“You’re quite correct,” Rabenstrange told him after a brief, taut moment of silence. “Of course, the question of precisely what command you’ll ever hold again remains open.” He smiled thinly as Sternhafen’s eyes flinched ever so slightly away from his own. Then he drew a deep breath, folded his hands behind him, and made himself take a quick turn around Sternhafen’s ground-side Sachsen office.

“Very well, Herr Graf,” he said finally, turning back to face the taller man once more. “I’ll attempt to amend my manner. But you, Graf, will answer my questions. And I warn you now, I am not interested in defensive temporizations. Is that understood?”

“Of course, Your Grace,” Sternhafen replied stiffly.

“Very well,” Rabenstrange repeated. “The point I was attempting to make was that so far as I’ve been able to determine from your reports, neither you nor anyone in your command made any attempt to discover whether or not Duchess Harrington’s hypothesis as to what transpired in Zoraster might be accurate before you summarily rejected her offer of a joint investigation.”

“Your Grace,” Sternhafen sounded dangerously patient, but Rabenstrange decided to let it pass… for now, “Harrington will naturally attempt to put the best possible face upon her captain’s actions. No doubt you’ll argue that I must feel the same temptation in Gortz’s case, and you may well be right. However, this particular Manticoran ship had established a clear pattern of arrogance and confrontation in previous encounters with Hellbarde. I believe any fair reading of the Fleet base’s file copies of Hellbarde’s communication log of Captain Ferrero’s previous messages will bear out Kapitän Gortz’ view of Ferrero as a dangerously provocative woman.

“When the final encounter between these two ships occurred—in, may I point out, the sovereign territory of a third star nation and definitely not Manticoran territory—Ferrero was clearly maneuvering with the intention of stopping and, at the very least, searching an Imperial-flag merchant vessel proceeding about its lawful concerns. That, at least, was the completely reasonable conclusion of Kapitän der Sternen Gortz. While the testimony of the surviving fire control ratings as to the precise content of the message traffic exchanged between Jessica Epps and Hellbarde may not be conclusive, all three of them agree messages were exchanged. Moreover, all three agree that Kapitän der Sternen Gortz’s demand that Ferrero break off her harassment of the vessel in question was not only rejected by her but clearly preceded her decision to open fire upon that vessel.

“Under the circumstances, I repeat, I fail to see what other option Gortz had. In my opinion, Ferrero acted in typical Manticoran fashion, arrogantly assuming—and demanding—that an Imperial warship stand by with its hat literally in its hands while she violated the sovereignty of the Empire’s flag. It’s my belief that we ought to be discussing posthumous decorations for Kapitän der Sternen Gortz and his crew, not trying to fasten blame for this… episode upon them as any so-called ‘joint’ investigation under Manticoran authority would certainly do.”