Chapter One

Innumerable stars like brilliant diamonds carelessly flung across endless space shone upon the hull of the civilian passenger ship. Bright, but cold, their light far too distant to give any warmth, the stars formed constellations in which humans tried to find meaning. Admiral John "Black Jack" Geary, watching those stars, thought about the fact that the constellations changed depending on where you were, but the meaning of it all somehow didn't change.

He just wished he knew what that meaning of it all was. He had lost one battle, long ago, and discovered much later that the loss had meant something much different than he had imagined. Lately, he had won much bigger battles; but what those meant, what his future would be from this day forward, remained as uncertain as whatever messages the stars wrote across the sky.

The passenger ship had exited the hypernet gate at the particular star known to humans as Varandal. Over the dozen decades since it had been built, the ship had traveled between many stars, and while the stars themselves had burned on unchanging to the naked eye, the ship had felt those years. Men and women had worked to keep its systems functioning and its hull strong, but where the life of stars was measured in billions of years, the life spans of human creations were often less than a century.

This ship was old, moving almost as deftly as ever, but feeling the accumulated stress of years in the materials from which it had been built. It should have been replaced long ago. However, a civilization caught in a seemingly endless war couldn't afford such luxuries; instead, it diverted those resources to warships to replace countless other warships lost in countless battles.

But on this voyage, now that peace had come a month ago, the crew had spoken of rumors of new ships. No one knew for sure. So far, peace hadn't brought any major improvements, hadn't brought money or lives to replace what had been lost in the long war with the Syndicate Worlds. No one even knew exactly what "peace" was. No one living had been alive the last time humanity knew peace, before the Syndics attacked the Alliance a century ago.

No, that wasn't right. One man still living had been alive then, miraculously surviving a century in survival sleep to lead the fleet to victory, to bring this peace, which somehow felt not all that different from the once-endless war that had finally come to an end. And now he looked at the stars and wondered what new turns awaited his life.

Alliance government warns of threat to all humanity from alien race.

Geary lowered his gaze back to the news headlines scrolling under the star display. "When we left Varandal a few weeks ago, the existence of intelligent aliens was still supposed to be secret."

Sitting on the bed nearby, Captain Tanya Desjani glanced over at the headline before resuming her scrutiny of a ration bar. "We fought a battle with them. The whole fleet knows they're out there." She waved at another display set on one bulkhead, the new ring on one of her fingers flashing a moment as the star sapphire set within it caught the light.

A virtual window, the display showed another view outside their passenger ship; but on this one, the countless stars and the planets illuminated by the radiance of Varandal were dimmed by symbols revealing things invisible to human eyes from that distance. Hundreds of glowing images, representing the warships in the main Alliance fleet, hung apparently unmoving against the backdrop of space even though those warships were in fixed orbits about the star. The scene conveyed two very different sensations, one of them awe at the scale of humanity's achievements. But against that awe was the reality that, as massive as the fleet's battleships, battle cruisers, and lesser warships were in human terms, they were tiny when measured against the expanse of the star system and completely insignificant compared to even a small region of the galaxy.

Geary let his eyes linger on the view, realizing how much he had missed those still-unseen, utilitarian, and battle-scarred ships. His own home world had become foreign to him, but for all the changes a harsh century had wrought, the fleet had remained a place in which he felt he belonged. The men and women who had grown up with war and seen all of its terrors, who had been shaped in part by those bloody experiences, still remained sailors like him. Also, the formal end of hostilities with the Syndics should have brought rest from their labors, but this version of peace seemed unlikely to offer that. "I thought we were trying to figure out how to keep from fighting any more battles with the aliens. Why is the government now broadcasting all over the place their existence and the danger they pose?"

"Read some of the other headlines," Desjani suggested before biting off a piece of the bar. "These Yanika Babiya ration bars aren't bad. For ration bars, that is."

Geary focused back on the news, trying to catch up after resolutely ignoring events for much of the past month. Ruling parties swept from power in special elections called in ninety-two star systems.

The Rift Federation has voted to renegotiate its ties to the Alliance.

Fingal becomes the thirty-sixth star system to demand reduction of its defense commitments and taxes to the Alliance central government.

