Desjani shook her head.

Geary laughed shortly. "At least I'm not that bad."

"I just thought you should know that Colonel Carabali probably isn't all that upset with the way you deal with command, sir."

Of course, as far as Captain Desjani was concerned, Geary could do no wrong. But he still shuddered at the idea of working for a commander who kept him on-screen during an operation, demanding attention that was needed for the battle.

Speaking of which, the shuttles were sliding into landings, bay doors opening and Marines in battle armor tumbling out as the shuttles kept moving so that the ground troops were spread out instead of being clumped together into a ma.s.s target. Twelve shuttles deposited twelve lines of Marines, then accelerated upward again. "Nice job on the delivery," Geary observed. "Were the flight paths automated?"

Desjani frowned, gestured to a watch-stander, then waited for the reply. "No, sir. The shuttle pilots prefer to use personal control. The Marines have a deal with them. As long as the shuttle pilots do a good job, the Marines let them fly their birds."

"That's a reasonable arrangement. And if any pilot screws up, then the Marines require them to use automated controls on the next drop?"

"Uh, yes, sir," the watch-stander confirmed. "After any Marines who survived the failed drop catch the pilot and beat the h.e.l.l out of him or her. Not that they've ever been caught doing that, sir."

"Of course not," Geary agreed, suppressing a smile. The lines of Marines were moving into the mining facility, dodging from cover to cover, moving in sections to provide covering fire for each other.

Not that the precautions seemed needed. Geary watched the display with growing uneasiness as cl.u.s.ters of enemy symbols fell back faster than the Marines were advancing. Leading elements of the defenders were already vanishing into some of the mine shafts littering the surface of the moon. "What the h.e.l.l?"

A moment later, Colonel Carabali called him. "Captain Geary, the defenders aren't really trying to hold. They're falling back fast into some of the mine shafts."

"I just noticed that. Any guesses as to why they're not fighting?"

"Sir, I'd guess they want to evacuate the installation before something happens. We'd already speculated that this looked like a trap."

The defenders are getting out of a blast zone? "What do you recommend, Colonel?"

"Sir, as much as I hate to do so, I think we need to pull back until we scan this rock atom by atom and find out what the Syndics have planted."

Geary hesitated. How could they delay as long as that would require? And it would mean slowing down the main fleet even more, costing more fuel reserves. But he couldn't send Marines farther into what was increasingly looking like a death trap. "Colonel-"

A sharp voice sounded behind Geary. "It's a bluff." He turned to see Co-President Rione leaning forward in her observer's seat, her expression demanding. "Don't any of you gamble? The Syndics have created a situation that looks like a trap. Yet they haven't actually demonstrated any ability to blow up the entire facility, and in fact have left it intact behind them. If we run, they've saved their mining facility and we haven't gotten whatever we wanted. If we slow down and take our time, it causes further delay in this star system. Either way, the Syndics come out ahead."

Colonel Carabali appeared uncertain. "Co-President Rione's a.s.sessment does sound logical, but-"

"Colonel," Rione demanded, "do the Syndics routinely display high regard for the well-being of low-level personnel such as these miners?"

"No, Madam Co-President. They don't."

"Then why were the mine workers not ordered to die delaying your actual occupation of the facility, thereby also drawing more Marines into the supposed trap? Why were they withdrawn into the mine shafts where they cannot hinder us and in fact are now sitting ducks if we choose to fire weapons down into the shafts?"

Captain Desjani spoke in carefully controlled tones. "With all due respect, you're not down there with the Marines, Madam Co-President."

Rione's eyes narrowed as she gazed at Desjani. "Lest you think I'm making this call lightly, I'll point out that some of the Marines partic.i.p.ating in this a.s.sault are from the Callas Republic. I would not place them in extra peril if I believed it existed."

Carabali frowned. So did Desjani. Both looked at Geary. Yeah, okay, Rione believes in what she's saying, but can I go with her belief? She's not military, after all. She's also not in command, which is why everybody is looking at me. It's my call. I want to believe that Rione is right because if she is, it will make things happen the way I want them to. Am I too eager to believe she's right because of that? What if she's wrong? What if this isn't a bluff?

We lose a bunch of Marines and everything we came to this facility for.

But why would the Syndics suddenly display such high regard for the welfare of low-level workers and then order them into a hopeless position?

I have to make this decision. If I'm wrong, I could see a lot of Marines die. Or if I'm wrong the other way, I could see this fleet needlessly delayed even further while the Syndics gather forces in surrounding star systems.

