“Erewhon is coming over to our side?” Lester Tourville asked in a very careful tone of voice, clearly unable to believe he’d heard correctly.

“So I’ve been assured,” Giscard replied. “There’s no way to extrapolate from that to what Grayson might do, and no one’s suggested to me that we’ve had any sort of direct diplomatic contact with Grayson, either. But if Erewhon is willing to make its own arrangements with us, I’d certainly call that an indication that High Ridge has managed to do a lot more damage to his alliance network than he probably realizes.”

“That’s one way to put it, Sir,” Anders snorted. “Especially if you’re given to understatement!” He paused, thinking hard, then shrugged. “All right, Sir. I’m still itchy about what Grayson might do, but I’ll admit it looks like there’s even more grit jamming the works of the Manty Alliance than I thought there was.”

“Which is probably about the best we can hope for, realistically,” Giscard replied with a shrug. “We’re dealing with uncertainties no matter what we do. Anyone who thinks it could be any other way is dreaming. But my own feeling is that if we find ourselves forced to go back to war at all, this ops plan offers our best chance of winning.”

· · • · ·

Several hours later, Shannon Foraker watched through the viewport of her pinnace as Sovereign of Space broke orbit, accelerating away from the planet of Haven towards the rest of First Fleet.

It was hard to watch her go. Harder even than she’d expected it to be.

“Hate to see her go, don’t you, Ma’am?” a quiet voice asked, and she turned her head to look at Captain Anders.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Yes I do.”

“Admiral Giscard will take good care of her,” Anders reassured her, and she nodded.

“I know he will. And I know Pat will, too. But after so long, it just seems hard to see her as anyone else’s flagship.”

“I don’t doubt it. But that’s not all of it, Ma’am,” Anders said almost gently, and she frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“Ma’am, you’re not like me. I’m an engineer first, and a tac officer second; you’re exactly the other way around. That’s why you want to be out there, making Red Alpha work and executing the tactical doctrines you designed. That’s the real reason you hate to see her go as much as you do.”

“You know,” Foraker said slowly, “for a wirehead, you’re a remarkably perceptive person, Five.” She shook her head. “I hadn’t considered it from that perspective, but you’re right. Maybe I didn’t think about it that way because I didn’t want to admit how very right you are.”

“You couldn’t be who you are and feel any other way about it, Ma’am,” he told her. “But the bottom line is that as good as you are as a tac officer, the Navy and the Republic need you worse at Bolthole than they need you with First or Second Fleet. It’s not where you want to be, Ma’am; it’s only where you need to be.”