McGwire’s eyes narrowed, and Jason Giancola was obviously hard put to suppress a chuckle.

“Are you planning on handing out any more green flags, Arnold?” McGwire asked after a moment. “As Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I’d really appreciate it if you could give us at least a little warning before you effectively commit the Republic to turning a blind eye to someone else’s territorial expansion.”

“Why? I mean, we don’t have any interests in Silesia, do we?” Giancola shot back. “And even if we did, and even if we objected to whatever the Andermani have in mind, what, precisely, do you think we could do about it? The Confederacy is three hundred light-years from Nouveau Paris, Samson. Until we manage to finally resolve the mess in our own front yard—the one the Manties have stuck us with—we certainly don’t have any business becoming involved in confrontations over Silesia!”

“And was that President Pritchart’s view, as well?” McGwire inquired in a carefully neutral tone.

“On the basis of our many past discussions on similar topics, I feel certain it would be,” Giancola told him in an even more neutral voice. “And because I felt confident I already knew her views, I saw no reason to waste any of her valuable time discussing it with her yet again.”

“I see.” The tension in the conference room ratcheted upward. Then McGwire gave a desert-dry chuckle. “I don’t suppose that it really is any of our business to attempt to dissuade the Empire from pursuing its long term and arguably legitimate ambitions in Silesia. Particularly not when doing that would ease the Manties’ problems.”

“Not until they get the hell out of our star systems, at any rate,” Younger agreed emphatically.

“That thought had crossed my own mind,” Giancola admitted. “And I notice that the Manty navy has just announced that it’s dispatching a substantial task force to reinforce their Sidemore Station. Jason?”

“According to the Naval Affairs Committee’s last briefing, they’re dispatching at least five squadrons of ships of the wall, plus at least one carrier squadron. Of course, that information is bound to be out of date, since the dispatch boat took the better part of two weeks to get here from Trevor’s Star. Actually, if they stuck to their original schedule, they should have already sent them on their way, although NavInt says they seem to be running a bit behind on their timetable. But even if it’s taking them a while to get organized, that’s still a fairly substantial force. And they’ve put Harrington in command of it.”

“Harrington, eh?” McGwire looked thoughtful.

“Exactly. Everyone knows she and High Ridge aren’t exactly bosom buddies,” the Secretary of State said. “But even he has to know she’s one of the best naval officers they’ve got. The fact that they’re prepared to send over thirty additional ships of the wall all the way to Silesia and put them under the command of someone like her suggests that they’re prepared to take a rather firm line with the Andermani.”