The enigma battleship disappeared in a blaze of energy as its shields collapsed and the mass of Alliance firepower tore through its armor.

  At almost the same moment, the second surviving enigma battleship was hit by volleys from Vengeance and Resolution and was torn apart.

  In a normal engagement, there wouldn’t have been time for the Alliance battleships to fire a second volley, but with the enigmas overtaking the Alliance ships the relative velocity was slow enough to allow that, something that the Alliance battleships had planned on. All three unleashed their full fury on the last surviving enigma battleship.

  As that enigma ship exploded, the following smaller enigma warships ran head-on into the expanding debris field of the three shattered battleships at the same time as every Alliance warship within range hurled shots at them. Unable to change vector in time to avoid the death trap, the remaining enigma ships in the column were annihilated in a matter of seconds.

  Behind all of them, the other large enigma column was trying to climb up the rear of the Alliance formation to hit the large auxiliaries Titan and Tanuki. That group of enigmas was led by only three of their battleships. Using the same tactics as Desjani had used, Inspire, Formidable, Dragon, and Steadfast ripped sideways past the enigma warships, crippling the outer two battleships.

  Already reeling from the firepower tearing into them, the twelve surviving enigma warships nonetheless held on, trying to complete what might well have been suicide runs against Titan and Tanuki.

  But to get there they had to get past two more battleships screening the rear of the auxiliaries from that angle. Dreadnaught and Fearless pivoted as the enigmas passed beneath them, their bows following the enemy ships as the Alliance battleships hurled their massive armament into the tops and sides of the already battered enigma survivors.

  None of the enigmas made it past the wall of fire.

  On the far side of the formation, the smallest group of enigmas had started with only seventeen warships and was already down to eleven. Lacking a heavily protected enigma battleship and apparently less interested in dying valiantly and uselessly like their comrades, the surviving eleven broke off their attack run, instead each ship weaving frantically back out through the Alliance formation. The battle cruisers Illustrious, Incredible, and Valiant, aiming to hit the front of the enigma group as it tried to reach Boundless, found themselves out of position, unable to alter their tracks quickly enough to engage the fleeing enigmas.

  It was one thing to target a ship on a predictable vector. It was another thing to try to hit a ship jinking unpredictably at high velocity. The same kind of erratic movements that had protected the Alliance ships from targeting when the fleet arrived at Lalotai were now protecting the retreating enigmas.

  All eleven enigma ships made it out, bursting away from the death trap of the Alliance formation that had claimed their comrades.

  Geary gave a grunt of frustration. “All battle cruisers, return to your positions in formation. Do not, repeat do not, attempt to pursue those surviving enigmas.”

  “Bob Parr isn’t going to be happy,” Desjani said, referring to the commanding officer of the Incredible.

  “Neither will Badaya on Illustrious,” Geary said. “They just got unlucky.” Trying to chase the remaining enigmas would be a waste of fuel cells. The enigmas could outrace even human battle cruisers, and they had an eternity of space in which to run if they chose to.

  Aside from the unfortunate Bolo, though, none of the human ships had taken serious damage. The enigmas had only been able to target individual human ships momentarily as they dove through the formation, and had been saving their heaviest throws to use against Boundless and the auxiliaries that they’d never reached.

  Geary frowned as he saw an urgent message alert show up on his display. Why would a destroyer be calling him directly? “What is it, Atlatl?”

  “Admiral, we’ve got one of them! We saw something fly off one of the big enigma ships after the null fields took bites out of them, so we diverted to intercept, and it was an enigma!”

  Geary felt his breath catch. “You’re saying you have an intact enigma body?”

  “No, sir, we have a living enigma.”

  SEVEN

  “SAY again, Atlatl. You have a living enigma?”

  “Yes, sir. At least so far. They’re either unconscious or pretending to be. I don’t think it’s an act. They were unprotected in vacuum for close to a minute. Our onboard medical specialist recommended we quarantine it by sealing it in a wound bag so that’s what we did. It’s still in the air lock. We’re sure it needs medical help but—”

  “Stand by, Atlatl.” He switched to an internal circuit. “Dr. Nasr! One of our ships has a living, unconscious enigma in a wound bag. I need recommendations.”

  “Send it to Mistral,” Nasr said immediately. “They have the best medical quarantine facilities in the fleet.”

  “Got it. Thank you. Atlatl, break formation and join with Mistral at your best speed. Transfer your . . . prisoner to the transport as quickly as possible. Mistral, Atlatl is bringing you a living enigma currently in a wound bag. I want the enigma isolated and treated.”

  It took only a moment before Geary heard another message. “Atlatl, this is Dr. Galen aboard Mistral. Is the enigma injured?”

  “They were exposed to vacuum for nearly a minute without any protection beyond the outfit they’re wearing,” Atlatl replied. “As far as we can tell they haven’t regained consciousness.”

  “Do they appear to be in physical distress?”

  “Doc, we’ve got no idea. What’s normal for one of these guys?”

  Dr. Nasr had been linked into the calls, and now spoke to Geary. “Dr. Galen is exceptionally skilled. If anyone can save that enigma, it’s her. But they’ll have to follow strict quarantine procedures which will delay and inhibit some treatment.”

