Duellos stood and saluted. “I’ll see you in Sancere, Captain Geary.”

Geary came to attention and returned the salute. “Count on it.”

To Geary’s surprise, the instant Duellos vanished, Commander Cresida’s image reappeared. She looked haggard as she saluted him. “We have something that may work.”

“Really? We can limit the energy release from a gate failure?”

“In theory. If the assumptions made are accurate.” Cresida made a helpless gesture. “We won’t know if it really works until it’s actually tried.”

“And if it doesn’t work, then we may not get a chance to try something else,” Geary noted sourly. “Great job, though.”

“Sir.” Cresida hesitated. “There’s something else.”

GEARY cradled a data disc in one hand as the fleet went into jump, leaving the bloated shape of Cydoni’s sun behind. The jump to Sancere would take over two weeks, a length of uninterrupted time in jump space that no one in the fleet but Geary had ever experienced. Nodding to Captain Desjani, he stood, knowing he probably looked distracted. “I’ll be in my stateroom.”

The walk to his stateroom seemed unusually short with his thoughts focused elsewhere. Reaching it with what seemed surprising quickness, Geary sat down, then gave a hard rap to his internal communications controls. “Madam Co-President, I need to speak with you.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be convenient.” Victoria Rione’s voice sounded not only colder than space itself but also tired.

“I’m afraid I must insist.”

There was a pause before her answer came. “What is this about?”

“Something critically important.”

“Am I supposed to trust your assessment of that?”

Geary fought down an angry retort. “I don’t care whether you trust it or not. I need you here to discuss something. If you actually care about the safety of the Alliance, you’ll come and talk to me.”

“And if I don’t?”

Geary stared at the bulkhead opposite him. He could threaten force, but that wouldn’t predispose Rione to listen. It also might not work. Not with Co-President Rione. “Please, Madam Co-President. I swear on my ancestors’ honor that this is something you must know.”

The pause this time was longer. “Very well, Captain Geary. I still believe in the honor of your ancestors. I’ll be there soon.”

Geary slumped back, rubbing his eyes. To think I once looked forward to Rione’s visits. But this is too important. I can’t avoid it.

His hatch alert chimed, and Rione entered, her face impassive and her eyes glittering like ice. “Yes, Captain Geary?”

He nodded to the seat opposite him. “Please sit down.”

“I’m comfortable standing.”

“Just sit down!” His bark startled Geary as well as Rione. “Forgive me. The matter I need to discuss with you is an issue of critical concern.” The formal words helped keep his voice level.

She eyed him narrowly but slowly sat down, her back stiff. “What is it, Captain Geary?”

Geary found it hard to look at her, his gaze wandering away to rest on the starscape, imagining supernova-scale explosions ravaging it. “We’ve been planning on what might happen in Sancere, which has a hypernet gate, as you know. I assumed the Syndics would try to destroy that gate. I’ve since been informed that destruction of hypernet gates could liberate huge quantities of energy. Or perhaps none at all. It’s all theoretical.“

Her voice sounded as cold as ever. “Huge quantities of energy? Construction of the hypernet system was approved long before I joined the Alliance senate, so I don’t know many of the technical details. What does huge mean?”

“Supernova scale.” That finally provoked a change in Rione, her eyes widening in shock. Geary took a deep breath. “One of the ship captains, Commander Cresida, came up with a theory about the hypernet gates. If Cresida’s theory is right, how the gate tethers are destroyed, the exact timing and sequence in which they lose their grip on the particle matrix, will calibrate the level of energy release. The fleet’s network ran the math with some difficulty and came up with a weapons employment algorithm that might let us scale down any release of energy to minimal levels.”

Rione’s voice was still cold, but puzzled now, too. “Why does this have you upset, Captain Geary? I admit this news that hypernet gates were such a potential danger is surprising, but if you’ve learned how to control the danger, it seems like a good thing.”

Geary looked down at the silvery disc in his palm. “It has me upset, Madam Co-President, because of the corollary. To work out a way to scale down the energy release, we also had to work out a way to scale it up.” He held up the data disc, finally looking at her. “We would have the means to employ hypernet gates as by far the most destructive weapons in the history of mankind. We could in theory destroy not only entire individual star systems, but entire regions of space.”

Victoria Rione was staring back at him, her face reflecting horror. “How could the living stars allow such a thing? Humanity believed when we left ancient Earth that we’d removed the threat of racial extinction from disaster, that scattering among the stars would bring us safety from that. But weapons such as these-” Her eyes fixed on the disc. “What is that?”

“The algorithm for scaling up an explosion. The fleet network had to work up both, as I told you.” He tossed it to her, and she caught it automatically. “I’d rather you have possession of this than anyone else. I ensured the work in the fleet system was wiped and overwritten. That’s the only existing copy.”

She was staring at the disc as if it were a deadly snake. “Why?”

He chose to interpret the question as being about her. “Because, Madam Co-President, that’s too dangerous to be entrusted to anyone else. Including me.”

Rione glared at Geary. “Why entrust it to anyone? Why keep even one copy?”

“Because if we can think this up, then someone else can, too.”

This time Rione paled. “You think…but if the Syndics had this…”

“The Alliance probably would have already felt the results,” Geary finished for her. “I agree. I don’t think the Syndics have really thought it through. I don’t think even Commander Cresida has, that the gates are potentially horrific weapons. But I think someone else does know that.”

“I don’t understand,” Rione demanded, her ice turned to heat now. “If you don’t think the Syndics have realized this, are you claiming the Alliance has?”

“No. Not the Syndics and no one from the Alliance.” Geary spoke bluntly, knowing his words were brutal but feeling he had to make his case. “I’ve seen how the officers in this fleet think after a century of war and trading atrocities with the Syndics. If the Alliance knew the gates were weapons, it would have already starting blowing them, obliterating Syndic star systems wholesale. Right, Madam Co-President?”

Rione sat silent for a moment, then nodded. “I think there’s a strong possibility you’re right,” she admitted, her voice quiet now. “Then who is it you believe knows this? There aren’t any worlds that aren’t part of the Syndicate Worlds or at least nominally part of the Alliance. There isn’t anyone else.”

“No one we know of,” Geary corrected, his eyes back on the starscape. “No one human.”

“You’re serious?” Rione was shaking her head. “What evidence do you have?”

“Where’d the hypernet come from?”

She seemed startled by the question, her hostility momentarily forgotten now. “The breakthroughs were sudden. I know that much.”

“And we still don’t understand the theory behind it,” Geary added. “That’s what Commander Cresida said and the fleet database confirmed. When did the Syndics get the hypernet technology?”

“About the same time as the Alliance.”

“Remarkable coincidence, isn’t it?” He paused. “I heard the Alliance believes the Syndics stole the tech. That’s certainly plausible.”