Mission of Honor

Chapter Thirty-Six

“Thank you for agreeing to see me, My Lady. I realize this is a difficult time for you.”

“Don’t thank me, Judah,” Honor replied, standing behind her Landing mansion’s desk as James MacGuiness escorted Admiral Judah Yanakov into her office. MacGuiness’ composed, professional expression might have fooled a lot of people, but not someone who knew him… and Yanakov did. Honor tasted the Grayson admiral’s concern for her steward’s grief, as well as her own, and she smiled sadly, almost wistfully, as she gripped Yanakov’s extended hand. “It’s ‘a difficult time’ for a lot of people right now.”

“I understand, My Lady.”

Yanakov looked at her searchingly, not trying to hide his concern, and she met his gaze squarely. She was fairly certain he was one of the handful of people who’d figured out she could actually sense the emotions of those about her, although she wasn’t at all sure whether he realized she could do it on her own, without Nimitz’s presence. In any case, he’d never made any attempt to hide his respect and his genuine affection for her from her, and there was a clean, caring flavor to his worry about her.

Of course, there was something else, as well. She’d expected that when he requested a face-to-face meeting on such short notice.

“Have a seat,” she invited, and he settled into the indicated chair, looking out with her across the waters of Jason Bay through the crystoplast wall. “Can we offer you something?” she added, and he shook his head.

“I think we’re all right then, Mac,” she said, looking up at MacGuiness, and the steward managed an almost normal-looking smile before he bowed slightly and withdrew. She watched him go, then turned her own attention back to the crystoplast.

There was a storm coming in, she thought, gaszing at the black clouds rolling towards the city across the angry whitecaps. A storm that mirrored the one in her own soul.

The final, official count of fatalities was still far from complete, but she knew only too well what it had been for her own family. Aside from her mother and father, the twins, and Hamish, Emily, Raoul, and Katherine, she had exactly five close surviving relatives in the Star Empire. That number would be reduced to four very soon now, because Allen Duncan—her Aunt Dominique’s husband—had decided to return to Beowulf. There were too many memories on Sphinx, too much pain when he thought about his wife and all four of his children. Much as he’d come to love Manticore, he needed the comfort of his birth world and the family he had there.

Beyond him, her immediate family, her cousin Sarah, who’d suddenly become the second Countess Harrington, and Benedict and Leah Harrington, her Aunt Clarissa’s surviving children, her closest living Manticoran relative was a fifth cousin. She knew how unspeakably lucky she was to still have her parents, her brother and sister, and her own children, but it was hard—hard— to feel grateful when all the rest of her family had been blotted away as brutally and completely as Black Rock Clan.

Nimitz stirred unhappily on his perch by the windows as that thought flickered across her mind, and she tasted his echo of the grief which had swept through every treecat clan on Sphinx. Honor knew, now, that Nimitz and Samantha’s decision to move their own family to Grayson had been part of a deliberate, fundamental change in treecat thinking. She suspected that Samantha had played a greater role in pushing through that change than she was prepared to admit to the two-legs, but it had clearly been a reaction to the ‘cats’ awareness of the dangers human weaponry posed. Yet that awareness had been as close to purely intellectual as a treecat was likely to come. It had been a precaution against a threat they could theoretically envision, but not something the vast majority of them had ever expected to happen.

That had changed, now.

Frankly, Honor wouldn’t have blamed the ‘cats if they’d decided that what had happened to Black Rock Clan was proof their long ago ancestors had been right to have nothing to do with humans. If they’d blamed even their own humans for letting things come to such a pass in a war which was none of the treecats’ affair and turned their backs on any future relationship with them.

They hadn’t done that. Perhaps it was because they were so much like humans, in some ways. Or perhaps it was because they weren’t—because they were such uncomplicated, straightforward people, without humanity’s unfailing ability to seek someone close at hand to blame for disasters. Whatever the reason, their response had been not simply grief, not simply shock, but anger. Anger directed not at their own two-legs, but at whoever was really responsible. Cold, focused, lethal anger. Honor had always known, far better than the rest of humanity, just how dangerous a single treecat’s anger could be. Now the bitter fury of the entire species was directed to a single end, and if some people might have found the thought that a race of small, furry, flint-knapping arboreals could pose any serious threat to someone who commanded superdreadnoughts was ludicrous, Honor Alexander-Harrington did not. Perhaps that was because she was too much like a ‘cat, she thought. She knew, without question or doubt, where her own anger was going to lead in the end, and so she understood the treecats only too well.