Ancestors, please give me a sign.

If they did, Geary couldn't see or feel it. He glanced at Desjani and saw her utter confidence that he would reach the right decision. Whatever that was. Rione was eyeing Geary, her expression stern, almost challenging him to believe her. Colonel Carabali simply waited, her feelings unreadable behind a professionally emotionless mask. The longer Geary waited, the more likely the decision would be taken out of his hands by developing events. He had a duty to those Marines, a responsibility to make a call, to make it clear who was accountable if the worst happened. Odd, it was usually Rione warning him about the worst that could happena That was usually the case. Rione the politician never liked having any part of the fleet running risks. Yet here she was urging a course of action that had his Marine commander and one of Geary's hardest-charging ship captains recommending caution. Either Rione had gone crazy, or his ancestors had sent a sign. Through her.

Geary breathed a quick prayer. "I think Co-President Rione is right. Keep the Marines in there and occupy the entire facility."

Carabali, her face rigid, saluted. "Yes, sir." Her screen blanked as she pa.s.sed on the orders.

Geary looked down, hoping he hadn't let a sense of urgency override his own common sense. When he looked up, the tactical display showed Marines swarming deeper into the installation, segment after segment of the Syndic facility glowing green to show it had been cleared and occupied.

Nothing had blown up yet.

He gave in to temptation and called up a view from one of the Marine junior officers. Now he had a window floating before him showing the view from that officer's helmet. This part of the facility was open to the surface, so the Marines were moving through an area with no atmosphere. An occasional light illuminated part of the equipment the Marines were moving past, the sharp-edged beams centered on whatever needed to be lit, since the light didn't spread at all without any air to do the job. The shadows were just as sharp-edged and as black as the lit areas were bright.

There was always something spooky about abandoned places, a sense that the former occupants hadn't really left and were somewhere just out of sight, watching these intruders come into their world. Because so little changed in abandoned facilities on airless worlds, a place deserted moments before could feel just as haunted as one left empty centuries ago. Had someone else walked here an hour ago, or yesterday, or a hundred years in the past? Even though he'd seen the defenders moving through these areas a short time before, the mining facility felt like that, empty and silent on the outside, even though inside the buried buildings equipment still functioned.

An airtight hatch loomed before the Marine officer. Geary watched as two enlisted Marines attached physical taps to the air lock locking mechanism and overrode the coded entry system. Weapons leveled at the hatch as it began to swing open, one Marine near the hatch tossing a small object in through the growing gap and then huddling back as the magnetic pulse charge detonated inside the lock to fry the circuits on nearby weapons, enemy survival suits, and detonators for b.o.o.by traps.

Then the Marines were inside, moving through empty pa.s.sageways, kicking in or blowing open doors, searching for anything out of place, anything that even looked like a bomb.

Geary rapped his forehead in exasperation as he realized he'd forgotten something that could really help, then slapped his communications circuit. "Captain Tyrosian. Your ships are now being given access to the views from the Marine landing force occupying the mining facility. I a.s.sume the engineers on the auxiliaries know the sort of equipment we're dealing with and will be able to identify anything that doesn't belong. Get some of them watching the Marines as fast as possible."

Tyrosian's reply took a bit longer than it should since the auxiliaries were now in the center of the Alliance formation. "Sir," she replied hesitantly, "my personnel don't usually play any direct role in operations."

Fighting down an urge to yell, Geary spoke firmly. "They are this time. I want qualified people observing those feeds as quickly as you can get them on there, and I want to know immediately if they see anything they regard as suspicious."

Before Tyrosian's reply could come in, Geary saw another window pop up with Colonel Carabali in it. "Someone's sending my a.s.sault force's feeds to the engineers on the auxiliaries," she reported, frowning.

"That someone is me, Colonel."

"I must protest, sir. They're noncombatant support personnel without a need for direct real-time access to my a.s.sault force."

Geary tried not to let aggravation show. "They won't do any harm."

"With all due respect, sir," Carabali stated stiffly, "engineers are capable of wreaking total havoc in the real world if not closely supervised, and I do not have the luxury of the time to be able to so supervise them."

On the heels of Carabali's words, Captain Tyrosian's reply came in on her window. "Captain Geary, we don't have a list of specifications as to what we're supposed to look for."

