And whatever it was, it was Erica Ferrero’s job to respond to it.

“Skipper?”

Lieutenant Commander Harris’s voice drew her attention, and she looked up from the plot at which she’d been glaring.

“Yes, Shawn?” She was just a bit surprised by how calm her own voice sounded.

“CIC’s just completed an analysis of the Andy missiles, Ma’am,” Harris told her. “They were pulling ninety-one thousand gees. And they detonated over fifty thousand klicks from the target.” Her eyes widened in surprise, and he nodded. “Not only that, but CIC estimates that they scored at least eighty-five percent of possible hits.”

Ferrero understood immediately why CIC had passed its analysis on to Harris… and why Shawn had passed it on to her so quickly in turn. Those figures represented an increase of over seven percent in what ONI listed as the maximum acceleration for an Andermani shipkiller missile, and fifty thousand kilometers represented an increase of well over sixty percent in any standoff attack range the RMN had ever previously observed out of an Andy laser head, as well.

And eighty-five percent of possible is damned impressive targeting for a laser head at any range, she thought.

The question was why Gortz should choose to deliberately reveal that improvement in capabilities to Jessica Epps. And it had to have been deliberate. She certainly hadn’t needed to launch her birds at maximum accel—assuming, of course, that that was what she’d done, and that she hadn’t had still more drive power in reserve—just as there’d been no compelling tactical need to show off her laser heads’ reach and accuracy. It was entirely possible that the Andy had had still more performance in reserve, she reflected. Even if Gortz was deliberately making a statement, it would make sense to keep at least a little bit back to use as a surprise in an emergency. But whether or not what they’d just seen was the maximum possible performance envelope for the IAN’s current generation of missiles, it was a substantial improvement in what everyone had thought were the limits of the Andies’ hardware.

Which suggested that this entire episode did indeed reflect a new and even more dangerous level in the Empire’s aggressive foreign and naval policy.

“Record for transmission, Mecia,” Ferrero said after a moment.

“Recording, Ma’am,” Lieutenant McKee acknowledged.

“Captain Gortz,” Erica Ferrero said in icy tones, “this is Captain Ferrero. Your high-handed intervention in my pursuit of a suspected pirate represents a violation of the established protocols in existence between the Andermani Empire and the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Your destruction of the vessel in question, leading to the death of all aboard, whose guilt or innocence had not been confirmed and who had not received the warning shot specified by numerous interstellar accords, also represents an unacceptable violation of customary naval usage and interstellar law and arguably constitutes an act of cold-blooded murder. I protest your actions in the strongest terms, and I will be filing a record of this incident with my own command authorities and the Star Kingdom’s Foreign Office. My recommendation will be that interstellar legal proceedings against you and your bridge officers be initiated immediately, and I look forward with anticipation to the time at which you may be invited before a court of admiralty to explain and justify your performance here this afternoon. Ferrero, clear.”