'I suppose,' William Alexander said heavily, 'that the real question before us isn't whether or not we hold the Peeps responsible for their actions, but what we do about it.
'Hamish,' he turned to his brother, 'what are our military options?'
'Essentially what they were before Pritchart's invitation,' Hamish replied. 'One thing that's changed is that Eighth Fleet's had longer to receive munitions and train with them. We've got a few new wrinkles we think are going to make our ships considerably more effective, and the additional training time will stand Eighth Fleet in good stead. However, at this time, Eighth Fleet is the only formation we've got which is fully trained with the new weapons. It's also the only formation that's equipped with the new weapons, because only the Invictuses and the Graysons' late-flight Harringtons-' he smiled wryly at the class name, despite his somber mood '-can operate them without refitting.'
'Why is that?' Grantville asked. 'I thought the pods were the same dimensions?'
'They are, but only the ships built with Keyhole capability from the outset can handle the Mark Two platforms, and they're essential to making the new missiles work. We can refit with Keyhole II-in fact, the decision to build that in is part of what's delayed the Andermani refits-but it requires placing the ship in yard hands for at least six weeks. And, frankly, we can't stand down our existing ships that long when we're this tightly strapped. All our new construction is being altered on the ways to be Keyhole II-capable, and when it starts coming into commission, we can probably start pulling the older ships back for refit.
'But at the moment, only Eighth Fleet is really equipped to handle them, and even they have only partial loadouts on the new pods. We're attempting to get into full production on them as quickly as possible, but we've hit some bottlenecks, and security issues have restricted the number of production facilities we could commit to them.'
'But Eighth Fleet could resume active operations immediately?'
'Yes,' Hamish said firmly, trying to ignore the icy shiver which went through him at the thought of Honor going back into combat when he'd allowed himself to hope so hard for a diplomatic solution. And trying not to think about her bitter disappointment-and Emily's-if she found herself unable to be there for their daughter's birth after all.
'And what does our defensive posture look like?'
'That, too, is essentially what it was. We're in a little better shape in Talbott, because O'Malley's on station at Monica now. Given ONI's current estimates of Solarian capabilities, and bearing in mind Terekhov's after-action report on the performance of the Solly battlecruisers the Monicans used, O'Malley can almost certainly destroy anything Verrochio could assemble to throw at him for at least the next two to four months. In fact, Verrochio would have to be heavily reinforced before he'd have any chance at all of evicting us from Monica, much less the Cluster as a whole.
'As far as direct action against the home system by the League is concerned, sheer distance would work in our favor. They aren't going to invade us successfully through the Junction, not with the number of missile pods we've got covering the central nexus. That means they've got to do it the hard way, which leaves them with something on the order of a six-month voyage just to get here. Which doesn't even take into consideration the fact that they're going to have to mobilize, bring together, and logistically support a fleet with overwhelming numerical superiority if they expect to offset our tactical and technological advantages.
'To be honest, I'm reminded of something a wet-navy admiral from Old Earth once said. For eighteen months to two years, possibly even twice that long, we'd run wild. It's unlikely the Sollies recognize just how much things have changed in the last five to ten T-years, which probably means they'd commit grossly inadequate force levels, at least initially. Eventually, they'd realize what was happening, though. And if they had the stomach for it, they could use their sheer size to soak up whatever we did to them while they got their own R&D to work on matching weapons and cranked up their own building capacity.
'The bottom line is that my current estimate is that we could do enormous damage to them-far more, I'm certain, then any of their strategists or politicians would imagine was possible. But quantity has a quality all its own, and we simply aren't big enough to militarily defeat the Solarian League if it's prepared to buckle down and pay the cost to beat us. We don't have the ships or the manpower to occupy the number of star systems we'd have to occupy if we wanted to achieve military victory. They, on the other hand, have effectively unlimited manpower and productive capacity. In the end, that would tell. And even if that weren't true, it overlooks the fact that the Peeps already have-or soon will have-enough wallers with broadly equivalent capabilities to pound us under. Especially if we're distracted by dealing with the League.'
'But what I seem to hear you saying,' Grantville said intently, 'is that whatever the League ultimately does, nothing it can do in the next, say, six months is going to have a significant impact on us?'
'That time estimate's probably a bit optimistic, assuming we take any heavy losses against Haven,' Hamish replied. 'Overall, though, that's fairly accurate.'
'Then it seems to me we've got to take the position that that six months-or whatever shorter period we actually have-represents our window for dealing with the Peeps,' the Prime Minister said.
'Except for the fact that by the end of that window, their numerical advantage in SD(P)s will be on the order of three-to-one or even higher,' Hamish said.
'Nothing we can do will change that,' Elizabeth said flatly. 'We're building as quickly as we can; they're doing the same thing. The threat zone until the ships we've laid down can equalize the numbers is beyond our control... unless we can do something to whittle the Peeps down.'
'You're thinking about Sanskrit,' Hamish said, equally flatly.
Most of the people in the Cabinet Room had no idea what Sanskrit was. Grantville, Hamish, the Queen, and Sir Anthony Langtry did, and Elizabeth nodded.
'You just said Eighth Fleet has the new weapons. If we use them, if we can convince the Peeps we've got more of them-that we've reequipped with them across the board-that's got to affect their strategic thinking. It may force them to do what we wanted all along and fritter away their wall of battle defending rear area systems. Or it may even convince them they've gotten their sums wrong and they don't have sufficient numbers to offset our individual superiority. In which case, the bastards may actually have to sit down and talk to us after all.'
'It's possible,' Hamish agreed. 'I can't predict how probable it might be. A lot would depend on how their analysts evaluate the situation after they run into Mistletoe and Apollo. They might not draw the same conclusions we would, since they won't have the same information we have about the systems' capabilities.'
'That's a given,' Elizabeth said, nodding. 'But do you see any approach-any military approach-which would give us a better chance of attaining our objectives?'
'No.' Hamish shook his head. 'Whatever the actual chance of success may be, Sanskrit almost certainly offers us the best military odds we're going to be able to generate.'
'Very well.' Elizabeth surveyed her ministers one more time, then nodded sharply, decisively.
'Willie, I'm going to draft a note to Pritchart. It's not going to be pretty. I'm going to officially and publicly denounce her actions and notify her that I have no intention of meeting anywhere with someone who uses assassination as a routine tool. And I'm also going to notify her that we intend to resume active military operations immediately.'
Grantville nodded.
Technically, he might have rejected Elizabeth's policy decisions. In fact, it was clear from her attitude that the only way he could have opposed them would have been by resigning rather than accepting them. And he had absolutely no doubt that if the Queen explained to her subjects what had happened, and why shed made the decisions she had, those decisions would enjoy overwhelming support and approval. She could readily have found another Prime Minister to put them into effect.
All that was true enough, but ultimately beside the point. Because the critical point was that he agreed with her.
'Tony,' Elizabeth continued, turning to the Foreign Secretary, 'I want our notice that we're going back to active operations very clearly stated. Unlike them, we're not going to be launching attacks without declaring hostilities first, and I want that point made to the galaxy at large by publishing our note in the 'faxes at the same time we send it. There's not going to be any room for anyone to accuse us of altering correspondence after the fact this time. Clear?'
'Clear, Your Majesty,' Langtry said, and the Queen turned back to Hamish.
'Hamish, I want orders cut to Eighth Fleet immediately. Operation Sanskrit is reactivated, as of now. I want
