“Whatever good it may do us with the Peeps,” he said after a moment, “it’s going to have unfortunate domestic consequences, though.” High Ridge just looked at him, and he shrugged. “At the very least, this is going to embolden Alexander and his crowd. They’re going to argue that we were too stupid or too stubborn to take ‘prudent precautions’ ourselves, so our allies were forced to do it for us.”

“If they do, then whose—?” High Ridge cut himself off before he reopened the blame game, but the flash of fresh anger in Janacek’s eyes was proof enough that the First Lord knew what he’d been about to say.

“If they do, they do,” he said instead. “There isn’t a great deal we can do about that just now, Edward. And to be brutally frank about it, the domestic political situation is so… confused at the moment that I don’t really know how much of an impact it will have even if they do.”

Again, Janacek found himself forced to concede the Prime Minister’s point. The Government’s official decision to grant the Talbott Cluster’s request to be annexed to the Star Kingdom—contingent, of course, upon the approval of the full Parliament—had proven immensely popular. The worsening diplomatic situation with the Republic of Haven, on the other hand, had produced an almost equally powerful negative response. The current parlous state of the Navy was another factor on the negative side of the balance of public opinion. Still, a significant proportion of the public remained uncertain whether to take the Government or the Opposition view of the Navy’s effective strength, and the somewhat belated resumption of construction on the suspended SD(P)s had blunted much of that criticism. By the same token, the Government’s spending programs remained extremely popular with those who had benefitted from them… which meant their partisans resented the diversion of funds back to construction budgets. And, finally, the news accounts of the clashes with the Andermani in Silesian space had refocused public opinion on the precious “Salamander” and her supposedly glorious record in combat… not to mention fanning the fire for those concerned over the Star Kingdom’s disintegrating interstellar relations.

The only good thing about Silesia, so far as Janacek could tell, was that the average voter really didn’t consider the Confederacy a priority issue. Mister Average Voter was irritated and offended by the Andermani “insult” to the Star Kingdom, and extremely angry over the loss of Manticoran lives which had so far occurred. But he was also aware that there had been Andermani fatalities, as well, and for once Harrington’s grossly inflated reputation was a plus. The man in the street had been told she had ample forces to restrain the Andermani, and he trusted her to do just that. It galled Janacek down to the very depths of his soul to admit that, but he knew it was true and that however much he resented it, he ought to be grateful for it.

“What do the polls look like now?” he asked.