At All Costs

by David Weber

  "No," White Haven admitted after a moment, his voice and expression both weary. "No, I can't. To be perfectly honest, there's a part of me which genuinely believes they mean it. That the demands they're still making are really pretty damned minimal, given the fact that they currently occupy all the planets in question. But I can't prove they are. And I can't prove that my awareness of our own weaknesses isn't causing me to overestimate how valuable a few months of relative operational inactivity would be for us."

  "I know." Langtry regarded him with something almost like compassion. "And I also know," he added in an oddly gentle tone, "that Duchess Harrington continues to believe the Peeps' current leadership-or at least some elements of it-can be trusted to keep its word."

  Samantha's ears twitched, and White Haven looked up quickly, eyes narrowed, at the reference to Honor, but Langtry only looked back levelly.

  "As it happens," the Foreign Secretary continued, "I, also, have a very lively respect for Duchess Harrington's judgment. And I realize the two of you-and Emily, of course-have become close allies, politically, as well as militarily. But in this particular instance, I think I have to agree with the Queen and Willie that she's wrong. The Peeps' actions aren't those of the honorable people she thinks they are. There could be a lot of extenuating circumstances which account for that, but it's true. And we have to make our decisions based on their demonstrated behavior, not on what we think their internal character is really like."

  White Haven started to reply, then clamped his jaw tightly. Whether he liked it or not, everything Langtry had just said made sense. It all hung together, and the Foreign Secretary was certainly right about the Havenites' demonstrated behavior.

  And Langtry's tactful suggestion that he might be allowing Honor's view of Thomas Theisman-who, after all, was only one man-to influence his own analysis of the situation could well have merit. He didn't think he was, but it wasn't impossible.

  He drew a deep breath, ran his hand gently down Samantha's spine, and forced his jaw muscles to relax. It really was possible he was being influenced by the fact that the woman he loved-one of the women he loved-found her view so profoundly at odds with that of virtually everyone else in the current government. She didn't make a point of her disagreement, but she didn't back away from it, either. The Queen, and his own brother, for that matter, knew exactly what she thought. Which was one of the reasons they didn't discuss that particular aspect of the war with her at the moment.

  And, he admitted to himself, it's the reason you haven't told her about Pritchart's 'new' proposals, either, Hamish.

  "All right, Tony," he said finally. "Maybe you're all right and I'm wrong. And maybe I am reacting this way because I'm too well aware of where we're in trouble and not aware of where they might be, or think they are. At any rate, I've given it my best shot with Willie and Elizabeth, and now even with you."

  "You have that," Langtry agreed wryly. "Emphatically, one might almost say."

  "All right, all right!" White Haven repeated, this time with a hint of a smile. "I'll go away and leave you in peace."

  He stood, lifting Samantha back to his shoulder, and started for the door. But he stopped, just short of it, and looked back.

  "It all makes sense the way you interpret it. And Elizabeth, and Willie," he said. "And you may all be right. But I can't help thinking, Tony-what if you're not? What if I'm not? What if this isn't just a chance to buy time to organize our defenses, but a genuine opportunity to end the war without anyone else getting killed?"

  "In that case, a lot of people are going to be killed who wouldn't have to be," Langtry said levelly. "But all any of us can do is the best we can do and hope at the end of the day we can live with our choices."

  "I know," Hamish Alexander said softly. "I know."

  * * *

  "We're ready for you now, Your Grace."

  Honor switched off her pad, rose from the comfortable chair in the private waiting room, scooped Nimitz up from the chair beside her, and followed the nurse. Andrew LaFollet trailed along behind her, and she hid a smile as she remembered his expression the first time he'd accompanied her on a visit to her physician and she'd innocently invited him to accompany her into the examination room. She hadn't done that to him again, but she tasted his own memory of the event as he followed her down the hallway. And, to be honest, she was tempted to do it again this time, since it was only too obvious LaFollet strongly supported MacGuiness' insistence on this nonsense.

  "Through here, Your Grace," the nurse said. He opened the exam room's door, and Honor glanced mischievously at LaFollet, who returned her gaze stoically, then looked at the nurse.

  "Thank you. Ah, would be all right if my armsman stands in the hall here?" she asked him.

  "Quite all right, Your Grace," the nurse assured her. "We're aware of the Grayson security requirements."

  "Good," she said, and smiled at LaFollet. "This shouldn't take too long, Andrew," she told him. "Of course, if you'd like to-"

  She gestured at the examination room, one eyebrow arched, and treasured his long-suffering expression.

  "That's all right, My Lady. I'll be fine right here," he assured her.

  * * *

  Honor checked the time again, and Nimitz bleeked a question as she frowned.

  "Sorry, Stinker," she said, reaching out to scratch his chest as he reclined comfortably beside her on the examining table. "Just wondering what's become of Doctor Frazier."

