NINE
AS Geary and Desjani walked quickly toward the bridge, she muttered something under her breath.
“What was that?” Geary asked.
“Jazz,” Desjani said. “Ancestors help us. He likes her?”
“They’re the only two civilians on the ship,” Geary pointed out. “It was probably inevitable that they’d be drawn together.”
“That sort of thing is never inevitable,” Desjani said. “Remember when Lieutenant Castries and Lieutenant Yuon had to be confined together for decontamination? More than once Castries nearly murdered Yuon. The only way she was drawn to him was in imagining different ways to kill him.”
Reaching the bridge, they both shifted fully into focusing on the new ship.
“We haven’t received any message from the new ship yet?” Desjani asked.
“Nothing, Captain.”
Geary tried not to frown as deeply as he wanted to. A message announcing your arrival, who you were, and why you were here was routine for ships reaching a new star system. Granted, the laws that required such a message didn’t have standing in a Dancer-controlled star system, but it was still smart to follow them. Especially when the new ship must have seen how many Alliance warships were here the moment it arrived.
Unfortunately, there was a strong possible reason why the ship hadn’t done the commonsense thing.
Desjani had reached the same conclusion. “Jump space syndrome.”
“I think that’s a certainty,” Geary said. “What is that ship?”
“It’s a Volodymyr-class mixed passenger and cargo vessel, Admiral,” Lieutenant Castries reported. “A model six, constructed between twenty and thirty years ago. Our sensors have identified a symbol on the bow which corresponds to the logo of the Aurelius Corporation, a multi-star-system-spanning conglomerate inside the Alliance.”
“Under normal circumstances,” Geary said, “we wouldn’t have to worry about them. But this isn’t normal.”
Desjani nodded, her mouth pursed. “Temporarily insane people controlling a large ship. And the engineering section of that large ship. They could override safeties and blow the power core. How do we make sure they don’t kill each other, or someone else, or damage a Dancer orbital facility, without killing all of them?”
“Let’s see if we can find out who we’re dealing with.” The Aurelius Corporation ship wasn’t as slow as a typical freighter but was still moving at only point zero four light speed. At that velocity, it would take more than four and a half days for the ship to reach the vicinity of Geary’s fleet. But that assumed he wouldn’t have to try to intercept that ship as soon as possible to save the people aboard it from themselves. “Give me a tight transmission beam to intercept that ship.”
“Ready, Admiral,” the comms watch said. “Channel six.”
Geary touched his comm controls. “Aurelius Corporation ship, this is Admiral Geary, senior Alliance military commander in this star system. In accordance with instructions from the Alliance Senate, I am directing you to identify yourself and to explain the purpose of your presence here. You are to maneuver onto a vector intercepting this fleet in orbit. I await your reply. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
There wasn’t any sense in waiting for the reply, which would take at least nine hours, before planning for what was likely inevitable. Geary touched another comm control. “General Carabali, I want you to work up a plan for boarding that newly arrived ship. Control of the engineering section has to be achieved as quickly as possible to prevent any sabotage. Unless we learn otherwise, we need to plan for gaining control of the ship in a manner that minimizes any chance of injury to the people aboard it.”
Carabali nodded, thoughts moving behind her eyes. “I assume this will be a noncooperative boarding operation?”
“Your planning has to assume that, yes,” Geary said. “Everyone aboard that ship is probably temporarily insane.”
“And all of them are probably Alliance civilians.”
“All of them are probably Alliance civilians,” Geary agreed.
“Admiral, I feel obligated to point out that this is the very definition of the sort of police action the Alliance military is supposed to avoid any involvement in,” General Carabali said.
“I understand,” Geary said. “But we don’t have any police on hand, and the situation involves potentially life-threatening dangers to not only the humans on that ship but also Dancers in any of their ships or orbital facilities if the ship gets close to one of them and detonates its power core.”
“Admiral, I still need a clear declaration from you that we are in a war zone. That’s in order to protect my Marines from any legal fallout and to allow the use of a riot suppression agent against Alliance civilians. I wouldn’t need such a declaration to use CRX gas against Syndic civilians. But I must have it to use CRX against Alliance civilians.”
