He’d considered also saying some variation on “we come here in peace” but considering he was sending his message from a warship that was among hundreds of other warships, those particular words had felt too awkward.

  The Alliance ships were close enough to the Taon ships by now that the reply took only a couple of hours. “Welcome human Geary. Some ships? How many? Wish visit Taon. Bring many.”

  “Lokaa still likes us a whole lot,” Desjani observed. “No reply from the Dancers yet?”

  “No,” Geary said. Now that he wanted to go to the Taon star as part of the plan to trip up the conspiracy within the fleet, he had to avoid seeming too eager to go. But he also still had to worry about what the Dancers might tell him about the Taon. A warning from the Dancers would trip up the entire plan. “If our guesses are right, the Dancers should be trying to nudge us in one direction or another.”

  “The lack of replies might be the nudges,” Desjani said. “What do Charban and his colleagues think?”

  “I guess I should find out.”

  As it turned out, Charban and his “staff” had just had breakfast and were bouncing around ideas when Geary arrived. “I need some advice on the Taon and the Dancers,” he said.

  “Taon are Taon,” Dr. Cresida said, not looking up from her comm pad.

  “The Dancers haven’t answered our questions,” General Charban said. “And we know basically nothing about the Taon.”

  “We know they’re not like the Kicks,” Lieutenant Jamenson said. “They can coexist with another species. At least one other. I keep looking for evidence of lots of species mingling,” she admitted. “Like those stories of galactic civilizations with different species working together in them.”

  “We haven’t seen that evidence,” Lieutenant Iger said, half apologetically. “But then, from our available observation regions we’d have a lot of trouble spotting individuals on the planets.”

  “Historically,” Senn said, “on Old Earth, when new groups came to a new land, they’d settle in separate areas of cities. If possible, they’d build houses and other structures that matched their traditional architecture. That still happens when a large group of settlers from a planet that’s been inhabited longer goes to a new planet.”

  “Have we seen that kind of thing in any of the Dancer cities?” Geary said.

  Lieutenant Iger called up some images and reports, studying them. “No, Admiral. We haven’t. The Dancer cities and towns that we’ve been able to observe all reflect roughly the same layouts and building designs, allowing for changes in styles over time.”

  “Does that mean even when a different species like the Taon are freely traveling through their space, the Dancers and other species don’t want them settling on their worlds?” Charban asked, appearing unhappy at the possibility.

  “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” Dr. Cresida murmured, not bothering to look up from her comm pad.

  “Yes!” John Senn said, pointing at her. “Dr. Cresida has it. That quote has been around in various forms for a long time. I’ve used it myself. Because it’s true. We haven’t seen it yet. That doesn’t mean it’s not out there. Whatever it is.”

  “But why is there an absence of evidence?” Geary asked.

  Lieutenant Iger answered, looking as if he’d just realized what he was saying. “We’ve only seen a few Dancer-controlled star systems. Maybe we were brought to this one because it lacked such evidence.”

  “Which would mean the Dancers don’t want us interacting with or having knowledge of other species yet?” Charban asked. “But then why did we see the Taon ships in the last star system? Oh. Because the Dancers didn’t know we were going to be there. The Taon ships could have already been in jump when we arrived at the Dancer star.”

  “Are you suggesting the Taon ships at the last star system never communicated with us because the Dancers didn’t want them to?” Geary asked. “But now . . . but now,” he continued as the thought hit him, “the Dancers have had time to figure things out and told the Taon they could speak to us.”

  “Either that,” Lieutenant Iger said in a cautious voice, “or this Lokaa is powerful enough that he doesn’t have to listen to the Dancers’ wishes when it comes to talking to us.”

  “We just keep going around in circles,” Lieutenant Jamenson complained. “We don’t know enough to reach any conclusions.”

  “We can’t tell you anything remotely definitive,” General Charban said. “We lack enough information. Barring a sudden change in Dancer communication that showers us with hard data, I would suggest that this has to be a gut decision, not one based on firm information. It comes down to this, Admiral. Do we listen to our hopes or to our fears?”

  Put that way, Geary instantly knew his answer. “We listen to our fears to the extent that we take reasonable precautions. But we let our hope decide.” He couldn’t tell these others, except Lieutenant Iger, who had already been secretly briefed, the other reason why he was reaching this decision. “Unless things change, we’re going to go to Taon.”

  He still waited several hours before replying to Lokaa, hoping against all experience that the Dancers would be more forthcoming. When they weren’t, Geary called Ambassador Rycerz, who didn’t reply. Leaving her a message about his intentions, he then composed his answer to the invitation. “Greetings to Lokaa of Taon. This is Admiral Geary. We wish to accept your invitation to visit Taon, but we must leave many ships at this star. Our plan is to bring one hundred of our ships. Is this number acceptable to you? To the honor of our ancestors. Geary, out.”

  One hundred ships. The even total had been a coincidence, the product of bringing all eleven battle cruisers, twenty-five of the light cruisers in five squadrons, and sixty-four destroyers in eight squadrons. It seemed both far too many warships for a peaceful visit, and far too few for the first visit to an alien species of unknown intentions and capabilities.

