startled, then nodded, then appeared puzzled. "But if the Syndics know a way to do that, why were they so surprised to arrive in a different star system?"

"Maybe the Syndics don't know how to do it, either, Lieutenant." Geary paused to give Iger time to absorb the implications of that. "Is there anything you have that I don't have access to? Any information deemed too sensitive for me to see?"

"No, sir," Iger stated immediately. "As fleet commander you have access to everything. I can't speak for files off of this ship, but anything on this ship is available to you, regardless of cla.s.sification and other restrictions."

There was a star display floating near one bulkhead. Geary went over to it and gazed into its depths. "Lieutenant, are you aware of any information that indicates or speculates that another intelligent species exists on the far side of Syndic s.p.a.ce from the Alliance?"

He turned back to see Iger staring at him. "No, sir," Lieutenant Iger stated in a surprised voice. "I've never seen anything like that."

Geary nodded again. "Do me a favor, Lieutenant. Pull up the data that we've captured that provides information on the far side of Syndic s.p.a.ce. Plot in occupied star systems, abandoned star systems, and hypernet gate placements. Then tell me what you think."

Iger was staring at the star display now. "Have you already done that, sir?"

"I have. I want to see if you reach the same conclusion I did."

RIONE was in his stateroom when Geary returned. She stood and gave him a searching look. "It didn't quite feel the same in here without you slouched in a chair radiating gloom. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"So Captain Desjani was able to give you something I couldn't."

"That'sashe helped. You and she both helped."

"Uh-huh." Rione sat back down, looking tired. "Good, anyway. Whatever did it. I was about to the point of standing over you and slapping you until you moved."

"I might have started to like it," Geary replied.

"A joke? You've gone from immobility to jokes?"

"Not really." He sat down near her and made an uncertain gesture. "I don't really understand how it worked, but responsibilities can weigh you down, or they can make you move. Sometimes both. Does that make sense?"

"Yes, it does," Rione agreed, her voice uncharacteristically gentle. "Where were you?"

"I just came from the intelligence offices." Geary called up a star display and explained what Lieutenant Iger had told him, Rione listening but giving little clue to her reactions. "How do you think that large formation of Syndic ships arrived in Lakota via hypernet in time to nearly destroy us?" he asked at the end.

Rione sat silently for a few moments, her eyes on the star display. "So it wasn't exceptionally bad luck. It seems our unknown aliens have chosen to side with the Syndics. I warned you they wouldn't let you win."

"I'm not getting any closer to winning! I'm still focused on survival and not sure how long I can manage that."

"Have you considered all of the implications of this?"

"Of course I have!" He glared at her, then paused to think. "Which implications?"

Rione gestured to the star display. "How did our increasingly less-hypothetical alien intelligences know that this fleet was headed for Lakota so that they could divert that Syndic fleet to there?"

Geary felt his guts tighten. "Either they have some means of detecting the movements of fleets in roughly real time across interstellar distances, or they have a spy in this fleet. Do you think they look human enough to pa.s.s?"

"If they aren't indeed human. Or perhaps they've hired agents to spy for them. Or maybe the spy isn't even living but a worm inserted in fleet systems to report on our activities."

Geary nodded. "Those are possibilities, and frankly more believable for me than anything that can see across light-years of distance without any time delay. If thoseawhatever they are can do that, then the human race is very seriously outcla.s.sed in technology. Unpleasant though the thought is, I prefer believing that some kind of spy is providing that information." He paused to think. "Obviously your spies in this fleet have never found signs of alien spies, or I'm sure you would have told me."

Rione uttered a heavily exasperated sigh. "My spies are aware of many different spies working for many different people. But many informants remain unseen, I'm sure, and the ident.i.ties of most of the employers of those spies we know of remain uncertain at best. Now, the next implication. How did this spy get the information to the aliens in time for them to act?"

Geary stared at her. "I should have thought of that. The only way they could've is if these beings have a means of faster-than-light communications that doesn't involve using a ship to physically transport the message."

"We've speculated the hypernet gates could allow that somehow."

"Yeahabut there wasn't a hypernet gate in Ixion, which is where we decided to go to Lakota. We haven't been in a star system containing a hypernet gate since Sancere, and that gate was destroyed before we left."

"True." Rione made a face. "A faster-than-light transmitter small enough to remain undetected on one of our ships. How much more technologically advanced than we are these alien intelligences?"

Geary was staring at the starscape when another realization hit. "d.a.m.n."

"What?"

"The worst implication of all, maybe. We've been hoping to find a Syndic hypernet gate poorly enough defended to allow us to use it to get close to Alliance s.p.a.ce."

She nodded.

