She glared at New Kiev, who returned her fiery stare with interest, and High Ridge frowned thunderously. The last thing he needed was for the members of his Cabinet to turn on one another. As Descroix said, the ability of the Government to continue to function effectively in the face of a possible Havenite attack was crucial. And, in the longer run, none of the members of his coalition could afford to quarrel with one another if they were to have any hope of surviving the disastrous political consequences of such an attack.

“Please, Marisa, Elaine!” He shook his head. “Both of you have voiced perfectly legitimate concerns. Marisa, all of us feel horrible over the possibility of heavy loss of life among our naval personnel. Of course we do! And we’ll do everything we can to minimize casualties. But if we suffer them anyway, it will be because someone else forced military action upon us, not because we chose to go back to war. And that means Elaine is also correct that our primary responsibility as the leaders of Her Majesty’s Government in the face of such an attack must be to insure the smooth continuation of our ability to govern.”

And, he decided not to add, to somehow salvage our domestic position out of the wreckage a Havenite attack would leave.

“There is one possibility we haven’t considered,” Janacek said slowly.

“What sort of possibility?” New Kiev asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Before I answer that,” the First Lord replied, “let me ask you a question, Marisa. Given the tone and the content of Pritchart’s note, do you personally think she’s seriously contemplating breaking off negotiations and not just running some sort of bluff?”

“I’m not Foreign Secretary anymore,” New Kiev pointed out, sparing Descroix a poisonous glance from the corners of her eyes. “I don’t have the sort of sources which might allow me to form any sort of independent judgment of the analysis Elaine’s staff has prepared.”

“Please, Marisa,” Janacek said with a patience he maintained only with difficulty. “The situation is obviously too serious for us to dance around the point. You’ve read Pritchart’s note. And, as you just pointed out, you used to be Foreign Secretary yourself. On that basis, how would you have evaluated this note?”

New Kiev frowned, clearly unhappy at being put on the spot. But then, slowly, she shook her head.

“I’m afraid I do think this is nothing more than a step to justify her actions in the eyes of her own public—and, probably, interstellar public opinion—when she chooses to break off negotiations,” she admitted.

“The language is far more uncompromising than anything she’s said yet,” the countess continued, still blissfully ignorant of the exact wording of the preceding communication from the Republic’s president, “and the flat, unqualified assertion that the Republic retains unimpaired sovereignty over all ‘occupied systems’ could be read to include Trevor’s Star. If it does, that represents an enormous escalation in their bargaining position, especially after her earlier apparent willingness to concede that system’s loss. And the fact that she’s seen fit to recite an entire catalog of allegations that we’ve been the ones obstructing the talks is a clear bid to convince her own voters that she’s been driven to take such an adamant position by our own unreasonableness.”