  “Understood,” Geary said.

  “We’ve got a living enigma?” Desjani asked after she returned maneuvering control to the bridge watch team.

  “So far. Can I get a feed from Mistral when Atlatl comes alongside?”

  “Yes, sir.” Desjani gestured to her watch team.

  “Admiral,” Bradamont said, leaning forward in her seat, “may I—”

  “Yes,” Geary said. “You can also observe. Link her in, Tanya.”

  A moment later a virtual window popped up near his display, focused on one of Mistral’s main air locks, looking outward to space beyond where the slim shape of the destroyer Atlatl was gliding into position only a few meters from the assault transport. Figures in survival suits were gathered in the air lock, waiting as Atlatl’s main air lock opened and sailors in their own survival suits appeared, hauling a sealed wound bag. The wound bag, a roughly rectangular box that served as a survival suit for people who were too badly injured to be wrestled into a normal survival suit, held a vague shape lying inside.

  The seconds required to transfer the bag seemed an eternity.

  As soon as it was inside Mistral’s air lock, the waiting medical personnel clustered about the wound bag, checking the health readouts built into it.

  Geary saw the eager figures pause, then slump in disappointment.

  “They’re dead,” Dr. Galen reported. “No life signs. No brain activity.”

  The voice of Atlatl’s commanding officer came on the circuit. “Doc, we did everything we could.”

  “I understand,” Dr. Galen replied. “It’s not your fault. We don’t know what this person needed. We don’t know what healthy is for them, or how they display a medical emergency. Even if they’d been human, saving them after that much exposure to vacuum would’ve been difficult. You did your best. Thank you.”

  “We had a living enigma,” Geary said to Desjani. “Now we have a dead one.”

  “Admiral,” Dr. Galen said, “request permission to undertake a full-scale examination of the remains. We’ll do scans, an autopsy, genetic sampling, and everything else possible while maintaining full quarantine protocols.”

  He was about to tell Dr. Galen to go ahead when Dr. Nasr broke in. “Admiral, don’t.”

  “Don’t what?” Geary asked, startled and irritated by the interruption.

  “Don’t examine the dead enigma. Don’t study it.”

  Dr. Galen sounded as frustrated as Geary at the disruption. “Every second we delay—”

  “Admiral,” Nasr said, his voice firm, “remember that place we went to on Old Earth. Kansas. Remember what the Dancers brought back there.”

  His anger dwindled as Geary recalled those moments when the humans had realized that the Dancers had brought home an ancient, dead human explorer. “The Dancers hadn’t disturbed the body in any way that we could tell,” he said.

  “Exactly,” Dr. Nasr said. “They had the body of a human, an alien to them, and they treated it with all of the respect as if it were one of their own. What impact did that have on all of us there? Admiral, what if we do not examine this enigma? What if we do not act in the manner the enigmas expect and fear?”

  “Admiral!” Dr. Galen sounded disbelieving and determined in equal measure. “We cannot pass up this opportunity! Time is critical for determining important data regarding this being as its biological systems shut down and begin deteriorating. I recommend in the strongest terms that we begin full examination of these remains immediately!”

  “Wait,” Geary said, trying to think. All of his own instincts argued for doing what Dr. Galen said. But . . .

  It would be what the enigmas expected them to do, wouldn’t it?

  He took a deep breath. “I want that wound bag left undisturbed, and I want all personnel out of sight of that bag except for a couple of guards who are not to look directly at the bag. Make sure surveillance video is aimed so it only catches the edges of the bag.”

  “Admiral?” Dr. Galen questioned, her voice pleading.

  “There are more critical factors we need to take into account, Doctor,” Geary said. “Stand by.”

  Kommodor Bradamont, who’d been watching and listening, gave him a baffled look. “Admiral, what other factors matter? We’ve finally got an enigma.”

  “You heard Dr. Nasr,” Geary said.

  “I wasn’t there on Old Earth.”

  “I was,” Desjani said in a quiet voice. “I think you should listen to Dr. Nasr, Admiral.”

  That decided him. Taking another deep breath, he called Ambassador Rycerz.

  Rycerz answered immediately, looked slightly depressed. “I know we won, Admiral. But I wish we hadn’t had to.”

  “We have an intact enigma body,” Geary said, drawing a look of shock from the ambassador. “The enigma was alive when one of my destroyers recovered them, but had been exposed to vacuum. We tried to save the enigma, but they died before we could get them to Mistral, one of my assault transports.”

  Rycerz nodded slowly. “So we can finally learn details about them.”

  “As one of my doctors pointed out, that’s exactly what the enigmas expect, and fear, we’ll do. Instead, I want to send the body back to the enigmas, without any examination or samples or scans.”

  The ambassador’s expression shifted back to shock. “Why?”

  “After we met the Dancers, they told us they wanted to send a ship to Old Earth,” Geary explained. “They didn’t or couldn’t explain why. But when we got there, they brought out a sealed capsule containing the remains of a human pilot who’d been testing one of the first jump drive prototypes centuries ago. He must have been trapped in jump space until his ship finally came out in Dancer space. But the Dancers had not harmed the body in any way. There were no signs of autopsy or other invasive procedures. They’d respected those remains.”