His earlier tension replaced by a growing headache, Geary spoke through gritted teeth. "Wait, Colonel. Captain, your engineers are supposed to look for anything that shouldn't be in a mining facility." Tyrosian nodded, but her eyes remained puzzled. "Bombs. b.o.o.by traps. Things that will blow up."

Tyrosian's puzzlement increased. "A lot of equipment will suffer catastrophic failure if improperly-"

"Captain Geary," Colonel Carabali declared, both her face and voice rigid with disapproval, "I advise against this in the strongest possible-"

"My people need to talk directly to the Marine officers in the facility about what they're seeing," Tyrosian suggested hesitantly. "Without detailed guidance-"

"All right!" Geary interrupted both of them. Bad idea. I can tell them to just go ahead and do it, or just cancel the whole thing. I'm mad enough to say, "Just do it," which tells me I probably shouldn't. Serves me right for trying to improvise something between two such different mind-sets. "Cancel my previous direction. The feed from the a.s.sault force will be available to the engineers but on a receive-only basis. If they see anything they regard as suspicious, you are to contact me without delay, Captain Tyrosian. Colonel Carabali, please continue your a.s.sault, and my apologies for the distraction."

Both officers looked startled by Geary's orders, as if they'd expected a different outcome; then Carabali saluted hastily just before her window blanked out again. Tyrosian nodded. "Yes, sir. The, uh, shuttles with the engineering exploitation team and equipment have launched."

"Good. Make sure everyone on those shuttles understands that they are under the control of the Marine a.s.sault force commander."

Geary slumped back as the other comm window closed, rubbing his forehead to help with what was now a raging headache. Desjani, who couldn't have heard Geary's private communications with the other officers, gave him a sympathetic look. "Engineers?"

"And Marines," Geary replied sourly. "Why does it sometimes seem I have to spend more time fighting my own officers than I do fighting the enemy?" His gaze went back to the display showing the a.s.sault on the mining facility. The Marines continued to penetrate the objective, occupying almost the entire facility now and posting forces to guard the mine shafts where the Syndic defenders had withdrawn. Arcing down from above came the shuttles carrying the engineering exploitation teams, preparing to drop their skilled personnel directly onto the facility's main landing pad.

If something was going to explode, it would probably happen any moment now.

THREE.

ALLIANCE Marines entered the main control room of the mining facility, spreading out, using portable gear to check for b.o.o.by traps. Green lights shone on the many panels in the room, indicating the mining equipment was in full operating condition. The Marine officer who Geary was monitoring stepped close to one panel with multiple red lights blinking. "Maglev rails," the Marine reported to his superiors, Geary hearing the transmission, too. "That's the only equipment showing failures. Everything else is up and running." Instead of sounding happy about that, the Marine seemed worried.

A window popped up in front of Geary, showing Captain Tyrosian frowning. "They didn't shut down their equipment."

"No," Geary agreed.

"This is going to cause a lot of delays," Tyrosian complained.

"I would have thought powering up the equipment would have taken a while."

Tyrosian seemed surprised at the question. "Wellayes. If the equipment had been shut down, then we'd have to power up slowly to make certain none of the equipment had been sabotaged mechanically or in its software. You know, worms and such embedded in the operating systems. But it's already operating, sir."

Meaning any worms or other destructive programming were also running. Never trust gifts from Syndics. "I see."

Colonel Carabali's face reappeared, frowning in tandem with Tyrosian. "Sir, we're going to have to do a controlled shutdown of everything, do a clean sweep of all systems, then bring them back up one by one."

Geary exhaled heavily, wondering why this had to be the one thing both his Marines and his engineers agreed upon. "What's the worst case if we try to operate the systems now?"

"Catastrophic failure of all systems, destructive shutdowns of equipment, fatal damage to the operating environment, individual injuries and fatalities, and loss of all mining facility capabilities," Tyrosian replied.

"Everything blows up," the Marine colonel noted succinctly.

Geary nodded. Okay. Bad things happen. "How long to do what we need to do?"

"Estimates will vary widely because of the many factors involved-" Tyrosian began.

"This fleet cannot linger around this mining facility, Captain Tyrosian!" Geary snapped.

"How much of this stuff do we need?" Carabali asked. "To access the stockpiles of elements we require and get the rocks a.n.a.lyzed and loaded?"

Tyrosian made an angry gesture. "You need the mining subsystems. You have to have the main operating systems to issue commands to the mining subsystems. If the safety systems aren't activated and monitoring activity on the main operating systems and the mining subsystems, then the safety interlocks won't allow anything to happen."