She gave herself a mental shake. She’d been wandering down dark and dangerous side roads in her own thoughts over the past few days. She wasn’t alone in that—she knew that perfectly well—but she forced herself to back away from the cold iron of her own icy hatred, from the distilled essence of her vengeful fury, and concentrate once again on the more natural storm moving in across Jason Bay.

The surf would be piling higher against the seawall of the marina where her sloop Trafalgar was currently moored, she thought after a moment, and made a mental note to have someone check the boat’s security. She really ought to do that herself, but there was no way she’d have time for it, even assuming Spencer or any of her other armsmen would have been prepared to let her out of the house long enough to attend to it.

That thought leaked even through the clinkers and ash of her rage and twitched the corners of her mouth in a temptation to smile. Spencer hadn’t been happy about her decision to take Trafalgar out all by herself immediately after she’d finished her face-to-face briefings with Elizabeth at Mount Royal Palace. He’d tried to insist she ake at least one of her armsmen along, but she’d flatly refused. She hadn’t been able to prevent him from flying top cover with no less than three sting ships, a tractor-equipped air car, and a standby SAR diver, but at least she’d been able to keep him high enough above her for her to find a shadow of the solitude she and Nimitz had needed so badly.

The weather had been blustery that day, too, if not as energetic as the Bay looked today, and it had been too long since she’d smelled saltwater and felt spray on her face. But Trafalgar’s familiar motion, the kick of the wheel against her hands, and the sluicing sound of water as the sloop heeled sharply, burying her lee rail in a smother of racing white foam, while seabirds cried plaintively overhead, had reconnected her to the sea. And with that, she’d been reconnected to the continuity of life, as well. The deaths of her family, of Miranda and Farragut, and of Andrew, were not going to leave her unscarred, just as no comfort short of vengeance could ever truly slake her fury. She knew that. But her soul had been scarred before, and she’d survived. She would survive this time, too, just as she would find that vengeance, and scars and retribution were not the only things in the universe. The iodine-smelling wind, the way the loose ends of her braid whipped on its strength, the surging motion of the deck, and the song of wind slicing around the stays and humming in the mast had swept through her like the tide of life itself.

She only wished she could get her father aboard Trafalgar for a weekend.

She shook that thought aside and returned her attention to Yanakov.

“I’m always happy to see you, Judah, but given how busy everyone is just now, I rather doubt this is purely a social occasion.”

“As usual, My Lady, you’re right,” Yanakov admitted.

“Well then, Admiral Yanakov, let’s be about it,” she invited, and Yanakov smiled for a moment. Then he seemed to sober again.

“The main reason I’m here, My Lady, is to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” Honor repeated a bit blankly.

“Yes, My Lady. I’ve been recalled. They need me back home.”

“Oh?” Honor sat up straighter.

Reports of the attack which had hit Yeltsin’s Star simultaneously with the one on the Manticore Binary System were still incomplete. Transit time was under four days for a dispatch boat, as compared to the roughly six and a half between the Junction’s Trevor’s Star terminus and the Haven System, so she’d known for days now that the Graysons had been pounded, as well. What she was short on were details. Which wasn’t surprising, really. No doubt Grayson had enough wreckage of its own that needed sorting through before it could issue anything like definitive reports.

“You’ve gotten a more complete report from home?” she continued, and he nodded heavily.

“I have. In fact, I brought a copy of it for you.”

He slipped a chip folio out of the inside pocket of his tunic and laid it on the corner of her desk. She wasn’t surprised that it had been delivered directly to her instead of coming through the Admiralty, given that she was the second ranking officer of the Grayson Space Navy, even if she was on “detached duty” to her birth star nation.

“How bad is it?” she asked quietly.

“Bad,” he said flatly. “In fact, it’s worse than the original estimates. Blackbird is gone, My Lady and it looks like we lost virtually a hundred percent of the workforce.”