“We are in a war zone,” Geary said. Saying that shouldn’t have been necessary, not after the fight with the Syndics, but he knew legal requirements didn’t always mesh well with common sense. “This action, if I order it, will be necessary to protect Alliance citizens.”
“Thank you, Admiral. I will proceed with planning.”
“Admiral,” Captain Desjani said, “Ambassador Rycerz is trying to reach you.”
“Of course she is.” Geary accepted the link, seeing Rycerz’s image appear before him. “We’re still trying to identify the ship and who’s on it.”
“It looks like an Aurelius ship,” Rycerz said.
“Are you familiar with that company?”
Rycerz made a face. “One of my co-workers had a run-in with them over some of the company’s business practices. Our work also involves smoothing ruffled feathers among different star systems within the Alliance. Aurelius is . . . powerful.”
“How powerful?” Geary asked.
“It wouldn’t be diplomatic of me to say that Aurelius owns at least one Alliance senator, so I will not say that. But I’m not surprised it’s one of their ships. If any Alliance conglomerate was going to try those long jumps to Dancer space, it would be Aurelius.”
He tried to read between the lines of what she was saying. “Is that because the company is powerful or because it runs risks?”
“Both.” Rycerz gestured outward. “If Aurelius sent a ship, there’s a very good chance the senior person on that ship is their chief executive officer, Ronald Yangdi. He’s that sort of showboater. I’m sure he intends trying to overawe me. How he plans to approach you, I don’t know, but assume flattery.”
“He’s very likely temporarily insane,” Geary said. “Do you know if he has armed bodyguards?”
“That’s not a very common thing in the Alliance,” Rycerz said with a frown. “It would look very bad for any corporate official to be parading around with armed bodyguards. Naturally, he does have bodyguards. He’s extremely rich. Just not armed bodyguards.”
“Got it. Do you think he came charging out here hoping to cut exclusive deals with the Dancers?”
“I’d guarantee it,” Rycerz said.
“Unless Yangdi and the crew of that ship are somehow sane,” Geary said, “I’m going to have to use Marines to board it and take control in order to protect everyone aboard and everyone else in this star system, Dancers included.”
Rycerz froze for a long moment. “I hope that won’t be necessary,” she finally said.
“Me, too.”
While waiting to hear from the new ship (if it replied at all), Geary went ahead with planning an operation that even Marines were reluctant to undertake. Fleet planning tools had suggested he use sailors instead because that would represent less force being used against civilians. But sailors lacked the training, the equipment, and the experience that Marines would bring to the job.
An assault transport would be needed to carry enough Marines for the (hopefully not required but unfortunately likely) boarding and takeover of the ship. General Carabali had already expressed a desire for Tsunami to take on that role, saying that Colonel Savchenko and her battalion aboard that ship had a lot of experience with boarding operations. But Tsunami would need an escort. Not too big an escort, but enough to handle the new ship if it did something dangerous.
That meant at least one heavy cruiser.
Or two?
Maybe a battle cruiser.
That might look like overkill.
Or like a sign of how concerned he was for the safety of the Alliance citizens aboard that ship.
No matter what happened, a battle cruiser could handle it.
Fine. Marines and a battle cruiser. He wasn’t going to take any half measures for fear of being second-guessed far from here months from now.
Civilians were likely to get hurt.
But, then, given what had happened aboard the Syndic warships, civilians were probably already getting hurt on that ship.
It didn’t seem like this could get any more complicated.
But then it did.
“WE finally got a response from the new ship,” Captain Desjani told him.
Geary was already in a passageway, watching Ensign Duck parade by on the daily patrol, two Marines as watchful escorts, so he headed for the bridge to see the message.
Desjani was already there, of course. As soon as Geary sat down near her she called up the message.
The man whose image appeared before him was broadly built, his smile also broad. His eyes, though, squinted, as if he were facing a bright light. “Admiral! Black Jack! This is Ron! I am so excited to meet you at last! We’ve got so much to do!”
“We do?” Geary said, realizing that in his surprise at the statement he’d said that out loud.