  With the human fleet and Lokaa’s ships converging toward the same planet, the reply this time took only a little more than an hour. “One hundred. Understand one hundred. Also human Geary? Come now?”

  To Geary’s surprise, Ambassador Rycerz finally called to urge him to accept the invitation to go to Taon space now. “It will show the Taon our sincerity,” Rycerz said, “and allow me to concentrate on relations with the Dancers, who are becoming much more communicative, without any crosscurrents or cross communications.”

  Crosscurrents or cross communications. Rycerz’s attitude wasn’t so surprising after all. She had realized that sending Geary to Taon would eliminate the presence of a second Dancer-modified transmitter, and a source that the Dancers had often preferred to communicate with. He’d already gotten her where she needed to go in Dancer space, so why not get the admiral out of her hair? That was understandable, given all of the obstacles faced to get to this point, and how many factors had conspired to prevent getting to where Rycerz could finally do her job. But, still, it rankled a bit. “Thanks,” Geary muttered after the call ended.

  He knew he should inform the ambassador about the conspiracy. He could hide behind technicalities in interpreting his orders and say this was purely a security matter, though. His sense of duty nagged at him to inform Rycerz anyway, but he couldn’t see any way to do that without a substantial risk that Colonel Webb would hear of it and launch one of his heavy-handed attempts to deal with the matter. And if Webb did that it wouldn’t only put at serious risk Geary’s plan to trap the conspirators into revealing themselves, it would also put at serious risk the life of Ensign Arwen Duellos. And that was only the danger from Webb. Rycerz herself had cautioned that she couldn’t trust anyone aboard Boundless, and didn’t trust even secure communications.

  It wasn’t hard to imagine what advice Victoria Rione would be giving him right now. Most likely she’d give him a scornful look and demand to know why he was even asking the question when it was obvious he shouldn’t risk informing Rycerz. And he had no doubt that this, too, would be one of those rare occasions when Tanya Desjani agreed with Rione’s advice.

  Ambassador Rycerz would likely be extremely angry when she found out. But he had to live with her only until the Dancers accepted the diplomatic mission aboard Boundless. He’d have to live with himself a lot longer than that. Which meant he wouldn’t add additional risks to those Roberto Duellos’s daughter was already facing. Especially when that would also risk what seemed the best plan for exposing the leaders of the conspiracy within the fleet.

  Having decided that, he called his fleet. “All units in the Alliance fleet, this is Admiral Geary. In accordance with earlier instructions I sent out, Task Force Alpha will form immediately under my command for transit to Taon space. The remainder of the fleet will be under the command of Captain Armus, and will stay in this star system to protect Boundless.

  “We can’t be certain of what awaits us in Taon space. But the only way to learn is to go there, and be ready for anything that happens, just as our ancestors did when they left Old Earth for the stars that became our homes. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

  At least, he hoped they’d be ready for anything that happened, both here and in Taon space.

  FIFTEEN

  COMING out of jump was always tense because of the brief period of disorientation. It was especially so when not knowing what to expect to happen during those moments of mental fog. Geary waited them out with grim resolve, relieved when he realized that no alarms were sounding to warn of nearby dangers. At least accepting the Taon invitation hadn’t resulted in an immediate ambush.

  As his mind cleared, he focused on his display, where the sensors on Dauntless and the rest of the ships in Task Force Alpha were automatically processing and displaying everything they could detect within the star system. For the first time in days he had something to focus on besides worrying about what lay ahead and what might be happening back at the Dancer star system.

  In terms of a solar system, this one was fairly average. Geary felt a pang of disappointment at that, having hoped for something spectacular like vast artificial structures filling the space around the star.

  Instead, seven of the worlds orbiting the slightly reddish star were large enough to qualify as planets, three of them gas giants, the closest to the star thirty light minutes from it, the farthest more than two light hours from the star. A passably habitable but probably cold world orbited ten light minutes from the star, with three more planets close enough to the star to be too hot for human life. Apparently that was too hot for Taon as well, given that the only habitats visible on any of those worlds were only town-sized and sealed against the outside environment.

  There were enough orbital facilities to give it the feel of a star system that had been inhabited for a while. Which didn’t match the scattered small cities visible on the settled world. They seemed too few and too small for a star system that had been occupied for a long period.

  The star system had only one other jump point, and no hypernet gate.

  Two other things drew his attention. One was what the fleet’s systems characterized as a “moderate-to-high” level of craters pockmarking the surface of the inhabited world, and the other was the fairly large Taon fleet orbiting near that world.

  He didn’t like what he was seeing. “How does this look to you?” Geary asked.

  Tanya Desjani, studying her display, which was still updating as the fleet’s sensors gathered and displayed information, shook her head. “Scattered small cities. Lots of recent cratering visible on the inhabited world. Quite a bit of wreckage orbiting the star. This looks like a fought-over star system to me.”

  “Can we get an estimate on how recent the largest craters are on that planet?” Geary asked.

