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The only reason they weren’t blown out of the sky when the three ships appeared at the edge of the unnamed system where they were to rendezvous with Sharp and the Ueshiba was because they’d given the Commander fair warning. Blue had somehow managed to give the stolen ship an Alliance transponder to make sure the local defenses saw it as a friendly. They expected the Ueshiba, and even the local defense platforms hovering at Cascade jump distance. The patrol boats didn’t seem out of place.
“Wow,” Spencer said as the screen lit up with returns. “We must have really pissed her off. That’s a full carrier group.”
Admiral Goff had apparently decided to show up on her own, and the message wasn’t subtle. Showing up on the Red Dwarf with an escort of two heavy cruisers, four destroyers, and a dozen fast interceptor specialty ships of various configurations was as heavy-handed as threats got. Spencer felt a twinge of irritation at the ham-handedness of it. Someone with this little nuance should not be in charge of the Alliance’s intelligence apparatus.
Ueshiba sat outside the formation like a scolded child told to sit in the corner. The message there was clear as well: Sharp was being publicly shunned. It was surely meant as a power play by Goff meant to embarrass and anger Sharp, but the woman was clearly so dense that she was unable to recognize the other edge of that blade. The members of the NIA who had worked under Sharp for years would probably take solace from the fact that its new head wanted nothing to do with him.
When the hail came, Spencer raised an eyebrow at her screen. “It’s Sharp, Captain.”
Grant turned in his seat to look at her in surprise. “Not Goff? I figured she’d want to tear us a new asshole personally. Put him on.”
Everyone knew Sharp could have overridden the comm had he wanted to and forced the communication through. That he didn’t was a sign of respect. Spencer opened the channel and let the tight beam through.
“Welcome back,” Sharp said with a tight, angry smile on his face. There was no preamble, no formality. Which made her certain this exchange was being watched, tight beam or no. “Despite the odds, you managed to survive your mission. I understand you’ve brought back more than just that ship?”
This was an obvious cue for Grant to speak, and Spencer silently thanked the gods he’d become more savvy over the years. “Yes, sir,” Grant said in precisely the right tone. Agreeable and respectful without bowing down. “There were unforeseen circumstances. Ones I’m not comfortable discussing over a channel. In person would be ideal.”
Sharp’s predatory grin twitched. Without even realizing he’d done it, Grant had just told the audience witnessing this exchange—at least Admiral Goff, and probably others—that he held the cards. The data was crucial enough not to talk about even vaguely over any kind of transmission. Or at least that was how it would be interpreted. Spencer badly wished she could sneak aboard that carrier and spend a few hours slicing into its servers. She wanted to be a fly on the wall for that debriefing.
Then Sharp granted her wish, in a way.
“I’m supposed to tell you that a tribunal is waiting to speak with you aboard Red Dwarf,” the Commander said. “All of you. Blue included. Don’t keep the five of them waiting.”
Spencer sucked in a breath. A tribunal of five? That was how military courts worked. Five admirals were only called together for treason. This was another message, of course. None of them were active in the Navy. It was a brandished fist to make the crew compliant. Another obvious tactic.
“We’re ready,” Grant said. “If you have a transport available, we can ferry over at your discretion.”
Sharp nodded, his eyes flicking to Spencer for half a second. “Good. Fifteen minutes. I suggest you take the time to compose yourselves and organize your thoughts. This won’t be a fast meeting.”
The line went dead. Spencer whipped her head toward Iona. “Secure us, please.”
Iona blinked, then gave a thumbs-up. “Done.”
Spencer didn’t need to open a line to the rest of the ship. It was already wide open from the call, because she’d piped the conversation through the PA as well as to the other two ships. Krieger and Blue both had a right to know what was going on, after all.
“Everyone listen to me carefully,” she said. “I’m going to tell you exactly how we need to handle this if we want to get through it without ending up in prison.”
––––––––
Sharp met them in the main hanger aboard Red Dwarf. It was no different than any of the other carriers making up the fleet’s backbone; a large cylinder a few kilometers long absolutely stuffed to the gills with fighters and weapons. The White Dwarf and Blue Dwarf were slightly newer and had seen less battle, but otherwise the trio of carriers in their group were interchangeable.
It wasn’t the specific carrier that pissed Spencer off, but that one was here at all. The Alliance was still reeling from the final assault by the Children last year. Whole solar systems worth of infrastructure and colonies were destroyed or crippled. Peeling off this much firepower for a show of force cut right down to the quick, exposing the molten ball of feelings she normally kept well in check. It was criminally stupid. An expression of ego that would certainly cost lives without firing a single shot.