Honor’s stomach muscles tightened. It wasn’t a surprise, however much she might have wished the preliminary reports had been wrong. Given the dispersed architecture of the Blackbird yards, she’d at least dared to hope the attack might have been a little less effective than the one on the concentrated capacity of Hephaestus and Vulcan. At the same time, though, she’d realized that anyone who could put together an operation as conceptually daring and as brilliantly executed as the one which had cauterized the Star Empire would have recognized the differences between her targets and planned accordingly. Apparently, she had.

“They don’t seem to have used as many of those graser-armed remote platforms of theirs,” Yanakov continued, as if he’d heard her thoughts, “but they used a lot more missiles and kinetic strikes to compensate. According to the Office of Shipbuilding, at least ninety-six percent of the physical plant was destroyed outright or damaged beyond repair. And, as I say, personnel losses were near total.”

Honor nodded, and fresh shadows gathered in her eyes. She’d been one of the major investors when Blackbird was built, and the economic loss was going to be a severe blow in a financial sense. That was totally immaterial to her, however, beside the human cost. Almost a third of the total workforce had been from Harrington Steading itself or employed by Skydomes. And over eighteen percent of those employees had been women—a stupendous percentage for patriarchal Grayson, even now.

“The only good news is that Blackbird was far enough away from the planet that we didn’t take any collateral damage to the orbital habitats or farms. Or”—his eyes met hers—”to the planet itself, of course.”

“Thank God for that,” Honor said with soft, intense sincerity.

“We had even more new construction caught in the yards,” he went on, “but we didn’t have many ships in for repairs or overhaul, so at least we were spared that.”

“And they want you back home to take over the system defenses,” Honor said, nodding. But Yanakov shook his head.

“I’m afraid not, My Lady,” he said quietly. “The latest dispatch boat from Grayson brought me direct orders from the Protector. He sent a personal message for you, as well.” The Grayson admiral took another chip folio from his tunic and laid it beside the first one. “I’m sure it will explain everything in greater detail, but I wanted to tell you personally.”

“Tell me what, Judah?” Honor sat back in her chair. “You’re beginning to make me a little nervous, you know.”

“I’m sorry, My Lady. That wasn’t my intention. But”—Yanakov inhaled deeply—”I wanted to tell you myself that I’ve been appointed High Admiral.”

For a moment, it didn’t register. Then Honor’s eyes widened, and she felt her head shaking in futile, instinctive rejection.

They sat in silence for several seconds until, finally, it was her turn to draw a breath.

“Wesley was out at Blackbird?” she said softly.

“Yes, My Lady. I’m sorry. He was there for a stupid, routine conference.” Yanakov shook his own head, his eyes bright with mingled sorrow and anger. “Just one of those things. But I know how close the two of you were. That’s why I wanted to tell you in person. And,” he managed an unhappy smile, “to assure you that if you should happen to want the assignment, it’s yours. After all, you’re senior to me.”

“Not on a bet, Judah,” she replied almost instantly. “I know how much Hamish hates being tied to the Admiralty, and I know how much Wesley hated having to give up a space-going command. I don’t think I’d like it any more than either of them.” She shook her head again, much more firmly. “They’re not getting me off a flag deck that easily! Not now, especially.”

Her voice turned harsher on the last sentence, and Yanakov nodded.

“I was afraid that was what you’d say,” he admitted. “I thought it might be worth a try, at least, though.”

“I’d do almost anything for you, Judah,” she told him. “Almost anything.”

Yanakov chuckled. It sounded a bit odd—perhaps because both of them had heard so few chuckles in the last few weeks—but it also sounded remarkably natural. As if they might actually get used to hearing it again, sometime. Then he stood and extended his hand again.

“I’m afraid they want me home in a hurry, My Lady. I’m headed back aboard the same dispatch boat and it’s scheduled to break Manticore orbit in less than two hours. So I’m afraid I have to say goodbye now.”

“Of course.”

Honor stood, but instead of taking his hand, she walked around the deck and stood facing him for perhaps two seconds. Then she put her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

She felt him stiffen instinctively, even after all these years. Which, she supposed, showed you could take the boy out of Grayson, but you couldn’t take the Grayson out of the boy. But then his automatic response to being touched so intimately by a woman who was neither his wife nor his mother or sister disappeared, and he hugged her back. A bit tentatively, perhaps, but firmly.

A moment later, she stepped back, both hands on his shoulders, and smiled at him.

