“Frankly,” Bachfisch said grimly, “I’ve been surprised they didn’t do it months ago. If I were President Pritchart or Thomas Theisman, I’d have been thinking about it very seriously for at least a T-year now.”

Gruber’s surprise showed, and Bachfisch chuckled harshly.

“Of course I would have, Jinchu! It’s been obvious from the beginning that the High Ridge Government had no intention of negotiating seriously or fairly with them. Why in the world should they feel any compunction about kicking someone who totally ignores their own efforts to actually end this damned war and normalize relations in the ass? I’d do it in a heartbeat, assuming I had the capability, under the same circumstances, and I think they’ve been trying to get the Star Kingdom’s attention in hopes that someone would listen without their resorting to brute force. Hell, when you come right down to it, they’ve done everything short of handing a copy of their war plans to High Ridge and Janacek! Why do you think Theisman announced their new fleet units?”

“To bring pressure to bear on the Star Kingdom,” Gruber replied.

“Of course. But the kind of pressure they brought to bear is significant, too. I think in a lot of ways it amounted to a deliberate warning that they’ve developed the capacity to stand up to the Royal Navy. A warning they delivered in the forlorn hope that someone in Landing would be able to rub at least two brain cells together and realize the Star Kingdom has to start treating the Republic as a legitimate government and began negotiating in good faith.

“Neither of which High Ridge has done.”

“You sound almost as if you’re on the Republic’s side, Skipper,” Gruber said slowly.

“I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize that they have a perfect right to be angry at having their legitimate concerns so persistently ignored.”

“So what, exactly, do you think we’re doing out here, Skipper?” Gruber asked after a moment.

“At the moment, all I’m really after is confirming the point at which this fellow is going to leave the grav wave. If we can get away with it, I’d really like to see the point at which he begins translating back down to n-space. That would confirm whether or not he’s headed where I think he’s headed. But I don’t cherish any illusions about how likely they are to let an unidentified freighter go traipsing through the middle of their fleet if they really are out here. And given that the system I think this destroyer is bound for is officially uninhabited, I can’t think of any possible way to come up with a convincing story for why we might ‘just happen’ to be dropping in on them.”

“And if we manage to confirm all of that?”

“If we manage to confirm all of that—or even half of it—then we immediately make tracks for Sidemore,” Bachfisch said. “I know the people who are expecting us to deliver their cargoes are going to be more than a little pissed off when we don’t show. And I know we’re going to be looking at some pretty stiff penalties. But I strongly suspect that Duchess Harrington will defray any of our losses out of her discretionary funds when she hears what we have to tell her. And she and her intelligence people can probably help us concoct some sort of explanation for our customers’ benefit.”