“No.” Geary studied the track Task Force Furious was curving onto, Dauntless’s maneuvering systems quickly estimating the destination. “Cresida’s decided to go for the shipyards orbiting near the fourth world.” The huge industrial complexes were perhaps the most valuable targets in the star system. Geary had given Cresida orders not to destroy them because he wanted a chance to loot them first, but Task Force Furious could easily smash in passing the one nearly completed battleship and one battle cruiser being frantically towed out of their construction ways in an attempt to save them from the Alliance kinetic bombardment aimed at the under-construction shipping.

She handled it right. All of it. But if I’d had instant communications with her, I’d have ordered Cresida to do things differently, because I wouldn’t have trusted her judgment. Remember that, Geary. There’s good heads among these ship commanders and they’re paying attention to you. You have to trust them in return. Knowing his message wouldn’t reach her for hours, Geary tapped his communications controls. “To Commander Cresida and all ships in Task Force Furious, this is Captain Geary. Excellent work. Keep it up.”

THERE’D been no reply to Geary’s surrender demands by the time the Alliance fleet dove past the innermost gas giant, annihilating Syndic industrial targets unstruck by the kinetic bombardment and sweeping any remaining Syndic merchant shipping in the area from space. In-system ore carriers and other merchant ships had only a small fraction of the propulsion capability of warships. Over time they could build up substantial speed, but it took a long time, and these Syndic ships hadn’t been granted that much time.

The kinetic bombardment was still a couple of hours from reaching the fourth planet, so the Syndic command structure was still fully operational in the inner system. Geary wished he knew just what orders were being issued by that command structure. “All units in Alliance fleet main body, execute course change two five degrees to starboard, down zero two degrees at time four seven.”

“They’ll have time to see we’re heading for the gate and issue reaction orders before our bombardment hits,” Desjani remarked regretfully.

“It can’t be helped.” Far off to one side, Task Force Furious was still bearing down on the shipyards orbiting the fourth planet. The battered, and no doubt enraged, ships of Syndic Force Alpha had piled on speed, edging past.2 light on an intercept course curving to meet up with Task Force Furious just short of the orbiting shipyards around the fourth planet. “What do think their odds are of getting hits on Furious at that speed?”

“With inexperienced crews and combat systems still aligning themselves? As close to zero as makes no difference,” Desjani stated. “They’ll need to slow to engagement speed, and if they slow, they won’t make that intercept point.”

Desjani’s assessment matched his own. Geary nodded, then frowned, once again bothered by the thought that he was missing something. But whatever it was stayed hidden in the back of his mind, refusing to come forward, so Geary finally tried thinking of other things in the hope that would help. It didn’t.

FIVE hours out from the hypernet gate, Geary frowned again. Syndic Force Alpha, the Training Flotilla, had kept accelerating to.25 light and adjusted its track slightly to cross the path of Task Force Furious before the Alliance ships reached the fourth planet. “Why do I get the feeling they’re not planning on slowing down to engage Task Force Furious?”

Desjani seemed puzzled as well. “I don’t see how many hits they can hope to achieve at that speed. There’s no point in any intercept that isn’t a threat. If Cresida’s ships do any evasive maneuvers at all, they’ll totally throw off firing solutions on the Syndic ships, and relativistic distortion will keep the Syndics from even seeing exactly what the Alliance ships are doing. Surely even if the commanders in the Syndic ships don’t realize that, the more senior Syndic commanders on the planets do. They’ve had plenty of time to tell Force Alpha to do something different, but that hasn’t happened.”

“Why would they do something that will almost eliminate their chances of hitting our ships?” Geary wondered out loud. “Why would their superiors agree to it?”

He’d forgotten Co-President Rione was once again in the bridge’s observer seat. Now her voice sounded like that of a teacher instructing a dull student. “Perhaps you should stop assuming you know their intentions.”

Geary turned to look at Rione. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you keep talking about what the Syndics must do to hit your ships. What if hitting your ships isn’t the Syndics’ priority?”

Desjani, looking reluctant to agree with Rione, clenched one fist. “If they can’t hit us, that also means the same relativistic factors will keep us from being able to target them well. They’re minimizing their chances of getting hit again.”

Survival was the Syndic priority? But why? “What would be the point of keeping that formation as intact as possible while letting us run amok?”

“They expect something to change the odds,” Desjani stated slowly.

Geary gritted his teeth. He and Desjani had been assuming they knew the Syndic intentions and then trying to make Syndic actions match those assumptions. The enemy’s real intentions were obvious now that Rione had focused them back on what the Syndics were actually doing. “Do they expect more reinforcements?”

“It’s unlikely but possible that a courier might have gated out without being spotted,” Desjani agreed. “But even if they had done that, they couldn’t possibly be expecting a reply already. We’d have to assume the Syndics had accurately guessed we were coming to Sancere.”

“That doesn’t match what we found here,” Rione objected, again surprising Geary. “Everything reflected surprise at our arrival. That could be a very elaborate trick to lull us into overconfidence, but surely the Syndics wouldn’t have avoided placing minefields at the jump exit if they believed we were coming to Sancere.”

“You’re both right,” Geary agreed. “Which would mean the intercept apparently aimed at Task Force Furious is just a feint, trying to throw off Furious’s charge. That matches what the Syndics are doing. Let’s assume no big reinforcements are coming within the next few days. What else could change the odds enough to make force preservation the primary goal of that Syndic flotilla?” Something big. That went without saying. Something big enough to drastically alter the balance of forces in this star system.

Geary looked at the representation of Syndic Force Bravo on his display. “Force Alpha is moving so fast we can’t hit them, but Force Bravo is just sitting there near the hypernet gate, maintaining a fixed station, even though it’s obvious that’s our objective.”

Desjani shook her head. “They must be planning on accelerating away soon. Just sitting there waiting for us is nothing but suicide.”

“Yet they’ve clearly been told to do that. Just like the other formation has been told to avoid losing ships.” Geary fiddled with the display, changing his perspective to view the Syndic formation from different angles. “What’s the latest on estimated damage to the Syndic ships in Force Bravo?”

“They’ve all got some damage, but two of the battleships and three of the battle cruisers are so beat up that they’ve probably got minimum combat capability,” Desjani replied.

Geary highlighted the most heavily damaged Syndic ships. All five were in the center of the Syndic formation, which in turn seemed to be centered on the hypernet gate. “Standard tactics, as I understand them, have been to charge straight for the enemy, right?”

Desjani nodded.

“Why put their weakest units there, then? Why not tell them to run for open space? All they can accomplish in that station is absorbing shots from us.”