“That’s just different degrees of death, Admiral. Neither consequence is acceptable. I think we need to fight the battle that’s in front of us, rather than speculating and paralyzing ourselves.”

Moore nodded, not responding. He realized that his attitudes had changed since his failure in the previous encounter. Perhaps it was the fact of Pritchard not killing them out of hand; perhaps it was just a chance to think logically through the various alternatives. Moore still wouldn’t call himself a dove by any stretch, but he found himself slightly less attached to the military solution as a first resort.

He stared into space, hands clasped behind his back, considering the alternatives. Were there no possible outcomes that spared the human race? Or had he simply not thought of one? Moore remembered Sherlock Holmes’s canonical statement that one should eliminate all other alternatives in order to come up with the right answer. The problem, which never seemed to be discussed, was whether you could think of all the alternatives. What if you missed one? What if you simply didn’t have the knowledge to posit the right answer? It was a stance filled with an unstated arrogant belief that one could know all the possible choices.

Moore turned to glance speculatively at Commodore Mandelbaum. He wondered if she would be flexible enough to try something different, if it presented itself.

78.Approach

78.Approach

“We’ve received a communication from the Navy,” Captain Jennings announced. “Hardly surprising, of course.” He put it up on the bridge monitor. “How shall we respond?”

Kemp read the missive. “I think we should just be truthful, Captain. There’s no point in trying to outguess and out-finesse. Too many players in this game, right now.” They were painfully aware of the very large SSE vessels approaching behind them. Jennings assured his passengers that he could outrun the warships. Missiles, not so much, but one hoped that even the SSE would hesitate before firing on a civilian vessel.

“Fine, Dr. Kemp. I will defer to your expertise in this issue. Please compose a response and let me know when it’s ready. Meanwhile, I need a coffee.” Jennings stood and headed for the Captain’s Ready Room.

“Tea,” Narang said, standing up.

Kemp stood up as well. There were, after all, priorities.

* * *

The three sat around the conference table in the Ready Room. Jennings’s eyes tracked as he read the text on his tablet.

From:Andrew Jennings, Captain, IMM Getting Ahead.

CC:Dr. Charles Kemp, Ship’s Doctor

Dr. Madhur Narang, ICDC

To:Commodore Rani Mandelbaum, UENN Fleet Command

We are aware of the nature of your mission, and have a good general idea of Ivan Pritchard’s plans from previous conversations with him. Dr. Narang has relayed the contents of those conversations to the Navy. We are concerned that you are ignoring the proper Game Theory response and are proceeding with a standard Defector move.