Book Title: IMPLACABLE
Character Name: Admiral John Geary (also known as Black Jack, a nickname I've never liked but one I'm stuck with)
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Normal, I guess. My ancestors were among the first colonists on our world, and played important roles back then in ensuring Glenlyon remained free, but we were never taught to see ourselves as special the way some First Families do on a lot of worlds. We were told and shown the importance of service to others, but that plays out in different ways in my family. Some of us (at least one in every generation) feels the call of space, the need to sail among the stars and see other worlds. That was my mother. That was me. My brother Michael never understood that, though, and was happy to remain on Glenlyon for most of his life. My father was like that, too. Now, after I was frozen in survival sleep for a century, they're all gone. My grandniece Jane and grandnephew Michael are all that's left of my family, the rest taken by time or the war. Mostly by the war, because Gearys were expected to follow in the footsteps of "Black Jack." It wasn't my fault the government elevated that myth after I was thought to have died, but I still feel responsible.
What was your greatest talent?
I suppose that's either the ability to make decisions under pressure, or the ability to fake it when I do make a decision. When lives are on the line and everyone is looking to you for a quick decision, you have to be able to make one, and have to be able to act as if it is certainly the right one. If you sound uncertain, if you hesitate too long, everyone loses confidence in you. And that can be fatal. But they have to be the right decisions, as well. Or, at least, decisions that work out either because they were right, or you were lucky. Maybe that's my greatest talent, to be lucky when I need to be!
No, that's not entirely right. If listening to others, even when you don't want to hear what they want to say, is a talent, I guess I have that. And being able to listen to and accept advice (even "you're wrong" advice), has played a big part in my "luck," or ability to make the right decision when it counts.
Significant other?
Tanya Desjani. Captain Tanya Desjani. When the weight is too heavy, she shares it. When I can't keep going, she links arms and walks with me. She never hesitates to tell me what she really thinks. And she helps me understand those around me. (More on that below.)
That isn't to say there haven't been some problems. She's a child of war, having seen and done things I couldn't have imagined in my earlier life. Someone called her a Blood Knight. She loves the fight. And she's probably the best ship handler in the fleet. A lot of people would say Tanya Desjani was born to command a battle cruiser. But even she is tired of the death, of losing friends.
When she was a lieutenant, she was presented with the highest award the Alliance has for valor, the Alliance Cross. She wears the award because regulations require it, but she never speaks of the action that led to it. Except once, when she told me she had no idea why she had lived through that when so many others had died. She's a fervent believer in the Living Stars and honors her ancestors, certain they are guiding our paths. I think sometimes that faith is all that keeps her going in the face of the losses she's endured.
She's from Kosatka, a star not too far from Glenlyon as stars go. The Ochoa-Desjanis are a seriously First Family on Kosatka, very influential, but Tanya never wanted any part of that.
And there's the complication that, as captain of Dauntless, she is under my command as long as I'm in charge of the fleet. Aboard the ship, and in any other official setting, we have to be totally professional, staying at arm's length and in separate staterooms. And we do that.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Understanding people who have lived lives very different than my own, who grew up during the seemingly endless war with the Syndicate Worlds. Even after years among them, I sometimes fail to grasp how that impacted them. Death has been their constant companion, with most having lost family members and all of them having lost many friends. It was like that for generations. They'd…forgotten some important things. I have to respect them and what they've endured, while also reminding them of what they've lost due to the corrosive impact of a century of war.
If I'm being honest, the Black Jack thing is also a challenge. They were raised to believe in that guy, an impossibly idealized version of me created by a government in need of heroes. Some people today idolize Black Jack, and some fear him because he could do whatever he wanted and a lot of people would still cheer. I have to show everyone who I really am, and who I'm not. What I really can do, and what I won't do.
Where do you live?
My home of record is the planet Glenlyon in the Glenlyon Star System, which is part of the Alliance. It's a beautiful world, even though most people think that about their home worlds. The family home used to be a ways outside the city, on the rolling plain leading towards the mountains that rise up in the west. In the last century the city has expanded, grown around the place, so it feels strange to step out of the door and see everything that's there now. I've only been back there once, though, quite recently. Where I really live is on ships. Usually aboard my flagship, Dauntless. Sometimes, other ships. Occasionally I visit the surface of a planet or an orbital facility. I even visited Old Earth once, the home of our ancestors. It was amazing. But it wasn't home.
Maybe someday I'll really be able to go home again.
