Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught
Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught is book 7 of The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. Preceded by The Lost Fleet: Victorious. Followed by Beyond the Frontier: Invincible.
Plot details
Narrative
Chapter 1
00:02:13
Admiral John "Blackjack" Geary (Meta: JG) talks with his wife-subordinate Captain Tanya Dejani about political ramifications of Geary's return to active military service following their honeymoon and the end of the long war with the Syndics. The Alliance government has promoted JG to Admiral again and summoned him to a meeting at Ambaru station in Verendal. JG notes the degrees of freedom of his actions are now fewer than ever since he woke; Desjani notes his power over politicians is also higher than ever and cautions him to be wary of them.
JG and Desjani disembark from a civilian transport onto Ambaru (?) station in the Verendal (?) system to a military honor guard. JG and Desjani meet with Admiral Timbale, the leader of Ambaru station. Seconds before completely entering the secure conference room's data jamming zone he receives notifications that many of his loyal officers are stripped of their duty and to be court martialed immediately, including Desjani.
JG sends a message with Desjani to take back to calm his fleet. JG departs from Desjani and Admiral Timbale and proceeds to the meeting with Admiral Navarro and other government officials in the informationally isolated meeting room.
Chapter 2
00:46:50
JG meets with Grand Council members, the senators Navarro, Sakai, and Suva. JG announces that his subordinate leaders have been told to step down from command to be court-martialed for permitting low fuel during the final battles at the end of the war. The senators insist that JG let his subordinates submit to the court-martial orders from Fleet HQ, citing need for government to not be seen to side with Blackjack less it be seen as an indication of a successful military coup.
JG convinces the senators to get a burst of outside information into the secure room and they see a significant fraction of JG's fleet is disobeying orders to hold position, burning toward the station, presumably to free JG.
JG warns them he cannot control his fleet since the sudden mass court-martial orders combined with the extreme information isolation of the conference room is indistinguishable from the Alliance government neutralizing a threat to existing political power: Blackjack.
Frustrated that the senators' fear of JG's potential to topple the government will likely topple the government, JG resigns.
Chapter 3
01:15:23
Senators Navarro, Sakai, and Suva ease off and promise to intervene with Fleet Headquarters to cancel the court-martial order. Senators ask JG to withdraw resignation.
The senators assign JG to be Fleet Admiral of the First Fleet whose mission is to explore the newly discovered hostile alien space. They also reveal the creation of the Second Fleet to defend the home systems and the Third Fleet to provide support; the orders for the First Fleet are filled with contradictions. JG gets 1 month of leave for his fleet.
JG leaves the information isolation zone. JG gets an update from Desjani. JG transmits another message to urge his mutinous officers to stand down and return their ships into idle positions. JG announces he will brief all the captains with an adjustment from Dauntless.
JG talks to a ground trooper with a surname of someone he remembered fighting with before his time-skip.
Timbale warns JG that the government may be attempting to set JG up for failure by assigning both JG and Desjani on the same mission, hoping to create a sex scandal.
JG departs Ambaru station to his wife's battleship, Dauntless, to prepare for a conference with his officers.
Chapter 4
02:01:01
JG catches up with Desjani while traveling to Dauntless. Desjani highlights Bedea was most mutinous. Desjani is suspicious of Dragon who obeyed orders during ordeal. JG returns to Dauntless.
JG meets with his officers. He judges them based on how obedient they were to his recent orders to hold position when fleet headquarters issues the mass court martial orders. He communicates orders to collect intelligence on the aliens; his officers are okay with although reluctant to rescuing Syndicate humans from alien captivity when such opportunity presents itself.
Chapter 5
02:49:25
JG debates with Captain Bedea about how much to trust the Alliance government.
JG talks with Captain Duellos.
JG talks to his niece Jane Geary about her disobedience in commanding Dreadnaught to approach the station while JG was meeting with the senators. JG believes Jane Geary has changed since Verendal (?) when she hated BJG's legend for roping her into the military. JG later learns from Desjani that Jane Geary probably felt compelled to live up to the image of Legendary BJG until recently and may currently be trying to reinvent themselves.
