“So I understand,” Webb said with a dismissive wave of one hand. “Not to worry, Admiral. I don’t want primary responsibility for what anyone does with that transmitter as long as they’re not, uh, provoking the Dancers. I’ll let the ambassador take control of that and decide who gets access.”

  Maybe this would work out. Playing different sides against each other to give Ambassador Rycerz a chance to control things on Boundless bit by bit. It would be up to Rycerz to take full advantage of that, but from what Geary had seen of her the ambassador could play that game better than he could. She’d just lacked the right leverage up to now. It would also keep both her and Webb busy while Geary dealt with the conspiracy within the fleet. The last thing he wanted was Colonel Webb finding out about that and trying to intervene under his orders’ vague umbrella of “security issues.” “That’s your call, Colonel.”

  Just before they reached the hypernet gate, the fleet’s sensors spotted three more Taon ships that had arrived at one of the jump points five hours ago. “That’s a different jump point than the last Taon ships used,” Desjani observed. “Two of those big probable freighters, and one escort.”

  “It implies the Taon have free use of Dancer space for trade,” Geary said. “Too bad they won’t talk to us.”

  “If they sent a message as soon as they jumped into this star system and saw us, we still have time to see it,” she said. “I’m not holding my breath waiting for it, though.”

  Sure enough, no message had come in from the new Taon ships before the Dancer escorts for Geary’s fleet entered their hypernet, bringing the Alliance ships along with them on the way to an unknown destination.

  Geary himself had sent a message to all of his ships. “The Dancers are friendly. Wherever we’re going, we want to arrive there looking friendly as well. Shields at normal operating levels, no weapons charged, readiness condition at enhanced peacetime level.” Even if there were Dancer ships near the exit of the hypernet gate when they arrived wherever they were going, any battleship captain planning trouble would have a lot of work to do powering up weapons before they could try to start a war with the Dancers. But since Ensign Duellos hadn’t reported receiving the malware, that plot was clearly not intended to be sprung until later after the arrival of the human ships at the new star system. Until then, he had to act as if he suspected nothing of what Arwen Duellos had told him. “And, needless to say, we want to look our best.”

  Human ships couldn’t match the graceful formations the Dancers managed with ease, so Geary had arranged the fleet for now in a sphere. It wasn’t a good combat formation, but it looked good and was easy to maintain.

  Just before entering the hypernet, the Dancers sent a short message to Dauntless.

  “Ninety-eight of your hours,” General Charban reported. “There’s no explanation of what that pertains to.”

  “It must be how long we’ll be in the Dancer hypernet,” Geary explained.

  “Ninety-eight hours?” Desjani said. “That means a moderate distance. Maybe forty to sixty light years?”

  Which helped a little toward understanding how large a region the Dancers might control. But only a little. They might be on their way to the center of Dancer-owned space, or to the other edge of it.

  * * *

  THE hypernet differed from jump space in that whereas jump space was an ill-defined and ill-understood place but nonetheless a place, ships using the hypernet were (in the sense the universe understood it) nowhere at all when in the hypernet. Geary had been told the hypernet made use of quantum mechanics phenomena such as entanglement and tunneling, but beyond that the explanations went into places his mind had trouble following. He was sure that Dr. Cresida could explain it, but was also sure that Jasmine Cresida would begrudge the time spent trying to make him understand. He didn’t really need to understand how it worked, anyway. What mattered was the hypernet did work, and he knew how to make it work if his ship had a key for the hypernet they wanted to use. Dauntless carried keys for both the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds hypernets (or for what was left of the Syndic hypernet anyway), but not for the Dancer net. The Dancers of course had keys for their own hypernet, which was why they’d had to be present to bring the human ships along.

  What he did know with certainty was that ships in the hypernet were totally isolated from each other while in transit, meaning he had no way of furthering any investigations into what Ensign Duellos had revealed. Or any means of knowing whether Ensign Duellos’s actions had been discovered by other conspirators aboard Warspite, and whether she was in great danger as a result.

  Unable to work at those critical matters, and with no means for external interruptions to distract him from them, he did his best to focus on getting some of the dreaded administrative paperwork done.

  And to ensure he knew the current state of the fleet. A century ago he’d learned how difficult it could be as a commanding officer to stay informed of everything important on a single ship. Now that he had hundreds of ships under his command, that problem had been multiplied a few hundred times over.

  And he now had a special reason to check the status of his battleships, especially Captain Pelleas’s Gallant and Captain Burdock’s Encroach. He studied their updates in vain for any hint of hard proof of their involvement in a conspiracy to start a war with the Dancers. And for any problems that might inhibit their ability to act on their plans. But both Gallant and Encroach were in outstanding condition. As Michael Geary had said, Pelleas and Burdock were models for what the Alliance sought in battleship captains.

  Not that he had problems on any of the rest of the ships. Fuel status was still excellent despite the fuel cells used to reach Dancer space. Reserve fuel cells on the auxiliaries had been used to replenish all of the ships, and the auxiliaries had used the enforced wait to manufacture more cells from the materials they carried.