“The deal,” Ron said, almost as if answering Geary’s question. “The deal! I’m glad you agreed to all my terms! It’ll be epic! Nothing like it ever! But, listen, these, uh, aliens aren’t talking! Gotta talk, right? I need you to hold up your end of things.”
Geary stared at the man in bafflement, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Ron Yangdi wasn’t on the bridge of the still-unidentified ship, but in some large room that, from what could be seen, was an elaborate office.
In the background, two people were struggling with a third.
A shape only partly visible on the floor behind some furniture might be a body.
Yangdi continued speaking as if nothing unusual was happening. “Get these aliens talking, Black Jack! They need to know who runs things around here, am I right? Of course I am! You’re going to be rich! Waiting for your comeback!”
The message ended.
“Deal?” Geary said. “Terms? I’ve never spoken to him. Is he . . .”
“Crazy?” Desjani said. “We know he is. He broadcast that reply, by the way. It went to every ship in the fleet.”
“He . . .” Geary struggled to control his temper. “He wants everyone in this fleet to think I negotiated some deal with him? When we’ve never exchanged any words before this?”
“It’s just good business,” someone said.
Geary looked to the back of the bridge, seeing that Colonel Rogero was there.
“Good business practices,” Rogero continued. “At least as practiced in the Syndicate. Put your opponent off-balance, imply wrongdoing on their part, pretend to agreements that no one agreed to.”
“This is an Alliance business,” Captain Desjani said. “He’s an Alliance business leader.”
“A CEO is a CEO,” Rogero stated flatly.
“CEOs in the Alliance aren’t . . .” Desjani began. “I mean, not all CEOs in the Alliance are . . . Some CEOs . . . Admiral, he’s right. We couldn’t trust this guy even if he was sane.”
“He’s put you on the defensive,” Colonel Rogero said. “Instead of simply refuting him, defending yourself, you need to make it clear why he cannot be trusted.”
“I don’t know anything about him as a person,” Geary protested. “He might not be someone like a Syndic CEO.”
“Even if he’s a decent guy,” Desjani said, “he’s temporarily insane. He might honestly believe you and he talked and made some agreement even though it all happened inside his own head. You still have to make it clear it’s all made-up.”
“You’d think people would know that without my saying it,” Geary said, hearing the resentment in his voice.
“Are you saying it’s unfair?” Desjani asked in an innocent-sounding voice.
He gave her a lowered brow in response. “Yes. The universe is being unfair. Again. All right. You’ve made your point.”
Yangdi’s wild statements had forced his hand. He could no longer pass this off to any on-scene commander. And the more he thought about it, the less Geary liked having only a couple of ships far from the rest of the fleet.
Bringing too many resources against the problem was better than bringing too few.
Geary touched his fleet command controls. “All units in the Alliance fleet, this is Admiral Geary. We have finally received a communication from the newly arrived human ship and confirmed that it is a private vessel owned by the Aurelius Corporation. Unfortunately, the message also confirmed that the senior individual aboard, a Ronald Yangdi, is not rational. He spoke of some agreement with me that doesn’t exist. We’ve never communicated prior to this. Background images in his message seem to show violence underway on the ship. We know from the Syndic prisoners what conditions were like aboard their ships when the crews were suffering from Severe Jump Space Syndrome. If anything like that is happening aboard this new ship, we have to take action to stop it and protect those aboard it.
“In light of this information, I am ordering an operation to board the civilian ship and ensure the safety of everyone on it. Given the uncertainties, even though the military threat appears minimal, the Second Battle Cruiser Division will escort Tsunami to intercept the new ship. Every possible precaution will be taken to minimize the danger to everyone involved. We have to save these people, and we will.
“To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
“You’re going to personally command this one?” Desjani asked.
“It looks like a unique opportunity to excel,” Geary said, using fleet slang for a rough job no one wanted. “Given how worried everyone is about this op, I don’t want anyone else to be stuck with any fallout from it. Speaking of things I don’t want anyone else stuck with, I need to reply to ‘Ron.’ Do we still not have ID on that ship?”
