“I have no doubt that you’re in a better position to judge… should you choose to do so,” Honor replied flatly.

“And what, precisely, is the meaning of that, Admiral Harrington?” Draskovic snapped.

“I thought my meaning was quite clear, Admiral. I meant that it’s entirely evident to me that you have no intention of considering the actual availability of the officers I’ve requested. In fact, I very much doubt if you’ve checked their personnel files at all.”

“How dare you?” Draskovic sat bolt upright in her chair, and her eyes blazed. “I’m quite well aware that you don’t believe the rules of us petty mortals apply to the great ‘Salamander,’ Admiral Harrington, but I assure you that they do!”

“I’m quite sure they do,” Honor conceded calmly. “That, however, has nothing whatever to do with the topic of our current discussion, Admiral. You’re as well aware of that as I am.”

“However grossly overinflated your self-image may be, Admiral, I remind you that I’m not merely a Space Lord but senior to you by a good fifteen T-years,” Draskovic grated. “And I also remind you that neither an admiral’s rank nor a peerage nor even the Parliamentary Medal of Valor gives you immunity from charges of insubordination!”

“I don’t expect them to… normally.” Even now, in the grip of her own anger, a small corner of Honor was astonished by her own words. Was it possible that Draskovic’s implication that she’d somehow come to see herself as special truly was behind her confrontational attitude? She couldn’t completely rule that out, much as she might have liked to, but at the moment it didn’t really bother her all that much.

“Meaning what?” Draskovic snarled, leaning forward over her desk to glare at Honor.

“Meaning that I’m as aware as you are—or, as aware as Sir Edward Janacek is, for that matter—that this command wasn’t offered to me because of the enormous respect in which the current Admiralty administration holds me. It was given to me in no small part as a deliberate maneuver contrived to remove me from the political equation here in the Star Kingdom.”

Draskovic sat abruptly back in her chair, her expression stunned. Clearly, she hadn’t anticipated Honor’s bareknuckled attitude, and the thinnest possible edge of true humor crept into Honor’s smile as she tasted the other woman’s astonishment. The fact that Honor had never once played the political game in her own career didn’t mean she hadn’t known how it was played, though it appeared that possibility had never crossed Draskovic’s mind. But if Honor was going to play it at last, she would play it her way—head on, and damn the consequences. Let Draskovic react to it however she wished; they were never going to be anything except enemies, anyway.

“It was also given to me,” she continued in that same, chill tone, “because of Silesia’s potential to turn into a major catastrophe. You may have believed I was unaware of the fact that this Admiralty is willing to deliberately select a flag officer with the express intention of making her the scapegoat if our relations with the Andermani collapse. If you did, you were in error.”