Honor could follow some of her reasoning, for as Dame Estelle had pointed out, New Kiev, as one of the leaders of the Opposition, held her present post only because the Ministry for Medusan Affairs was traditionally assigned to the Liberal Party as some sort of quid pro quo left over from the original, tortuous annexation fight in Parliament. But there were limits to how far from the Government line she could stray without losing her position, and it seemed she’d reached them, for her messenger had arrived in Dame Estelle’s office with “suggestions,” not directives.

The commissioner hadn’t cared for those suggestions at all, and as far as Honor could decipher them, they seemed to have consisted entirely of variations on a single theme. Dame Estelle should remember the commercial importance to the Kingdom of its great trading houses. She should strive to adopt a “more conciliatory tone” when dealing with them and “mediate between the Navy’s overly rigorous application” of the commerce regulations and the cartels’ “legitimate concerns over sudden and abrupt changes in the regulatory climate.” Above all, she should “remember the transitory nature of our custodial presence on Medusa” and avoid any actions which would anger the natives or those who would someday trade with them as equals. And, of course, she should “strive to abate” the possibly over-zealous manner in which the present senior officer on Basilisk Station seemed to be wielding her powers over the remainder of the star system.

It had, Honor reflected, sounded like the most mealy-mouthed, double-tongued case of interstellar arm-twisting she’d ever heard of, and its timing had been unfortunate. Dame Estelle had been back in her office for less than ten minutes after a visit to the Government House hospital, where the worst injured of her wounded NPA troopers had just died, when New Kiev’s courier caught up with her, and she hadn’t been in the mood for it.

She’d snapped the unlucky messenger’s head off and sent him home with it under one arm and a detailed account of the nature and severity of recently discovered violations of Her Majesty’s Medusan Protectorate’s laws under the other. And, she’d told Honor with grim delight, she’d concluded her report with the observation that the discovery of those violations had been made possible solely by the “dedicated, professional, persistent, and outstandingly successful efforts, both in their own right and in association with the NPA” (that was a direct quote) of Commander Honor Harrington and the crew of HMS Fearless. Under the circumstances, Dame Estelle had added, she had no intention of striving to abate Commander Harrington’s activities and every intention of aiding and abetting them in any way she could. And if Her Majesty’s Government disapproved of her intentions, she would, of course, submit her resignation.

The fact that her offer to resign hadn’t been taken up seemed, in Dame Estelle’s opinion, to validate her conclusion that New Kiev was in some sort of trouble back home. Honor wasn’t so certain about that, but when she added it to the evidence of unanticipated support from her own superiors, she had to concede that the commissioner might just have a point.