“We don’t have a solid ID, Admiral,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “But based on details of the hull, fleet sensors are estimating with eighty-six percent confidence that the ship is the Fortuna, belonging to the Aurelius Corporation. He’s still not broadcasting any standard identification, though.”
“Those ID broadcasts are automatic,” Desjani said. “Either someone shut it off deliberately, or it got disabled somehow and hasn’t been fixed. Either way, that’s not a good sign of what things are like on that ship.”
Geary nodded, working to relax his grim expression so he appeared welcoming. “I want this message copied to Ambassador Rycerz.” He waited a moment for that to be set up before touching the control to send another message to the new ship. “Citizen Yangdi aboard the Alliance commercial ship Fortuna, this is Admiral Geary. We are noticing indications that your ship is in distress, and will be sending ships to meet with you and escort you to meet up with the rest of the Alliance ships in this star system. Those ships will also carry personnel able to render assistance to you if needed. I want to clearly state that I have no knowledge of whatever deal you spoke of, nor did I ever agree to any terms. If you intend offering some . . . business opportunity, I have to remind you that as a fleet officer I am prohibited from engaging in such actions while on active duty. You are free to discuss your plans with Ambassador Rycerz, but since we are in a war zone outside of Alliance space your allowed actions will be limited by the security environment. Please have your ship’s captain contact me as soon as possible to discuss the state of your ship, as we do have concerns.”
He needed to say something calming, something to keep anyone aboard Fortuna from feeling threatened. “I promise you that any actions we take will be aimed at ensuring that everyone aboard the Fortuna is safe and remains safe. We will protect you, Citizen Yangdi, and your ship. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
That done, he sat back, waiting.
Desjani gave him an inquisitive look.
He pointed to his display as it alerted to an incoming call from Ambassador Rycerz.
Rycerz looked unhappy, but also wasn’t directing that at Geary. “This is a very delicate situation, Admiral. I’m grateful that you are taking the responsibility for handling it on yourself.”
“I don’t think we have any alternative but to handle it this way,” Geary said.
“There was something you told me about the Syndic ships,” Rycerz said. “That when everyone was impacted by the Severe Jump Space Syndrome everything was ‘more so.’ It exaggerated problems that already existed. Looking at Ronald Yangdi’s message, I’m seeing the same thing. He has a reputation as a glad-hander, being very enthusiastic and flattering. He’s not a different person as a result of this syndrome. He’s more Ronald Yangdi.”
“How bad is that?” Geary asked.
Rycerz paused to think. “Yangdi is also a risk-taker, and by reputation will manipulate deals to his maximum benefit.”
“ ‘Just good business,’ ” Geary said. “I was already advised that we couldn’t trust him. But it sounds like we need to worry about him deciding to undertake a risk that he would recognize as crazy under normal circumstances.”
“Exactly,” Rycerz said, nodding. “Because of the ugly legacy of the long war with the Syndics the average citizen of the Alliance isn’t going to get worked up about some Syndic civilians dying as a byproduct of a necessary action. But Alliance citizens dying at the hands of Alliance forces is a whole different thing. If you haven’t already learned about the Tiamat riots, you need to familiarize yourself with what happened then.”
The call ended, Geary looked at Desjani. “Tiamat riots?”
Her face twisted in an expression of distaste. “Tiamat. Yes, you should read up on that.”
WARNED by Desjani’s reaction, Geary went to the privacy of his stateroom to look up the incident.
There were a lot of results to his search, including not only the official version that was marked as required reading for all new officers, but also many firsthand accounts and vids from the riots.
Eighty years ago, twenty years into the war with the Syndicate Worlds, twenty years after Geary’s battle at Grendel and twenty years after he entered frozen survival sleep, frustration over the war and the losses the Alliance was already sustaining had led to mass demonstrations on the primary inhabited world of Tiamat Star System. The official summary of events was short and blunt, designed to hold the attention of senior officers, who often skimmed the first paragraph of a study before moving on to the next task.