  “Not a good one, sir,” Lieutenant Castries said. “We have planetary atmosphere obscuring our view, and we don’t know anything about the planet’s climate to estimate how long it would take to erode craters. The fleet’s systems are estimating the age of the newest craters at ten years or less.”

  “Ten years or less.” Geary shook his head in a way that mimicked Desjani. “Meaning they could be very recent, or the legacy of a war concluded a decade ago.”

  “This doesn’t feel like a star system that’s been at peace for ten years,” Desjani said. “Why are there ninety Taon warships here?”

  “If this is the Taon capital star system, they’ve been beaten on badly,” Geary said. “But I’m not seeing the wreckage of any large cities on that planet. It feels more like a border star system during a war. Are we just seeing it that way because of our own experiences with star systems like that?”

  “We’re seeing it that way because it looks like that,” Desjani said. “Are you wondering why our buddy Lokaa didn’t mention that we were heading for a war zone?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  As if summoned by their name, a call from Lokaa popped into view on Geary’s display. The Taon ships escorting them from Dancer space were only a few light seconds ahead of the human formation.

  Accepting the message, he saw Lokaa with their mouth in the usual oval-shaped “smile.”

  “Welcome!” Lokaa said. “Welcome Taon star! Happy safe arrival! Follow!”

  “The Taon ships in company with us are altering vector,” Lieutenant Castries reported.

  Geary forced a smile he didn’t feel as he replied to Lokaa. “We are also happy to have arrived safely. Is this star system dangerous? Is there war here?”

  “War here? Past. History. Human safe in ships of war. Follow!”

  “I’m not reassured,” Desjani said.

  Neither was Geary. But . . . “I can’t ruin our chances at peaceful relations with another species just because we’ve got a bad feeling about this. If the Taon have recently concluded a war, it might explain their eagerness to be friends with us. They’d want whatever help we could provide to their war-ravaged worlds and economy. As soon as the Taon ships steady out, we’ll follow their vector.”

  “How close are we going to get to that Taon fleet?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “They’re all about the same size, but there are ninety of them.”

  “That’s interesting, isn’t it?” Geary said. “Every ship about the same size, a little larger than one of our light cruisers. Nothing bigger, nothing smaller. We won’t go closer than one light minute to that fleet. We’ll see if Lokaa tries to bring us closer than that.”

  He hesitated, wondering if he should risk the next step. But exhausting his officers and sailors by keeping them at alert for days on end wouldn’t do anything good for their ability to respond quickly to emergencies. “All units in Task Force Alpha, this is Admiral Geary. Stand down from Readiness Condition Two. Maintain enhanced readiness consistent with allowing sufficient rest for your crews. We may yet need them at their best at short notice. Geary, out.”

  It quickly became apparent that the Taon ships were leading them to intercept the primary inhabited planet in its orbit. Before reaching the jump point in the Dancer-controlled star system that they’d left, the Taon ships had slowed to point zero five light speed. The Alliance ships had matched that, wondering if the Taon jump drives couldn’t handle a faster velocity when entering jump. Now that they’d arrived the Taon ships maintained the same velocity. Traveling at the relatively sedate (for warships) velocity of point zero five light speed, the Alliance task force and their Taon escort would require more than three days to reach the planet.

  “Those ninety Taon ships are orbiting five light minutes from the planet we’re heading for,” Desjani commented. “If they stay out there, we shouldn’t have too much to worry about.”

  There were other matters to concern them, though.

  “Everything’s encrypted,” Lieutenant Iger reported within a few hours of their arrival in the star system. “Every transmission we can pick up across the spectrum is encrypted.”

  “That’s odd,” Geary said. Even during the war, human star systems had been filled with many unencrypted transmissions. News reports, entertainment, personal communications, and others. “Is there any chance we can break the encryption?”

  “We have no baseline,” Iger said. “We don’t know their language, or their conventions for transmissions, or anything else. We’ll try, but I’m not confident we’ll achieve anything.”

  “What about observing their cities and orbital facilities? Have we seen anything that tells us important information?”

  “We haven’t determined much yet.” Iger paused. “Though Shamrock, excuse me, sir, Lieutenant Jamenson, noted that none of the cities we can see on the inhabited world are located on the coasts of seas or lakes.”

  “None of them?” As common as various forms of flight and spaceflight had become, oceans were still widely used on human planets to move commerce between continents.

  “There are port facilities on the coasts in various places,” Iger added, “but there’s nothing near them except what are probably mass transit tracks leading to the nearest cities.”

  “That might make them sort of the opposite of the enigmas,” Geary said. What little they’d been able to see of enigma cities had revealed that they straddled coasts and oceans, part of the cities in the water and part on land. “That and the avowed friendliness and invitation to visit instead of death threats if we didn’t leave immediately.”

  Lieutenant Iger nodded, but he didn’t seem happy about it. “Yes, Admiral. If it’s all true.”

  “Believe me, Lieutenant, we’re all skeptical.” That was easy to say, but Geary also knew he had a responsibility to make friends with the Taon if possible, or at least avoid making them enemies.