  Nimitz flipped his shoulders in an unmistakable shrug, and she chuckled. But she didn't stop wondering.

  Both her parents were physicians, and she'd spent enough time undergoing repairs to be more familiar with the medical profession than most. There was a rhythm and a timing to examinations, and a routine physical shouldn't be taking this long. Doctor Frazier's nurse had run all the diagnostics and departed with the results almost ninety minutes ago. Frazier should have evaluated them and put in her own appearance within fifteen or twenty minutes at the outside.

  "Wait here, Stinker."

  Honor climbed down off the examining table, opened the door, and stuck her head out into the hall. LaFollet started to turn towards the door as it opened, then stopped, facing rigidly away from it.

  "Oh, don't be silly, Andrew!" she scolded fondly. "I'm perfectly decent."

  He turned his head, and his mouth twitched, hovering on the edge of a smile, as he took in her uniform trousers and blouse.

  "Yes, My Lady?"

  "I'm just wondering where Doctor Frazier is."

  "Do you want me to go check, My Lady?"

  "No, no." She shook her head. "I just wanted to poke my head out and look around. I'm sure she'll get here as soon as possible. I wonder what's holding her up, though."

  "If you'd like-" LaFollet began, then broke off as Doctor Frazier came briskly down the hall with a memo board tucked firmly under her left arm.

  Janet Frazier was trim, slender, auburn-haired, and a good twenty-five centimeters shorter than Honor. She moved with a brisk confidence and habitually exuded the sense of authority which was one of the hallmarks of a good physician. She looked just as composed as usual, but both of Honor's eyebrows rose as she tasted the doctor's actual emotions. Consternation predominated, mingled with something very much like apprehension-flavored amusement.

  "Your Grace," Frazier said. "I apologize for the delay. I had to, ah, recheck some test results and do a little research."

  "I beg your pardon?" Honor said.

  "Why don't we step back into the exam room, Your Grace?"

  Honor obeyed the polite command. She stepped back up onto the stool, and parked herself on the edge of the padded table. Nimitz took one look at Frazier, then sat up beside Honor, ears cocked. The raised diagnostic sensors just cleared the top of Honor's head as she sat down, and Frazier tossed her memo board onto the polished top of a low cabinet and folded her arms across her chest.

  "Your Grace," she said after a moment, "I'm pretty sure I have a surprise for you. The nau
sea you've been experiencing?"

  She paused, and Honor nodded.

  "It's morning sickness, Your Grace."

  Honor blinked. For a long moment, perhaps five seconds, she had absolutely no idea what Frazier was talking about. Then it registered, and she sat bolt upright. In fact, she sat up so quickly she bashed the top of her head on one of the sensors.

  Not that she even noticed the impact.

  "That's ridiculous!" she snapped. "Impossible!"

  "Your Grace, I checked the results three times," Frazier said. "Trust me. You are pregnant."

  "But-But... I can't be!" Honor shook her head, thoughts skittering like a treecat kitten on ice. "I can't be," she repeated. "On more levels than you can possibly imagine, Doctor, I can't be."

  "Your Grace," Frazier said, "I'm not in any position to comment on exactly how much opportunity you've had to become pregnant. But I can tell you, without any doubt whatsoever, that you are."

  Honor's head spun. Frazier couldn't be right-she just couldn't.

  "But... but my implant," she protested.

  "I thought about that as soon as I saw the initial result," Frazier admitted. "That's one reason I checked it three times."

  Honor stared at her. All active-duty female naval personnel eligible for shipboard duty were required to maintain current contraceptive implants as insurance against accidental pregnancy. The Navy provided a perfectly adequate implant good for one T-year, renewable with each annual physical, as part of its basic medical care, but anyone who wanted to pay for her own implant could do so, as long as it met the minimum one-year requirement of the Service and was kept current. Without that implant, she was restricted to dirt-side duty, safely away from the risk of accidental radiation exposures. Given her own career plans, Honor had opted for a ten-year implant. It could have been deactivated at any time, in the unlikely event her plans had changed, and it was simply one less detail to bother about.

  "I'm not positive yet, Your Grace," Frazier continued, "but I think I may have figured out what happened. To the implant, I mean."

  Honor shook her head and settled back down on the edge of the examining table. Nimitz flowed into her lap, leaning back against her, and she wrapped her arms tightly about his soft, comforting warmth and rested her chin on the top of his head.

  "If you have any idea how it happened, it's more than I have," she said.

  "I think it's a data entry error, Your Grace."

  "A data entry error?"

  "Yes." Frazier sighed. "This probably wouldn't have happened if Doctor McKinsey hadn't been called back to Beowulf, Your Grace. Unfortunately, he was, and I've been your personal physician only since your return from Cerberus. And your file was delivered to me from Bassingford when I first saw you."