Faced with widespread protests by its citizens, Tiamat’s government panicked, and demanded support from the Alliance military. Badly misinterpreting official policy regarding support to local governments, the commanding officer of a large recruit training facility at Tiamat armed the recruits and sent them to confront the protestors with orders to “shut down” the protests. Overreactions and confusing instructions to partially trained soldiers led to the deaths of over one thousand civilians as well as nearly fifty soldiers. This event nearly shattered the Alliance, dishonored the Alliance military, and is never to be repeated. All officers are reminded of their responsibilities under Article 16.
For good measure, the summary then cited Article 16 of the Alliance Military Code.
Anytime an officer has reasonable grounds to believe an order is either issued in error, or improperly issued contrary to Alliance law or fleet regulations, that officer is obligated to confirm the accuracy of the order and its legitimacy before obeying it.
Article 16 dated to the formation of the Alliance and hadn’t been changed in all the years since. Geary wondered if it was still called the Reasonable Article. And if officers were still told both of its importance and of the importance of never using it, because no commander wanted their orders to be questioned and anyone who did so would regret that for however much longer their career lasted. If anything, the consequences of invoking Article 16 had probably grown much more serious during the long war with the Syndics, opening up any officer who used it to potential charges of disobedience of orders in the face of the enemy, a field court-martial, and a quickly assembled firing squad.
But, clearly, what had happened on Tiamat eighty years ago still resonated within the Alliance military. Enough so that (like Article 16) it was something everyone knew about but no one talked about. Which was why he hadn’t heard about Tiamat before this.
No wonder even the usually unflappable General Carabali was spooked at the idea of this boarding operation.
If anything, though, this was a reverse of the Tiamat situation, a case where not acting would result in more civilian deaths on top of however many had already died on the Fortuna.
TWO days later, having accelerated away from the rest of the fleet to intercept the Fortuna faster, the small task force began braking velocity to match the vector of the civilian ship. The battle cruisers Dauntless, Daring, Victorious, and Intemperate were arranged around the assault transport Tsunami, protecting the less maneuverable, lightly armed transport and the Marines aboard her.
“Human problem, humans fix.” General Charban had reported the Dancer response with weary resignation. “As directed, I asked them straight out why they kept bringing these human ships here instead of telling them to go home or just leaving them in the border star system until they left. The response to that was also ‘human problem, humans fix.’ ”
Fortuna hadn’t altered vector in any way since arriving in the star system, still heading inward at point zero four light speed, on a path that would bring the ship near the primary inhabited world as that planet orbited its star.
Ron Yangdi had exchanged a series of increasingly manic messages with Geary. “The entire galaxy, Black Jack. I’ve got the deal ready to go. And it’s all leveraged! I’ll get . . . I mean, we’ll get the entire galaxy for the cost of a haircut! The keepers of the central stars are ready to sign.”
“Keepers of the central stars?” Desjani asked.
“I guess you’d need them to sign on to a deal for the entire galaxy,” Geary said. “Doctor?”
He was making sure Dr. Nasr viewed every message and offered suggestions on how to talk Yangdi down. “I would suggest not refusing the, um, deal,” Nasr said. “Say you have to delay for some reason.”
“Say you have to run it by legal,” Colonel Rogero suggested. “Once you bring in lawyers you’ve got every excuse you need.”
“Citizen Yangdi,” Geary sent, “I am happy to hear of the proposed deal but we need to . . . run it by legal before I can give an answer. Is the captain of the Fortuna available to speak to me?”
They were close enough to Fortuna by now, only about eighteen million kilometers, that the delay for messages traveling at the speed of light to cover the distance was only about a minute long.
Ronald Yangdi’s luxurious office could barely be seen in the latest reply. Yangdi had apparently shut off all the lights, himself only illuminated by reflected light from his display. “Legal? Legal? Do you want to kill this deal? Because you’re going to kill this deal! And what’s with all those warships? Don’t play games with me!”
“We just want to be sure you and everyone on Fortuna is all right,” Geary said. “We’ve got some medical personnel who can check on everyone’s health, and some technicians who can take a look at some of the systems on your ship that don’t seem to be working properly. Where is Fortuna’s captain?” The list of nonworking equipment had grown from the identification broadcast to include disturbing outputs from Fortuna’s power core as well as temperature readings that might mean life support wasn’t working properly in some parts of the ship.
