The Alliance fleet dropped out of jump with the usual mental jolt that left human minds fuzzy for a few critical seconds. But, even through that mental fog, Geary noticed the lack of alarms that would have indicated nearby enigma warships, and the lack of alerts that automated weapons systems on the human warships were firing in self-defense.

  “Only two enigma warships detected in the star system,” Lieutenant Yuon announced as soon as he could form words. “One near the jump point for Hina, and the other at the jump point for Lalotai.”

  “It’s just like when the Rift ships got here,” Desjani said, sounding highly mistrustful of that.

  “It worked for them last time,” Geary muttered, gazing at his display. He magnified images of the enigma warships, each of them more than three billion kilometers from the newly arrived human fleet. Space offered no real barrier to seeing every detail of the squat, turtle-like shapes of the enigma ships, which were about the same mass and volume as human destroyers. Even though these images were more than three hours old because of the time required for light to cross that distance in space, there was no reason to think the enigmas had maneuvered significantly since then.

  Relieved to have avoided a fight here, but also worried about what the enigmas might be planning, he gave the order for the entire fleet to head for the jump point for Lalotai. He held the fleet’s velocity at point one light speed so as not to stress the auxiliaries or Boundless. “Thirty point two hours to the jump point for Lalotai on this vector,” Lieutenant Castries called as the fleet steadied out.

  “They’ll be waiting at Lalotai,” Desjani said.

  “I know,” Geary said.

  * * *

  OUT of jump and once more able to communicate freely with other ships, Geary put in a call to Boundless.

  Ambassador Rycerz had the look of someone who hadn’t been sleeping well. “Is this new problems or old problems, Admiral?”

  “Mostly old, I guess. We’ve got more than a day to transit to the jump point for Lalotai. It’ll take five days in jump space to reach Lalotai. Once at Lalotai we’ll head for the jump point for a Dancer-owned star system. I fully expect our transit through Lalotai to be opposed.”

  “You mean we’ll have to fight our way through.”

  “I assume so. There’s always the chance the enigmas will decide we’re too tough a bone to chew and will just shadow us once they see we’re heading for the Dancer star.”

  “What are the chances of that?” Rycerz asked, studying him.

  “I really can’t judge,” Geary said. “No one knows enough about the enigmas to know when they’ll make a fight to the death and when they’ll avoid that. But we’re going to make it clear we’re heading for that jump point, not for any enigma-occupied world or orbital facility, so they shouldn’t think we’re intending to attack them or trying to learn more about them.”

  Rycerz made a face, but nodded. “Boundless is broadcasting a message to the two enigma ships that are in this star system. Requests to talk, promises to abide by a mutual agreement to leave each other alone, that sort of thing.”

  “Don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer that goes beyond ‘go away or we’ll kill you,’ ” Geary said.

  “Even Pandora held on to hope, Admiral,” Rycerz said, smiling slightly. “How are those Midway representatives behaving?”

  “They’ve been very forthcoming,” Geary said. “Colonel Rogero is sharing some detailed combat records that should be invaluable to our Marines.”

  “Invaluable.” Rycerz seemed to be tasting the word to see if she liked it. “And they’ve asked for nothing in return?”

  “Kommodor Bradamont explained that the leaders of Midway are very pragmatic,” Geary said. “Does or does not something benefit them? In the case of the enigmas, anything that makes us more effective against the enigmas automatically benefits Midway, though I expect General Drakon is hoping we’ll share any insights with him.”

  “We don’t want a war with the enigmas,” the ambassador said. “I know we have one, but we don’t want it.”

  “I understand and I agree,” Geary said. “I think we may have to prove to the enigmas that we can beat them whenever and however they attack, but will not use that to attack them. Maybe then they’ll be willing to talk about some way of coexisting. Is there anything happening on Boundless that I should know about?”

  “Frustratingly little,” Rycerz said, immediately changing the subject. “Admiral, my instructions for interacting with the enigmas are . . . very limiting. However, they fail to limit what you can communicate to them. I may or may not ask you to send a message while we’re at Lalotai.”

  “I’ll be waiting for it,” Geary said, wishing for a moment that he had his own spy aboard Boundless to assure him that everything was under control there. The ambassador’s avoidance of discussing that wasn’t exactly reassuring.

  The call ended, he checked the display in his stateroom. The two enigma warships had by now seen the arrival of the Alliance fleet, but hadn’t altered their orbits, hanging near the jump points that each were guarding. Silent, not responding to human pleas to talk. Smug, too, Geary thought, knowing he was attributing human emotions to them based only on his own gut feelings. The enigmas knew they’d annihilated the Rift Federation ships. They were surely planning to take out this human fleet, too.

  They wouldn’t. He was sure of that. But he hated to think of the potential damage the enigmas might inflict on his ships and sailors at Lalotai.

  If only they knew more about the enigmas. About what they could do.

  Which reminded him of something.

  He put in another call to Boundless, asking to speak to the physicists who Ambassador Rycerz had ensured had accompanied the fleet as they wished.

  His call was answered by Dr. Jasmine Cresida, who gazed at him silently.

