Mission of Honor

the right. As his hand rose, his forefinger alternated back and forth between the straight extended position indicating the number '1' and the crooked position indicating the letter 'X' before the hand turned palm-out and closed into the letter 'S' once more. Then both hands came together in front of him, thumbs and index fingers linked, before they rose to his chin, left in front of right, thumb and first two fingers of each hand signing the letter 'P.' They paused for a moment, then separated downward, and Honor felt her eyebrows rising even higher.

''Dreams of Peace'?' she said, speaking very carefully, as if she couldn't quite believe what she heard herself saying. 'That's his treecat name?'

Nimitz nodded his head very firmly, and Honor tasted his confidence—his assurance—about the name he'd assigned. No wonder he'd been hesitant to share it with her! If anyone in the galaxy had demonstrated his unflinching, tough-as-nails readiness to do whatever duty required of him, however grim that duty might be, it was Thomas Theisman! He was the one who'd rebuilt the Republican Navy into a war machine that could actually face the RMN in combat. The man who'd planned and executed Operation Thunderbolt. The man who'd planned Operation Beatrice! The man—

Her thoughts paused, and Nimitz stared up into her eyes with an intensity which was rare, even for the two of them. They sat that way for several, endless seconds, and then Honor inhaled deeply.

Yes, Theisman had always done his duty. Would always do his duty, without flinching or hesitating, whatever its demands. But she supposed the same thing could be said of her, and what was she doing here on this planet, of all planets in the universe, if she didn't 'dream of peace?' And the more she thought about it, about what it must have been like to spend all those years trying to defend his star nation against an external enemy even while he saw State Security making 'examples' out of men and women he'd known for years—out of friends— the more clearly she realized just how longingly a man like Thomas Theisman might dream of peace.

I wish Elizabeth were here , she thought. Maybe she can't taste Ariel's emotions the way I can taste Nimitz's, but she trusts Ariel. And if he told her he agreed with what Nimitz has named Pritchart and Theisman  . . . .

'You do realize that what you just told me doesn't make my decision any easier, don't you, Stinker?' she asked him with a crooked smile.

He blinked once, slowly, then bleeked in agreement, radiating his love for her . . . and his simultaneous deep amusement. Nimitz understood perfectly well that they'd come to Haven on serious business. He even understood exactly what stakes they were playing for. Yet when it came down to it, this whole business of 'negotiating' was a two-leg concept which had very little meaning for a race of telempaths who couldn't have engaged in diplomatic subterfuge even if they'd ever had any desire to do so in the first place. He knew Honor had to play by two-leg rules, but he found the entire process incredibly roundabout, cumbersome, and just plain silly.

'Yeah, sure,' she said, hugging him once more. 'Easy for you , Bub!'

* * *

'Yes, Admiral?'

Eloise Pritchart's expression was politely curious as she gazed out of Honor's com display. Even without the physical proximity which would have permitted Honor to physically sample the president's emotions, it was obvious Pritchart wondered why she'd screened when their delegations were due to sit down together again in less than half an hour.

Well, she's about to find o ut, Honor thought. And it'll be interesting to see if she and Theisman react the way someone with Stinker's notion of their treecat names ought to .

'I'm sorry to disturb you, Madam President,' she said out loud, 'but I've just received a dispatch from home. It doesn't require any immediate action on our part,' she assured Pritchart as the other woman's eyebrows rose, 'but I thought I'd share it with you. As part of the deep background for the Star Empire's negotiating stance, as it were.'

'By all means, Admiral, if you think that's appropriate.' Pritchart sat back in her chair, shoulders squared, and looking into those topza eyes, Honor could see the other woman's memories of the last time she'd provided her with 'deep background.'

''Appropriate' can be such an interesting word,' Honor observed wryly. 'I hope it applies in this case, but I suppose we'll just have to see, won't we?

'At any rate, Madam President, it would appear that just over three T-weeks ago, one of our destroyers, HMS Reprise , returned to the Spindle System from Meyers with what I suppose could be called interesting news. It would appear that notwithstanding all of the historical evidence to the contrary, it really is genuinely possible for a Solarian ship of the wall to make it all the way out into the Verge under its own power. In fact—'

Chapter Twenty-Six

'Well,' Elizabeth Winton said dryly, 'I suppose the question presently before us is 'Now what the hell do we do?''

'I suppose so, Your Majesty,' William Alexander replied. 'On the other hand, our decision trees have just been rather brutally simplified. Once you're on the hexapuma's back, your only real options are to hang on or get eaten!'

'Not necessarily, Willie,' his brother said. Baron Grantville looked at him, eyebrows rising, and Hamish Alexander-Harrington barked a laugh. There was no humor in the cold sound, and his blue eyes were even colder.

'You really think there's another option, Hamish?' the prime minister asked skeptically.

'Of course there is! If you can reach your pulser, you put a dart through the six-legged bastard's brain, instead,' the Earl of White Haven replied harshly.

Grantville's face tightened as he heard the combined anger, vengefulness, and confidence in his brother's voice. The Alexander temper was famous throughout the Royal Manticoran Navy, and Grantville had enjoyed even more experience with it than most of White Haven's fellow officers. For that matter, he had it himself, in full measure. And he knew his brother well enough to understand exactly how a man who'd commanded the men and women of the Royal Navy in battle would feel about someone who'd cold-bloodedly set out to annihilate a handful of battlecruisers and heavy cruisers with an entire fleet of superdreadnoughts. The fact that things hadn't worked out the way Sandra Crandall had expected wasn't likely to do a thing to make White Haven any less angry, either. Nor, for that matter, should it.

After all, 'it's the thought that counts,' isn't it? Grantville reflected. On the other hand  . . . .

'You know, Ham, I've been doing a little historical research of my own since Mike's first reports about New Tuscany got back to us,' he said. 'You were right when you suggested Lincoln to me, but there are some other interesting tidbits in Old Earth history, too. For example, I assume you're familiar with the term 'victory disease,' aren't you?'

'As a matter of fact, I am.' White Haven's teeth flashed in something which bore a certain vague resemblance to a smile, and Samantha flattened her ears as she lay stretched tense and angry along the back of his chair. 'On the other hand, we're the ones who were supposed to be the recipient of a Pearl Harbor attack this time around, not the ones stupid enough to launch it. And I'm not proposing any of us underestimate the scale of the threat, either. What I am pointing out is that there's no point pretending none of this has happened, or that the League's going to accept the outright destruction of twenty-three superdreadnoughts and the capture of forty-eight more—not to mention all Crandall's escorts, screening elements, and supply ships— without doing its damnedest to turn the entire Star Empire into rubble. In my opinion, Mike did exactly what she should've done under the circumstances, given an opposition force commander who obviously couldn't have poured piss out of a boot even if it did have instructions on the heel. But the fact that she chose the right option doesn't mean she chose a good one, since there weren't any good ones available to her.'