They silently followed the Commander to the main conference room situated a few dozen meters from the carrier’s CIC. The tribunal was waiting for them. Spencer took her seat next to Grant, with Crash on his other side. Iona sat as well, and Spencer noticed the twitch of annoyance on Admiral Goff’s face as she did so. Sims were legally people, a distinction the navy was careful to make, but old-school hardliners had a difficult time seeing them as anything other than equipment with a high IQ.
“I suppose you know why you’re here,” Goff said once the crew was seated. Her eyes raked Krieger and Blue especially.
Grant laced his fingers together on the table in front of him, an arc whose bowl faced the raised platform upon which their judges sat. “I assume it’s to thank us for completing the suicide mission you sent us on while also stopping the threat of yet another invasion.”
No one laughed, which Spencer took as a personal victory. She had stressed the importance of not treating anything Grant said as a joke. The key was to be defiant, but in a controlled way that conveyed no sense of guilt or defensiveness. They had to act as if they’d done nothing wrong and in a precise manner that didn’t make them look arrogant. Well, not too arrogant.
“Excuse me?” Goff said, anger darkening her face. “I don’t think you’re in any position to criticize the decisions of your superior officer.”
Grant shook his head in disbelief without seeming dismissive. He really was good at this. “Ma’am, with all respect, no one in this room believes for a second that you expected us to come back. If we did manage to squeak through, it was a win for you. Now you’re here with a full court even though we aren’t part of the Navy in any official way because you don’t like how we did it.”
Spencer kept her eyes moving, watching for micro-expressions as the other admirals reacted to the discussion. She didn’t recognize any of them, which meant nothing. Goff would have either packed the bench with people with some loyalty to her, or else whoever was available to show up on short notice. There were a few tiny, almost imperceptible nods at Grant’s words. Anyone with half a brain knew he was right.
“Commander Sharp, is this how your operatives typically speak to you?” Goff asked. Sharp stood to one side, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed over a uniform empty of all but his name over the left breast.
“No, ma’am,” Sharp replied. “But then, he’s not talking to me. I generally find Captain Stone to be fair and respectful when he’s treated with the same.”
The room went absolutely silent. The eyes of every admiral fell on Sharp. Goff somehow clawed her anger under control. She spoke in a voice icily devoid of all emotion. “We’ll be having a talk later, Commander. Just between us.”
“No, I don’t believe we will,” Sharp said. “You want to reprimand me, or file charges, feel free to go ahead and do it here. I don’t mind witnesses. In fact, I’d prefer it. I recall how you ordered these people to undertake a mission that Special Activities would have rated a suicide run and wanted them to do it with no prep time. It was only because Child Blue forced you to that you gave them survival training.”
Spencer hoped no one pointed out that they hadn’t actually needed most of that, but the point was well made. Sharp told them about the tribunal because he wanted the crew to turn this around on Goff, making the rest of the admiralty aware of her decisions.
“It isn’t your place to question my orders,” Goff said, as if Sharp hadn’t just accused her of deliberately trying to get Ghost Fleet assets killed. Oh, Spencer was sure just about anyone in her position would have done the same. Iona was still a bone of contention within the service, and the safety of being part of the crew had made the opportunity too good to pass up. But the gambit had failed, and everyone knew it.
Goff stared nails at Grant once again. “Captain, you didn’t have orders to attack the planet. Yet I understand you managed to destroy it and all of the technology on its surface. Is that correct?”
Grant opened his mouth to speak, but Blue cut him off. “In point of fact, Admiral, I did that. Captain Stone had no choice in the matter. I was not going to allow a threat like these strangers to put the Alliance in danger so soon after my own people did such harm to them. You will take no action against the Captain or his crew.”
Goff straightened in her seat. “That sounds like a threat. I should remind you that you’re alone here, robot. You have no leverage.”
Blue smiled. “I disagree. I have all of the data taken from the Vault stored both in my cells and in several encrypted data vaults aboard the ship I stole. A vessel I have stripped of its programming and into which I have uploaded a copy of my own mind. I can no longer reintegrate with my original self, of course. We have diverged too far. We are different people, now.”
Alarms began to blare throughout the ship, the three short bursts signifying an unknown contact.
Blue continued as if the alarms didn’t exist. “That does not mean, however, that my original self will not come to aid me when I ask for it. Now, let us have an honest conversation.”
This was not what Spencer expected. Not what she’d hoped for. No, it was both better and worse. The stakes were no longer a pissing match that would erode Goff’s reputation while securing the safety of the crew. With Blue taking it to this level, they were in an all-or-nothing standoff. She knew the shape of it as easily as breathing. Blue would hold the information hostage, keep the technology at a distance from the Alliance until the safety of Grant and his people was guaranteed. And he was willing to bloody some noses doing it.
She hoped that was as far as it went. Given the tension in the room and the rolling wave of controlled panic echoing from the nearby voices in the CIC, she wasn’t sure any of them would survive if it went any further.