“I’m going to miss Wesley,” she told him softly. “We’re both going to miss a lot of people. And I know you don’t really want the job, Judah. But I think Benjamin made the right pick.”

“I hope so, My Lady. But when I think about the monumental mess we’ve got to clean up…” He shook his head.

“I know. But you and I have done that before, haven’t we?”

He nodded again, remembering the horrific damage he’d helped her put right after they’d beaten off Operation Stalking Horse’s assault on his home star system.

“Well, then,” she said, and squeezed his shoulders. “On your way, High Admiral. And”—she looked into his eyes once more—”God bless, Judah.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please find your seats,” Fleet Admiral Rajampet invited loudly and, Daoud al-Fanudahi thought, completely unnecessarily. As far as he could tell, not one of the astronomically senior flag officers in the briefing room was out of his or her seat, and he found Rajampet’s instruction symptomatic. The Navy had been spending quite a bit of time passing lots of other totally unnecessary orders back and forth, after all. When it hadn’t been too busy either panicking, at least. Or, even worse, posturing.

He wasn’t absolutely certain which of the latter this particular meeting was going to do, but he had a bad feeling about it.

He himself, along with Irene Teague, was seated well back from the main conference table, as befitted their monumentally junior rank. And that, too, he found symptomatic. They were probably the only two people in the entire room who actually had a clue what was going on, so of course they were seated as far from the decision-makers as the physical limits of the briefing room permitted.

You know, he told himself a bit severely, this tendency of yours to perpetually look on the dark side of things may be one of the reasons certain of your superiors think of you as an incurable pessimist—not to mention just a bit of an alarmist.

Maybe it is, another corner of his mind replied, but the real reason is that this pack of idiots doesn’t want to face the fact that they’ve gotten their collective asses in a crack—and all the rest of the League along with them—because none of them have the least idea what they’re up against. They’re not about to admit that by actually asking questions that might give them a glimmer of reality. Especially not when asking would only prove how monumentally they screwed up by not asking sooner!

Rajampet’s unnecessary order had at least one beneficial consequence; it brought the whispered side conversations to an abrupt halt. The CNO looked around the other officers, eyes bright in their nest of wrinkles, and let the silence linger for a moment, then cleared his throat.

“I’m sure none of us need to recapitulate the events of the last several weeks,” he began. “Obviously, all of us are dismayed by what happened to Admiral Crandall’s task force at Spindle. And I think it would be fair to say,” he continued in a deliberately judicious, soberly thoughtful tone, “that the efficacy of the Manticoran Navy’s weapons has come as a most unpleasant surprise to all of us.”

He allowed himself to glance—briefly—at Karl-Heinz Thimár and Cheng Hai-shwun. Other eyes followed his, but Thimár and Cheng had obviously realized this, or something like it, had to be coming. They sat there calmly, apparently oblivious to the looks coming their way. The bureacratic infighter’s number one rule, ‘‘Never let them see your fear,” was well known to everyone around the table, but the two men ostensibly responsible for the SLN’s intelligence arms were giving a bravura demonstration of it, and with very little sign of strain. Which, al-Fanudahi reflected, said a great deal about how highly placed their various relatives and patrons actually were.

“It would appear, however, that we aren’t the only ones the Manties have pissed off,” Rajampet continued after a second. “Intelligence is still working on determining exactly who was responsible for the attack on their home system. I’m sure we’ll see some progress on that front quite soon.”

Precisely what prompted that confidence on his part eluded Daoud al-Fanudahi, who happened to be the person who was supposed to be doing the progressing and who still didn’t have even a glimmer of proof, whatever he might know instinctively had to be the truth.

“In the meantime, however, we have to consider how to respond to the Manties’ blatant imperialism and arrogance,” the CNO went on in that same, measured tone. “I don’t believe there can be much doubt—especially in light of the Manties’ decision to close all wormholes under their control to Solarian shipping—that what we’re really looking at here on their part is a comprehensive strategy which they’ve been contemplating for some time. On the one hand, they’ve revealed their new weapons’ capabilities; on the other, they’re threatening our trade and economic life’s blood. Both of those, obviously, are pointed suggestions that the League should stay out of their way instead of objecting to their expansionism in and beyond the Talbott Cluster.”

