“I wouldn’t rely too heavily on that possibility, Rafe,” Honor cautioned. “Even if that’s what’s happening, we don’t know how far along they are in their preparations. And if it isn’t what’s happening, and we assume that it is…”

“Understood, Your Grace,” Cardones acknowledged. “Still, I think it’s an interesting possibility.”

“It is,” Bachfisch agreed. “And to be honest, I wouldn’t be too surprised if that consideration, or one very like it, didn’t play a part in their calculations. But as Her Grace says, I wouldn’t care to rely on it.”

“No, I can see that,” Truman agreed, and leaned back in her chair, her eyes intent as she considered what Bachfisch had told them. It was obvious from her expression, and even more from the taste of her emotions, that if she’d had reservations about their information source, those reservations were dissipating rapidly.

“Wraith and I are looking forward to examining those sensor recordings of yours, Captain,” she said. “Especially the ones of the Andies’ new LACs.”

“I’m not surprised,” Bachfisch told her with a small smile. “And, to be honest, I was very interested in the readings I got on your own LACs here in Marsh, Admiral. I haven’t had the leisure to compare them exhaustively, but my initial impression is that your design is still faster and more powerful than anything of theirs I’ve seen.”

“But you haven’t seen any sign of Andy CLACs?” Truman asked.

“No, I haven’t. But if I were the Andies, I’d probably be even more leery of showing off my CLACs than of letting out the fact that I had pod-battlecruisers. And it wouldn’t be all that difficult to keep them a secret, either. You know how easy it would be to hide CLACs in some out-of-the-way star system while they worked up.”

“As a matter of fact, Captain, I know exactly how easy it would be,” Truman told him with a small chuckle. Then she sobered, and looked at Honor.

“I agree with Alistair, Honor. I don’t much like the sound of any of this. Not when you combine it with things like Zahn’s analysis and Ferrero’s reports. Especially not combined with what Ferrero’s had to say. If the Andies are deliberately showing us the sort of technology advances she’s reported, but at the same time they’re busy concealing the existence of these new pod-battlecruisers—or trying to conceal it, at any rate…”

She let her voice trail off, and Honor nodded. The same thought had already occurred to her. The actions of Hellbarde’s captain looked more and more like deliberate provocations. If they were, then Gortz’s revelation of the new weapons and sensor capabilities of the Andermani Navy took on the appearance of a deliberate attempt to intimidate, or at least to make Honor, as Sidemore Station’s CO, worry about what else they might have in store for her. For that matter, they were busy doing exactly the same thing to the Sillies, according to all reports. Which suggested that they were busy attempting to intimidate the Confederacy’s navy, as well. But the fact that they hadn’t also flaunted their new warship types was an ominous suggestion that whatever new technology they were prepared to reveal, they were keeping some major surprises tucked away up their sleeves.