“Um.” Honor gazed at him a moment longer, then nodded again, more normally. It did make sense, in an insane sort of way, and she should have seen it for herself. But she knew why she hadn’t, and she reached out to gather Nimitz close as the ’cat walked down the table to her. She held him against her breasts, clinging to the comfort of her link to him even more tightly, and forced herself to put all thought of her parents out of her mind for the moment. Then she turned back to Ainspan and somehow summoned up a smile.

“As you can see, Commander, the reports of my death have been somewhat exaggerated. That, however, is less significant than your other news. What, exactly, happened in Zanzibar?”

“We got our asses kicked, Milady,” Ainspan said bitterly. He, too, seemed to have struggled past the initial shock of finding her alive, but there was no relief in that for him, and his poison-bleak emotions washed into her. “The Peep CO—according to their propaganda, it was Tourville, the same bastard who captured Prince Adrian—completely wiped out our picket force, then carried through and destroyed the system’s deep-space infrastructure, just like Commander Metcalf said. And after he’d done that, he moved on and did exactly the same damned thing to Alizon.”

“Jesus Christ!” McKeon breathed, and Honor fought to keep the shock out of her own expression. It was hard—and even harder because she was still tapped into Ainspan’s emotions.

“Why do I have the feeling there’s more, Commander?” she asked flatly.

“Because there is, Milady,” Ainspan replied just as flatly. “They also hit Hancock and Seaford Nine. I don’t know exactly what happened at Hancock. I’d guess they got their asses kicked there, because I haven’t run into any of our people who were captured there, and the Peep propaganda’s made a big deal out of all the naval losses they supposedly inflicted but never claimed that they’d taken the system. They did take Seaford, though, and punched out another picket squadron and all the fleet facilities, as well. But that’s not the worst of it.”

He drew a deep breath, as if stealing himself. Then—

“They hit Basilisk, too, Milady,” he said quietly. “They killed Admiral Markham and destroyed the inner-system picket, then went on and wrecked everything in Medusa orbit.”

“Basilisk?” McKeon sounded strangled. “They hit Basilisk, too?!”

“Yes, Sir,” Ainspan looked as if he wanted nothing in the universe more than to give McKeon a different answer, but he couldn’t. “I don’t have anything like official numbers, Milady,” he went on, turning back to Honor, “but I know we got hurt and hurt bad. According to the Peeps, we’ve lost sixty-one of the wall, plus most of their screening units. I think that has to be an exaggeration, but I’ve personally met prisoners who can confirm the attacks on Zanzibar, Alizon, and Seaford Nine. I think—” He drew another deep breath. “I think this time they’re actually telling the truth, Milady—at least about the systems they hit.”