  Food stockpiles were also good. The auxiliaries couldn’t manufacture new food (though fleet rumor held that the horrible Danaka Yoruk ration bars were in fact compressed leftovers from toxic manufacturing processes) but the ships had brought along enough to last a while yet before food became a concern. Spare-part inventories were good, and while a variety of ships had a variety of the inevitable equipment problems, nothing critical was broken on any of them.

  Morale had improved once the fleet got moving in the wake of the Dancer ships taking them to the hypernet gate. Disciplinary problems had fallen off almost immediately, though they never went away. General Carabali reported that she’d sentenced one of her Marines to hard labor and bread and water in the brig of Mistral after he was convicted of assault, battery, and theft. Most incidents weren’t that bad, but like bad coffee the occasional bad egg was a fact of life in the fleet.

  Balancing that were commendations and promotions recommended for individuals who’d done particularly well during the engagement with the enigmas. Confirming those was a part of his job that Geary always enjoyed.

  But always in the back of his mind were dreadful premonitions of him informing his best friend, Captain Roberto Duellos, that Duellos’s daughter had died as a result of Geary’s own decisions.

  Nearly four days of work nearly eliminated his backlog, but instead of basking in the glow of accomplishment Geary no longer had much to distract him. Maybe he’d spend an hour or so pretending to try to relax before the fleet left the Dancer hypernet.

  His stateroom display chimed urgently.

  “We need to have a meeting,” General Charban said. “Before we leave the hypernet. It’s very important.”

  Apparently the living stars had granted his unspoken prayer for another distraction.

  Since there were only a couple of hours remaining, Geary quickly called the meeting in the secure conference room. He brought along Captain Tanya Desjani, wanting her perspective on whatever Charban needed to discuss so urgently.

  Also in the room were Lieutenant Iger, Lieutenant Jamenson, John Senn the historian, and Dr. Cresida. Desjani, unhappy at being called away so soon before her ship left the hypernet, was doing her best to ignore Cresida’s presence, while the doctor herself seemed absorbed in something she was reading.

  “General?” Geary prompted. “We’re pressed for time. What’s so important?”

  Charban gestured toward the physicist. “Dr. Cresida has been able to develop a major insight into the ways the Dancers think.”

  Cresida finally looked up. “It’s a theory. Consistent with what evidence we have, but not proven by any means.”

  “Nonetheless,” Charban said, “I think the admiral needs to hear it before we leave the hypernet and can communicate with the Dancers again.”

  “Keep in mind that I’m still formulating this,” Cresida said, tapping her comm pad. “To summarize, I believe the Dancers may view the universe in purely mechanistic terms.”

  “What does that mean?” Geary asked.

  “It means they reject uncertainty.” Dr. Cresida paused, her head tilting to one side slightly as she thought. “Have you ever heard the dice quote? A long time ago, a physicist and mathematician named Einstein rejected the concepts of quantum mechanics by saying that the governing power of the universe does not play at dice. Einstein had formulated what we still call relativity, which postulates a universe in which everything is predictable, everything physical can be known, and every outcome can be exactly calculated. Describe any set of conditions, and what happens next can be predicted with absolute, mathematical precision.”

  “All right,” Geary said. “But isn’t quantum mechanics about things being unpredictable?”

  “That’s correct,” Dr. Cresida said, looking mildly surprised that Geary knew that. “The universe of quantum mechanics is different. It is full of uncertainties and probabilities. There are some things we cannot know. All we can do is calculate the chances of certain things happening. Einstein rejected that, but could never disprove any of it, for the simple reason that quantum mechanics experimentally works. Unfortunately for physicists, so does Einstein’s relativity. Both work, yet they are incompatible with each other. In all of the years since, we’ve been unable to reconcile those two different universes. We, that is humans, have dealt with that by using whichever is appropriate in any given situation.”

  Geary nodded again, more cautiously. “Are you saying the Dancers approach it differently?”

  “I am saying,” Dr. Cresida replied with more taps on her comm pad, “that their responses to my questions about quantum mechanics indicate to me that the Dancers have philosophically followed completely in Einstein’s footsteps. If I read their interpretations and metaphors correctly, they have wedged the square peg of quantum mechanics into the round hole of relativity by rendering the uncertainties and probabilities into absolute factors.”

  This time Geary frowned, seeing the same expression on Desjani’s face. “Didn’t you say that relativity and quantum mechanics are different? But the Dancers see them as the same? How can they do that?”

  Dr. Cresida let out a long-suffering sigh. “Admiral, they do that in the same way that humans can and have done that many times in the past regarding other matters. They interpret their observations in terms that match their model of how things work.”

  “But how do they do that?” Desjani asked, sounding not hostile but curious. “Aren’t physical facts . . . facts?”

  That brought another heavy sigh out of Dr. Cresida. “Everything can be interpreted. Everything must be interpreted. What we see, what we observe, what we understand, is all filtered through our senses and our minds. If we believe a certain model is true, we find ways to make our observations fit that. In ancient times it was believed that everything in the universe revolved around Old Earth. The ancient scientists were not fools, and they had access to detailed astronomical observations. But they firmly believed in their model and they made the observations fit that model. The model got more and more complicated, but they could make it work even though it was absolutely wrong.”

