“I hope you’re right, Sir. But I still think we ought to be throwing an even heavier punch at Trevor’s Star. That’s their strongest point… and they’ve been kind enough to concentrate virtually all of their modern ships there, outside of the ones assigned to Home Fleet, anyway. If we destroy that force, then we can spread out from Trevor’s Star and gather in all of the other objectives easily, because they won’t have anything in the area that could possibly stop us.”

“But if we hit Trevor’s Star concentrated,” Tourville pointed out, “and they managed to get dispatch boats away—which they would do, Shannon, given the direct wormhole connection to Manticore—they might very well manage to redeploy their other covering forces before we could reach them with our own attacks. I don’t see anything they could do that would actually stop us, but they could certainly concentrate sufficient forces on the more critical objectives to make it much more expensive for us to take them.”

“I know. But by the same token, if they get dispatch boats away through the terminus, the only place they can go is the Manticore System. They’re not going to be able to get from there to other systems inside our borders significantly before we can get to those same systems from Trevor’s Star. The only dispatch boats we really legitimately need to worry about are the ones that won’t be using the terminus in the first place.”

“I appreciate your concerns,” Giscard repeated. “But that aspect of the ops plan is effectively locked by this point. Unless someone presents a specific, demonstrable flaw, I don’t see any real prospect of its being changed.”

“And all I can offer are non-specific worries that may very well be based on my own concerns about where I could have dropped the ball out at Bolthole,” Foraker conceded. She smiled crookedly. “I know. I guess I just had to be sure I got it said.”

“Of course you did. That’s part of your job.” Giscard chuckled. Then he cocked his head at her. “And what about Second Fleet’s assignment?”

“Obviously, the fact that I’d like to throw a heavier attack at Trevor’s Star means I’d prefer to keep Second Fleet closer to home and commit it there. And the possibility that the Andermani might find Second Fleet’s presence so close to their own doorstep objectionable doesn’t exactly appeal to me, either. Left to my own devices, and given the fact that NavInt tells us Duchess Harrington has so few SD(P)s and CLACs, I think I’d probably choose to leave her entirely alone in the initial attacks. If we manage to pull off the rest of Red Alpha, then her task force shouldn’t be enough to significantly improve the Manties’ chances in a counteroffensive even after they recall her. But I have to admit that part of my desire to employ Second Fleet elsewhere may stem from the fact that, like Lester, I have a… lively respect for the Duchess’ tactical talents. Something about letting sleeping dogs lie,” she snorted. “Aside from that, the plan seems sound enough. At least, I don’t see how we could come up with a better one to accomplish the same objective.”