But other counsel had prevailed. Other advisers had convinced Gustav that the application of sufficient pressure would not only inspire a spineless leader like High Ridge to withdraw unilaterally from Silesia but also remind the Confederacy government that resisting his eventual demands might be… unwise. And if no explicit demands upon or threats to Manticore were made, then the possibility of accidentally backing someone like High Ridge into a position in which public opinion might force him into a hardline response would be substantially reduced. The belated offer of covert Havenite support which Ambassador Kaiserfest had reported after his conversations with Secretary of State Giancola had been the clinching factor in the triumph of the faction which favored gradually ratcheting up the pressure in Silesia. Rabenstrange’s own argument that such a policy offered far more fertile ground for misunderstandings and accidents had been rejected.

And so they had all come to this—to precisely the sort of incident Rabenstrange had feared from the outset might occur. And it was his responsibility to drive the policy he’d argued against through to a successful conclusion.

Which he would. Whether he agreed with it or not was immaterial at this point. But that didn’t mean he was prepared to plunge blindly ahead into open warfare with the Star Kingdom if there were any way he could avoid it.

Unfortunately, it was looking more and more as if he might not have that choice. And it was people like Sternhafen, and the recently deceased Gortz, who had made that true.

“Allow me to explain to you, Graf von Sternhafen,” he said finally, “that, in the delightfully pithy Manticoran phrase, Kapitän der Sternen Gortz ‘screwed the pooch’ in a truly spectacular display of stupidity.” Sternhafen swelled angrily, but Rabenstrange continued in that same level, biting tone.

“Unlike you, I did conduct a certain amount of research. And I found it trivially simple to confirm that the vessel squawking Sittich’s transponder code was not Sittich.” Sternhafen stared at him, and Rabenstrange smiled thinly. “I base that statement not simply on the data in Duchess Harrington’s message to you, Herr Graf, but also on the data your own vessels secured from the local Silesian security LACs who were in sensor range of the incident. Based upon its observed tonnage alone, the vessel Jessica Epps was moving to intercept was not an Andermani-flag merchant—or, at least, not the one it claimed to be. And since I assume that as a conscientious servant of His Imperial Majesty you’ve seen to it that all units under your command have current, updated copies of the Registry of Merchant Vessels, I must also assume that it would have been possible for Hellbarde’s sensors to establish that that same vessel was squawking a false transponder code… and thus violating the sovereignty of our flag in contravention of solemn interstellar law. Given those facts and deductions, I see no reason to doubt the remainder of Duchess Harrington’s analysis and explanation. In short, Herr Graf, your ‘heroic’ Kapitän der Sternen Gortz managed to kill virtually his entire crew and the complete company of a Manticoran heavy cruiser out of sheer, incompetent stupidity, and all in the name of allowing a vessel engaged in the filth and perversion of the interstellar genetic slave trade to escape interception and capture!”