JG is horrified to learn from Desjani that it has become tradition to feed fleet headquarters a stream of false information in order to deflect micromanagement efforts from impeding the real fleet operations. JG finds an example of fleet headquarters ordering a single officer on a single ship to take very specific certain actions regarding another person's safety training.
(03h25m): JG receives an order from Commander (?) Sela from Fleet Headquarters demanding he cut short his 30 day preparation time in half to 2 weeks. JG identified Sela as a highly decorated "Screamer"; JG thinks of how to use Fleet regulations to circumvent the order.
JG receives an order from Fleet Headquarters to send them various experienced officers for their HyperNet expertise; JG checks with one such summoned officer and finds much more experienced HyperNet experts are already accessible to Fleet Headquarters. JG refuses the order.
JG is notified that 21 civilian experts on alien life (who have no experience to the real aliens recently discovered) have been sent to join his fleet by Admiral Timbali (?).
JG's wife, Tanya Desjani demands to know why someone she dislikes in on board her ship.
Chapter 6
03:37:30
JG guesses the woman his wife Captain Tanya Desjani dislikes who recently boarded Dauntless is Victoria Rione.
Rione informs JG and Desjani that she is no longer Co-President of the Kalos Republic nor a senator in the Alliance. Rione indicates that she believes she was removed from power because she was seen as too sympathetic with the Alliance in a new post-War political climate in which the Republic is positioning itself to cut ties with the Alliance. The Alliances appointed Rione to be an emissary of the Grand Council. JG laments being between two women who dislike each other. (Baltakatei: Ah, misogyny. I don't think this book will be winning the Bechdel test any time soon.)
Rione tells JG that she has orders to make sure Kalos Republic ships do not return home due to Republic worries that ship officers will be too loyal to BJG and disrupt Kalos Republic politics.
JG discusses Grand Council orders he received via Rione to his wife, Captain Desjani; one order is to retrieve Alliance POWs from Denai, despite the detour adding 3 weeks to First Fleet's journey.
JG discusses repairs with Dejanj. They conclude that all ships will likely need major overhauls within a few months due to wartime assumptions that ship expected lifespan was months; many critical components are only built to last a year; JG discusses the issue with a captain having similar problems; JG surprises Desjani and the other captain that JG's original ship (before JG slept through most of the war), Merlin was designed to last hundreds of years.
JG begins creating a plan to overhaul the ships.
JG talks with Lieutenant Jameson, an officer who helps an engineering officer named Smaith on one of the Auxiliaries obfuscate reports to Fleet Headquarters in order to grant field officers more freedom in acquiring materials and performing repairs.
JG inspected Shen's Orion.
As JG and his ships are departing, Admiral (?) Timbali calls and relays to JG an order to give him command of four Auxiliaries: Titan, Tanuki, Kāpua, and Donovoi.
Chapter 7
04:37:10
Timbali and JG agree to treat the order for JG to give up four of his auxiliaries as invalid since the order was not sent to JG directly.
JG and the fleet enter jumpspace to Etelia, a former Syndicate system. Upon entering jumpspace, the Dauntless bridge crew notice mysterious lights that modern mythology states is connected to BJG's slumber.
Upon entering Etelia, JG notices a single Alliance scout ship waiting near the jump point to report any invasion of Etelia and a single Syndicate Hunter Killer (a.k.a. "hawk"). JG notices the absence of Victoria Rione who, in previous journeys, was a regular presence on the bridge during critical moments; Rione has lately been staying in her stateroom; her counterpart, General Sharbon, has been schmoozing with crew members; JG says the general is preparing to become a politician.