  Honor nodded.

  "Apparently what happened was that when the Peeps announced your 'execution,' the Navy removed your files from the medical center's active database. After all, you were dead. So, when you turned up alive again, they had to reactivate your records. And I'm guessing there was some glitch, because according to your file, your implant was renewed after your return from Cerberus."

  "After my return?" Honor shook her head vigorously. "Certainly not!"

  "Oh, I'm well aware of that, Your Grace," Frazier said. "In fact, this is at least partly my fault. I didn't do a complete enough review of your records, or I might have realized the date indicated for your implant renewal was flatly impossible."

  "But how could someone have screwed it up?" Honor demanded. Her brain, she realized, was not functioning especially well at the moment.

  "My best guess?" Frazier said. "It looks to me as if when your records were reactivated all entries specific to Navy-monitored requirements-like the requirement that your contraceptive implant be current-were somehow reset to the date they were reactivated. Which means that so far as I knew from my records, which were based on Bassingford's, your implant should have been good for another three and a half T-years. Which, obviously, it wasn't."

  Honor closed her eyes.

  "I realize the timing on this is... awkward, Your Grace," Frazier said. "There are, of course, several options available to us. Which one you choose is up to you, but at least it's very early in the pregnancy. There's time to decide what you want to do."

  "Doctor," Honor said, without opening her eyes, "I'm due to deploy to Trevor's Star in less than two weeks."

  "Oh."

  Honor opened her eyes at last, and smiled crookedly at Frazier's expression.

  "That does put rather a tighter time constraint on it, doesn't it?" the doctor continued.

  "You might put it that way... assuming you're given to understatement."

  "Well, in that case, Your Grace," Frazier said, "and speaking as your physician, I think you'd better inform the father as quickly as you can."

  Chapter Eleven

  "My Lady?"

  Honor twitched in her comfortable limousine seat and looked up.

  Nimitz was curled tightly in her lap, pressing against her while he radiated comfort. The 'cat clearly didn't understand all of the reasons behind her consternation and anxiety, but his loving concern and support poured into her, and she treasured them. Unfortunately, Nimitz couldn't begin to resolve all of the potentially disastrous consequences which might stem from her condition.

  "Yes, Spencer?" she said, looking at the fair-haired armsman who'd spoken.

  "We just received a com call from the spaceport, My Lady," he said respectfully. Her youngest armsman obviously also realized something was wrong, but he didn't know what, and his tone was cautious. "The Tankersley just made orbit," he continued.

  "She did?" Honor sat straighter, her chocolate-dark eyes brightening suddenly. "She's early."

  "Yes, My Lady."

  "Thank you, Spencer. Simon," she leaned forward, looking past Hawke to the armsman in the pilot's place, "contact the escort and turn us around, Simon. We're going to the spaceport to pick up my parents."

  * * *

  "Now, then, Honor Stephanie Harrington," Allison Harrington said sternly, "what in the world has your panties in such a knot?"

  Honor, Nimitz, and her parents were alone together for the first time since their arrival. Allison and Alfred Harrington sat in Honor's office while she stood facing the crystoplast wall, arms crossed, with Nimitz on her shoulder, but she had no attention to spare for her favorite view of Jason Bay. The twins had been handed off to Jennifer LaFollet, Allison's Grayson-born personal maid, and Lindsey Phillips, their Manticoran nanny, after properly affectionate greetings, but Honor had tasted her mother's concern as Allison watched her with Faith and James. She'd often thought Allison had a lot in common with treecats, and her ability to read her daughter's mood and body language so acutely was one of the reasons.

  "What makes you think anything has my underwear tangled, Mother?" Honor replied now, turning back from the bay to face her. She unfolded her arms and reached up to scratch Nimitz's chin soothingly with her right hand.

  "Oh, please, Honor!" Allison rolled her eyes, then waved at Nimitz. "That furry little henchman of yours is as tightly wired as I've ever seen him. Certainly since the day the two of you snuck off for that first trip to his home range which I'm sure you both continue to fondly imagine your father and I knew nothing about." Honor's eyes widened, and Allison snorted. "And as for you, young lady! I've never seen you as skittish around the kids as you were this afternoon. So, what is it?"

  "Oh, nothing much." Honor's voice wavered slightly around the edges, undermining her attempt at nonchalance. "I just got a little... unexpected medical news this morning."

  She looked back out at the bay, then faced her mother's eyes.

  "I'm pregnant, Momma," she said quietly.

  For a moment, Allison-and Honor's father-both seemed as totally clueless as she'd felt when Frazier informed her. Both of them recovered from the instant of total non-comprehension much more quickly than she had, however. Probably, she thought, with a flicker of half-b
itter amusement, because they weren't the ones who were pregnant!