"But now we can't, not even if one is sitting totally undefended."

Rione got it then, digging her fingernails into her palms. "If we enter the Syndic hypernet system, and these aliens can redirect any ships within that systema"

"We could end up anywhere. Instead of arriving in our planned destination next to the border with Alliance s.p.a.ce, we might come out on the opposite side of Syndic s.p.a.ce. Or in a system where the entire Syndic fleet is gathered waiting for us again."

"Or somewhere not even on the Syndic hypernet?" Rione wondered. "That's not supposed to be possible, but it seems a number of impossible things must already be happening."

Geary sat down, leaning back in his seat and trying to get his mind around all of the things that it seemed must be true. "I don't get it. Say they've got those capabilities, and they must have some of that. Why would they tip their hands this way? Let us know they have those abilities?"

"Perhaps because the highest levels of the Syndic leadership already know about them and will know who caused their fleet to arrive at Lakota instead of Andvari." Rione shook her head. "As for us, the aliens don't expect us to survive or perhaps even guess what really happened. But I'm still surprised they gave away knowledge of such capabilities to us."

"Maybe because it doesn't do us any good? We're still trapped." Geary felt anger growing. With all the problems he faced already, it wasn't fair to have aliens jump in and make things worse. That was ridiculous grounds for being mad, but it just wasn't fair, and it made him mad as h.e.l.l. "This fleet must get home the hard way or not at all. And it is going to get home."

Rione gave him a disbelieving look, then smiled. "From despairing to determined. This has been a good day for mood changes as far as you're concerned." The smile faded, and she frowned slightly. "There's a possibility we haven't considered."

"What's that?"

"Perhaps the aliens deliberately let us know of their capabilities with the hypernet system. Perhaps they expected you to somehow escape from that star system just as you have successfully escaped from others. Perhaps they aren't helping the Syndics but trying to tell us something."

Geary stared at the star display, letting the idea filter through his mind. "I have enough humans who think I can do the impossible. I don't need aliens piling on, too. Why would they do that?"

"I don't know," Rione stated with open frustration. "We don't know what the goals of these mysterious opponents are. We don't know how they think, a.s.suming they're not human. What do they want? Humanity tricked into endless war? Are they waiting for some optimum number of hypernet gates to be built before they cause all of them to collapse and liberate enough energy to sterilize every part of s.p.a.ce colonized by humanity? Or are the gates simply insurance if we ever threaten them? Or is it something totally different, a goal based on some alien concept we can't even put a name to?"

"You're telling me they may not be hostile? Even though they redirected that Syndic flotilla to Lakota so we were almost trapped there?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. If an alien fleet appeared before us tomorrow, what would you do?"

Geary paused to think. "I'm not sure. If they opened fire, my decision would be easy. But if they just appearedaI guess the smart thing to do would be to talk. Find out what they want."

"And then," Rione added, her eyes hard, "decide if what they want is something humanity can live with."

"Whoever or whatever they are, they owe us for the loss of Audacious, Indefatigable, and Defiant," Geary replied, his own voice harsh. "They better have a really good justification for that."

THREE more days of thinking, three more days of not finding answers. As the fleet exited into normal s.p.a.ce back at Ixion, Geary felt a bitter taste in his mouth. No minefield awaited them at this jump exit from Lakota, so Geary just watched as the Alliance warships flashed into existence around Dauntless. He kept his eyes on the ship status readouts as reports came in, seeing updates on damage and repairs, fuel cell reserves, and expendable munitions remaining. Everything looked bad. Worse yet, a number of ships were still trying to get some of their main propulsion drives repaired. Until they did, the fleet couldn't even run at a good pace without leaving those ships behind.

Leaving them behind to the Syndic wolves that would be coming out of this same jump point in pursuit. Geary had no trouble imagining the scene, because he'd already run some worst-case simulations. The Alliance fleet fleeing for another jump point, the faster Syndics coming on after them, swarms of swift light cruisers and Hunter-Killers picking off those Alliance ships too badly damaged to keep up, then hara.s.sing the main body of the fleet itself, hitting the ships in the rear of the Alliance formation and one by one causing them to lose ground and be caught by the main body of the Syndic pursuers.

He'd tried simulations of what would happen if he tried to re-form his fleet here and fight the superior numbers of Syndics who'd be coming through that jump exit in pursuit. With many damaged ships, low fuel reserves, and expendable ammunition stocks almost exhausted, the results were always total destruction for the Alliance fleet.

a.s.suming he retained command after the fleet conference that would have to be held. Now, when the external threats were so critical, he knew that he had to deal with an even greater level of internal threat.