  “I wanted to speak with one of the physicists,” Geary began.

  “I have responsibility for answering calls during this time period,” Dr. Cresida said. “Lucky you.”

  Yeah. Lucky me, Geary thought. Dr. Cresida didn’t seem like someone who was warm to anybody, but in his case she had never hidden the fact that she blamed him for her sister’s death. “There’s something I need to bounce off someone with more knowledge of physics than I have.”

  “I’m fairly certain that I meet that requirement,” Dr. Cresida said, her voice and expression both flat.

  Geary took a moment to calm himself before continuing. “You may not be aware of the details of what happened to the cruiser Passguard when it was in enigma space.”

  “No.”

  “Something odd occurred during that time.” He explained about the four-hour delay in the enigmas from Lalotai reaching Pele as they pursued Passguard. “We’ve never noticed that kind of delay before. In fact, the enigmas always seem to try to destroy any human ships as quickly as possible. Someone suggested that the four-hour delay might be caused by the enigmas’ using a fundamentally different kind of jump drive that produced a slightly different velocity in jump space.”

  Jasmine Cresida watched Geary for several seconds before replying. “That’s . . . an intriguing idea.”

  “Really?”

  “Did you expect me to laugh scornfully when you suggested it?”

  “To be honest,” Geary said, “yes.”

  “I’d hate to disappoint you, Admiral. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

  He had to admit each “ha” contained an impressive level of scorn. “But you think there might actually be merit in the idea?”

  “I think . . .” Dr. Cresida began. “I think it would be a mistake to discount the idea. All human jump drives use basically the same principles to work. We know extremely little about jump space. Therefore I think the concept is worth looking into. Prematurely discarding ideas just because it’s not how we’ve done things is, I think, almost always a mistake.” She paused. “Does it surprise you that I said that?”

  “No,” Geary said. “Your sister, Jaylen, had the same philosophy. That’s how she found the quantum-coded worms in our software.”

  Dr. Cresida looked away for a moment. “What are our chances of getting access to an enigma jump drive?”

  “I’d say there’s no chance at all. All of our previous experience with the enigmas is that they self-destruct their badly damaged ships to avoid anyone learning anything from them.”

  “What if the entire enigma crew was dead?”

  “From what we’ve seen, we assume they have a dead-man switch capability built into their systems,” Geary said. “So even if the entire crew is dead, or incapacitated, the ship will still self-destruct.”

  Jasmine Cresida closed her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  “A dead-man switch is what we call—”

  “I know what a dead-man switch is,” she interrupted, opening her eyes to gaze at him. “I don’t understand why anyone would use one. What if there were badly injured enigmas still alive on the ship?”

  Geary made a face, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can’t claim to fully understand it, either. But their privacy, protecting everything about themselves, seems to be the first priority for the enigmas. And it’s not like humans have never followed such priorities. There have been societies in humanity’s past in which soldiers would suicide rather than surrender.”

  “Really?” Dr. Cresida shook her head. “So we know nothing about enigma jump drives.”

  “We know they were recently able to jump from a star in enigma-controlled space to Iwa in what used to be Syndic space. Our jump drives couldn’t handle a jump that far.”

  “But we have no idea how the enigmas ‘handled that.’ All right. How about the Dancers, Admiral? Would they give us one of their jump drives to examine?”

  He hesitated, startled by the question. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t think we’ve ever asked for access to a particular piece of technology.”

  “Can you make such a request? Dr. Macadams is refusing to interact with us.”

  Geary made a sympathetic grimace. Dr. Macadams, head of the team on Boundless responsible for learning more about the Dancers, was one of those Alliance officials who seemed to have been chosen specifically to sabotage the mission. “I can make the request through my own channels to the Dancers. I regard anything about the capabilities of their equipment as impacting my responsibilities to protect the Alliance mission.”

  “Dr. Macadams is unlikely to agree.”

  “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether Dr. Macadams will like what I’m doing,” Geary said.

  “We may actually have something in common, Admiral,” Cresida said. “Who was it who suggested that idea about the enigma jump drives?”

  “Kommodor Marphissa.”

  “A Syndic.”

  “Former Syndic.” He gave Dr. Cresida a curious look. “Do you think a Syndic education gave her a better perspective on things?”

  “A different perspective,” Jasmine Cresida said. “From what I’ve been able to learn, those subjected to formal Syndicate Worlds educations tend to be skeptical of everything because so much of what they were taught were lies. The math and the engineering were probably fairly accurate, but everything else was tainted. Someone who’s learned to distrust what they were told is more likely to discount the common ‘everyone knows’ attitude that so hobbles advances. Of course they also distrust things that are true, which hobbles them. I’m not surprised that this Kommodor thought of something that Alliance-educated people did not. You have reasons to believe what you’re told. They do not.”

  “That’s very interesting,” Geary said.

  “I’m so glad you’re entertained. Is there anything else?”

  “Yes,” he said, deciding not to let her words get under his skin. “Colonel Rogero from Midway has combat systems records from the ground fighting at Iwa against the enigmas. I was wondering if any of you would want to see them.”