Lord, don’t any of these idiots read our reports? al-Fanudahi wondered behind an impassive face. “Imperialism”? “Expansionism”? I don’t know what the Manties are up to in Silesia, but that’s the last thing that was on their mind when they got involved in Talbott! But do any of our lords and masters want to hear about that? Of course not! After all, it would never do to dispute Kolokoltsov’s and Abruzzi’s version of reality, would it?

“Given that attitude on their part,” Rajampet said, “it’s unlikely they’ll be inclined to respond favorably to the government’s diplomatic initiatives. At the same time, however, they have to be reeling from what’s happened to them. Let’s face it, Ladies and Gentlemen—we got reamed at Spindle. But compared to what’s happened to the Manties’ home system, what happened to Admiral Crandall’s task force was only a minor inconvenience, as far as the Navy and the League are concerned. Even with her entire force off the table, we still have over two thousand of the wall in full commission, another three hundred in refit or overhaul status, and better than eight thousand in reserve. Task Force 496 represented less than half of one percent of our total wall of battle and our support structure is completely unscathed, whereas the Manties have just had their entire industrial base blown out from under them. There’s no meaningful comparison between the relative weight of those losses. They represent totally different orders of magnitude, and it has to be psychologically even worse for the Manties because it happened so soon after Spindle. From what had to be an incredible peak of confidence, they’ve had their feet kicked out from under them. At the moment, no matter how much money they have in the bank, and no matter how big their merchant marine—or even their remaining navy—may be, they’re effectively no more than a fourth-rate power in terms of sustained capabilities, and don’t think for a moment that they don’t know that as well as we do.”

The briefing room was silent, and even al-Fanudahi had to admit that, looked at from the perspective Rajampet had adopted, there was something to be said for his analysis. While al-Fanudahi wasn’t even tempted to assume the Manticorans were simply going to obediently lie down and die for the League, he was forced to concede that their position was ultimately hopeless. It had probably been that way from the beginning, given the difference in size between the potential opponents, but the catastrophic destruction of their industrial base was decisive. He wished he had some idea of how big their ammunition stockpiles had been before the mysterious attack, but however big they’d been, that was all the missiles the Manties were going to have for a long, long time. So, in the end, they were going to lose if the SLN chose to press home an offensive.

Unfortunately, al-Fanudahi was unhappily certain they had more than enough missiles to make the price of the League’s final victory almost unbearabe And that price, as Rajampet seemed to be forgetting (or ignoring) would be paid in the lives and blood of men and women who wore the same uniform he and al-Fanudahi did, not just in millions upon millions of tons of warships.

“What most of you are not aware of, however,” Rajampet continued, “is that we have heavy forces considerably closer to Manticore than you may have believed. And far closer than the Manties could ever have anticipated. In fact, Admiral Filareta is currently in the Tasmania System, conducting a major fleet training exercise—Operation East Wind—with just over three hundred of the wall. Which means, of course, that he’s only a very little more than four hundred light-years from Manticore and that he could reach that star system within a little over six weeks from receiving his orders… or approximately two and a half months from the date we dispatch them. Which means he should be in position, barring unanticpated delays, by May twentieth.”

From the sudden stir which ran through the audience, the news of Filareta’s forward deployment had come as almost as much a surprise to them as it had to al-Fanudahi. But Rajampet wasn’t quite finished.

“In addition to the forces already under Admiral Filareta’s command,” he said, “we have the equivalent of another ten squadrons within approximately two weeks of Tasmania, all of which could be ordered to join him and arrive within that same window. Concentrated with his present units, that would give him a strength of almost four hundred of the wall. He’d still be considerably understrength—by The Book, at least—in screening units, and he doesn’t have the logistic support Admiral Crandall had as part of Operation Winter Forage, but he’s far closer to the Manties’ front doorstep than they could possibly be anticipating.”

Al-Fanudahi’s heart sank. He’d hoped—prayed—that Rajampet would abandon this notion after his own briefings to Kingsford, Jennings and Bernard.

“What the Strategy Board and I propose,” Rajampet told the gathered officers, “is to concentrate the units I’ve mentioned under Filareta’s command and send him to Manticore.”

The room was hushed, and he paused long enough to survey the faces looking back at him, then shrugged ever so slightly.

