“It sounds that way to me, too,” Foraker put in. “That’s one reason this whole deployment plan worries me.”

Even as she spoke, Foraker reflected upon how insanely dangerous it would have been for any flag officer to express reservations about her orders under the Committee of Public Safety. But she didn’t serve the Committee; that was the entire point.

“I don’t think anyone in Nouveau Paris is taking the possibility of a resumption of hostilities lightly,” Giscard said. “I know Secretary Theisman isn’t, as I’m sure all of us are aware.” He gazed at Tourville and Foraker until both of them nodded, then shrugged. “By the same token, it’s his job—and ours—to be ready if worse comes to worst anyway. On that basis, do you have any reservations, Lester?”

“Other than those I think any of us would feel about going up against someone as good as Harrington that far from any of our own support bases, no,” Tourville conceded. “I like the fact that I don’t do a thing without positive orders from home. At least we don’t have to worry about my starting a war because no one got me the orders not to in time!”

“Shannon?”

“Actually,” Foraker said unhappily, “I do have a few reservations.”

“Oh?” Giscard eyed her speculatively. “What sort of reservations?”

“I can’t escape the feeling that we’re running the risk of strategic overreach,” she replied. “In most ways, I have to agree that Case Red is… well, for want of a better word, elegant. It requires a degree of coordination I’m not entirely happy about, but it avoids the mistake the Legislaturalists made by starting with detached forces which were too far apart to stay in communication with one another. Except, of course, for Second Fleet.”

Giscard nodded. As soon as this conference ended, he and the newly designated First Fleet would depart the Haven System and head for his new station in the SXR-136-23 System. It had never received a name to replace its catalog designation because the thoroughly useless red giant had absolutely nothing, not even any planets, to attract anyone to it. It did, however, offer a handy anchor around which to park a fleet safely out of sight. And it just happened to be located less than forty light-years northwest of Trevor’s Star.

The logistics ships to support First Fleet were already in place, orbiting SXR-136’s dim central fires with sufficient supplies and spares to sustain the entire fleet on station for up to six months. If it turned out to be necessary to leave First Fleet there for longer than that, the fleet train would detach ships in relays to bring back what was needed. And if the balloon went up, every single task group (except Second Fleet) set up by the carefully orchestrated war plan known as Case Red Alpha would depart from SXR-136. Its components would sail at staggered intervals which would place each of them at its objective at precisely the same time, but they would all depart from the same place, under the same orders, without risking the strategic miscue which had sent Admiral Yuri Rollins to the Hancock System early. Of course, it helped that, with the exception of Grendelsbane, all of those objectives lay within no more than a hundred and twenty light-years of Trevor’s Star.