“What?” Tanya tried to unravel her tangled thoughts. Hauberk had been one of the surviving heavy cruisers. “What happened?”

  “What happened was that you took out that last operational Syndic heavy cruiser. Blew her butt off and left her helpless. After that, Hauberk and Utap had the time to get enough systems fixed for us to move in and wipe out the two Syndic ships disabled during the battle and what was left of the heavy cruiser you crippled. Thanks to you, Lieutenant.”

  “Me?” She had automatically extended her hand and the captain of Hauberk now pumped it enthusiastically.

  “You. By my ancestors! Attacking under those circumstances! Black Jack himself must have been by your side.”

  “I didn’t see him,” Tanya said without thinking.

  “Of course you didn’t, Lieutenant Desjani, it was his spirit that was with you. I’m putting you in for the Alliance Fleet Cross. You deserve it if anyone ever did. If there was a higher award I’d put you in for that. You avenged Fleche, you saved Hauberk and Utap, and you enabled the Alliance to hold onto this star system. Of course, you also saved the rest of your crew. After we finished off the Syndics we checked the hulk of Fleche to see if anyone was still alive aboard her and brought you and the other nine off.”

  Nine. Out of two hundred thirty five. “Master Chief Milam—”

  “He’ll be put in for the Fleet Cross, too. The others from Fleche told us what happened, what the master chief did, what you did.” Hauberk’s captain grinned. “Black Jack himself couldn’t have done better. Your ancestors must be very proud.”

  He shook her hand again and left, saying he had a lot of repair work and wounded crew members to check on. Tanya laid back, her eyes on the overhead, trying to feel something. Pride, relief, surprise. Anything. A darkness still seemed to fill her, a darkness in which familiar faces now never to be seen again in life appeared briefly before vanishing.

  The chief she had seen before came up beside Tanya, slapping a med patch on her arm. “That’ll help, Lieutenant.”

  “I thought you said I was fine.”

  “Your body is fine. Your head…that’s going to take some work.”

  Feeling finally came. “They died. Everybody died. I was in command and they died.”

  The chief looked down at Tanya somberly. “From what I understand, they all would have died no matter what. As it was, they saved a lot of other lives with their sacrifice. And they’re not all dead. You got nine of them out. And you. That’s ten people who should have died, who by all rights should be among their ancestors now, and aren’t. Because of you. And the escape pods you launched with your badly-wounded on them. We’ve been overwhelmed by the casualties. We couldn’t save every one and not all of them lived until we managed pick ups of the pods. But sixteen of those will live, too. You know if the Syndics had won here they wouldn’t have bothered to save your wounded.”

  Twenty-six, then. That ought to have helped. It didn’t. “How many died here? On all of the ships?”

  “I don’t know, and if I did I wouldn’t tell you. Lieutenant, it’s what we do. It’s what we have to do. They attacked us, a long time ago. They keep attacking. We have to fight.”

  “We have to fight,” Tanya echoed. “Kill them. Just keep killing them.” One vision filled her mind now, the memory of the eyes of the Syndic woman who had looked at Tanya and seen death. Tanya knew she would never forget those eyes. “It’s all we can do. Kill them until they stop. Kill them until they stop making us kill them.”

  “I guess so. I wish there was some other plan, but I don’t know of one.”

  Tanya thought of the captain’s words. “We don’t need another plan. We need Black Jack. Somebody like him. If he’d only come back…”

  “Well…maybe. It’s been almost a century now. If he was coming, he ought to have made it by now.”

  Tanya locked her eyes on those of the chief. “He’ll come back. He’ll hurt them badly enough that they’ll finally give up.”

  The chief looked down at Tanya. “Wouldn’t he try something else? If it’s about nothing but killing, that would be like the Syndics, wouldn’t it?”

  “We’re not like them! We’re only killing because we have to!” But despite her insistence the chief’s words still stung. “What else can we do?”

  “I don’t know, Lieutenant. I wish to hell I did. Maybe Black Jack will come back someday, maybe he’ll know what else we can do. I sure don’t. You get some sleep now. You’ll get meds, you’ll get therapy, and you’ll be able to go back to fighting and help end this war.”