"d.a.m.n near everything, then," Geary noted.

Tyrosian nodded.

"We can't-" He paused as a high-priority message alert blinked, indicating someone wanted to join in his conference with Carabali and the engineer. He took a look at the message alert, seeing the communication was from t.i.tan. Messages from t.i.tan tended to be bad news. Frustrated by the delays, Geary almost slapped the Deny command. I don't need anyone else complicating things. h.e.l.l, how much more complicated can they get? What I need is better options, and maybe whoever this is will have some ideas. Geary paused, counted to five, and tapped Accept instead.

Commander Lommand's face appeared. Captain of the t.i.tan. Young for his position, but Geary had already learned that Lommand tended to make up for lack of experience with initiative and enthusiasm. Now Lommand appeared slightly regretful. "My apologies for breaking in, Captain Geary, but I was told Captain Tyrosian was tied up in this meeting with you, and I thought she'd want to know immediately that the two Mobile Mining Units on t.i.tan are loaded on heavy-lift shuttles and ready to launch."

Geary glanced at Tyrosian, who was unsuccessfully trying to look as if she weren't surprised to hear the news. "Mobile Mining Units?" Geary asked. "Can those help?"

"They can if the equipment at the Syndic mining facilities can't be used," Lommand stated innocently. "It seemed a good idea to have them ready in case that happened."

"Yes," Tyrosian interjected just as if she had ordered Lommand to do that. "There's a risk in deploying them, because the two on t.i.tan are all we have left in the fleet, but the MMUs can locate, a.n.a.lyze, and load the Syndic stockpiles of the trace elements we need."

"What's the flight time?" Geary demanded, scanning his controls for the right ones to give him the information.

Commander Lommand answered immediately. "Thirty-one minutes if we launch now."

Colonel Carabali was checking something herself. "We can't risk having critical equipment down here while the Syndic systems are still operating and capable of executing some Trojan horse action. Carrying out a safe shutdown of the Syndic gear will take approximatelyatwenty minutes."

Geary nodded. "What about everything else needed to use the Syndic gear? Should we employ these, uh, MMUs instead?"

"Sir, it'd take at least a couple of hours to go through the Syndic systems and scrub them clean, then maybe another half a day or more to bring them up in a controlled fashion-"

"How quickly can the MMUs start operating once they're on the surface?" Geary asked the engineers.

"Immediately, sir," Commander Lommand responded. "Start-up is carried out on board the shuttles. Once the shuttles land, the Moo-Moos roll off the ramp and start grazing."

Nice. One more little thing that Geary had to depend upon hearing about from his subordinates. Fortunately, one of those subordinates was Commander Lommand. Geary was about to order Lommand to launch his shuttles from t.i.tan when he caught himself and faced Captain Tyrosian, Lommand's immediate superior. Commander Lommand had jumped the chain of command again, but this time at least he'd done it in a way that looked legitimate by pretending he was updating Tyrosian. "Captain Tyrosian, have t.i.tan launch those shuttles, and get them to that facility. I want them working when they hit the surface. Commander Lommand, thank you for the status update. Colonel Carabali, have your system geeks shut down everything the Syndics left working. I want it all off when t.i.tan's shuttles get there."

"Yes, sir," Carabali replied, smiling thinly. "Do you want us to proceed with scrubbing the systems for sabotage?"

"Not unless it's needed for the safety of your troops. I don't intend powering up those systems while we're there, and as soon as we leave, we're going to flatten every piece of equipment in the facility."

Carabali's smile widened. "Yes, sir."

As the Marine's image vanished, Captain Tyrosian gave Geary a confident look, as if this was a plan she'd developed. "I've ordered t.i.tan to launch her shuttles, sir."

"Thank you." At least Tyrosian had thought on her feet and reacted properly when Lommand broke into the conference. "Good work. Let's get those rocks and get out of here."

The windows vanished, leaving just the system display floating in front of Geary. He watched the symbols marking his fleet racing past the moon holding the Syndic mining facility, looping around the gas giant to come past the moon again, then ran some quick calculations to see if he would have to slow the fleet even more due to the delays on the surface.

It looked okay at this point. Not great, and with way too small a margin of error left, but if the mobile mining gear could do the job quickly, he wouldn't have to burn off further fuel cells braking the fleet's velocity more.

Geary leaned back, noticing Captain Desjani trying not to look curious. "The Syndics left the equipment running at the mining facility," he explained to her.