Black Jack Geary, in comments made on Kosatka, offers only qualified support for the current government. "What? Qualified support? What the hell are they talking about? When that guy asked if I'd follow orders from the government, I said yes, I would."

Desjani swallowed her bite of ration bar and raised an eyebrow at him. "You said that you'd follow all lawful orders."

"So?" Geary demanded.

"'Lawful' is a qualifier. Even a dumb sailor like me knows that."

"When did saying something that should be a given turn into something subversive?" Geary grumbled.

"When a majority of the population considers the elected government to be corrupt and full of crooks," Desjani replied. "To many citizens of the Alliance, 'lawful' implies sweeping out the criminals."

"I shouldn't have answered that guy."

She shook her head. "And leave the question unanswered? 'Black Jack Geary refuses to say he supports the government.' That wouldn't have produced a better outcome, darling."

Her use of the endearment calmed him. "Was it only four weeks ago that we got married?"

"Twenty-six days. Even though we won't be able to act as a married couple aboard my ship, you're still expected to remember all anniversaries and significant dates, you know." Desjani coolly took another bite.

"Yes, ma'am." He liked seeing the annoyed look she usually gave him when he responded like her subordinate, but this time all Tanya did was shake her head at him. Geary eyed her, wondering at how composed she had been since their arrival in Varandal Star System, then finally realizing that Desjani always got calmer when she sensed combat approaching. "Do you expect something to happen when we dock at Ambaru station?"

"I've been expecting something since this ship arrived back in this star system, but everything seems quiet so far. No government ships intercepting us to arrest you, no mutinous fleet ships intercepting us to declare you dictator, and no fighting going on between any factions and the government." She glanced around their compartment, a high-end passenger cabin whose dated but still-luxurious touches had disconcerted both Desjani and Geary since they were used to the fairly Spartan accommodations on warships. But the government in Kosatka had insisted on providing "appropriate" transportation when the orders demanding that Geary immediately return to Varandal were received. At least the charter had prevented having to deal with other passengers on the way back.

Desjani shook her head again, her eyes this time on the outside display. "Maybe it's my ancestors talking to me. I can sense the tension here, like a star about to go nova, and I don't like going into action aboard an unarmed ship."

"It's not a battle cruiser," Geary agreed.

"It's not my battle cruiser," she corrected him. "I shouldn't have left Dauntless for so long."

"I'm sure she's fine. Dauntless has a good crew."

"Excuse me?"

"What I meant to say," Geary quickly added, "is that Dauntless has the best crew in fleet. As well as an exceptionally good commanding officer."

"You're a bit biased when it comes to the commanding officer, but her crew is the best." Desjani took a long, slow breath. "My point is that the government may not want you near any battle cruiser or any crew, and we don't know if any of those warships are planning to act independently. Be prepared for anything when we dock."

"The message from Duellos we got after arrival implied everything is quiet."

She considered that, then shook her head. "We can't be sure he really sent it, or that the content wasn't modified en route to us."

Geary closed his eyes to block out their comfortable surroundings, trying to get back into a combat mind-set. "Surely they aren't still considering arresting me as a threat to the government."

She grinned, her canines showing to give the expression a fierce cast. "They wouldn't dare try that openly, now. But you could just disappear, and supposedly be on a special assignment. They'll try something."

"'They'? Which 'they' do you mean?"

"Someone. There are a lot of possibilities. You're too dangerous."

He thought about the crowds they had encountered on Kosatka, Desjani's home world. Often huge and always enthusiastic to the point of worshipful, they had been inescapable and unnerving in equal measure. Entire cities had seemed to pack into the streets for the chance of a glimpse of the great Black Jack Geary, legendary champion of the Alliance, the man who had stayed with his ship to the end, fighting off a surprise attack by the Syndics to allow other ships to escape. Everyone had thought that Geary had died during that fight at Grendel a hundred years ago; but he had been barely alive, frozen in survival sleep in a damaged escape pod. Geary had finally been found not long ago, awakening to find himself among people who had been taught to believe that he was an incomparable hero. Who do they think Black Jack actually is? I certainly don't know. He's someone the government dreamed up to inspire everyone when the initial Syndic surprise attacks knocked the Alliance back on its heels. "The next time the government tries to create a hero to motivate and inspire the population, they'll probably try harder to make sure that hero is really, absolutely, positively dead."