Do you have any enemies?
Seriously?
I mean, even now, billions, maybe. Technically, everyone in the Syndicate Worlds was an enemy. And some of them are the sort of people anyone would see as an enemy, especially the security officers who work for the Syndic government and are as ruthless against their own people as they are against anyone from the Alliance. A lot of the Syndic "workers" (as they call average citizens) have decided I'm not so bad, though. I'm "for the people," they say. I suppose it's like that ancient philosopher said, that one way to destroy your enemies is to make them your friends. But the leaders of what remains of the Syndicate Worlds are still working against me, both for revenge on me personally and in continued refusal to admit they finally lost that war.
And then there are my enemies within the Alliance. Some fear that I'll become a dictator. Some want me to be a dictator and won't take no for an answer. Others think they're my friends but do things I'd never want. And others, I've learned, see me as being in the way of their attempts to gain power. Some of these enemies are in the fleet. Some are powerful political leaders.
Right now, there's another group of enemies. Humans who fear contact with alien species, who think they have to do anything they think necessary to stop that. Who'd welcome war because of their fears. I can't let them succeed.
So, yes. I have enemies.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
It depends what you mean by the place where I am. If it means aboard Dauntless, then I am attached to this ship. (Not as much so as Tanya, because she is the commanding officer of Dauntless. Her mother was shocked when we married because she always assumed Tanya was married to her ship.) The ship's rough interior feels like home to me, and the crew feel like my comrades. We've all faced so much together. Not every memory is a pleasant one, some are terrible, but we have faced them together.
If you mean where in the galaxy I am, the fleet is currently in orbit about a star deep inside space controlled by an alien species nicknamed the Dancers because of how gracefully they maneuver their spacecraft. We still don't know what they call themselves. Their appearance is hideous to human eyes, but they've been important allies, even though we still don't know just what it is they want or expect of us. That's why we're here, protecting a diplomatic delegation trying to learn more and establish formal relations with one of the only alien species we've encountered that is willing to talk. This place is full of promise and peril. If we mess up dealing with the Dancers, it could harm all of humanity. But getting to truly understand and work with another intelligent species would be incredibly important. And there are other alien species out there, species the Dancers are in contact with. Everything we do here is being watched. Dr. Jasmine Cresida likens being here to something called Schrodinger's Cat. As with that cat, we won't know how this all works out until it ends and the "box is opened." That's when we'll know if this star will be the site of one of humanity’s greatest moments, or a place remembered for lost chances and a disastrous outcome.
So, if you want to know how I feel about this star system, ask me again when this is all over.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
No children. I was lucky, because they would have aged and died (or died in the war) while I was frozen in survival sleep. That lost century has been very hard to take. If I'd had children…it would have been a lot harder. As for pets, I had a couple of cats when I was younger. There's a duck aboard Dauntless now, but technically Ensign Duck is a member of the crew, not anyone's pet.
(Why is there a duck on a warship? It's a long story involving Marines, too much alcohol, and what they thought seemed like a good idea at the time.)
These days I'm responsible for literally tens of thousands of lives on a daily basis. That's all the responsibility I can handle.
If I live through all this, if Tanya and I ever get to go home, maybe then children will finally happen.
What do you do for a living?
The short, simple answer is that I'm the current commander of the Alliance fleet.
What does that mean, though?
Some people say it means my job is to kill people. But I don't see it that way. My job is to prevent things from breaking down into fighting. To make sure we're all as ready as we can be for whatever happens. And, if fighting happens, to end it as quickly as possible with as few losses as possible. I've had all of these lives entrusted to me, all of the people who serve in the fleet. And there are all of the people we're protecting.
My job is to prevent another war.
And, if necessary, to fight that war.
I have to be a diplomat. I have to try to find solutions short of fighting not only with other humans, but with aliens who we're still trying to figure out.
I have to try to ensure that every single person in this fleet is seen and treated and respected as an individual, not simply as a number or a job or a uniform.
Sometimes, I have to decide who lives, and who dies.
I don't enjoy it. The responsibilities are huge. But I've seen too many others in similar positions who don't take their responsibilities as seriously as I think they should, who spend lives without regard for the cost, who focus on their own agendas and promotions. If I'm not doing this, one of them might end up in command.
Greatest disappointment?
I wish I'd been able to see my brother Michael again, and my mother and father. Just one more time. There were things I should have said, wanted to say, that I never did.