Even worse, every attempt to reach any other transmitter on Fortuna had failed. Aside from Yangdi’s office and Yangdi himself, they hadn’t seen any other part of the interior of the ship or anyone else except for occasional figures moving in the background.
Yangdi’s next reply showed his office partially lit by portable lamps. “Don’t try pressuring me! Do you know who I am? I can shut you down. Stop playing games. And, I’m going to be frank here, it’s getting really annoying listening to you keep asking to talk to other people. You don’t need to talk to anybody but me.”
Dr. Nasr shook his head. “Admiral, the fact that he refuses to let the captain speak to you is not a good sign.”
“I’m not aware of any sign that’s been good,” Geary said. “Captain, have we got any new readings on Fortuna’s point defense weapon?”
“Still inactive,” Desjani replied. “We’ll match vectors with Fortuna in twenty minutes.”
Geary tabbed a comm channel. “Colonel Savchenko, prepare your boarding parties.”
Savchenko replied, her hair knotted back in a tight braid, her attitude relaxed but her eyes intent. “We’re ready to launch, Admiral. Confirm authorization to employ CRX gas against Alliance civilians.”
“Confirmed,” Geary said. “Knock out everyone you can and get them onto shuttles to Tsunami so they can be evaluated. We don’t know how many were on board Fortuna or how many of them might have already died from various causes. If Yangdi brought along a large staff in addition to the crew, there might be as many as two hundred people on the ship.”
“We’ll access the ship’s files as soon as we board,” Savchenko said. “After securing the bridge and engineering, we’ll fan out through the ship in fire teams to locate, sedate, and remove every civilian on the ship.”
“Yangdi has made some statements implying he’s well protected,” Geary said. “That might just be Severe Jump Space Syndrome talking. His bodyguards are not legally allowed to be armed. But be aware that anyone trying to enter Yangdi’s office might encounter defenses.”
“Got it, Admiral.”
“You have permission to launch shuttles as soon as Tsunami is in position,” Geary said. “Commander Balboa,” he added, tagging Tsunami’s commanding officer, “the Marines have permission to launch.”
“I understand the Marines have permission to launch,” Balboa repeated, his voice as calm as that of Colonel Savchenko. “Admiral, we will match Fortuna’s vector in five minutes, positioned five hundred meters from the main entry air locks. All medical personnel are standing by to receive evacuees from Fortuna.”
“Excellent,” Geary said. “The four battle cruisers will stand off two kilometers from Fortuna, ready to react if necessary.”
Captain Desjani’s hand was moving over her display. “All ships in the Second Battle Cruiser Division will be in position in three minutes, Admiral. Request confirm that all weapons should remain in standby.”
“Yes,” Geary said. “Keep all weapons in standby.” This close to Fortuna, which was a large ship, but armed only with a single close-in defense pop gun, the presence of four battle cruisers felt a bit ridiculous. But given the uncertainties of the boarding operation, and what Fortuna might do, he didn’t regret bringing them all along.
Ronald Yangdi chose that moment to send another message. “What’s going on? What’s with all of these warships? You’re not trying to muscle me, are you, Black Jack?”
“They’re escorts,” Geary answered, which was true. The battle cruisers had other potential roles as well, but Yangdi didn’t need to know about that. “Escorts suitable to . . . your status. And to ensure the safety of Fortuna.”
“I don’t need ’em here and I don’t want ’em here,” Yangdi declared. The lights in his office were on again, making it easy to spot the presence of a large individual in the background.
“That person in the back is former military,” Colonel Rogero said. “Look how he’s standing.”
“One of Yangdi’s bodyguards, then,” Geary said before keying the circuit to call Fortuna again. “Citizen Yangdi—”
They were so close there was no delay in transmissions now, allowing Yangdi to interrupt Geary. “Ron! I told you to call me Ron!”
The friendly words combined with the threatening manner in which they were delivered felt so strange that Geary almost laughed despite the stress riding his nerves.
