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He walked to the head of the table, FitzGerald at his shoulder, and seated himself as the XO moved behind his own chair.
"Be seated, Ladies and Gentlemen," he said.
They sat back down, and he let his eyes sweep silently around the table, looking at each of them in turn.
Anders of the Warlock , and his executive officer, George Hibachi. Both of them returned Terekhov's regard steadily. Not without concern, but without flinching. That was important. After -Terekhov himself, Ito Anders was the senior officer of the "squadron" he'd assembled.
Eleanor Hope of the Vigilant , and her XO, Lieutenant Commander Osborne Diamond. Hope looked acutely unhappy, and her eyes avoided his. Diamond was a cipher, sitting at his captain's left elbow with no more expression than the bulkhead behind him.
Commander Josepha Hewlett and Lieutenant Commander Stephen McDermott of the Gallant . Both of them looked uncomfortable; neither looked as unhappy as Hope.
Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Mavundia, Audacious ' CO, and his exec, Lieutenant Commander A
Commander Herawati Lignos, CO of HMS Aegis , their most modern ship after Hexapuma . Only a light cruiser, perhaps, but still a formidable vessel. Much like her skipper, Terekhov thought, looking at Lignos' determined chin and bladelike nose. Her executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Istvan Nemesanyi, sat quietly beside her, his hazel eyes almost vacant and yet, somehow, poised on a hair trigger.
Lieutenant Commander Jeffers of the Javelin ; Lieutenant Commander Maitland Naysmith of the Janissary ; Lieutenant Commander Frank He
A mixed bag, he thought. Certainly no "band of brothers"! But they're what I have, the best I could shanghai, and they're Queen's officers. That's just going to have to be good enough.
"All of you know what Commander FitzGerald and Copenhagen were tasked to do," he began, and Commander Hope actually twitched as he broke his own silence. "The good news is that the Commander and his people appear to have accomplished their mission flawlessly. The bad news," he smiled mirthlessly at them, "is what they've discovered."
The sound of a pin dropped on the conference table would have been deafening, and he drew a deep, unobtrusive breath.
" Copenhagen 's recon drone executed its mission profile to the letter, Ladies and Gentlemen. Its passive sensors swept the volume through which it passed for active impeller wedges and examined the area of Eroica Station very carefully. Its data indicates that the Monica System Navy has been what might be called 'substantially reinforced.' In fact, the drone positively identified eleven Indefatigable -class battlecruisers at Eroica Station."
Something very like an audible gasp ran around the table, but he continued speaking calmly.
"So far as the drone was able to determine, all of them are either currently in yard hands or awaiting yard space. I believe they're being refitted in order to disguise their origins as much as possible. Which suggests to me, in turn, that they've been clandestinely provided to Monica. And I can think of only one reason for anyone to do that: to attack the Star Kingdom's interests in the Cluster."
Eleanor Hope shifted in her chair, and Terekhov's blue eyes moved to her.
"You wished to make a comment, Commander?" His emphasis on her rank title was so slight it was almost imagined.
"Yes, Sir. I suppose I did," she said after a brief hesitation.
He moved his right hand, inviting her to continue, and she looked once around the table and drew a deep breath.
"Captain Terekhov, with all due respect, I see no reason to automatically assume these ships were 'clandestinely provided' to President Tyler's navy. ONI reported months ago that the Indefatigables were being retired and replaced by the new Nevada -class ships." She shrugged. "We all know about Tyler's cozy relationship with Frontier Security. If the Sollies are disposing of the Indefatigables , why shouldn't they sell-or even outright give-some of them to somebody who's been their proxy for the last thirty or forty T-years? And if that's the case, or even if there is something 'clandestine' about the way Monica acquired them, it doesn't necessarily follow that they're intended to attack our interests."
Terekhov regarded her mildly, his expression thoughtful, but Anders grimaced.
"If I may, Captain Terekhov?" he asked, and Terekhov nodded.
"Commander FitzGerald," Warlock 's CO asked, "are you confident these battlecruisers are being actively refitted at Eroica Station?"
"Yes, Sir, I am," FitzGerald said firmly. "Not all of them are being refitted simultaneously, but those which aren't actively in yard hands are in parking orbits with the space station, and over half have service craft and lighters alongside. There are also two repair ships, each of which is moored alongside one of them. We have optical confirmation that the main broadside sensor arrays on at least three have been removed and are in the process of replacement." It was his turn to shrug slightly. "To me, all of that spells a pattern of mass refits being fu
"Thank you." Anders looked back at Terekhov, although it was evident he was actually directing his remarks to Hope. "If those ships had been openly provided by the League Navy to Monica, they wouldn't be being refitted at Eroica Station-not unless the object was to make them less capable than they already were. They would've been refitted and brought up to standard in Solly shipyards, where all the necessary support infrastructure and perso
"Which brings us to Commander Hope's second point, the question of just who the Monicans might intend to employ their new ships against. What Commander FitzGerald's detected is more firepower than Monica could possibly need to deal with any Verge system, or, for that matter, any dozen Verge systems! The only people I can think of in this neck of the woods that they'd need that much firepower against is us."
"Again, with all due respect, Captain," Hope said just a bit impatiently, "even if you're correct about who the ships might be used against, Monica wouldn't necessarily intend to use them offensively. In fact, it would be stupid of them to even contemplate attacking us, battlecruisers or no battlecruisers. But it's entirely possible that they could be sufficiently concerned by our presence in the Cluster to feel the need for a force able to deter any designs we might have on Monica."
"I think you're reaching, Eleanor," Commander Hewlett said, and Hope looked at her angrily. Hewlett looked at Terekhov, and he nodded permission for her to continue.
"There's no way those battlecruisers would deter us if we really wanted Monica," Gallant 's CO said. "A couple of pod SDs could turn all of them into scrap in a half-hour. Besides, Monica's not the kind of star nation that worries about what other people are likely to do to it; it's the kind of star nation that spends all its time trying to think of things to do to other people."
"And just what makes you think they're foolish enough to believe they could use those ships to attack us if they believe they're too weak to deter us, Josepha?" Hope demanded.
"I think Captain Terekhov already answered that question, Eleanor," Hewlett said in a rather pointed tone. "If they think they can convince the League to intervene on their behalf, they can damned well use those ships to create a situation to justify asking for that intervention."
"Or," Hope said stubbornly, "they could be thinking their new battlecruisers might let them stand off a Manticoran attack long enough for the League to intervene on their behalf. In which case," she kept her eyes on Hewlett's face, but Terekhov knew who she was truly speaking to, "actually attacking their system might be the worst thing we could do. If they're ready to invite the Sollies in to defend them, and if the Sollies have already agreed to do that, then the last thing we want to do is to go right ahead and provide them their pretext."
"Under other circumstances, Commander Hope," Terekhov said coolly, "I might be inclined to accept your analysis. Unfortunately, we also know Monica's been involved, as a staging point, at the very least, in a concerted effort by an outside power to provide weapons and funds to terrorists in the Cluster. That , Commander, is indeed an offensive act. Arguably, in fact, an act of war, although the situation's somewhat clouded by the fact that the systems in which they've been aiding and abetting terrorists aren't yet actually Manticoran territory. Based on that fact, I'm disinclined to assume Frontier Security's long-term proxies are forting up in their home system because they anticipate the momentary arrival of Manticoran conquistadors."
Hope's face reddened, and her lips thi
"In fact," Terekhov continued, "I assume those ships are part of a strategy aimed at preventing the a