"And the purpose of hitting Jessica Epps would have been to demonstrate their own willingness to fight while simultaneously hitting the Government between the eyes with how much standing in their way in Silesia could end up costing," McKeon mused. "All without their having done a single thing to us deliberately... officially."
"If they did it on purpose," Benson-Dessouix pointed out. "And even though I'm the one suggesting the hypothesis, that's an awful big 'if,' Alistair."
"It's certainly one possible scenario," Honor agreed. "But, as you say, Harry, it's all entirely speculative and highly problematical. It would also impute more subtlety to the Andermani than they normally demonstrate. Also, I think it may be overlooking the fact that the slaver Jessica Epps was intercepting was squawking an Andermani merchant transponder code at the time."
"That's true enough, Your Grace," Lieutenant Commander Reynolds said. "At the same time, Chantilly with merchant-grade sensors and from almost as far away as Hellbarde was able to clearly identify the 'Sittich' Captain Ferrero was intercepting as at least two m-tons smaller than the ship that transponder code actually belongs to. Surely Hellbarde's ship list for the Empire's merchant marine is at least as up to date as ours is! I find it very difficult to believe that a merchant ship would be more capable of identifying her correctly than an IAN heavy cruiser."
"Assuming that Hellbarde attempted to identify her in the first place," Warner Caslet said quietly. "That's where you're going, isn't it, My Lady?"
"Yes." Honor nodded. "Remember the history between Hellbarde and Jessica Epps. Mercedes, you and Andrea and George and I have all read Ferrero's previous reports. It's obvious Hellbarde was specifically assigned to shadow and harass Jessica Epps, not just any of our ships. As Alice just pointed out, it's been going on for months now, and Captain Ferrero's increasing frustration and anger were clearly evident from her reports. I see no reason to believe that the confrontation between them wasn't becoming equally personal for Kapitn zur Sternen Gortz, Hellbarde's CO. It's entirely possible that both of them found their judgment less than completely clear and impartial where the other one was concerned."
"You're saying that this Gortz character may have been sufficiently pissed off with Jessica Epps to jump her without trying to determine 'Sittich's' real identity one way or the other?" McKeon asked skeptically. He shook his head. "Again, with all due respect, what would a yahoo like that be doing commanding an IAN heavy cruiser?"
"Are you sure you want to ask that question, given some of the people you and I have seen commanding Manticoran heavy cruisers?" Honor replied with a more crooked than usual smile. "Especially in backwater systems like...oh, Basilisk, say?"
"Touch," McKeon murmured after a moment, nodding slowly, almost as if against his will.
"It could have happened that way," Truman conceded. "But if it did, there must have been some pretty serious lapses on both sides. Ferrero certainly should have informed Gortz of her intentions. And from Chantilly's sensor log, Jessica Epps had plenty of overtake on 'Sittich.' There was no way a merchie was going to evade her at that point, so there was no compelling need for Ferrero to be firing warning shots if there was any confusion or uncertainty in her communications with Hellbarde."
"I'm not prepared to condemn one of my captains' actions without a lot more information than we currently have," Honor said. "On the other hand, from the very limited data actually available to us, it would certainly appear that that may have been true. In the final analysis, it was Gortz who first fired on Jessica Epps, which certainly seemsfrom our perspective, at leastto have been a much more serious 'lapse' than anything of which Ferrero may have been guilty. That doesn't mean both COs didn't contribute to what happened, and I think we all need to be aware of the fact that we're automatically prejudiced against the captain who killed one of our own ship's entire company. Not to mention the depth of the anger and resentment we all feel because of the Andermani's previous, deliberately provocative policy.
"But the two key points at this moment, as I see it, are that we have a very serious shooting incident between our own forces and the Andermani Navy, and that we don't have any way of knowing precisely what led up to it. The fact that it occurred in the territorial space of a third, neutral power complicates things even further, of course, but it doesn't change those two considerations."
She paused once more, surveying the faces and tasting the emotions about her, and behind her own calm faade she felt her own tension, her own anxiety. Her own sense of responsibility.
"I intend," she said, "to send Chantilly's sensor log to Sachsen for review by Admiral Sternhafen. I will point out to him that according to that log, his commander clearly fired on our vessel before Jessica Epps returned fire. I will suggest to him that it would be...appropriate for him to determine whether or not the ship identifying itself as Sittich was the ship which ought to have been squawking that transponder code, and I will share with him the intelligence we developed suggesting that the ship in question was in fact both a slaver and illegally squawking a fraudulent code. I will request that he thoroughly investigate these events, and offer to conduct such an investigation jointly with him. In particular, I will request access to Hellbarde's surviving personnelunder Andermani supervision, of coursein an effort to obtain firsthand testimony from the only survivors."
"Your Grace," Reynolds said, "all of our information on Graf von Sternhafen suggests that he's not going to pay you a great deal of attention. According to everything we have, he's a card-carrying member of the anti-Manticore faction within the IAN. Not to put too fine a point on it, he hates the Star Kingdom's guts."
"I'm well aware of that, George. That's one reason why I've been looking forward to Herzog von Rabenstrange's arrival to replace him. And why I think the timing on this episode is particularly tragic. Nonetheless, I don't see any way to justify not at least attempting to defuse this situation before it careens entirely out of control. If, in fact, this was an accidentif the Andies didn't intend from the beginning to pull the trigger on a general war between the Empire and the Star Kingdomthen I have an absolute responsibility to do all I can to pull us back from the brink instead of simply plunging over it because I don't expect my efforts to succeed."
Several heads nodded unconsciously in agreement around the conference table, but she tasted dis agreement from several of her subordinates, as well. And, in all fairness, she couldn't really blame them for it. For all of her effort to remain analytical and detached, she felt a bright, searing flicker of rage whenever she thought of what had happened to Erica Ferrero's ship and all of her crew. Alice was undoubtedly correct that there'd been lapses on both sides, but if the Andermani hadn't been deliberately provoking incidents for so long, those lapses probably wouldn't have occurred...and would never have had such fatal consequences if they had.
She wanted vengeance. She wanted to avenge her dead and simultaneously pay back all of the premeditated slights the Andermani had given the Royal Manticoran Navy. And she wanted, God help her, an enemy she could face openly, across the broadsides of her warships, without all of this endless hiding in shadows and groping with uncertainty even as she looked over her shoulder at a Government she neither agreed with nor trusted. She wanted that so badly she could taste it, like fire on her tongue.