Captain Caligo and Captain Kila didn’t betray anything other than the same feelings shown by others.

It was impossible to tell if any of the faces reflected guilt rather than anger or fear. Geary gestured toward Iger. “Lieutenant Iger is the senior intelligence officer on Dauntless. He has some information regarding Co-President Rione.”

The commanding officers of the ships of the Callas Republic and the Rift Federation gaped at Rione, their expressions shocked, but she unbent enough to give them a reassuring look.

Lieutenant Iger spoke in his briefing voice. “I was made aware of unauthorized security software modifications aboard Dauntless that implicated Co-President Rione.”

“Why is she sitting here?” Captain Armus of Colossus demanded. “She should be-”

“Let Lieutenant Iger finish,” Geary broke in, his voice like ice.

Iger continued as if totally unaware of any interruption. “Co-President Rione volunteered to be questioned inside a Class Six interrogation cell. She was asked a series of questions to determine if she had actually been involved in those or any other software modifications, and registered as absolutely truthful in her denials of any knowledge or involvement. ”

Silence reigned for a moment, then Warspite’s commander spoke up. “Class Six? Is there any way to deceive or mislead a Class Six?”

“Specialized training can suggest ways to avoid answering questions in deceptive ways, sir, but I and my personnel have been trained to identify when someone is using those techniques,” Lieutenant Iger replied. “We might not be able to pin someone down into saying what we want, but we can tell if they’re evading the real question so they don’t register as deceptive. Co-President Rione did not employ such methods. Her answers were direct and unambiguous.”

“So, what does that mean? Someone tried to frame Senator Rione?”

“That would be my conclusion, yes, sir.”

“That’s treason, too.” Warspite’s commanding officer leaned back, shaking his head in disbelief.

Geary leaned forward slightly and spoke louder than he usually did. “I’ve known ever since assuming command of this fleet that some officers did not approve of my command, that some have spread rumors about me, that some have tried to generate opposition to me. But this is not just politics over who commands this fleet. Someone tried to destroy three major warships. The ships your friends and comrades are serving on, the ships that have fought beside you. I don’t care how much any of you might have been involved in speaking against me in the past, nor at this point do I care about past actions. This isn’t about me. Whoever did this was striking at the fleet as well, and at ships I wasn’t present on. If any of you have been rendering support in either passive or active form to the people behind this, please rethink your allegiances. I promise in front of all of you that anyone who comes forth with information regarding this treasonous sabotage will not be subjected to disciplinary action as long as they were not actively part of the creation and planting of these worms or were not aware of their content and intended use.”

Silence again, but then he hadn’t really expected anyone to leap up, point a dramatic accusing finger, and cry, “Captain X did it!” That would have been a nice outcome in a work of fiction, but things just didn’t resolve themselves so neatly in the real world.

Captain Badaya spoke for the first time. “Someone willing to kill Alliance personnel and destroy Alliance ships. We lost a shuttle before we left Lakota to a supposed accident. ” He glared around the table. “A very rare sort of accident, but believable in the absence of evidence of wrongdoing. Captain Casia and Commander Yin died on that shuttle, and I now suspect they died because of fear that they would identify some of those with whom they were working against Captain Geary. Anyone involved in this should consider that whoever is leading the effort is willing permanently to silence possible weak links. If you have to be caught, I’m certain that the fleet commander will have you shot. If you remain silent, you run the risk of being silenced forever by your coconspirators. The only chance you have is to reveal yourselves.” Badaya subsided, his angry gaze traveling around the table.

“Why would anyone do this?” Intrepid’s commanding officer asked. “Everyone knows some people have been unhappy with Captain Geary being in command. I had my own doubts. But he’s proven himself. Most of the doubters, myself included, are now very pleased to be led by him.”

Captain Duellos answered. “You may have stated the reason for this. Those responsible can no longer hope to convince this fleet’s ship captains to oust Captain Geary from command. Their only chance of success is to eliminate Captain Geary.”

“But anyone even suspected of murdering him and the crews of three other warships-!”

“Consider what would have happened if these worms hadn’t been found. Dauntless, Furious, and Illustrious would have disappeared into jump as if their drives had worked normally. The rest of us would have found the worms preventing our jump drives from working, and jumped as well once our systems were back online. This would have taken a few hours at least. We would have assumed that for some reason the worms found in our systems didn’t work on the three ships that jumped as scheduled. When we arrived at Wendig, the other three ships wouldn’t be there awaiting us as we’d expected. No trace of them would ever be found, no evidence that their jump drives had been infected with a very different worm from that in the rest of the ships.”

Commander Neeson nodded, his face like granite. “No evidence of the deliberate destruction of three warships. Very neat. Most of us would be grief-stricken by the disappearance of the three ships and Captain Geary, but we’d have to choose a new fleet commander. I wonder who would have stepped up to fill that job?”

“What about Numos?” Captain Armus asked.

Geary shook his head. “In light of the seriousness of the attempted sabotage against this fleet, I’ve ordered that Captain Numos be interrogated for any knowledge of whoever is behind this. I suspect, however, that he won’t be able to tell us anything.”

“Why not?” Badaya asked.

“Because Orion didn’t have the same worm as Dauntless, Furious, and Illustrious. Numos wouldn’t have a prayer of being accepted as fleet commander, but if Numos did know who was behind the loss of those three ships, he’d be able to blackmail those individuals. They would’ve tried to get rid of him.”

Rione gave Geary a surprised look, then nodded to him with a trace of a satisfied smile, like a teacher whose pupil has revealed unexpected attention to lessons.

“Numos tried to leave Captain Falco to swing,” Warspite ’s captain agreed. “You think he’s not actually connected to whoever planted the worms?”

“I think those people might have been willing to use Numos, ” Geary explained, “but that they wouldn’t have trusted him.” He gave another look down the virtual length of the table. “Every ship is making additional scrubs of its systems to ensure that there’s nothing else dangerous hidden among them. When we have a clean bill of health reported for all ships, we’ll jump to Wendig. Before we jump, I strongly urge anyone who knows anything to inform me or someone else in authority whom they trust. Our enemies are the Syndics. Not each other. Some individuals in this fleet have forgotten that, and now they’re on the side of the Syndics.”

Captain Badaya nodded firmly. “Anything Captain Geary chooses to do will have the backing of this fleet.”

A flicker of unhappiness crossed Duellos’s face, but he said nothing.

For his part, Geary knew he couldn’t afford to offend Badaya’s powerful faction right now, not when he had another internal danger to this fleet to worry about. “May our actions remain those which our ancestors will look upon with favor,” Geary stated carefully. “As we approach the time for jump to Wendig, I’ll inform all ships whether the jump will take place as scheduled.”