“Ron,” Geary said. “It’s a measure of your importance that I brought four battle cruisers as escorts.”
“Then you should’ve brought eight!” Yangdi glared at something in his office. “What about the fifth one? Are they launching something?”
“Shuttles,” Geary said. “We have to certify newly arrived ships as safe, so some people from that ship will come aboard Fortuna to—”
“No one comes aboard my ship unless I say so!”
“Ron, if you want any deals to proceed, you have to follow procedures.” Would that get through to him?
“Procedures are for little people with little money,” Yangdi said with a laugh. “You know who wants a deal with me? The Queen of the Dancers! She can’t wait. I don’t have time for you and your delays!”
Geary’s last sight of Yangdi was him slamming down a hand to cut off the transmission. “The Queen of the Dancers?”
“Admiral,” Colonel Rogero said, “you should take him out. For the safety of others.”
“The CRX gas should do just that,” Geary said.
“We’re launching, Admiral,” Colonel Savchenko reported.
Twenty shuttles shot out from Tsunami, heading for different locations on the nearby hull of Fortuna. Even though both ships were moving at well over five hundred thousand kilometers per minute, with their vectors exactly matched they appeared to be motionless compared to each other.
Geary quickly opened and rearranged virtual windows on his display, keeping the one that would show Yangdi centered in case he got through to “Ron” again. With no warship threat, he could focus his attention on the Marines boarding Fortuna.
One window offered a view from the battle armor of Captain Cayedito as his shuttle reached the ship. “Accesses are all locked,” Cayedito reported.
“Crack them using nondestructive entry methods,” Colonel Savchenko ordered. “Get inside without breaking anything.”
Geary watched Marine hack-and-crack specialists position their equipment, analyzing locks, overriding control software, bypassing passwords and other security measures, in less time than it took the other Marines to position themselves for entry. The commercial lock software and hardware was a piece of cake for military specialists to break through after their experience dealing with Syndic physical security measures.
The same thing was happening elsewhere on Fortuna’s outer hull, access doors opening, Marines in battle armor crowding inside spacious entry air locks with luxurious fittings, scattered among the Marines fleet medical personnel and technicians in survival suits.
Ron Yangdi’s image appeared again as he reconnected. “Black Jack! What the hell are you trying to do! This is my ship. Private property. Under Alliance law you need a warrant to enter my property. Back off or I’ll call highly placed friends and your career will be over.”
“Do not directly refuse him,” Dr. Nasr advised, who was monitoring the same circuit. “Try to stall.”
“Gaslight him,” Desjani suggested.
No one remembered where the ancient term had come from, but everyone knew what “gaslighting” meant. “I’m sorry,” Geary said to Yangdi. “You already agreed to my people coming aboard for safety checks. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course I remember! My memory is flawless!”
In another window, Captain Cayedito was reporting to Colonel Savchenko. The view from Cayedito’s armor showed an eerily empty passageway inside Fortuna. The views from other Marines revealed the same strange vista of an apparently deserted ship. “The fleet techs with us have patched into the ship’s control systems and carried out a remote shutdown of life support’s air-filtering functions. We’re starting to release the CRX into the closest air returns.”
“What about control of the ship’s power core?” Savchenko demanded.
“They say something is blocking them. Their best guess is a backup system independent of the rest of the ship’s control systems.”
Another group of Marines reported in. “We’re at the bridge. Both doors are locked. Estimated time to entry less than a minute.”
“Get them off my ship!” Yangdi shouted. “Get them off now! Do you know who I am?”
“How many people are aboard Fortuna?” Geary asked, hoping to distract Yangdi.
“Three hundred twelve!” Yangdi shouted in reply. “See? There’s nothing wrong with me!”
“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with you,” Geary said. “Three hundred twelve? Why so many?”
Yangdi grinned, the exaggerated expression almost terrifying. “People paid to see the Dancers. See? See how smart I am? I sold tickets. Expensive tickets! Enough to cover the cost of this trip. See how smart I am?”
Geary muted the call with Yangdi. “Colonel Savchenko, I’m informed there are three hundred twelve people aboard Fortuna.”
