“Strategic Command is waiting for guidance from higher levels,” Drayson said. “Until those issues are resolved, I don’t think you can expect any reinforcements—unless you should happen to come under direct attack.”
“How long is it going to take to find some resolve?”
A’baht said. “I’ve been forced to detach ships from the Fifth for Wehttam and Galantos. The other neighboring systems are still unprotected. And every day we sit out here patrolling empty space, the Yevetha dig in deeper on the worlds they took. We can’t reward them for their aggression. We must do something to punish them.”
“I am not the one who needs convincing.”
“Then who is? Our presence is accomplishing nothing.
By this time, the Yevetha must know that the Fleet is an empty threat.”
“The Princess wants to do the right thing,” said A’baht. “She will need our help to see that the right thing gets done.”
“What kind of help?”
“You need to find more graphic evidence of the Yevethan atrocities,” Drayson said. “Without it, Princess Leia will not be strong enough to overcome the resistance of the Senate.”
A’baht drew his lips back in a silent snarl. “I don’t know that we can do more than we have. I’ve put prowlers right up to the border, even a little beyond. Our sensing technology’ simply can’t give us anything at that range. I’m having a difficult enough time getting good tactical information, much less documenting the massacres.”
“I trust you’re persisting, even though it’s difficult.”
“If you’re asking whether the ferrets and prowlers are still out, the answer is yes,” said A’baht. “But it’s too late now for what you ask.
From the looks of what you sent me, the Yevetha didn’t leave much evidence behind.
And why isn’t what you have already enough for Leia?”
“It’s not a matter of what Leia has or hasn’t seen,” said Drayson ambiguously. “It’s a matter of what she’s free to show the Senate. If she offers them independent intelligence, something that doesn’t come from the NRI or the Fleet, the meaning of what she shows them will get lost in the questions about its origin.”
“I have questions about its origin,” A’baht said gruffly. “You have to have had assets inside Koornacht to get those holos—assets which were either in place undetected, or which could move fast enough to arrive before the fires were out. I would very much like to know what manner of ferret could accomplish that.”
“And those are exactly the questions Leia cannot be asked,” said Drayson. “She needs intelligence with a good, clear, and perfectly ordinary pedigree. General, I suggest you place a ferret in Zone Nineteen.”
“Zone Nineteen?” A’baht consulted his tactical map. “That’s a third of the way around the Cluster toward the Core–far outside the area we’ve been patrolling.”
“Then I suggest you widen your patrol area.”
“Why?”
“It so happens that Zone Nineteen sits on the line-of-sight vector connecting Wakiza and Doornik Three Nineteen, the Yevethan forward base. I think you may have an opportunity to acquire some signal intercepts with the hypercomm scanners.”
“Yevethan signals?”
“Of course.”
A’baht grunted expressionlessly. “And when might this opportunity arise?”
“Oh—I suspect there’s a great deal of traffic between those sites,” Drayson said lightly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you picked up something in the first few hours you were there.”
“Which I’d be obliged to forward immediately to the Fleet Office.”
“Of course.”
“Will it get to Leia from there?”
“In fairly short order, I would think.”
A’baht nodded. “It just might be that we’ve shown the Yevetha this patrol deployment long enough. If I extend the perimeter patrols by half, maybe it’ll make ‘em stop and wonder why.”
“Thank you for considering my input, General,” said Drayson, smiling genially. “Oh, and one other thing—” “What is that?”
“Since there are probably still some days, even weeks, of work left to do at this end, perhaps you might consider whether you can spare a smaller vessel for each of the other inhabited systems.”
“I’m convinced that nothing smaller than a frigate could withstand an initial Yevethan attack, and I have no more ships of that class to spare,” said A’baht.
“You’re right, of course,” Drayson said. “A corvette or patrol escort probably wouldn’t discourage the Yevetha, and certainly wouldn’t be able to repel them. I only thought there might be some symbolic value in their presence—” A’baht suddenly understood what Drayson was saying. - - Unless we should happen to come under direct attack, you say. And so you would like me to bait the Yevetha with an easy victory.