“I fully realize—as does the Strategy Board—that there’s a degree of risk in the action we’re contemplating. In our opinion, however, the potential gain vastly outweighs the risk. First, the Manties are quite probably going to be so disenheartened by what’s happened to their home system that much of their truculence will have been hammered out of them before Filareta ever arrives. Second, even if they should be so foolish as to attempt to resist him, their capacity to do so must have been seriously damaged in the course of any attack capable of penetrating to their inner-system space stations as this one did. Third, having a second fleet, six times the size of the one they confronted at Spindle, arrive in their home system this promptly has to drive home the totality of our quantitative advantage in any protracted struggle. And, fourth, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently redeploying the remainder of our active wallers towards Manticore and simultaneously beginning the largest activation of the Reserve in the Navy’s history.”

Al-Fanudahi wouldn’t have believed the silence could get even more intense, but he would have been wrong. He wondered if any of those assembled flag officers were thinking about the constitutional implications of what Rajampet had just said. Even the broadest interpretation of Article Seven’s “self-defense” clause had never been construed to cover a general mobilization of the Reserve without formal authorization from the civilian government. Kolokoltsov and his cronies, however, clearly doubted they could get that authorization without touching off a political dogfight such as the League had never seen. So at the moment, he and his fellow bureaucrats were simply going to look the other way and carry on with their “diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis” while Rajampet did the dirty work. Which meant that, ultimately, the Navy was going to carry the can if it all blew up even half as catastrophically as al-Fanudahi was afraid it might.

Not to mention the millions of more men and women in Navy uniform who were going to get killed along the way.

“My own belief, and that of the Strategy Board, is that the Manties will realize we aren’t going to be bluffed or blackmailed, even by something as painful as Spindle, into simply giving them the blank check they want. Faced with Filareta’s squadrons as the proof of our determination that their actions are not going to be allowed to stand, it seems most likely to us that they’ll surrender to the inevitable rather than risk suffering even more fatalities and damage to their home system.

“At the same time, however, we realize there’s no way to be certain of that, and we’re prepared for the possibility that the Manties may be insane enough not to surrender. We’re even prepared for the possibility that they may have sufficient of their new missiles available from existing stores to beat off Filareta’s attack, at least temporarily. Which is why the redeployment of our active wall is designed to concentrate no fewer than an additional five hundred wallers on Tasmania—this time with complete logistical support and a powerful Frontier Fleet screen—within two and a half months. In three months’ time, that total will reach six hundred. Which means we’ll be able to dispatch a second wave, substantially larger and even more powerfully supported, against Manticore within a maximum of five months—long before they will have been able to restore sufficient industrial capacity to reammunition their own ships.”

He looked around the briefing room once more.

“One way or the other, Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said very quietly after several moments, “what happened at Spindle is not going to be allowed to stand. And, for the Manties’ own sake, I hope they realize how serious we are before they make things even worse.”

Chris Billingsley poured the final cup of coffee, set the carafe on the small side table, and withdrew without a word. Michelle Henke watched him go, then picked up her cup and sipped. Other people were doing the same thing around the conference table, and she wondered how many of them were using it as a stage prop in their effort to project a sense that the universe hadn’t gone mad around them.

If they are, they aren’t doing a very good job of it, she thought grimly. On the other hand, neither am I because as near as I can tell, the universe has gone crazy.

“All right,” she said finally, lowering her cup and glancing at Captain Lecter. “I suppose we may as well get down to it.” She smiled without any humor at all. “I don’t imagine any of you to be any happier to hear this than I am. Unfortunately, after we do, we’ve got to decide what we’re going to do about it, and I’m going to want recommendations for Admiral Khumalo and Baroness Medusa. So if any of you—and I mean any of you—happen to be struck by any brilliant insights in the course of Cindy’s briefing, make a note of them. We’re going to need all of them we can get.”

Heads nodded, and she gestured to Lecter.

“The floor is yours, Cindy,” she said.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Lecter didn’t look any happier about the briefing she was about to give than her audience looked about what they knew they were going to hear. She spent a second or two studying the notes she’d made before she looked up and let her blue eyes circle the conference table.

“We have confirmation of the original reports,” she said, “and it’s as bad as we thought it would be. In fact, it’s worse.”

She drew a deep breath, then activated the holo display above the conference table, bringing up the first graphic.