Desjani gave him one of those looks that could be as unnerving as the crowds. "The government thought it was creating an illusion. The politicians didn't realize that the living stars had their own plans and that you could not only reappear, but also be in reality more than the official illusion claimed."

"I thought that was over," he mumbled, looking away. She had looked at him in exactly the same way when he had first awakened from a century of survival sleep. Belief in him and in what he could do, believing that he was someone sent by the living stars themselves at the behest of everyone's ancestors to save the Alliance. Usually, now she seemed to see him as a man, and treated him as a husband and an officer; but occasionally her faith that he could be more than that shone through.

She leaned close, reaching to grasp his chin gently and turn his head to face her again. "I see you. I see who you are. Don't forget that."

The statement had two possible meanings, but he preferred to believe that it meant she knew he was human and very imperfect. His own ancestors knew that he had given her enough demonstrations of his fallibility since being awakened. "Who does the government see?"

"Good question." Desjani leaned back, sighing. "In answer to your first question, though, about the aliens, as you can see from the rest of the news, the government is under so much pressure that it's telling everyone about the aliens to distract them. The war held the Alliance together. The war excused all kinds of things. Now, thanks to you more than anyone else—and don't try to deny that—we're at peace, and if war is hell, then peace seems to be like herding cats. I didn't figure that out myself, by the way. One of the politicians at that last reception on Kosatka told me that. He said that star systems all over the Alliance are rethinking their need for common defense now that the big, bad Syndic wolf at the door has been drop-kicked into the nearest black hole."

"You talked to a politician?" Like most fleet officers, Desjani had a well-developed dislike of the political leadership, born of a century of inconclusive and bloody warfare and a need to attach blame for the failure to win.

She shrugged. "He's an old friend of my mother. She vouched for him not being as bad as the others, and since my mother hauled me up to meet him, I couldn't very well about-face and walk away. The point is, Admiral Geary, that he told me no one really knows how to handle peace. It's been a hundred years since the war with the Syndicate Worlds started, so the politicians have never experienced an environment without an active threat. The government is falling back on what it knows. It thinks it needs a new threat to keep the Alliance unified. And it's not like the aliens aren't a threat. We know they're willing to attack us. We know that they carried out hostile actions before the Alliance even knew they existed."

"I wish those weren't just about the only things we do know about them," Geary grumbled, turning back to the headlines. Prisoners of war coming home soon, say authorities. Finally, some good news. Many men and women captured in the course of the apparently endless war, people who had never expected to see their homes again, would now be reunited with their loved ones. Bringing home the living would be a welcome job, even if it was tarnished by sad reality. Too many prisoners of war had already died far from their homes, during decades in captivity, their fates unknown. Tallying up the numbers and names of those who had died in Syndic prison camps would take long and cheerless years of investigation. "We're cruel enough to our own kind. Why do we need hostile aliens to add to our problems?"

"Ask the living stars, darling. I'm just a battle cruiser captain. The answer to your question is way above my pay grade."

The next headline bore no silver lining.

Reports of internal fighting in many star systems within Syndicate Worlds' territory as Syndic authority continues to collapse.

"Damn. Whatever is left of the Syndicate Worlds is going to be a small fraction of the region it used to rule."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Desjani commented.

"Chaos will breed a lot more deaths and trouble for us," Geary countered, indicating the next headline. Refugees fleeing fighting in former Syndic territory arriving in Alliance star systems.

She shrugged, but he could hear in her voice the tension that Desjani was trying to mask. "They're Syndics. They started the war, they kept it going, and now they're paying the price. You don't actually expect me to feel sorry for them, do you?"

He thought about how many friends and companions Tanya had seen die in the war, including her younger brother. "No. I realize that very few people in the Alliance will shed any tears for the suffering of any Syndics."

"With good cause," Desjani muttered.

"I've never argued otherwise."

One corner of her mouth curled upward in a sardonic smile. "You just reminded us that our ancestors and the living stars don't look kindly on the slaughter of civilians or prisoners. Fine. We stopped killing everyone but combatants. But that doesn't mean we want to help any Syndics who survived the war."