Tanya understands that. Her brother died in the war. She says even if we lived a thousand years at the end there'd still be things we'd wished we'd said. She's right.
But, still…
Greatest source of joy?
That one's easy. Tanya. I have other friends and comrades now, but she's the one who brings me joy.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Ummm…fun… It's sort of absurd that I have to think about that, isn't it? I guess these days fun is quiet conversations with friends like Captain Duellos and Dr. Nasr. Those rare occasions when Tanya and I are off duty and off any ship and can just be ourselves with each other. Learning new things. That's still fun, and there's more to learn now than there was a century ago. I mean, meeting these alien species is perilous because of the stakes involved in making sure it goes right. But how amazing is it to be able to meet them?
As funny as it sounds for someone who routinely jumps across light years, I still like travel. I visited Old Earth once, and that was awesome. Such ancient places, hallowed by the spirits of the First Ancestors to us all. And, despite all of the punishment the mother of humanity has endured at the hands of her children, still a beautiful planet.
So, that's often work these days. But it can also be fun.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Mistakes. I make them. And then too often people die. The irony is I'm constantly fighting this image of Black Jack, the "perfect hero." Because I don't want people to think I really am perfect.
But, if I was, I wouldn't make mistakes, and others wouldn't pay the price for that.
I can never be as good as I need to be. As good as others need me to be.
What keeps you awake at night?
Everything. Memories. Ghosts. Today's problems. Today's people. Yesterday. Tomorrow.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
The future of humanity. That is, trying to ensure that the human species has a future.
Linked to that is the need to understand aliens. What they want, what they expect, who they are, and how they think. Just because you can speak to them, translating words, doesn't mean you understand what those words mean. And every alien species we've encountered has their own ways of thinking, of seeing the universe. They're not humans who look different. They really think differently. Unless we learn enough about them to understand their thinking, misunderstandings could lead to not just lost opportunities but disasters.
There are too many humans who are afraid of them, and would prefer to either lash out, "get them before they get us," or pull back and defend our borders. They would be very happy if this mission ended in disaster. And, of course, there are those humans trying to profit from the whole thing in any way they can, no matter how that might mess up things for everyone else.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Peace.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
People.
People are almost always the problem.
But people are always the solution.
So, we'll find a way.
The Lost Fleet: Outlands #3
Admiral John “Black Jack” Geary fears the greatest threat to humanity may be itself in this gripping continuation of the New York Times bestselling series.
As far from explored space as any human has ever been, Geary and the Alliance fleet are on their own, protecting a diplomatic mission in territory belonging to an alien species with still-unknown motives.
His already complex and dangerous mission is further imperiled by deadly challenges from other human factions seeking to harm or exploit the aliens. When another alien species whose technology is far more advanced than humanity’s arrives, the stakes are raised to the highest possible level.
Only the most serious danger comes from an unexpected source.
Presented with orders to carry out actions he believes not only are mistaken, but would be contrary to the ideals of the Alliance, Geary has to decide whether he must invoke the power that his long-revered name holds--even though this might endanger his entire fleet, tear apart the Alliance, and destroy everything he has fought for.
Science Fiction Space Opera [Ace, On Sale: July 4, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593199022 / eISBN: 9780593199046]
Jack Campbell is the pen name of John G. Hemry, a retired U.S. Navy officer. His father (LCDR Jack M. Hemry, USN ret.) is a mustang (an officer who was promoted through the enlisted ranks), so John grew up living everywhere from Pensacola, Florida to San Diego, California, including an especially memorable few year on Midway Island.
John graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons, Kansas in 1974, then attended the U.S. Naval Academy (Class of '78), where he was labeled "the un-Midshipman" by his roommates.
His active duty assignments in the U.S. Navy included:
- USS SPRUANCE (DD963) (Navigator, Gunnery Officer)
- Defense Intelligence Agency (Production Control Officer)
- Navy Anti-Terrorism Alert Center (Watch Officer, Operations Officer)
- Amphibious Squadron Five (Staff Intelligence Officer/N2)
- Navy Operational Intelligence Center (Readiness Division)
- Chief of Naval Operations Staff N3/N5 (Plans, Policy and Operations)
John speaks the remnants of Russian painstakingly pounded into him by Professor Vladimir Tolstoy (yes, he was related to that Tolstoy).
He lives in Maryland with a wife who is too good for him and three great kids. The two eldest children are diagnosed as autistic but are slowly improving with therapies, education and medications.
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