  “And that’s what the Dancers are doing with quantum mechanics?” Geary asked. “They’re seeing it in absolute, predictable terms?”

  “Yes.” Dr. Cresida looked down at her work. “This remains a theory, but I believe the Dancers are not consciously seeing it in those terms. Based on how they tried to explain their thinking to me, I think it may be the only way they can see it.”

  “Born engineers,” Desjani said. “They see the universe in terms of known factors.”

  “Essentially,” Dr. Cresida said.

  “But what impact does that have on their interactions with us?” Geary said.

  “Don’t you get it, Admiral?” Charban said, pointing to first John Senn and then Dr. Cresida. “Our resident historian has postulated that the Dancers are pursuing a concrete goal, a precise outcome, and therefore the Dancers may be trying to position us to achieve that outcome. If they believe the universe does not contain uncertainties, then wouldn’t it follow that they believe that our actions can also be precisely calculated, and the exact actions necessary to lead us to do what they want can also be precisely worked out?”

  John Senn spoke up, his voice apologetic. “One thing I’m trying to grasp is that from an historical perspective theories always run into obstacles. And this particular one . . . well, they’re going to be wrong, aren’t they? If the Dancers are calculating exact outcomes in situations that don’t allow for exact outcomes, won’t they run into cases where the predicted outcome doesn’t match their calculations?”

  “Of course they will,” Dr. Cresida said, smiling thinly. “Of course they have. I can see evidence of that in their explanations to me. But it appears to me that they resolve that in the same manner that humans would. If the outcome does not match the calculation, then the model is not the problem. The calculation was in error. Redo the calculation to match the actual outcome, and the model remains valid.”

  “That’s frightening,” Desjani said.

  “That is how humans have often done things,” Dr. Cresida said in the tone of a teacher speaking to an uncomprehending student. “We have only the two examples of humanity and the Dancers at this point in this regard, but it implies the possibility that any intelligent species deals with the universe by rationalizing it in terms of how their minds must see it.”

  “And humans are more willing to accept the idea of chaos and uncertainties than a species that are born engineers?” Geary asked. “Lieutenant Jamenson, you’re very good at discerning patterns in things. Have you had a chance to compare your thinking about this with Dr. Cresida?”

  Lieutenant Jamenson nodded. “General Charban suggested I go over it with the doctor. There are a lot of concepts that go beyond my knowledge of physics, but I had the same sense of it that she does. The Dancers are postulating a universe in which everything works just so.”

  “I’ve been thinking about our experiences in the last star system,” Charban said. “The days when the Dancers offered no answers or minimal answers to everything we asked. Then some new ships showed up and we suddenly got more answers. Suppose our arrival at that star system was not just unexpected, but unpredicted? And the local Dancers didn’t know what exact things were supposed to be said to us to nudge us in the proper direction to achieve the desired outcome? Not just general things, but exact, precise things. They couldn’t wing it. They had to wait until other ships arrived with those detailed instructions. The ‘plan’ they said they needed.”

  “I see.” Geary looked over at Desjani, who was frowning but also nodding in agreement. “It would explain a lot. The Dancers often seem to expect that we’ll understand or react in a certain way to what seem to us to be vague statements. But if they’ve been watching humanity for a long time as we believe, how could they think that humans are predictable, either as individuals or in groups? How could they possibly make us fit their model?”

  To his surprise, it was Desjani who answered, looking unhappy at her own words. “If Victoria Rione was here, she’d be telling us that people are predictable. That’s what she did, Admiral. Everything she said and did was designed to push people in the directions she wanted. And right up to the end she was prepared to deal with what she saw as likely, predictable outcomes.”

  “Not everything,” Geary said, remembering Rione’s anguish when it was discovered that her husband was still alive and her actions could have been construed as betraying him. “But, in general, there’s a lot of truth there.”

  “Outside observers can see things those on the inside don’t see,” Charban said. “To the Dancers, we may seem predictable enough.”

  “We may seem predictable to the enigmas as well,” Lieutenant Iger said, finally speaking up. “We think the leaking of hypernet technology to the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds was done by the enigmas because they expected that once we learned what powerful weapons the gates were we’d use them to annihilate each other.”

  “That was unfortunately a reasonable prediction for them to make,” General Charban said. “I would’ve guessed that was what we’d do.”

  “We would have,” Desjani said. “If not for Jaylen Cresida working out a way to disarm the gates, and if not for leadership,” she added, glancing at Geary, “who rejected the use of the gates as weapons.”

  “Two unpredictable factors,” Charban agreed.

  “Two unpredicted factors,” Dr. Cresida said firmly. She’d stiffened a little when Desjani mentioned her dead sister, but otherwise hadn’t reacted. “Add them into the calculations after the fact, and the method still appears valid.”

  “Like building something,” Lieutenant Iger said. “If you put together a transmitter, and it doesn’t work, that means you made a mistake building it. It doesn’t mean transmitters can’t work.”

  “That’s how engineers would see it,” Charban agreed.