“Unfortunately,” Foraker continued, “the fact that this plan provides for better coordination doesn’t change the fact that we’re going to be attacking in a lot of places at once. Which means dispersing our forces to a much greater degree than I’d really prefer.”

“That’s a valid concern,” Giscard agreed. “I think, though, that it’s an element of risk we’re just going to have to accept. And if we’re going to be dispersed, at least the Manties are spread even thinner.”

“There is that.” It was Foraker’s turn to nod.

“And,” Captain Gozzi pointed out respectfully, “the ops plan does provide for us to hit our objectives in sequenced attacks, Ma’am. We’ll be concentrating superior forces for each attack, and starting with their nodal positions to take out their response forces first.”

“I know.” Foraker frowned. “Given our resources and the mission objectives, this certainly looks like the most effective employment of our forces. I suppose when it comes right down to it, a lot of my concerns stem from the fact that I know how much of our planning is based on what we’ve been doing out at Bolthole.”

She grimaced and glanced at her own chief of staff.

“Five and I—all our people—have tried to be as constructively critical of our own work as we could. But none of our conclusions have been tested in battle yet. Our simulations are solid… if the intelligence data on Manty hardware on which we based them is accurate. But we can’t know for certain that it is. And even if the numbers are good, we’re going to be committing an awful lot of ships, manned by people who’re going to be going into battle using new hardware and new doctrine, both of which are completely untested where it really counts. I think we’ve all seen too much of Murphy not to realize how many things could go wrong, however well we’ve done our jobs at Bolthole. Under those circumstances, I’d really prefer a bigger numerical advantage at the critical points than it’s going to be possible for us to achieve in light of how astrographically dispersed our ops area is.”

“I can appreciate your concerns,” Giscard said after a moment. “At the same time, I suspect at least a part of them stem from your own conscientiousness. And I think you may be underestimating the quality of the work you and your people have done. Oh, I don’t doubt for a minute that we’re going to hit at least some holes in the doctrine, or that we’re going to find out some assumption about Manty capabilities wasn’t sufficiently pessimistic. But Lester and I have gamed out a dozen battles in the simulators, using your new hardware and your new doctrine, and from what we’ve seen there, you’ve managed to increase our combat effectiveness by a factor of at least ten.”

He shook his head.

“That’s one hell of a lot better than we’ve ever had before going up against the Manties. If we manage to catch them still dispersed, then I think we’re going to chew them up badly.”