JG shares travel plan to Denai with his fleet captains JG shares his honeymoon story with Desjani to Duellos; JG and Desjani had to flee in private shuttles from media in private shuttles in order to be able to tell Desjani's parents that they were married before the media could. JG's extremely popular celebrity status prompts Duellos to share that he, simply by being known as a direct subordinate to JG, became a celebrity on his own home planet; Duellos imagines Jane Geary, on JG's homeworld of Glenlion, faced even worse celebrity problems.
JG and fleet make jumps to Denai using Dauntless 's hypernet key.
Denai Syndicate CEO asks JG for compensation for housing and feeding Alliance POWs. JG orders Desjani to destroy some rocks as a show of power.
Chapter 8
05:29:30
The Denai Syndicate leader threatens to use military force if demands for payment of POW upkeep is not met. JG frees the POWs of Denai with planetary bombardment of military targets and marines. Jane Geary disobeys orders to destroy some cruise missiles with style. Nearly all the POWs are captured senior officers with many Admirals. Victoria Rione reunites with her husband, Commander Bennon who is eager for immediate obliteration of Denai inhabitants. Desjani suspects Rione as Grand Council member used JG's fleet to secure her husband's safety. JG learns of Geary Syndrome. JG meets with the POWs who demand command positions. JG assigns the two Grand Council emissaries (Rione and Admiral Sharbon) to manage their requests and delusions of grandeur.
Chapter 9
06:42:20
Captain Bennon threatens an honor duel for JG sleeping with Rione in the past. Desjani and Rione deescalate the situation.
Desjani introduced JG to the stout master chief / smuggler jianini (?).
JG learns from Shamrock's logistics paperwork observations that the Alliance is constructing 12 battleships and 12 battlecruisers in secret.
JG parleys with Midway Syndicate CEO Aiseni who offers a HyperNet technology that would prevent aliens collapsing a HyperNet gate. JG imagines this new HyperNet device was built upon contributions of the late Commander Kreseta (?) who created a HyperNet worm tech that JG leaked to many Syndicate worlds as a humanitarian gesture. The Midway CEO asks for JG's word of honor that he'll protect Midway from harm by the Syndicate central worlds. JG suspects the Midway CEO is working to make Midway independent from the Syndicate but is doubtful the CEO can convert the system into an Alliance one easily.
JG agrees to Aiseni's offer if Aiseni doesn't claim JG as a backer for actions against the Syndicate central world.
JG receives a report from intelligence officer Aiger (?) about their superior officer.
Chapter 10
07:45:30
Aiger tells JG that Commander Bradamant accessed information on a Syndicate sub-CEO and implied Bradamant had a sexual relationship with them when she was a POW.
JG talks to Commander Bradamant who tells JG about how the subCEO temporarily freed her and other POWs when their prisoner transport ship was damaged, saving everyone; after being freed, Alliance intelligence used Bradamant to spy on Syndicate comms, although she believes Syndicate intelligence also did the same to the subCEO. JG asks Bradamant to ask the subCEO for helpful information, understanding the strange situation.
JG jumps the fleet from Midway to Pele. No aliens are found. An old computer worm is blocked by the fleet's computers and the source identified to be Brennon, who used the worm to try and coordinate with other recently freed POW commanders and admirals to mutiny against JG. JG assigns the commanders and admirals to engineering duties, believing they need to feel a sense of purpose.
JG jumps the fleet to the next system, Haina, where an Enigma ship at the gate immediately attacks, forcing JG's fleet to destroy it. Scientists on Dauntless find all evidence of Syndicate settlements erased; they identify aquatic structures on coastlines hinting that the inhabitants are amphibious.
JG proposes sprinting to a nearby jump point in Haina to Alahi, in order to travel forward deeper into Enigma territory despite the threat a nearby HyperNet gate poses. Civilian experts present a theory that the Enigma rely upon subterfuge rather than displays of power in order to explain their reliance on computer worms instead of weapons development.
JG assigns recently freed POW Commander (?) Lagaman and other freed POWs to analyze Enigma battle history in order to find out how they think. The purpose is go inhibit the freed POWs mutinous instincts.