“Direct, immediate civilian loss of life,” she began, “was much worse than any pre-attack worst-case analysis of damage to the space stations had ever suggested, because there was absolutely no warning. As you can see from the graphic, the initial strike on Hephaestus—”

“I never realized just how much worse a victory could make a defeat taste,” Augustus Khumalo said much later that evening.

He, Michelle, Michael Oversteegen, and Aivars Terekhov sat with Khumalo and Baroness Medusa on the ocean-side balcony of the governor’s official residence. The tide was in, and surf made a soothing, rhythmic sound in the darkness, but no one felt very soothed at the moment.

“I know,” Michelle agreed. “It kind of makes everything we’ve accomplished out here look a lot less important, doesn’t it?”

“No, Milady, it most definitely does not,” Medusa said so sharply that Michelle twitched in her chair and looked at the smaller woman in surprise.

“Sorry,” Medusa said after a moment. “I didn’t mean to sound as if I were snapping at you. But you—and Augustus and Aivars and Michael—have accomplished an enormous amount ‘out here.’ Don’t ever denigrate your accomplishments—or yourselves—just because of bad news from somewhere else!”

“You’re right,” Michelle acknowledged after a moment. “It’s just—”

“Just that it feels like the end of the world,” Medusa finished for her when she seemed unable to find the words she’d been looking for.

“Maybe not quite that bad, but close,” Michelle agreed.

“Well, it damned well should!” Medusa told her tartly. “Undervaluing your own accomplishments doesn’t necessarily make you wrong about how deep a crack we’re all in right now.”

Michelle nodded. The Admiralty dispatches had pulled no punches. With the devastation of the home system’s industrial capacity, the Royal Manticoran Navy found itself—for the first time since the opening phases of the First Havenite War—facing an acute ammunition shortage. And that shortage was going to get worse—a lot worse—before it got any better. Which was the reason all of Michelle’s remaining shipboard Apollo pods were to be returned to Manticore as soon as possible. Given the concentration of Mark 16-armed units under her command, the Admiralty would try to make up for the differential by supplying her with all of those they could find, and both her warships and her local ammunition ships currently had full magazines. Even so, however, she was going to have to be extraordinarily circumspect in how she expended the rounds available to her, because there weren’t going to be any more for quite a while.

“At least I don’t expect anyone to be eager to poke his nose back into this particular hornets’ nest anytime soon,” she said out loud.

“Unless, of course, whoever hit the home system wants to send his ‘phantom raiders’ our way,” Khumalo pointed out sourly.

“Unlikely, if you’ll forgive me for sayin’ so, Sir,” Oversteegen observed. Khumalo looked at him, and Oversteegen shrugged. “Th’ Admiralty’s estimate that whoever did this was operatin’ on what they used t’ call ‘a shoestring’ seems t’ me t’ be well taken. And, frankly, if they were t’ decide t’ carry out additional attacks of this sort, anything here in th’ Quadrant would have t’ be far less valuable t’ them than a follow up, knock out attack on th’ home system.”

“I think Michael’s probably right, Augustus,” Michelle said. “I don’t propose taking anything for granted, and I’ve got Cindy and Dominica busy working out the best way to generate massive redundancy in our sensor coverage, just in case, but I don’t see us as the logical candidate for the next sneak attack. If they do go after anything in the Quadrant, I’d imagine it would be the Terminus itself, since I can’t see anything else out this way that would have equal strategic value for anyone who obviously doesn’t like us very much. And that, fortunately or unfortunately, we’re just going to have to leave in other peoples’ hands.”

Her uniformed fellows nodded, and Baroness Medusa tilted back her chair.

“Should I assume that—for the moment, at least—you feel relatively secure here in the Quadrant, then?”

“I think we probably are,” Khumalo answered, instead of Michelle. He was, after all, the station commander. “There’s a great deal to be said for Admiral Oversteegen’s analysis where these mysterious newcomers are concerned. And, frankly, at the moment, the League doesn’t have anything to send our way even if it had the nerve to do it. That could change in a few months, but for now, at least, they can’t pose any kind of credible threat even against ships armed ‘only’ with Mark 16s.”

“Good.” Medusa’s nostrils flared. “I only hope that sanity leaks out somewhere in the League before anyone manages to get additional forces out our way. Or directed at the home system.”