“With all due respect, why should they care whether or not the war is over?” Truman inquired. “The new management in Nouveau Paris doesn’t seem especially interested in conquering the known galaxy, and the Empire is all the way on the far side of the Manticoran Alliance from Haven. Under the circumstances, I don’t see Gustav and his advisors considering the Republic much of a threat to the Empire, whatever happens to the Star Kingdom. In fact, they’d probably be just as happy to see us involved in a shooting war with Haven again, because it would prevent us from reinforcing against them out here. For that matter, that’s what the mere threat of renewed hostilities with Haven is already doing!”

“I understand all of that,” Honor said. “And you may very well be right, Alice. But if Thomas Theisman is prepared to go back to war with the Star Kingdom under any circumstances, or for any reason, then he and Shannon Foraker between them must have done a lot more to equalize our technology advantage than anybody in Jurgensen’s ONI is prepared to admit they could have. And if that’s the case, then whatever balance of power equation Gustav may have been contemplating is probably pretty badly out of date. And whatever the new management in the Republic might really want, Gustav Anderman is not the sort of ruler to rely on the good intentions of a powerful neighbor. Especially not a powerful neighbor which, up to four or five T-years ago was into the conquest game in a really big way.”

“And,” Yu observed in a suddenly thoughtful tone, “a powerful neighbor he can’t be certain will remain under the present management.”

“Exactly,” Honor agreed. “Historically, the Andermani haven’t been big believers in the value of republican forms of government. They don’t like them, and they don’t really trust them. They were probably more comfortable with the Legislaturalists than with the Committee of Public Safety, but I wouldn’t be very surprised if they were more comfortable with the Committee than they are with the Republic. They regard elective forms of government as dangerously changeable and unpredictable at the best of times.”

“So what you’re suggesting,” McKeon said slowly, “is that if they thought that the Republic was really powerful enough to have a realistic chance of defeating the Star Kingdom, they wouldn’t care for it very much.”

“The Empire is a great believer in playing the balance of power game as the best long-term way to promote its own security,” Honor said. “But if the Republic, which is already so much larger than the Star Kingdom, succeeds in destroying or at least seriously crippling the Manticoran Alliance, there is no balance of power. And the star nation which would suddenly emerge—or reemerge, perhaps—as the premier military power in this entire region would be governed by a system an Andermani monarch would be naturally inclined to distrust and fear.”

“And one which had yet to demonstrate that it has the legs to last,” Yu agreed.