made it abundantly clear over the years that it would come down like the wrath of God on any revolutionary movement stupid enough to deliberately send its privateers after Manticoran merchant shipping, yet there always seemed to be a new group of lunatics who thought they could somehow manipulate the Star Kingdom where everyone else had failed. The Navy eventually got around to teaching them the same lesson it had taught their countless predecessors, but it was ultimately a losing proposition. That particular bunch of crazies would not offend again once the RMN crushed them, but a lot of Manticoran merchant spacers tended to get hurt first, and someone else would always be along in a year or two who would have to learn the lesson all over again.
And at the moment, the Saginaw Sector of the Confederacy (which just happened to contain the Melchor System) was in an even greater than usual state of unrest. At least two of its systems -- Krieger's Star and Prism -- were in open rebellion against the central government, and there were half a dozen shadow governments and liberation movements all boiling away just beneath the surface. ONI estimated that several of those insurrectionary factions had managed to open communications and establish a degree of coordination which had -- yet again -- taken the Confederacy's excuse for a government by surprise. Worse, The Honorable Janko Wegener, the Saginaw sector governor, was even more venal than most, and it seemed obvious to ONI that he saw the turmoil in his command area as one more opportunity to line his pockets. At the same time that Wegener fought valiantly to suppress the rebellions in his sector, he was raking off protection money in return for tacitly ignoring at least three liberation movements, and there was compelling evidence to suggest that he was actually permitting privateers to auction their prizes publicly in return for a percentage of their profits. Under the ironclad laws of cronyism which governed the Confederacy, the fact that he was a close relative of the current government's interior minister and an in-law of the premier meant Wegener could get away with it forever (or at least until the Confederacy's political parties' game of musical chairs made someone else premier), and the odds were that he would retire a very wealthy man indeed.
In the meantime, it was up to HMS War Maiden and her company to do what they could to keep some sort of lid on the pot he was busily stirring.
'If only we could free up a division or two of the wall and drop them in on Saginaw to pay Governor Wegener a little visit, we might actually be able to do some genuine good,' Bachfisch observed after a moment. 'As it is, all we're going to manage is to run around pissing on forest fires.' He stared off into the distance for several seconds, then shook himself and smiled. 'Which is the usual state of affairs in Silesia, after all, isn't it?'
'I'm afraid you're right there, Sir,' Layson agreed ruefully. 'I just wish we could have started pissing on them by getting into missile range of the bastards who killed Gryphon's Pride.'
'You and me both,' Bachfisch snorted. 'But let's face it, Abner, we were luckier than we had any right to count on just to recover the ship herself. If they hadn't wasted time ... amusing themselves with her crew and gotten her underway sooner instead -- or even just killed her transponder to keep us from realizing she'd been taken -- they'd have gotten away clean. The fact that we got the hull back may not be much, but it's better than nothing.'
'The insurers will be pleased, anyway,' Layson sighed, then made a face and shook his head quickly. 'Sorry, Sir. I know that wasn't what you meant. And I know the insurers would be just as happy as we would if we'd managed to save the crew as well. It's just -- '
'I know,' Bachfisch said, waving away his apology. The captain took one more turn around the cabin, then parked himself in the chair behind the desk once more. He picked up Layson's memo board and punched up the display to scan the terse report himself. 'At least McKinley and her people cleared the ship on the bounce,' he observed. 'And I notice that even Janice remembered to take a gun this time!'
'With a little prodding,' Layson agreed, and they grinned at one another. 'I think the problem is that she regards anything smaller than a missile or a broadside energy mount as being beneath a tac officer's dignity,' the exec added.
'It's worse than that,' Bachfisch said with a small headshake. 'She's from downtown Landing, and I don't think she and her family spent more than a day or two all told in the bush when she was a kid.' He shrugged. 'She never learned to handle a gun before the Academy, and she's never actually needed one in the line of duty since. That's what Marines are for.'
