War Of Honor

trying to keep us distracted. So we'll go in stealthy and stay that way.'

'Aye, aye, Ma'am.' Harris frowned thoughtfully. 'Can I deploy perimeter platforms on the way in?'

'I'd prefer not to,' Ferrero said after a moment. 'We don't have any idea what kind of sensor suite our target may be carrying. It's remotely possible that they could spot the regular platforms, and unless we were in exactly the right place, we couldn't count on intercepting them before they broke back out across the limit and disappeared into hyper again. More to the point, Chalmers' system security units might spot them and warn our friends off.'

'That's going to make things a little tougher, Skipper,' Llewellyn pointed out for the tac officer.

'It is,' Ferrero conceded. 'But remember, we're hunting a merchie here, and there's only one habitable planet in the system. I don't think even Chalmers is going to want to risk parking that many slaves aboard one of the orbital refineries or fabrication platforms, and, by the same token, he's not going to want to try to hide them aboard one of the normal transient lodging habitats. That means our target is going to have to make contact with the planet, or at least one of the orbital warehouses where Chalmers can be confident of avoiding unwanted eyes, to pick up her 'cargo.' '

'So if we stay close enough to the planet, we should be able to get a good sensor look at anything coming close enough for a pickup.' Harris nodded. 'I can work with that, Skipper. Staying stealthed that close without being picked up ourselves won't be easy, even against Silly sensors, but I think we can hack it as long as we keep the wedge strength down.'

'And if we catch her that deep into the system, there's no way she'll be able to outrun us back to the hyper limit,' McClelland put in.

'Exactly,' Ferrero agreed.

'Question, Skipper,' Llewellyn said. 'Do we want to intercept her inbound, or outbound?'

'Um.' Ferrero rubbed her chin, frowning thoughtfully. 'Outbound,' she decided. 'We could nail the ship on either leg, especially if Commander Reynolds' information about her already having slaves on board is accurate. But I want Chalmers, too, if we can get him. And our best shot at that is to intercept 'Sittich' when she has slaves we know are bound for his 'recreation' habitat.'

'Understood.' Llewellyn gazed at the system schematic for a few seconds. 'It's going to increase our exposure to the Sillies' sensor platforms, but not by all that much. And I hate to say it, but I'd really prefer to intercept her as far from whatever defensive systems Zoraster may have as we can. Chalmers would have to be a lunatic to fire on a Manticoran warship, but given the official penalties for slaving even here in Silesia, I'd just as soon not tempt him.'

'I'm glad you're thinking that way, Bob,' Ferrero told him. 'On the other hand, you're talking about Silly weapon systems.' She chuckled nastily. 'I almost wish he would be stupid enough to try to nail us with that obsolescent crap. Shawn's missile crews could use the exercise!'

* * *

'Have you been informed as to the content of this note, Mr. Ambassador?' Elaine Descroix asked coolly.

'Only in the most general terms, Madame Secretary,' Yves Grosclaude, the Havenite ambassador to the Star Kingdom, replied. It might strike some that having any discussion with an ambassador from a nation with which one was officially still at war was . . . unusual, because it was. But Secretary of State Giancola had argued that more direct contact at a somewhat higher level than the teams deadlocked on the actual treaty negotiations would be helpful. In Descroix's opinion, there was some doubt as to just who it would be helpful for, but High Ridge had decided that it would be a fairly innocuous concession which would play well in the court of public opinion. Which was how Yves Grosclaude had become Haven's officially accredited 'special envoy' (accorded the 'courtesy' title of Ambassador solely as a gracious gesture towards the Republic, of course) to the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

As always, he and Descroix were punctiliously correct.

'And were you informed as to when Secretary Giancola anticipates a reply?'

'No, Madame Secretary. I was simply instructed to request a formal reply at the Star Kingdom's earliest convenience.'

'I see.' Descroix smiled. 'Well, I assure you, Mr. Ambassador, that we will indeed reply at our earliest . . . convenience.'

'We could ask no more,' Grosclaude replied affably, with a smile as obviously false as her own. 'And now,' he continued, 'since I've discharged my mission here, I will take up no more of your valuable time.'

He rose with a slight, formal bow, and Descroix stood behind her desk to return it. She made no move, however, to escort him from her office, and he smiled again, this time as if in some obscure form of satisfaction at the deliberate slight.

She watched the door close behind him, then sat back down and turned her attention back to the text on her display. It was no more palatable on closer examination than it had been when she first glanced at it, and she allowed her anger to show now that she was once again alone in her office.

She read through the entire note, slowly, one phrase at a time, and her lips grew thinner and her eyes colder with each sentence.

* * *

'I don't believe I care for Pritchart's tone,' Baron High Ridge observed coldly.

'And you think I do care for it?' Descroix demanded. Then she snorted. 'At least you didn't have that jumped up Dolist Grosclaude in your office handing his frigging note to you.'

'No,' the Prime Minister agreed. 'I've had to endure three interviews with him, and that's quite enough, thank you.'

'I wish three interviews were all I'd had to put up with,' Descroix replied. 'But that's neither here nor there. What's important is the note itself. She's getting more and more hardline, Michael.'

'So I see.' High Ridge glanced back at his own copy of the note and grimaced. 'I see that she's taken her offer of a plebiscite for Trevor's Star back off the table.'

'That part doesn't really surprise me,' Descroix admitted. 'Especially with all of the talk here in the Star Kingdom about the annexation of the new terminus and the possibility of extending that to Lynx and the other Talbott systems. We're considering mass annexations, and she sees that as a bad precedent for her own occupied systems. And we've also been concentrating on Talbott to downplay the tension between us and the Republic, and she knows that, too. So she went looking for a way to slap us on the wrist hard enough to get our attention, and this is what she came up with. She figures that Trevor's Star is the most valuable counter on the board and that taking it back out of play—from her side, at least—at this particular moment will make the point that she's pissed off.'

'I can understand that, I suppose. On the other hand, surely she's not so stupid as to think that whether she's willing to talk about Trevor's Star or not is going to make any difference to what happens there? We've formally annexed the system, for God's sake! Whatever she or those other idiots in Nouveau Paris may think, Trevor's Star and San Martin are definitely remaining under our control.'

'Of course I don't think she's stupid enough to think any other outcome is possible,' Descroix said. 'But you've seen the analyses of their public discussion about Trevor's Star. At least a very large minority—possibly even a majority—of their public opinion has fastened on Trevor's Star as the symbol of all our 'evil' ways. That makes it an issue that would play well to her voters, and she knows we know that. Which, in turn, gives her threat at least a hint of credibility. And the fact that we may believe she'll have no choice but to concede the issue in the end doesn't mean we might not be willing to make concessions of our own elsewhere to have the Republic bless the annexation. It would defuse potential future disputes over possession of the system and knock any move by a later Havenite administration to regain it on the head. Maybe even more importantly, if the Republic were to formally concede that a legitimate San Martino planetary government had voluntarily asked to join the Star Kingdom, it would help to calm any fears among our allies—or the Sollies—that we might be planning on embarking on a career of conquest by force of arms. She knows that could be extremely valuable to us. So taking the plebiscite offer off the table is a way of warning us she has ways to punish us if we don't meet her demands.

'At the same time, she's actually opened the door to further concessions on her part.'

'She has?'