Then I’ll have to bypass her. Geary touched the symbol. “This is Captain Geary.”
The image jerked once. “Yes, sir.”
“Who’s this?”
“Major Jalo, sir. Second-in-command for the landing force. Colonel Carabali ordered me to oversee mop-up operations to secure the main installation while she checked for any pockets of resistance in outlying areas.”
“Are these all the Syndic prisoners?”
“Not yet, sir. The mop-up sweeps are bringing in some final holdouts.”
“What…” How do I ask this? “What are Colonel Carabali’s orders regarding the prisoners?”
“I haven’t received orders on final disposition, sir. Standard procedure is to turn the prisoners over to the fleet.”
That’s interesting. Do the Marines know what happens to prisoners? Or do they pretend everything’s okay to keep their consciences clear? Geary was about to ask another question when the view in his image jerked again. Everyone visible within the image swayed on their feet. “What was that?”
Major Jalo’s voice came faster, hyped and ready for action. “Some sort of heavy explosion, sir. There’s another,” Jalo added unnecessarily as the image jerked again. “Somebody’s hitting the area with heavy ordnance.”
Heavy ordnance? The Marines have already taken the surface around the base, and the ships overhead have taken out the anti-space defenses. Ancestors. The ships overhead. “Captain Desjani! Are any of the ships positioned near the Syndic base firing?”
He watched the image from Major Jalo dance a few more times as Desjani answered. “Arrogant is firing upon an area near the base, Captain Geary. I don’t know what the target is.”
“Hold those prisoners until you get further orders from me,” Geary barked at Major Jalo, then he leaned back and scowled at the array of images. “How do I get the fleet display back?”
Desjani reached over and tapped a control. There was the representation of Corvus System, with the ships of Geary’s fleet spread all over the place. He fumbled at the communications key for a moment, fuming inwardly. “Arrogant! Identify the target you’re firing upon!” Geary waited, his temper rising, as no reply came and Arrogant continued to pound the surface near the Syndic base. “Arrogant, this is Captain Geary. Cease fire. I say again. Cease fire.”
The other ship was only a few light-seconds away, but a full minute passed with no response. Geary counted to five inwardly, thinking through his options. “Captain Desjani. Exemplar and Braveheart. Which has the best commander?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Exemplar, sir. Commander Basir.”
“Thank you.” Geary tapped the communications key. “Commander Basir on Exemplar, do you copy?”
“Yes, sir,” the reply came within less than a half minute.
“Can you identify the target being fired upon by Arrogant?”
A longer pause this time. “No, sir.”
“Have you, Braveheart, or Arrogant received requests from the Marines to fire upon any targets on the surface?”
“No, sir. Not Exemplar, and I overheard no requests to Braveheart or Arrogant on the coordination net with the Marines.”
I don’t know what that idiot on Arrogant is doing, but if that ship keeps throwing heavy weaponry at the surface, she’s liable to hurt our own Marines, not to mention damaging supplies at the base. And now I know for certain that Arrogant’s not responding to any threat to her or the Marines. “Thank you, Exemplar.”
Geary glared around at the personnel on the bridge of the Dauntless. “Can I control Arrogant’s weapons? Do we have a way to remotely override local control?”
Everyone shook their heads, but only Captain Desjani spoke. “No, sir. As previously discussed,” she added, somehow glowering toward Rione without actually looking that way, “it is believed that allowing ship systems to be controlled remotely opens up vulnerabilities that can be exploited by the enemy.”
Rione’s voice came. “Enemy intrusion into the remote command systems, avenues for delivering disabling viruses-”
“And a lot of other things that good emissions warfare can do even if it isn’t supplemented by espionage. Thank you, I know. I spent a moment hoping someone’d found a way around all that during the last century.” Geary bared his teeth as a thought came to him. “But I do have one thing on Arrogant that I can control.”
Desjani raised one eyebrow in question.
“Arrogant’s got Marines on board, right?”
She nodded.
Geary tapped his communications control. “Arrogant, this is Captain Geary. You are endangering our personnel on the surface. You will cease fire immediately, or I will relieve your commanding officer of command and give direct orders to the Marine detachment aboard Arrogant to place that individual under arrest. I will not repeat my order again.”
Even though he was royally ticked off at the moment, Geary couldn’t help wondering how the fleet would take that kind of ultimatum. But Captain Desjani seemed grimly pleased. Apparently Arrogant’s commanding officer wasn’t popular with her, at least.
“Arrogant has ceased fire,” Desjani reported a few seconds later in a carefully bland voice.
“Good.” Shooting at shadows is one thing. When you’re in combat, it’s all too easy to think there’s an enemy target where there’s nothing. But that fool on Arrogant was too stubborn or dumb or both to realize the mistake or stop shooting when I ordered it. I need to get rid of Arrogant’s commanding officer as soon as I can swing it. Just one more thing to worry about.
“Sir?” Geary and Desjani both looked toward the watch-stander who’d spoken. “We have Colonel Carabali on the circuit again.”
Carabali looked as furious as Geary had been moments before. “My apologies, Captain Geary. The unit I was with was forced to take shelter within a shielded bunker, so we were unable to communicate with anyone.”
“Forced to take shelter? Is there still that much Syndic resistance around the base?”
“No, sir.” Carabali seemed to be fighting to keep from snarling. “We did initially pursue some Syndic forces into the bunker. But as we were preparing to leave it, the area we were in started being bombarded by one of our own ships.”
Arrogant. Firing on a location occupied by our own people. That stupid sorry excuse for a ship commander. “Did you lose anyone?”
“By the grace of our ancestors, no, sir.”
“Good.” Although if you had lost someone I could’ve hanged that fool on Arrogant. “Any idea what Arrogant was shooting at?”
“I was hoping you knew, Captain Geary,” she said slowly.
Geary almost smiled at the carefully understated words, but he managed to keep his expression stern, knowing the Marine commander probably wasn’t yet in the mood to see the dark humor of the situation. “No. My apologies for the time required to get Arrogant to cease fire. I will ensure steps are taken to make certain this sort of thing isn’t repeated.”
“Thank you, Captain Geary. Major Jalo tells me you were in communication with him regarding the prisoners.”
“That’s correct.” Geary paused, wondering how to word his next statement.
