“And very properly so,” New Kiev put in. “But as you say, Edward, given that history of theirs, then surely their captain should have acted to assist Jessica Epps, not fired on her!”

“I believe that’s approximately what I just said, Marisa,” Janacek observed.

“I realize that,” she said a bit snippily. “My point was that perhaps his reaction suggests that Harrington’s suspicions about this particular ship weren’t as well founded as she believes. Or, at least, as her report suggests.”

“The same thought had occurred to me,” Janacek replied. “But Admiral Jurgensen pulled the central file copy of the real Sittich’s emissions fingerprint and compared it to the sensor data from Chantilly.” He shook his head. “There’s no question, Marisa—the ship squawking Sittich’s transponder code wasn’t Sittich. I can’t say for certain who she was, but she wasn’t who she claimed to be.”

“I must say,” Descroix observed, “that I’m afraid Harrington may have put us all in a false position with this quixotic crusade of hers.”

“What ‘quixotic crusade’?” New Kiev asked.

“This ‘Operation Wilberforce’ of hers,” Descroix said.

“I may question her judgment and temper, and even at times her motivation,” New Kiev said sharply, “but I hardly think it’s appropriate to call the Star Kingdom’s long-standing commitment to the suppression of the interstellar genetic slave trade a ‘quixotic crusade.’ ”

Descroix glared at her and opened her mouth to fire back, but High Ridge interrupted before she could.

“Marisa, no one is suggesting that we ought to abandon that policy. For that matter, no one is suggesting that it was inappropriate for Harrington to act in accordance with it.”

And we’re especially not going to suggest it, he reflected, with that maniac Montaigne holding our feet—and yours—to the fire over the entire slavery issue in the Commons!

“Nonetheless, Elaine may have a point. Obviously, this entire incident only occurred because Harrington decided to act on the basis of testimony from a criminal caught in the act of committing an offense punishable by death. I think one might arguably call it a ‘quixotic’ decision to act so precipitously on the basis of such legitimately questionable ‘evidence.’ ”

Janacek started to point out that, questionable or not, the fact that the suspected ship obviously had been squawking exactly the false transponder code Harrington’s informant had told her it would seemed to suggest the evidence had been sound. But he didn’t. Whether she’d acted precipitously or not was really beside the point, after all.

“So, Edward,” High Ridge said after a moment, when it became apparent that neither New Kiev nor Descroix was prepared to continue their confrontation, however sullen they might be about it, “what does the Admiralty suggest we do?”

“Nothing,” Janacek said with a promptness which caused the others to look at him sharply.

“Nothing?” High Ridge repeated.

“Until we know more, there’s no point trying to formulate a response,” Janacek said. “We could respond by immediately scraping up additional reinforcements and rushing them off to Sidemore. Unfortunately, we don’t know that those reinforcements are going to be required. My current feeling is that Sternhafen is very likely to take the out Harrington has offered him and agree to a joint investigation. If that is his decision—or, more probably, given the time lag in our communications, was his decision—then it’s probable that this particular crisis is well along the way towards being defused.