“I understand three hundred twelve,” Savchenko replied. “I’ll inform my teams on the ship. So far we haven’t seen any of those three hundred twelve.”
“We’re going in!” the Marine leading the team at Fortuna’s bridge announced.
Geary ignored Yangdi’s silent shouting for a moment to watch from the perspective of one of the Marines going onto the bridge.
“There’s nobody . . . Hey, here’s one. Doc, check this out.”
A medical officer in a survival suit knelt by a woman lying on her back, her eyes closed. “She’s unconscious due to the CRX,” the officer said. “But she’s also severely dehydrated.”
“Here’s another!”
A man had fallen from where he must have been seated on the deck in a corner of the bridge. “Dead,” the medical officer announced. “Not from the CRX. Dehydration.”
“Were they locked in here?” one of the Marines demanded, her voice carrying tones of disbelief.
“It looks like it,” the doctor said, touching the hands of the man, which bore dried blood and extensive old bruises. “They couldn’t get out.”
“Every door and hatch we’ve encountered has locks engaged,” Colonel Savchenko said. “I want all of those locks opened five minutes ago!”
Geary unmuted Yangdi just as the man paused to take a breath. “Why are all of the doors locked, Citizen Yangdi? Why were the doors to the bridge locked?”
Yangdi paused, his face twisting as if he was having difficulty understanding the questions. “Rays,” he finally said. “Cosmic rays, everywhere. I needed to protect everyone.”
“Cosmic rays?” Geary asked, trying to keep his voice mild even though he had a growing fear of what things were like aboard Fortuna. “Are you saying your shields failed? There were people suffering radiation poisoning aboard your ship?”
“What, are you stupid? I said cosmic rays!” Yangdi waved an angry hand. “Making people act weird. One tried to attack me. Me! Others talking to nothing. One of my assistants killed themselves! Why would one of my assistants kill themselves? And my incompetent medical staff saying they can’t find anything. Which had to be wrong, because people were acting wrong. Had to be cosmic rays. Had to lock everyone down.”
“You can lock all of the locks on the ship from your office?” Geary said, sending the audio of the call to Colonel Savchenko. “What else can you do from your office?”
“My suite,” Yangdi said. “I have a suite. A big suite. The best suite.” He rapped the desk, smiling again. “I can control anything from here. Anything!”
“You mentioned medical staff,” Geary said, doing his best to sound calm. “Where are they?”
“Locked up! They were part of the problem! Saying science this and tests that! Questioning my own judgment! I knew better.” Yangdi’s face contorted with rage. “Get those people off my ship!”
Geary looked at the other windows open on his display. Every Marine team was now opening every door they encountered, finding some living persons, badly physically stressed in most cases from lack of food or water or both but knocked out by the CRX, and too many dead ones, either from deprivation or from violent acts committed while confined behind locked doors.
CRX. Why wasn’t Yangdi out?
“Colonel,” Geary called after muting his end of the conversation with Yangdi. “Citizen Yangdi must have an independent filtration system for his suite. He’s still aware, awake, and paranoid. He claims he can control anything on the ship from there.”
“We’ve got a team near the engineering spaces,” Savchenko began. “Once we control that, we can—”
“You think I won’t do it?” Yangdi shouted. “I’ll do it!” His hands moved. “See? Nobody ignores me! Nobody!”
“We’re getting emergency readings from the power core aboard Fortuna,” Lieutenant Castries announced as alerts pulsed on displays.
“Citizen Yangdi—” Geary started.
“RON!”
“Back it off, Ron. You could kill yourself and everybody else aboard Fortuna.”
“Get them off my ship!”
“Engineering assesses that safeties on Fortuna’s power core are being bypassed,” Lieutenant Castries said.
“Colonel,” Geary said, “get your people off that ship!”
“Admiral, my people say they can breach engineering in ten more minutes—”
“A power core could become unstable and blow apart at any moment when the safeties are bypassed,” Captain Desjani said, her eyes haunted by memories.
Geary called Colonel Savchenko again. “Get your people off now!”