“It sounds like more of the same thing, to me,” Alice Truman put in from the com screen above the conference table. She’d been brought thoroughly up to date when Honor summoned her to the electronic conference, and now she shook her head on the screen.

“But this incident is more pointed, Dame Alice,” Warner Caslet pointed out. All eyes turned to him, and the commander of First Battle Squadron, Protector’s Own, shrugged. “It was a lot more pointed. And there’s not much question as to how directly it was pointed at us, either. Well, at the Star Kingdom, I suppose.”

“There hasn’t been much question about where most of their damned provocations were pointed,” McKeon replied, and Caslet grimaced.

“That wasn’t exactly what I meant. Or, rather, I’ve been wondering about something else, and I wish we had a way to answer the question that’s been bothering me.”

“What question?” Honor asked.

“Whether or not they’ve been prodding the Sillies as hard as they have us… or even harder.” Honor looked at him, and he shrugged. “We know they’ve been giving us demonstrations of their capabilities, but have they been focusing solely on us? Or have they been making the same point to the Sillies?”

“Now that, Your Grace,” Andrea Jaruwalski observed after a moment, “is an intriguing thought. And it would make sense.”

“You think they’re not just trying to convince us that they can handle our tech advantages?” Truman asked. “That they’re making the point to the Sillies that the Confed Navy can’t match the IAN’s?”

“Something like that,” Caslet agreed. “And that would make sense of how widely their anti-piracy forces are operating throughout Silly space, as well. If they’re hoping to inspire us into backing off, then they may also be hoping to convince the Sillies that trying to resist any territorial demands they may press would be futile. Scattering their forces around in a way that shows how numerically powerful they are—and showing off their new toys to demonstrate how capable they are—could be part of both those strategies.”

“Yes, they certainly could,” Truman agreed. “Still, whoever that battlecruiser’s skipper was, she took a big chance upping the ante that way. If Ackenheil had been feeling a bit more proddy, he might have been at battle stations and popped off a broadside before he realized he was only being harassed. Which could have ended up with us in a shooting war with the Empire.”

“Yes, it could have,” Honor agreed. “Unfortunately, this looks like more of the straight line progression in provocation we’ve been seeing, whoever it is they intend to provoke. Or why. The question, of course, becomes where they intend to stop. If they intend to stop.”

“Whatever they ‘intend,’ it seems to me that they’re running a serious chance of pushing things over the edge,” McKeon said. “Goddamned idiots! If they actually intend to make territorial demands on Silesia, why the hell don’t they just go ahead and tell us so?”