JG takes fleet to Alahi
Chapter 11
08:48:55
JG's bridge discuss food ration condition and cannibalism priorities while approaching the Alahi gate.
While in jump JG receives text warning from Lagaman "Regarding aliens, watch your back."
JG and Desjani realize too late that Enigma have ships so maneuverable and FTL comms that would permit them to effectively camp the Alahi jump exit from Haina. JG transmits compressed text orders 7 hours before exiting jump preparing the fleet for a gate camp.
(09:10:10) The fleet is attacked upon entering Alahi.
Fleet survived. Enigma ambushers destroyed. Ships damaged. None lost. No useful response from. Enigma. Dead stored not sent starward. JG orders retaliatory bombardment of inhabited planet.
Chapter 12
09:33:30
JG's fleet enters Laka. No hostile force is encountered. JG is advised that the HyperNet gates may have been originally designed to be defensive bombs meant to ward off invaders.
JG's fleet jumps to a previously unvisited system. Tanya nagged JG into naming it "Limbo".
JG sees what he believes is an Enigma freighter. JG sends Bedeos and a taskforce of various ships to investigate. The freighter apparently self-destructs. A single carbon-based human-scale-sized corpse of a now inert oxygen-metabolizing amphibious creature is discovered in the mostly dust-sized debris cloud.
Setton, a scientist volunteers to stay behind to investigate the aliens. JG withholds permission.
JG jumps the fleet to Tartarus (nearly named "Purgatory" by Tanya until she found the name was already used to name a different Syndicate system. No HyperNet existed. JG gives in to Setton who asks for probes to be sent. Upon preparing to jump out of system, Aiger reports that humans have been discovered.
Chapter 13
10:20:10
A probe had found an encrypted video stream transmitted from an asteroid which they have deduced is hollowed out and spinning for artificial gravity. The asteroid is discovered to contain humans.
JG sent a task force to convertly deliver marines to the asteroid in order to retrieve the humans. Marine engineers delay the self destruct infrastructure of the asteroid long enough to retrieve the humans.
The freed humans are mostly older captured Syndics, although some were birthed by other prisoners. The prisoners were kept informationally isolated by the Enigma but supplied with food and life support equipment that medically trained individuals were able to use to maintain habitability. JG promises to return the prisoners home to Syndic space or on an Alliance world.
JG discusses political matters with Rione. JG put Bedea next in line. JG plans 7 more jumps.
Chapter 14
11:12:55
JG jumps the fleet from Tartarus to Hades which is found to have a Hypernet gate. JG jumps the fleet to Perdition which has a Hypernet gate. Then JG jumps the fleet through two more systems lacking a HyperNet gate: Gahena, Inferno.
JG holds a conference. JG concludes the Enigma defenses, the HyperNet gates, outline borders of multiple competing Enigma factions. The human victory against the Enigma at Midway may have shattered Enigma cooperation amongst themselves, JG's current mission to find out more information about the Enigma has likely united various competing Enigma factions into a united front against humans. Various captains and advisors agree that returning to Alliance space is likely the best course of action.
Emissary Admiral Sharbon confides in JG a theory that the Enigma, unlike homo sapiens who prioritize curiosity, prioritize privacy. Previous Enigma transmissions indicating the Enigma fought to defend their star systems to defend their property were likely misinformation meant to appeal to human expectations of self-defense and property rights from wartime opponents. Thus, all previous attempts to establish peace talks were doomed to fail since the act of talking breaks privacy and therefore is a hostile act to the Enigma. Instead, Sharbon suggests taking action to reveal Enigma secrets obtained not through military power in order to prove that Enigma military strength is not effective at protecting secrets, thus leading to a reduction in Enigma military response strength and reducing human casualties.
JG jumps the fleet into a new system where they encounter a gate camp of ships that appear to be from a new alien civilization distinct from the Enigma. JG's fleet fails to establish communication on short notice. JG leads the fleet to victory against both the new alien ambush and the Enigma pursuers following them system-to-system.
JG sees that all jump points out of the system have similar encampments.
