In Enemy Hands

mistake. But we did recall him, and he's still on probation for his 'failure.'' Ransom cocked her head, and Saint-Just shrugged. 'It's only a formality, he's too good for us to shoot unless we absolutely have to, but we can't rehabilitate him overnight.'

'All right, I can see that,' Ransom nodded, 'but that just tells me who the next candidate isn't.'

'Sorry,' Saint-Just apologized. 'I got distracted. In answer to your question, McQueen’s only real competition is Thomas Theisman. He's considerably junior to her, but he was the only flag officer to emerge from Operation Dagger with a reputation as a fighter, and he distinguished himself in the Trevor's Star fighting before we pulled him out. His stand at Seabring is one of the very few victories we've had to crow over, but while the Navy respects him as a tactician and a strategist, he's been very careful to remain totally apolitical.'

'And that's a disadvantage?' Ransom sounded surprised, and Pierre shook his head at her.

'You're slipping, Cordelia,' he said mildly. 'There's only one reason for him to be apolitical, and it's not because he admires us. He might choose to avoid the political game because of its inherent risks, but no one with his combat record could be an idiot, and only an idiot wouldn't see that there are all sorts of small ways he could send us signals that he's an obedient little boy. They wouldn't have to be sincere, but they wouldn't cost him anything to send.'

'His peoples commissioner agrees with that assessment,' Saint-Just put in. 'Citizen Commissioner LePic's reports make it clear that he rather admires Theisman as an officer and a man, and he's convinced Theisman is loyal to the Republic. But he's also cautioned us that Theisman is less than pleased with several of our policies. The admiral's been careful not to say so, but his attitude gives him away.'

'I see,' Ransom said, and her voice was far grimmer than it had been.

'At any rate,' Pierre said, trying to reclaim the conversation before Ransom’s suspicions had time to come fully to life, 'Theisman was acceptable from the professional viewpoint, but he's a Brutus, and we need a Cassius. McQueen's aspirations may make her dangerous, but ambition is more predictable than principle.'

'I can't argue with that,' Ransom muttered. She frowned down at the table again, then nodded. 'All right, Rob. I know you and Oscar are going to put her in whatever I say, and I have to admit that your arguments make sense in at least some ways. Just be very sure you keep an eye on her. The last thing we need is for a politically ambitious admiral to put together a real military coup against us.'

'That would be rather a case of hoisting us with our own petard,' Pierre agreed.

'But whatever we do with McQueen, I'm concerned by what you've said about Theisman,' Ransom went on. 'I gather that with McQueen diverted to political duties, Theisman will take her place as our best commander in the officer corps' estimation?' Saint-Just nodded, and her frown deepened. 'In that case, I think it might be a good idea to take a close personal look at Citizen Admiral Theisman.'

''Personal' as in you're thinking of taking it yourself?' Pierre asked in a carefully casual tone.

'Maybe.' Ransom plucked at her lower lip for a moment. 'He's stationed at Barnett now?'

'System commander,' Saint-Just confirmed. 'We needed to put someone good in charge of DuQuesne.'

Ransom nodded. The Manticoran Alliance’s capture of Trevor’s Star gave it a near-impregnable position between the heart of the People's Republic and the Barnett System, but the massive infrastructure of DuQuesne Base and all the other military installations of the system remained. Barnett had been intended as the jump-off point for the inevitable war against Manticore, and the Legislaturalist regime had spent twenty T-years building it up for its task. However much the Manties might want to let it wither on the vine, they couldn't afford to leave it intact in their rear, for unlike wet-navy ships, starships could easily avoid interception if they planned their routes through hyper-space with even moderate care. Reinforcements, or fresh attack forces, might take time to reach Barnett on such roundabout courses, but they could get there.

The Manties, however, could get there more quickly. While their Sixth Fleet had been busy taking Trevor’s Star, other Allied task forces had taken advantage of the People's Navy's distraction and snapped up the forward bases of Treadway, Solway and Mathias. They'd captured the naval facilities in Treadway virtually intact, which was bad enough, but they'd also broken through the arc of bases which had guarded Barnett's southeastern flank... and that didn't even consider what the loss of Trevor’s Star implied. With the capture of that system, the Royal Manticoran Navy had attained control of every terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction, and that meant convoys, and task forces, could move directly from the Manticore Binary System to Trevor's Star and come down on Barnett from the north.

For all practical purposes, then, Barnett was doomed, yet the Manties had taken their own pounding to capture Trevor's Star. They'd need at least a little time to reorganize and catch their breath, and once they were ready to move again, Barnett was almost certain to attract their immediate attention away from the Republic's core and back out towards the frontier. That made holding the system as long as possible, even if only as a diversionary measure, critically important, which, in turn, required the services of a competent system CO.

'From the way you've been talking, I assume you don't intend for him to ride the base down in flames, though,' Ransom observed after a moment, and Pierre nodded. 'In that case, I think I should take a little trip down to Barnett to form a personal impression of him,' she said. 'After all, Public Information’s going to have to deal with whatever finally happens there, and if he looks too politically unreliable, we might want to leave him there... and write a truly epic piece about his gallant but doomed battle to fend off the attacking Manticoran hordes. Sort of a Theisman's Last Stand.'

'Unless you see something LePic’s entirely missed, he's still going to be too valuable to throw away,' Saint-Just cautioned.

'Oscar, for a cold-blooded spook, you can be entirely too squeamish,' Ransom said severely. 'The only good threat is a dead one, however unlikely a danger it may seem. And when your navy's getting its ass kicked as thoroughly as ours is, the occasional dead hero can be worth a hell of a lot more than the same officer was ever worth alive. Besides, it amuses me to turn potential threats into propaganda assets.'

She smiled that thin, cold, hungry smile which frightened even Oscar Saint-Just, and Pierre shrugged. Oscar was right about Theisman’s value, and Pierre had no intention of simply throwing the man away, whatever Cordelia wanted. On the other hand, Cordelia was the Mob's darling, the spokeswoman and focus of its urge to violence. If she decided that she simply had to add Theisman’s head to the ones already mounted on her wall, Pierre was prepared to give it to her, especially if handing him over bought Cordelia’s (and Public Informations) support for adding McQueen to the Committee. Not that he intended to tell her so.

'That's a three-week trip one way,' he pointed out instead. 'Can you afford to be off Haven that long?'

'I don't see why not,' she replied. 'You're not going to convene any more meetings of the full Committee for the next two or three months, are you?' He shook his head, and she shrugged. 'In that case, you and Oscar won't need my vote to keep the machinery running, and I've got Tepes set up to function as a mobile command post for Public Information. Nothing says all of our propaganda has to originate here on Haven and move outwards, you know. My deputy can handle routine decisions here in my absence, and we'll produce any new material aboard Tepes. As long as I'm in a position to vet it before release, we can dump it into the provincial nets and let it work inward from the frontier just as well as outward from the center.'

'All right,' he said after a moment, his tone mild. 'If you want to look the situation over and you feel comfortable about managing Public Information from there, I think we can spare you long enough for the trip. Be sure you take along enough security, though.'

'I will,' Ransom promised. 'And I'll take a complete tech section from the ministry, too. We'll get lots of stock footage, do some interviews with personnel there for release after the system falls, that sort of thing. After all, if we can't hold it in the first place, we might as well get as much advantage out of losing it as we can!'