Moore lifted an eyebrow. It sounded like Bentley was going a little bit squirrely as well. He’d have to be watched.

“Gentlemen, we have a situation. My immediate thought is to send out everything we have in a search pattern. Problems with that plan?”

“Authorization, for starters,” Castillo said. “You’ve gone off the rez, Admiral. Excuse me,” he added, seeing Moore’s return glare, “we have gone off the rez. The last thing we need is to attract a full Board of Inquiry. Especially not right now. We might be forgiven later, if we are ultimately successful. Right now, I just see a whole lot of heck in our future.”

“What about an exercise? We’re due for one,” Lt. Bentley said.

Moore realized with a start that the lieutenant hadn’t left the room after delivering the communication. That was a breach of protocol, as was his speaking out of turn.

On the other hand, it was an excellent suggestion. Naval exercises were a tradition as old as the Navy itself. And often a smoke screen for other actions. And Lagrange Four was overdue for one. Moore decided he would give Bentley the benefit of the doubt, this time around.

“Good point, lieutenant. What have we got available, and how fast can we deploy? Consistent with this being a non-urgent, completely routine naval exercise, of course.”

“Uh, sir?” Bentley looked like he realized he’d overstepped, but couldn’t get out of the mode. “We could make it an exercise based on an emergency rescue, where we don’t know the precise location of the derelict ship.”

Moore nodded. “Surprise exercise. Excellent.” And why was he being schooled by a lieutenant? For the first time in his life, Moore wondered if he was getting too old for this.

Castillo looked skeptical. “Naval exercises are fine and dandy, Admiral. But you’ll want to make sure you pull it off. The Navy has a history of accepting faits accomplis if they’re successful. Make sure you succeed.”

“Thanks, Alan. That clarifies things.”

“I’m not just spouting platitudes, Ted. I’m serious. An argument could be made for the nuke, at least, that it had theoretical support from the Scenarios people. This will take you completely off the continent. I don’t see any kind of defensive argument or rationalization that would work.”

Moore sighed and nodded. “Understood. But so far, we’ve deployed a nuclear device during peacetime, and failed to accomplish the goal. If we throw in the towel at this point, we’re not only criminals, we’re also failures. I think our only valid option is to double down. Success is the only outcome that will bring us out of this with our asses intact.”

65.Humanity’s Options

65.Humanity’s Options