They couldn't linger in Ixion for even an extra moment, and they wouldn't get out of Ixion without losing a lot more ships. Beyond Ixion, if any Alliance ships made it out, there seemed no way to throw off the Syndic pursuit this time, no way to justify the sacrifice of all of the ships lost at Lakota. All around him on the bridge of Dauntless he could see the watch-standers gazing at each other with helpless expressions, looking scared and beaten as they absorbed the current condition of the fleet.

They couldn't stand, and they couldn't run.

And just like that, Geary realized what the Alliance fleet had to do. To h.e.l.l with the fleet conference. I've made up my mind, and everyone's going to follow orders.

He took a deep breath, took a long look at the battered ships of the fleet fleeing the jump point, then calmly pressed his controls. "All ships in the Alliance fleet, this is Captain Geary. Reverse course, immediate execute. I say again, all ships reverse course by turning up and over immediately."

Captain Desjani gave the orders to her crew automatically, then turned to stare at Geary with a baffled look. He didn't have to see anyone else's face to know they were reacting the same way. "Sir?" Desjani asked. "Reverse course? If we're going to try to plant the mines left in the fleet-"

"We're not planting mines," Geary stated. "There's not enough left in our inventories to make a difference."

"Captain Geary," a message came in, "this is Captain Duellos on Courageous. Please confirm your last order."

"Confirm. All ships, reverse course, immediate execute. Let's move it."

Geary wondered if any of his ships would keep going, fleeing farther into Ixion Star System, but no place offering refuge or hiding could be seen, only the vast emptiness around Ixion, and it seemed no one wanted to risk being left alone in that emptiness by ignoring the order. He saw his ships curving up and around. They weren't in much of a semblance to any formation now, but he didn't have time to try to reorganize them. Even at the relatively slow speed with which the fleet had exited the jump point, it took far longer than Geary liked, but eventually the fleet was pointed back toward the jump exit.

"This is Colossus. What are your intentions, Captain Geary? Shouldn't there be a fleet conference as soon as possible? There are critical command issues to address."

"This is Conqueror. Concur with Colossus."

"Thank you for your input," Geary replied. "There's no time for a conference. We're leaving this star system." He paused just long enough for everyone to hear that and wonder what he meant. "All ships in the Alliance fleet, this is Captain Geary. We're not going to retreat even one more kilometer. This fleet has unfinished business at Lakota. We're going to jump back toward Lakota, and when we get there, we're going to kick in the teeth of any Syndic flotilla present there and then see how many of the crew members of Indefatigable, Audacious, Defiant, Paladin, Renown, and the other ships we left back there can be recovered, and then this fleet will continue on its way back to Alliance s.p.a.ce no matter what the Syndics throw at us."

He took another deep breath, wondering what everyone was thinking right now. "We'll go through jump right like this to save time and ensure we surprise the Syndics. On exit at Lakota, all ships are to turn starboard immediately eight zero degrees and be ready for combat. We won't be leaving Lakota again until we've given the Syndics a lesson they'll never forget on how the Alliance fleet can fight." And maybe provide a lesson about how hard humanity could be to defeat for the unknown aliens as well. Even if they had spies all over this fleet, those spies wouldn't have much chance to tip off their bosses with the fleet going right back into jump. The battle would be a little more even this time without the aliens helping the Syndics.

"Yes, sir!" Desjani was grinning and thrusting one fist high in the air. The watch-standers Geary could see on the bridge of Dauntless were yelling and punching each other's arms. He could hear a low roar that he gradually realized was the sound of the crew of Dauntless cheering their lungs out.

Geary looked back and saw Victoria Rione staring around as if she had suddenly found herself in an insane asylum. "Captain Geary," Rione protested in a strangled voice, "your fleet is low on ammunition, low on fuel cells, and has many damaged ships. And you're taking it back to Lakota?"

"That's right," Geary stated. "We can't stand and fight here, we can't run and get away, so we're attacking."

Rione looked from Geary to the celebrating crew members of Dauntless, her expression horrified. "But that's madness! What if there's a superior Syndic force still awaiting us at Lakota?"

"I guess that'll be too bad for them," Geary replied, knowing that whatever he said would somehow find its way around the fleet. It wasn't a moment for caution or reflection or doubt. I need to lead this fleet. May the living stars grant that I'm not leading it to destruction, but if so, we're going to die fighting, not running. Desjani was smiling proudly at him as the ships of the Alliance fleet reached the jump point again. Another fleet officer, and a very good one, she understood something that Rione probably never could. "All ships," Geary transmitted, "I'll see you in Lakota.

"Jump now."

Ace Books by Jack Campbell.

THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS.

THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS.

THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS.

THE LOST FLEET COURAGEOUS.

JACK CAMPBELL.