Horvath watched her narrowly. What's your point, woman? he wondered.

Her eyes had never given way as she spoke. Now she examined the nails on her right hand, fingers curled and palm up, like a man. Her voice became reflective. "You developed an operating style that worked for you." She paused. "And you brought it with you when you started the Front."

Again she met his eyes. "But this is not a labor dispute, or a political dispute, or an environmental or economic dispute." Her voice intensified. "It is a war against war, Yaro, and we need to fight it differently. Find the enemy's greatest weakness, and attack it. Regardless of risk, because the stakes are so great, and time is against us."

She looked around the table. "Many voices have urged the government to declare martial law, but Chang and Peixoto have refused. Because they're smarter and more farsighted than those who've pressed them for it. They appreciate that the people hate martial law. For more than ninety years our ancestors lived under it! Generations never knew anything else! Meanwhile they watched their technical infrastructure erode, saw their physical-biological environment degraded to a point where it seemed almost beyond recovery. After all these centuries it's still not completely recovered."

She stopped, standing silent, clenched jaw jutting, eyes hard, and let them wait till it seemed someone would surely burst out, demanding she finish. Then she spoke again. "We need to create a campaign that will force them to declare martial law. A campaign of acts by individuals and small groups. Of violence. Of destruction." She paused for emphasis. "And of assassinations. Aimed at the most egregious, or most heinous, or most corrupt government war action we can find. At the same time risking a backlash against us. And there will be one."

Then she sat down. No one applauded. No one even said "Hear hear!" For another dozen seconds the room was silent. Finally Genovesi spoke. "Well. That's said. Now we need to look at what issue or issues to use as a focus, a target, for that serious violence. Which is what it will take to bring about martial law."

Guzman suggested accusing the government of planning to use neutron bombs. The nuclear strikes in the Hitler War, the brief and suicidal nuclear religious war of the 21st century, and finally the cynical neutron bombings of the Troubles had made nuclear weapons-nuclear technology of any sort-anathema in the Commonwealth. It was the deadliest accusation possible.

Paddy Davies was adamantly against it. "If we make such a claim," he said, "we'll need plausible evidence. Plausible evidence! Considering the seriousness of the charge, the public will demand it. I'd demand it. And in all our gathering and winnowing of information and gossip, we've found no whiff of that or any other nuclear plans." Then Horvath stood, guaranteeing it would backfire, and Kuei-Fei pointed out that there wasn't even an infrastructure to provide the means for such a program. When Genovesi called the question, not even Guzman voted for it.

Afterward, discussion became listless, the proposals feeble and unpromising. Then Genovesi suggested that if crimes against Wyzhnyny didn't seemed to resonate with the public, crimes against humans might.

"We've already plowed that ground," Horvath said.

"Not all of it," Kuei-Fei countered. "We can attack the newly leaked loosening in military bot agreements! Loosening designed to shanghai the wounded out of their bodies!" They were, she felt, nothing short of outrageous: reduced eligibility standards for the wounded. Battlefield proxies authorized to "speak for the unconscious wounded." The use of a stasis drug to prolong the survival of the mortally wounded till they could be bottled. Bottled and thrown back into the shame of battle, instead of peacefully joining with the All-Soul. And as an issue, it came with built-in support: some mainstream media had already criticized these changes as designed to allow abuses.

The discussion wasn't enthusiastic, but before lunch they'd approved the issue without dissent.

After lunch they discussed and voted on a change of leadership: previously, the chairman had worn the policy and planning hats, and the vice chairman the operations hat. That was now changed. Gunther Genovesi was elected chief executive officer, which included chairing meetings. Kuei-Fei Wu became planning officer. Jaromir Horvath accepted the post of whip; he would make sure people did what they'd agreed to. And Paddy Davies would be public relations director.

Of the old "big three," only Fritjof Ignatiev continued in his previous post-the Voice of the Front. Its orator.

Fritjof Ignatiev, a dedicated soldier of peace, who bore no management responsibilities and wanted none. He was not very intelligent and, remarkably enough, realized the fact.

New Jerusalem:

Encounter In Space

Vice Admiral Carmen Apraxin-DaCosta had been born with more than her share of intellectual and leadership potential, and grew up in a family tradition of service in the fleet. Even as the fleet shrank to become a simulated fleet, existing in the real world as no more than light squadrons sent to hunt pirates. A remote ancestor had been Fleet Admiral Gavril Apraxin, who'd served during the Troubles. Hero of the Lesser Congeries, and postmortem scapegoat of the President Akiro disaster.

In childhood she'd pretended-believed?-she was that remote progenitor, reincarnated-the sort of thing children often play at mentally-but she never thought of it anymore. She was Carmen Apraxin-DaCosta, with her own life to live and her own career to fashion. Things she'd done conspicuously well.

On her flagship the Uinta, her attention was on something much more urgent. She'd just emerged from her closing jump to the New Jerusalem System, and shipsmind had promptly reported an alien pentagonal battle group-the Wyzhnyny system defense force-also in the inner fringe, only 189 million miles away. At the same time, shipsmind tagged each enemy spacecraft by its complex electronic signature, each a composite of several system signatures. It wasn't as definitive as fingerprints, but between overhauls it was reliable.

Shipsmind had also registered the Wyzhnyny's small planetary guard flotilla, parked only 90,000 miles off New Jerusalem. It was large enough to be seriously dangerous to a planetary assault, but far too small to threaten her task force. She'd ignore it till she'd dealt with the more potent system defense force.

Meanwhile she ordered the planetary assault force to generate warpspace and head insystem, getting it out of what she hoped would prove the primary danger zone. Sending one of her three battle groups as escort. She hardly considered moving against the system defense force. Almost surely it wasn't where it seemed to be, or wouldn't be for long. Because shipsmind hadn't registered it in real time; the finite speed of light got in the way. Given the distance, her current read showed it as it had been seventeen minutes earlier. So she would wait.

She was right; ten minutes later the aliens disappeared from her screens. They were nearly seven minutes under way, almost surely headed for either her main force or New Jerusalem, presumably the first.

She presumed correctly. In just six minutes they appeared abruptly in F-space, but not all in one place. Their commander realized he was seriously outnumbered, so his battle group emerged as five subgroups, in five locations around the human perimeter. Each subgroup consisted of a battleship, with a screen of what Apraxin thought of as cruisers and corvettes.

It was a far more favorable tactical situation than Spanish Soong had faced, and Apraxin was ready with more than shields. Six weeks earlier, via savant, Soong had sent Charley Gordon's detailed suggestions and instructions. Afterward she'd spent several days with her AI chief, programing and installing it all in Uinta's shipsmind. That had been followed by weeks of simdrills, as she rode hyperspace toward the New Jerusalem system. They'd emerged in F-space 280 billion miles from New Jerusalem, for an astrogational read and to re-form formations. While there she'd uploaded Charley's "export" system to her fighting ships; it was designed for use without Charley at the helm. Then they'd done simdrills together.