He paused for several seconds, and she tasted his emotions as he considered whether or not to leave it at that. Then he gave his head a little toss—a mannerism she remembered well as an indicator of decision.

“And if the truth be known, I think it was also a case of looking for the grand gesture. A way of proving to the galaxy at large that whatever the court of inquiry might have decided, I was—well, a force to be reckoned with, I suppose. I needed to go out and demonstrate that I could succeed out here and simultaneously cut a swathe through any pirates who got in my way.”

“And perhaps just a bit of knight errantry?” Honor asked gently. He looked at her expressionlessly, and she tipped her chair back and smiled. “I don’t doubt anything you just said, Sir. But I think there’s also at least a trace of ‘once a Queen’s officer, always a Queen’s officer.’ ”

“If by that you mean I thought the universe would be a better place with fewer pirates in it, you may have a point,” Bachfisch conceded. “But don’t make the mistake of assigning me too much purity of motive.”

“I didn’t say anything about purity of motive,” Honor replied. “I just couldn’t quite picture you quietly fading away under any circumstances. Finding you out here in command of what amounts to privately flagged Q-ships simply suggests to me that you’re still in the business of suppressing piracy. And given that you just let drop the name of the previous Second Space Lord, my naturally suspicious mind suggests that there might be a more direct connection between you and Her Majesty’s Navy than most people would suspect.”

“There’s something to that,” he admitted. “Not that I started out with any such connection in mind. Even if one had occurred to me, the circumstances which had gotten me placed on half-pay in the first place would have discouraged me from approaching anyone in the Admiralty. But ONI has always done its best to keep track of the Navy’s officers, active-duty or not, and as my support base grew out here, ONI approached me. In fact, it was ONI which quietly greased the way for me to acquire official approval for Ambuscade’s guns. And unless I’m very much mistaken, it was also ONI which even more quietly helped send the Bane in my direction when she was listed for disposal by the Andies. No one ever said so in as many words, but there were one or two coincidences too many in the way things came together when I put in my bid on her.”

“And whether I’m right about that or not, Admiral Givens—or her minions, at least—were in fairly regular contact with me right up to the truce with the Peeps. I suppose that technically I was one of those ‘HumInt’ sources ONI keeps referring to when they brief officers for Silesia.”

“You said ONI was in regular contact with you?” Honor asked, looking at him very thoughtfully, and he nodded.