Lieutenant (j.g.) Sergei Karamzin to Ensign Dominic Flandry:
"'I wasn't ordered to stop thinking. And you know, I think this Starkad affair is a blind. They'll develop the war here, get our whole attention on this sinkhole, then bang, they'll hit someplace else.'
"Flandry blew a smoke ring. 'Maybe.'"
-CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, p. 171.
Flandry knows but cannot say. Karamzin has almost got it. The Merseians will maneuver the Terran fleet into concentrating its forces on the Saxonian System until a rogue planet hits Saxo, causing it to nova and destroying the fleet. By exposing this ploy, Flandry has saved Terra and the Empire in his very first exploit yet this is all written so plausibly that we do not complain. Fortunately, his second instalment is lower key although it also has lasting outcomes.
Upward and outward.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I would add that many influential people at Admiralty Center must have been grateful for what Flandry had done--and became inclined to regard him favorably, within limits. He might even have been mentioned by name to the aging Emperor Georgios.
Ad astra! Sean
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