“You admire her, don’t you, Sir?” DeLaney’s question was really a statement, and Tourville nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, if I’m going to be honest about it, I do. Probably of all of the officers on our side, Admiral Theisman comes closest to matching her ability to lead, and to draw the best possible performance out of her personnel. And I think he’s probably as good a tactician as she is. But much as I respect and admire him, I think she still has that little bit more than he does. The touch. I can’t think of anything else to call it.

“And the other thing she’s had has been a positive gift for being in the right place at the right time—or the wrong place, at the wrong time, from our perspective. As you just observed, most of her actions have been on a fairly small scale, compared to something like White Haven’s offensive just before the cease-fire. But they’ve had an impact all out of proportion to their size. Which undoubtedly accounts for a huge part of her reputation. If you want to put it that way, she’s been lucky, although to some extent it’s been a case of making her own luck. Which is one reason why I personally think that sending us out here was the right idea, despite any reservations I may feel.”

“It was, Sir?” DeLaney looked at him again, and he snorted.

“Molly,” he said, and it was his turn to sound patient, “I’m perfectly well aware that you think I’ve been a bit Cassandra-like about this entire operation. That, however, is known as the determined but sober attitude of a responsible military commander.” The chief of staff’s blush was considerably darker this time, and he smiled at her. “I’d be more than human—and an idiot, to boot—if I didn’t have huge reservations about taking a fleet this size this far away from any of our bases or support structure to attack an officer with Harrington’s reputation. Even assuming that we completely defeat her, which I happen to think we will, we’re going to take losses and damage, and it’s a hell of a long voyage home from here. Having said all of that, the very fact that Harrington enjoys the reputation and stature that she does makes her a sort of military objective in her own right. Defeating her, hopefully decisively, at the same time Thunderbolt is crunching up the Manties’ frontier systems, will be a body blow to the Manty public’s confidence and willingness to fight. And depriving the Manties of her services if they don’t decide to start negotiating with us in good faith wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at, either. Although at least this time, if we manage to capture her again, I can damned well guarantee there won’t be any trumped up charges or plans for executions!”

DeLaney started to reply, but the lift car reached its destination before she could, and she stood aside to allow her admiral to precede her into the flag deck passage.