  Rycerz watched him intently, thoughts moving behind her eyes. “I saw those reports. It was a profoundly important action by the Dancers. And now you think we have the chance to do the same thing for the enigmas? But should we? Isn’t this our first real chance to get detailed knowledge about them?”

  “Do we want detailed knowledge about them,” Geary asked, “or do we want to take a chance at peace? If we show them that we had a perfect chance to violate their species’ privacy, without them even knowing, and did not do that, maybe that will convince them we can be trusted. Not words. Actions. The enigmas know from interacting with Syndic leaders how little the word of humans can mean. The Kicks commit suicide if they’re captured by us because they think they know what we’ll do to them. I’m tired of aliens expecting humanity to fulfill their worst fears. This could be a major opportunity to address the enigmas’ greatest fear of us with an unmistakable action.”

  “I see.” Rycerz lowered her head in thought. “No matter what you and I decide, we’re going to be attacked for it, aren’t we?”

  “I think so,” Geary said. “So why not do what we think is right? Why not take a chance?”

  “Why not?” Rycerz nodded again, looking at Geary once more. “Very well. I agree. Return the body, Admiral. Without any examination.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Which doctor was it who suggested this?”

  “The head doctor aboard Dauntless. Dr. Nasr.”

  “Give him my thanks,” Ambassador Rycerz said.

  “I will.” Geary called Mistral again. “Commander Young, I have orders for you.”

  * * *

  DR. Galen was extremely unhappy. She wasn’t alone. But Commander Young followed Geary’s orders to the letter.

  A burial detail wearing blindfolds went into the pressurized air lock, picking up the wound bag by feel and placing it inside a burial-in-space tube that had been lined with opaque material to prevent anyone seeing inside. Once the tube was sealed, the leader of the burial party recited the universal burial service before the tube was loaded into an ejection ramp.

  As the tube was launched outward toward the star of Lalotai, Geary attached the video of the events to a message. “I want this broadcast to the enigmas,” he told Desjani, whose comm watch had no trouble setting up the circuit.

  “People of this star system,” Geary said. “This is Admiral Geary of the Alliance. During the most recent combat between our ships and yours, we recovered one of your people who had been exposed to vacuum but was still alive. We regret that we were unable to save that person, who died of their injuries very soon after we recovered them. We gave that person an honorable burial service as we would have one of our own, and have placed their remains inside one of our burial-in-space containers and launched it outside of our formation. You will have no trouble intercepting it. I want to assure you that we did not conduct any examinations, studies, scans, or other information gathering on the remains. We have no samples. We have no pictures. We have, to the best of our ability, protected the privacy of that individual and of your species, because we know the importance you place on that. I repeat, we’ve learned nothing from the remains of this individual, and retained nothing about them. It is our wish to live in peace with our neighbors. It is our wish to avoid the loss of more lives. Please take this as a sign that we are sincere in our desire to avoid further conflict and negotiate terms by which we can transit star systems such as this without compromising your privacy. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

  He slumped back once the message was ended, torn by doubts. “Do you think I did the right thing?” he asked Desjani.

  She glanced at him. “Was it the easy thing?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Then it very likely was the right thing. You owe Dr. Nasr big-time for him having the guts to speak up when he did.”

  Geary felt a slight smile form. “I’m not sure I should thank him. Every scientist in human space is going to want a piece of me for this.”

  “Probably.” She gave him another look. “The way that enigma fell into our hands. It was too convenient. I think it was a trap. Or a test, by something far bigger than humans or enigmas.”

  “Maybe you’re right. I hope if the living stars tested us they think we passed.” He finally looked back at Bradamont, who was watching him from the bridge observer seat with a carefully neutral expression. “I don’t expect President Iceni or General Drakon to approve, though.”

  Bradamont shook her head. “I honestly have no idea how they’ll react when they hear of it. But they are both certain that you are the most devious and farsighted individual in human space, so they’ll probably conclude that you had a very good reason for doing it. A good reason for you, that is.”

  He caught the warning there. “Kommodor, I swear to you this action is intended to benefit both the Alliance and Midway. General Drakon said he wanted the enigmas to stop attacking. I’m trying to make that happen.”

  “If you succeed, Midway will owe you a huge debt.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Desjani asked, giving Bradamont a hard look.

  “Then I’ll lay out the truth as I see it,” Bradamont replied. “That it was a long-shot attempt at breaking the stalemate between us and the enigmas that didn’t pay off.”

  “Fair enough,” Geary said.

  The Alliance formation was still headed “down” relative to the jump point. It was time to get the fleet back on track. Space had no up or down, no right or left, but humans needed common references to orient their ships and movements. They’d long ago adopted a universal convention that made use of the few physical references offered in space. One was the star being orbited. Starboard or starward was toward the star, while port was away from it. Up was above the plane of the planets and other objects orbiting the star, and down was beneath it.

  Geary brought the Alliance formation up and to port, aiming for the jump point for the Dancer star. That jump point was only one and three-quarters light hours away, so even at point one light speed the fleet could cover the distance in about eighteen hours.