  “Why?” Jasmine Cresida seemed genuinely baffled.

  “The enigmas appear to be using technology for ground combat that may be a generation ahead of ours, using things we haven’t developed or even conceived of yet.”

  “Oh.” Dr. Cresida shook her head as if disappointed that the request made sense after all. “It’s not something I’d want to look at, but I will let Dr. Bron and Dr. Rajput know in case they’re interested.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  “Are we done now?”

  “Yes, we’re done.”

  Dr. Cresida reached for her comm controls but hesitated for a moment. “Goodbye.”

  * * *

  TWELVE hours later, General Carabali called. “I wanted to give you a rundown on Colonel Rogero’s presentation to Marine officers about the ground battle at Iwa.”

  “And?”

  Carabali made a face. “About what you’d expect at the start. Polite silence on the main coordination link, because I made it clear anything else would result in serious consequences. On the back channel, lots of trash talk about how Syndics couldn’t do the job. But then Rogero activated the combat records. We could experience the fight from the perspective of being inside the battle armor of Rogero’s officers. Everything got real quiet at that point.”

  “I know how Rogero evaluated the battle,” Geary said. “What do you think?”

  “I think he did everything right. But they were seriously outmatched. I have no idea what numbers they faced, but . . .” Carabali shook her head. “They were outmatched.”

  “What would happen if we sent every Marine we had against a similar objective?”

  This time Carabali shrugged. “Massive losses in the first wave, subsequent waves pinned down, unable to advance, eventual withdrawal under fire. The same thing that happened to Rogero’s troops, and to the Syndic ground forces that led the first attack. I think he’s right that the enigmas have pursued different primary priorities in ground combat than humans have. Sir, I do not recommend engaging in ground combat with the enigmas. Not unless we spot a tiny force that is clearly isolated.”

  “If a tiny force couldn’t handle us,” Geary said, “they’d suicide. Blow up our objective.”

  “And any Marines close enough to them,” Carabali agreed. “We need a whole lot better idea of the enigmas’ capabilities. Until we do, and work up some countermeasures, offensive ground action is just suicide by another name. On defense we might stand a chance, if they have to come at us. But I would advise against even that at this point.”

  “I won’t commit the Marines against the enigmas unless there’s absolutely no alternative.” He felt that with everything he learned alternatives were growing fewer and fewer. But that wouldn’t stop him from continuing to look.

  * * *

  A long walk through the passageways of Dauntless sometimes cleared his mind, or at least distracted it. Geary went through passageway after passageway, stopping by watch stations to chat with the sailors there, letting them know he valued them and their work. But no matter how far he walked, he still felt trapped.

  They had to go to Lalotai. The enigmas would very likely be waiting there, having been alerted by their picket ships here using the enigmas’ rudimentary faster-than-light communications capability, and having set a trap best suited to dealing with the Alliance fleet. And he’d be in among them within minutes of the fleet coming out of jump, too late to react in time to whatever was waiting.

  Tired, but still restless, he headed for the worship spaces. If he didn’t find inspiration there, perhaps he’d at least find comfort. As he reached them, he saw Gunnery Sergeant Orvis already waiting for one of the small rooms. “How are you doing, Gunny?”

  “I’ve been worse, Admiral.” Orvis grinned. “See these teeth? I lost nearly all the originals when my jaw got shot off. I tried to tell the docs when they regrew it all to give me a better chin, but they said that was up to my own DNA. Helluva thing when you can’t even get a new chin.”

  “I’m pretty sure they could build you a new chin,” Geary said.

  “Sure, but it’s the principle of the thing. I’m not vain! No way I’m going to choose to get my chin redone. But if it was gone and they had to regrow it, I wouldn’t have minded having a better one. Excuse me, sir,” Orvis added as a room came free.

  A moment later another room opened, giving Geary a spot. He went inside the small compartment, just large enough for up to two people. A bench was set into one wall, opposite it a candle that had already burnt down a ways. Geary shut the privacy door and sat down, activated the lighter, and set a flame to the candle. “I haven’t talked to you enough lately,” he said to his ancestors. “My apologies. I feel like there’s something just out of my sight, and you might help me see it, so I ask your aid once again. There are so many lives riding on my decisions. Please help me make the right choices.” He paused, wondering why his words seemed to echo something else. A drop of melted wax ran off the top of the candle, rolling down the side until the wax solidified partway down, earlier than he’d expected. Why was that? He’d watched the drop form, saw it start down, why couldn’t he know where it would stop?

  It should be predictable. To a fault? Why did that . . . ? What Michael had said about battleship captains. Captain Pelleas and Captain Burdock in particular. Funny he should think about them at this moment when he was trying to get hints for how to handle problems.

  The behavior of battleship commanders aside, there was so much he couldn’t predict. What did they call that? Chaos something. Some things you could be certain of. Like Gunny Orvis, stuck with the same chin because his DNA that made the original was going to make the same thing again. Or the enigmas, knowing the Alliance fleet would come out of jump in the same formation in which it had entered jump.