"I know." He still had trouble grasping that: how the long war had poisoned the natural human tendency to offer aid to those in distress, even if those others were former enemies. But then he had slept through the vast majority of that war, not felt it through every day of his life. "What I'm saying is, purely in terms of self-interest, the Alliance may have to help clean up the mess in what was Syndic territory. Something is going to replace Syndic authority in areas that slip from the grasp of the central government. Trying to ensure that those successor governments are representative and peaceful rather than dictatorial and aggressive just seems like smart policy."

Instead of replying directly, Desjani glanced at his display. "Speaking of messes, how's our own government doing these days?"

"Not too well, apparently. The next headline says 'Newly elected Alliance senators demand investigations into wartime corruption.'"

"Investigating wartime corruption in the government would keep a lot of people busy for at least a few decades," she observed.

"As long as I'm not one of them." Geary read the next headline with growing disbelief. Authoritative accounts reveal that Black Jack demanded and received a free hand from the Alliance grand council for the campaign that ended the war. "That's not true! I didn't demand anything. Who the hell leaked that?"

Desjani took a look at the headline. "Somebody who's unhappy at the way the politicians are all trying to claim credit for the end of the war. Some other politicians angling for advantage. Fleet officers who guessed at the truth and assumed you had to threaten the council. There are plenty of possibilities."

"No wonder the government still sees me as a threat."

"You are a threat," she reminded him. "If you hadn't convinced Captain Badaya and those like him that you're actually running the government covertly, making the big decisions behind the scenes, then they would have already staged a coup in your name. Things could be worse."

He studied the headlines again, trying to read between the lines. "Someone in the government must realize as well as we do what's holding the fleet back. Overt action against me could still trigger a coup I couldn't forestall, then civil war as some star systems simply pulled out of the Alliance in response." It had taken a long time to accept that, the idea that the Alliance could be so frail, but a century of all-out warfare with its immense costs in lives and money had badly frayed the seams of the Alliance.

"That doesn't mean they won't still try something," Desjani observed.

"Could the government be that stupid?"

She smiled scornfully. "Yes."

Citizens' coalitions demand that Black Jack be brought to Prime to clean up government, the next headline screamed. Next to a coup by his misguided supporters, Geary thought, that would be his worst nightmare. Why did anyone believe that the ability to command a fleet meant that he could also run a government? He looked at the display showing the distance remaining to Ambaru station and the time remaining until the ship docked, wondering what awaited him and Tanya there.

"What's the matter?" she asked, her tone softer.

"I was just thinking."

"You've been promoted to admiral again. I'm not sure that much thinking on your part is permitted."

"Very funny." His gaze went to the stars again. "Before… before the war started, I never worried that much about the future. Most of it was out of my hands. I had serious responsibilities as an officer in the fleet, and at the last as commanding officer of a heavy cruiser, but what we did and where we went was never up to me. Then the war happened, and I ended up in command of the fleet a century later. For months after that, the future was a very narrowly focused thing. We needed to get the fleet from one star to the next, and eventually home. Then we needed to deal with the Syndics and do something to hold off the aliens. The future aimed itself. Do this. Then do that. Figure out how, right now, or there's no more future."

Geary paused and looked toward her. Desjani met his eyes, her expression somber but calm. "Now, the future is a huge, vague thing. I have no idea what tomorrow is supposed to hold, what I should do, what I'll be called upon to do. I know because of everything that's happened that the future depends a lot upon my own actions and decisions. And I no longer have any idea where those should take us."

She gave him one of those unnervingly confident looks. "Yes, you do, Black Jack. You have the same ideas you had when you assumed command of the fleet back then. Do the honorable thing, do the right thing, do the smart thing. Even if you're tempted to do otherwise, you stick to what you believe in, and what you believe in is what our ancestors believed in. That, and you believe that we're all worth saving. Which is why I know that if anyone can lead us through whatever the future brings, it's you. And that is why not only me, but a lot of other people, will follow you and give you everything we've got."

"As long as I've got you."

"That future didn't aim itself," Desjani said. "You had a lot of options. You chose the hardest one, and the most honorable one, and the right one. That's why we're together now."

"You wouldn't have—"

"Yes, I would have, and you know that. I would have done it because I thought you needed it, and what you needed to do was far more important than me or my honor. I was wrong. You were right." She smiled. "Which isn't to say that you aren't wrong at times. But I'll be here to let you know when that happens."