  Grief and despair forced the words from her. “I can’t end this war. Maybe no one can end this war.”

  The chief hesitated, looking uncomfortable. “Maybe not. We do what we can. You did good. A real hero. You saved a lot of Alliance lives. Remember that.”

  Tanya felt sleep stealing over her as the meds took effect. The eyes of the Syndic woman looked back at her, not seeing a hero, not a saver of lives, but death. If death is what I must be, I will be that. As long as I have to. Death to the Syndics. Until real heroes like Master Chief Milam don’t have to die fighting them anymore. Is there another answer? Ancestors, please beg the living stars to tell us. Tell us if there is something to strive for besides being death.

  She fell into darkness again, this time the shadows of sleep.

  Tanya dreamed of Black Jack. She saw him sleeping. She couldn’t see his face clearly, but she knew it was him. Instead of basking in the glow of the living stars he lay surrounded by darkness and a sense of cold that struck at Tanya. Despite that, she knew that he was not dead. She yelled at him to wake up, to come back and save them. But Master Chief Milam shook his head at her, gesturing Tanya to be quiet, giving her the fleet hand sign that meant wait. She watched Black Jack and Master Chief Milam fade away, watched everything fade into the darkness, and could remember nothing else from her dreams when she finally awoke to once again face the reality of a war to which she could see no end.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Special thanks to Christy Admiraal for all of her work putting this book together, as well as to Lisa Rodgers and Valentina Sainato for their constant support. Thanks also to my agent Joshua Bilmes, Robert Chase, Kelly Dwyer, Carolyn Ives Gilman, J.G. (Huck) Huckenpohler, Simcha Kuritzky, Michael LaViolette, the spirit of Aly Parsons, Bud Sparhawk, Mary Thompson, and Constance A. Warner for their suggestions, comments and recommendations on the various stories.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  “Jack Campbell” is the pseudonym for John G. Hemry, a retired Naval officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before serving with the surface fleet and in a variety of other assignments. He is the author of The Lost Fleet military science fiction series, as well as the Beyond the Frontier continuation of The Lost Fleet, spin-off series The Lost Stars, the Stark's War series, and the Paul Sinclair/“JAG in space” series. His short fiction appears frequently in Analog magazine, and many have been collected in the three Jack Campbell ebook anthologies, Ad Astra, Borrowed Time, and Swords and Saddles. He lives with his indomitable wife and three children in Maryland.

  ALSO BY JACK CAMPBELL

  STARK’S WAR

  Stark’s War

  Stark’s Command

  Stark’s Crusade

  PAUL SINCLAIR

  A Just Determination

  Burden of Proof

  Rule of Evidence

  Against All Enemies

  THE LOST FLEET

  Dauntless

  Fearless

  Courageous

  Valiant

  Relentless

  Victorious

  THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER

  Dreadnaught

  Invincible

  Guardian

  Steadfast

  Leviathan

  THE LOST STARS

  Tarnished Knight

  Perilous Shield

  Imperfect Sword

  THE PILLARS OF REALITY

  The Dragons of Dorcastle*

  The Hidden Masters of Marandur*

  The Assassins of Altis*

  The Pirates of Pacta Servanda*

  The Servants of the Storm*

  The Wrath of the Great Guilds*

  THE LEGACY OF DRAGONS

  Daughter of Dragons*

  Blood of Dragons*

  Destiny of Dragons*

  EMPRESS OF THE ENDLESS SEA

  Pirate of the Prophecy*

  Explorer of the Endless Sea*

  Fate of the Free Lands*

  THE GENESIS FLEET

  Vanguard

  Ascendant

  Triumphant

  SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

  Ad Astra*

  Borrowed Time*

  Swords and Saddles*

  Rendezvous with Corsair*

  *available as a JABberwocky ebook

  THANK YOU FOR READING

  This ebook has been brought to you by JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

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  Jack Campbell, Rendezvous with Corsair

 

 

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