Harris nodded thoughtfully, but reached out and touched one of the beads of light that glowed a dangerous blood-red. “And Manticore?” he asked.

“That’s the joker in the deck,” Parnell agreed. “They’re big enough to give us a fight, assuming they’ve got the guts for it.”

“So why not avoid them, or at least leave them for last?” Bergren asked. “Their domestic parties are badly divided over what to do about us—couldn’t we chop up the other small fry first?”

“We’d be in worse shape if we did,” Frankel objected. He touched a button of his own, and two-thirds of the amber lights on Parnell’s map turned a sickly gray-green. “Each of those systems is almost as far in the hole economically as we are,” he pointed out. “They’ll actually cost us money to take over, and the others are barely break-even propositions. The systems we really need are further south, down towards the Erewhon Junction, or over in the Silesian Confederacy to the west.”

“Then why not grab them straight off?” Harris asked.

“Because Erewhon has virtual League membership, Mr. President,” Dumarest replied, “and going south might convince the League we’re threatening its territory. That could be, ah, a bad idea.” Heads nodded around the table. The Solarian League had the wealthiest, most powerful economy in the known galaxy, but its foreign and military policies were the product of so many compromises that they virtually did not exist, and no one in this room wanted to irritate the sleeping giant into evolving ones that did.

“So we can’t go south,” Dumarest went on, “but going west instead brings us right back to Manticore.”

“Why?” Frankel asked. “We could take Silesia without ever coming within a hundred light-years of Manticore—just cut across above them and leave them alone.”

“Oh?” Parnell challenged. “And what about the Manticore Wormhole Junction? Its Basilisk terminus would be right in our path. We’d almost have to take it just to protect our flank, and even if we didn’t, the Royal Manticoran Navy would see the implications once we started expanding around their northern frontier. They’d have no choice but to try to stop us.”

“We couldn’t cut a deal with them?” Frankel asked Bergren, and the foreign secretary shrugged.

“The Manticoran Liberal Party can’t find its ass with both hands where foreign policy is concerned, and the Progressives would probably dicker, but they aren’t in control; the Centrists and Crown Loyalists are. They hate our guts, and Elizabeth III hates us even more than they do. Even if the Liberals and Progressives could turn the Government out, the Crown would never negotiate with us.”

“Um.” Frankel plucked at his lip, then sighed. “Too bad, because there’s another point. We’re in bad enough shape for foreign exchange, and three-quarters of our foreign trade moves through the Manticore Junction. If they close it against us, it’ll add months to transit times… and costs.”

“Tell me about it,” Parnell said sourly. “That damned junction also gives their navy an avenue right into the middle of the Republic through the Trevor’s Star terminus.”