“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Very well. Now, once we’ve detached the pinnaces and deployed our drones, I intend to place Fearless in Medusa orbit. It will be necessary for me to meet and confer with the Resident Commissioner as soon as possible, which will, of course, require a visit to the planet. In addition, however, the detachment of our pinnaces will force us to rely on our cutters for all inspections of space-to-surface and orbit-to-orbit trade. Since they do not have impellers, we may be required to use Fearless herself to move them from orbit to orbit in order to cover all targets. Moreover, the planet lies within three light-minutes of the inner edge of our drone deployment, and our onboard sensors have far more reach than the drones will. By remaining in Medusa orbit, we will be so positioned as to allow our sensors to cover the most critical spatial volume of our responsibilities and also free drones to thicken other portions of the net. I’ll want at least one drone reserved to cover the planet if we leave orbit, as I intend to run periodic sweeps of the inner system, if possible, but I’m afraid we’ll find ourselves too busy to make many of them. Is all this understood?”

She sat back and swept them with her eyes. Most of them nodded; none shook their heads.

“Excellent. In that case—”

“Ah, Captain?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Venizelos?”

“Something just occurred to me, Ma’am. Commander McKeon’s right about the probe endurance, and even without that consideration, getting the kind of coverage you’re talking about would be a real problem with the numbers we have aboard. We could get a lot better density if we asked Warlock to drop off any she can spare. I mean, it’s not like she’s going to be needing them in Manticore.”

“I appreciate the suggestion,” Honor said in an absolutely toneless voice, “but I’m afraid it’s impractical. We’ll just have to do the best we can from our own resources.”

“But, Captain—”

“I said it’s impractical, Lieutenant.” Her voice was even flatter than before, its very lack of expression a warning, and Venizelos closed his mouth with a snap. He shot a helpless, sidelong glance at McKeon, but the exec didn’t even blink. He’d already noted that Harrington planned to detach her pinnaces after the heavy cruiser—and Young—had departed. Now her response to Venizelos confirmed his reading of the situation. Whatever the source of the bad blood between her and Young, it was nasty enough for him to deliberately set her up for disaster… and for her to see it coming. And to take steps against it only after he was no longer in a position to frustrate them.

All of which sounded ominously as though HMS Fearless—and her officers—might just find themselves caught in the crossfire.

Honor watched her executive officer’s masklike expression and guessed was going on behind it. He was right, of course—and so was Venizelos. She deeply regretted having stepped on the tactical officer so hard, especially when he’d only offered the sort of suggestion she’d practically prayed for her officers to make, but she couldn’t explain the enmity between her and Young. Even if it hadn’t been unthinkable for any CO to reveal such things to her subordinates, it would have sounded entirely too much like petulant whining.