“Obviously,” Foraker told the two senior admirals as the hatch closed behind Baker, “we’re going to have to head on down to the boat bay shortly. Before we do, though, did you have any more questions you wanted to ask Mitchell?”

“Not really. Not any specific ones, anyway,” Tourville replied. “I’m sure some questions will occur to me eventually, but for now I think I need to spend some time digesting what he’s already told us. Javier?”

“That sums up my own reaction pretty well, I think,” Giscard agreed. “But I would like to say, Commander Clapp, that what you’ve already told us is impressive. To be perfectly honest, I’ll be much happier if we never have to put your doctrine to the test, but the fact that we’ve got it if we need it is a vast relief.”

“I’m flattered that you think that, Sir,” Clapp said after a moment. “But as I keep pointing out, however well it may have performed in the sims, it hasn’t been tested under real-world conditions.”

“Understood.” Giscard nodded. Then he shrugged. “Unfortunately, the only way to test it in the real world is to find ourselves back in a shooting war with the Manties. That may be going to happen whether we want it to or not, but just between you and me, I’d like to go on being short of real-world test results for as long as possible.”

“I’m sure we all would, Sir,” Foraker agreed, then glanced at her wrist chrono and made a small face. “And now, I’m afraid, we really do have to head for the lift.”

· · • · ·

Thomas Theisman didn’t have to be a mind reader to recognize the disciplined anxiety behind the faces of the three admirals assembled in Sovereign of Space’s flag briefing room to meet with him and Admiral Arnaud Marquette, the chief of the Naval Staff which Theisman had painfully rebuilt after its predecessor’s destruction in the McQueen coup attempt. The five admirals were alone, aside from the fleet commanders’ chiefs of staff and his own senior military aide, Captain Alenka Borderwijk, and he knew Tourville and Giscard, at least, had been a little surprised by his decision to exclude everyone else. Foraker hadn’t, but then, he’d spoken directly with her when Sovereign of Space first arrived in the Haven System. Tourville and Giscard might look a bit anxious at the departure from the norm; Foraker, despite her best effort to conceal it, looked a lot anxious because she already knew—or suspected—the reason for that departure.

“First,” the Secretary of War said after everyone was seated, “let me apologize for the somewhat unusual circumstances of this conference. I assure you all that I’m not trying to be melodramatic, and that I don’t think I’m allowing my megalomania or paranoia to get the better of me. On the other hand,” his smile was thin, but it carried an edge of genuine humor, “I could be wrong about that.”

“Well, Tom,” Tourville said with the answering lazy grin permitted to the Republican Navy’s third ranking flag officer, “I seem to remember an old saying. Something about sometimes even paranoiacs having real enemies. Of course, I can’t speak to the megalomania question.”