'Sergeant Tausig mentioned to me that Ms. Harrington seemed quite competent in that regard,' Layson observed in a carefully uninflected tone.
'Good,' Bachfisch said. 'Of course, her family has a nice little freeholding in the Copper Wall Mountains. That's hexapuma country, and I imagine she grew up packing a gun whenever she went for a hike. Actually, I think she did quite well. At least she kept her lunch down while they recovered and bagged the bodies.'
Layson managed to keep his eyebrows from rising. He'd known Harrington was from Sphinx, of course, but he hadn't known she was from the Copper Walls, so how did the Captain know? He looked at Bachfisch for a moment, then drew a deep breath.
'Excuse me, Sir. I realize it's not really any of my business, but I know you must have had a reason for specifically requesting that Ms. Harrington be assigned to us for her snotty cruise.'
The sentence was a statement that was also a question, and Bachfisch leaned back in his chair and gazed steadily at his executive officer.
'You're right, I did,' he said after a thoughtful pause. 'Are you by any chance familiar with Captain Raoul Courvosier, Abner?'
'Captain Courvosier?' Layson's brow furrowed. 'Oh, of course. He's the head of the Saganami Tactical Department, isn't he?'
'At the moment,' Bachfisch said. 'The grapevine says he's up for rear admiral on the current list. They're going to jump him right past commodore, and they'll probably drag him over to head the War College as soon as they do.'
'I knew he had a good rep, Sir, but is he really that good?' Layson asked in considerable surprise. It was unusual, to say the least, for the RMN to jump an officer two grades in a single promotion, despite its current rate of expansion.
'He's better than that,' Bachfisch said flatly. 'In fact, he's probably the finest tactician and one of the three best strategists I've ever had the honor to serve under.'
Abner Layson was more than simply surprised by that, particularly since that was precisely the way he would have described Captain Thomas Bachfisch.
'If Raoul had been born into a better family -- or been even a little more willing to play the suck-up game -- he would have had his commodore's star years ago,' Bachfisch went on, unaware of his exec's thoughts. 'On the other hand, I imagine he's done more good than a dozen commodores at the Academy. But when Raoul Courvosier tells me privately that one of his students has demonstrated in his opinion the potential to be the most outstanding officer of her generation and asks me to put her in my Snotty Row, I'm not about to turn him down. Besides, she's about due for a little offsetting career boost.'
'I beg your pardon, Sir?' The question came out almost automatically, for Layson was still grappling with the completely unexpected endorsement of Honor Harrington's capabilities. Of course, he'd been very favorably impressed by her himself, but the outstanding officer of her generation?
'I said she's due for a career boost,' Bachfisch repeated, and snorted at the confused look Layson gave him. 'What? You think I was stupid enough to ask for Elvis Santino for my OCTO? Give me a break, Abner!'
'But -- ' Layson began, then stopped and looked at Bachfisch narrowly. 'I'd assumed,' he said very slowly, 'that Santino was just a particularly obnoxious example of BuPers' ability to pound square pegs into round holes. Are you saying he wasn't, Sir?'
'I can't prove it, but I wouldn't bet against it. Oh, it could be innocent enough. That's why I didn't say anything about it to you ahead of time ... and why I was so happy that he gave you ample grounds to bring the hammer down on him. The creep had it coming, whatever his motives may have been, but nobody who sees your report and the endorsements from Shelton and Flanagan could possibly question the fact that he was relieved for cause.'
'But why would anyone want to question it in the first place?'
'Did you ever happen to encounter Dimitri Young?'
This time, despite all he could do, Layson blinked in surprise at the complete non sequitur.
'Uh, no, Sir. I don't believe I can place the name.'
'I'm not surprised, and you didn't miss a thing,' Bachfisch said dryly. 'He was considerably before your time, and he resigned about the time he made commander in order to pursue a political career when he inherited the title from his father.'
