“Oh ho!” Alexander shook his head with a small smile. The Official Questions list gave the Opposition a way to force the Government to allow open (and generally partisan) discussion of things it might prefer to avoid. A prime minister could refuse to answer an Official Question only if he certified, with the backing of the Crown and the Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, that answering it would jeopardize the Kingdom’s security. Even then, the Government had no choice but to permit individual members of Parliament to debate the Question in secret session. Potentially, that made the list an extremely effective parliamentary weapon, but it was a double-edged sword, and the timing could go wrong. Like now. Under the unwritten portion of the Manticoran constitutional tradition, a Question could not be withdrawn, even by its author, once it was on the list.

“Clumsy, clumsy,” he murmured thoughtfully.

“Absolutely. Since he can’t withdraw it now, Harrington’s given us the perfect shot to ram through amendments to the original Act of Annexation. But that’s only true if she’s still senior officer on the station when the Question comes up.”

“Well, I know Jim certainly doesn’t plan to pull her. And Janacek can’t, if Jim and Lucien Cortez stand firm. I think they will.”

“And if Young gets himself back on station?”

“Now that,” Alexander admitted, “is a more ticklish point. Jim and Lucien can’t stop him from going back out any more than Janacek can relieve Harrington. Not unless they want to come out into the open and declare war on the Conservatives. And if it comes to an open showdown between them and the First Lord, they’ll lose. They have to, or the whole concept of civilian control of the military goes out the airlock.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” William sighed. “Our spies in the enemy camp suggest that High Ridge is pressuring North Hollow to ‘suggest’ his son bite the bullet and go back without his ship if he has to.”

“Won’t work,” Alexander said firmly. “In a sense, he was SO in Basilisk only because his ship was assigned there and he went with her.”

“What do you mean?” William looked puzzled, and his brother’s grin was wicked.

“That’s always been one of the problems with the picket there, Willie. You see, officially, there is no ‘Basilisk Station’ to command—not in the sense that there’s a Manticore Fleet District or Gryphon Fleet District—thanks to the Act of Annexation and Janacek’s own policies. That means the picket’s SO isn’t in the same position as, say, a squadron commander. In the case of a squadron or an official station or district, a commanding officer is responsible for all operations in his designated command area and for every ship assigned to it. But thanks to the mish-mash we’ve actually got in Basilisk, where there’s no formally specified command area at all, Young’s primary responsibility was to act as captain of his own heavy cruiser. It was only the fact that he was the senior RMN officer present that made him the picket commander. Or, to put it another way, Warlock is his ‘designated command area,’ and his authority beyond her hull is restricted by her current physical location and functions on a strictly ad hoc basis. Oh, if he’d detached himself from Warlock to Fearless in the first place, the Admiralty wouldn’t have objected. In fact, that’s what he ought to have done. But when he officially ‘delegated’ the SO’s job to Harrington by removing his ship from the picket, he released himself—unilaterally—from any responsibility for or authority over Basilisk Station until his refit is completed. Technically, he can’t go back without Warlock without absenting himself from his post unless Lucien cuts him orders to that effect. I can’t quite see Lucien doing that, and I can see Jim getting awfully stuffy about the letter of the regs all of a sudden if Young tries to reassume command there without Warlock.”