This is a sequel to my previous story 'Bridge Building', and you really should read that first. As with that story, this story is in sync with canon up to Mission of Honor, lightly AU up to Cauldron of Ghosts, and almost certainly will diverge somewhat from future books. Events in this story start a bit over one year after the conclusion of both Bridge Building and Cauldron of Ghosts. I'd guess at least one Honorverse novel will take place between the end of my previous story and the start of this one. The structure of the Sol System Government that unfolds as part of this story is entirely my own invention and has no basis in any of Weber's text.

The Honorverse belongs to David Weber. I'm just playing with it for a bit.

Prologue: June 1924 PD

Sol System, Solarian League Navy Fleet Headquarters

"So how fares your project?" Fleet Admiral Kingsford asked. He hadn't wanted to pull Thenuwara away from that project for the time it took to Sol and back, but he could hardly go out to Sanderson himself, and the SLN's newest five-star Admiral was one of the very few people he could count on to tell the truth to him.

"General Industries' people are just about ready to lay down the first hulls of their updated design. And they're projecting a build time of thirty months." By the standards of any SLN yard, that was a breakneck pace. "They've also prepared some paper studies that might be worth further development, if we have the budget for them."

"Will we be able to meet the Manties on anything like an even basis with them?"

"Perhaps with enough of them, but the more important fact is that someone with technological parity with the Manites could not hold them off with light units. The first proposal is one to basically convert a Scientist or Vega into an optimized missile pod carrier, and along the way update everything that's practical to update. It would cost almost as much as building a new SD(P) from scratch, and be even less capable than the Sanderson Navy's original design… but it could be done in 18 months, given the yard space to build it. The second is an SD(P) design that, like what we're laying down in the yards we captured from the Princedom, is based on their SD(P) design, but this one is intended to use as many components as possible from existing stores and/or dismantling the reserve fleet. Again, less capable, but they believe it can be built in 24 months instead of 30.

"On the other hand, what we're laying down now at Sanderson is considerably more capable than the PSN built; we're using the best hardware available in the League, whether or not the Navy used it previously, as well as quite a few R&D products from General Industries. All things being equal, the Princedom's design needed a 2:1 advantage over Rivendell's Aes Sedai DN(P) for an even fight. We're projecting that the upgrades we can make – mostly in electronics – could cut that to 3:2. Of course, the elves have probably incorporated some Manticoran technology into the last two flights of Aes Sedai, and certainly have in all the new construction they're building – mostly for their alliance partners. And one of the changes GIT's people made was to try and design things to be upgraded, and in anticipation of eventually reverse-engineering Manticoran developments. GIT's people have also designed in bays for two enormous remote platforms because the Manticorans pod SDs do; the platforms we're currently proposing those spaces now are loaded with fire control and point defense but we think the Manty version enabled that FTL fire control system of theirs. Which we're nowhere near matching. We do have a hand-built, experimental system that fits in a LAC, but GIT says volume production is a long way off."

"So what you're telling me is you have some ideas for stop gaps that won't be good enough and would require us throwing money and people at to build enough to matter, and the best GIT can do right now won't be ready for another two and a half years at best and is still significantly inferior to what Manticore already has deployed. And you want to go ahead and build that anyway, and keep R&D and construction isolated out at Sanderson. Does that some things up?"

"Yes. I'm not sure of the merits of either of GIT's expedient class proposals, but I am convinced that it's time to start laying down our first hulls. And until we get to the bottom of this Mesan conspiracy of the Manties, I'm convinced we need to do our R&D and construction somewhere as far from prying eyes as possible. GIT is convinced the improved versions of the PSN's missiles they've come up with are already better than Technodyne's, and I'd prefer that they stay proprietary to the SLN."

[break]

Sol System, Thenuwara family estate

Admiral Thenuwara had avoided visiting the family compound on her last trip to Earth. She'd only been in-system long enough to report to Kingsford, and speak briefly with the people putting together the civilian experts that would be following her shortly. After passing through the tightest security screening any civilian in the SLN's employee had ever had. Finding good and loyal people who had to agree to none but highly censored communications outside the Sanderson system and to stay out there for five years, even if they would be able to bring their families with them and be very well compensated financially for the task, was difficult. But General Industries of Terra was a huge transstellar corporation; there were enough of them that fit the bill.

Speaking with her father was not something she was looking forward to. He was a hundred and fifteen years old, and had retired from the SLN as a Fleet Admiral when it became clear he would never get a clear shot at the Battle Fleet CO's job, or the overall command of the Navy that almost always followed. Three of the four before Rampajet had been from the Thenuwara family, and the other old fleet families had been concerned they were becoming too powerful. Choosing Rampajet instead of her father had still been a mistake, even if she likely would not have had a much freer rein with her father in the CNO's office.

"Thank you for coming." He said.

"Do I have you to thank for my fifth star?" She normally had more tact than that.

"I may have suggested that it looked bad for the only admiral in Battle Fleet who has won a battle recently to remain a four-star. I did not campaign for it."

"I can live with that."

"Most of the family was not convinced of the merits of your… project… until very recently, but we did not see any harm in it. I, for one, was not convinced of the immediacy of the problem until the Tiberian incident." Four of the SLN's Gladiator-class heavy cruisers had been destroyed by a single Manticoran CA there, and even considering the low quality of the 'pirate' crews and that they lacked the first-line SLN upgrades… that indicated serious deficiencies in the SLN's warships. Indira had strongly suspected Manticore's first line hardware had outclassed the SLN's for twenty years at that point, but that was the first demonstration of the disparities in real combat.

"That was five years ago, father."

"I could see no way to make any significant improvements in the resources available to 34th Fleet without drawing the wrong kind of attention. Accusations that a handful of old Fleet families were building their own private Navy would only make your job harder."

"You did not ask me here to apologize."

"No. You have two openings for a Vice-Admiral. I want you to take Rajiv for one of them."

Misaki Oshigiri had earned a long-deserved promotion to full Admiral and was her wall of battle commander now. And as Indira had suspected would happen, Adrienne Brock had resigned from the SLN to become the senior field commander of the Heimdall Self-Defense Force. Brock wasn't the first SLN flag officer – or even starship commander – to make a similar move in the last year. Caitlin Michaels at Rivendell had been the most spectacular – bringing an entire Frontier Fleet detachment with her, and Luis Rozack the boldest (given that the legal rights of protectorate worlds like those in the Maya Sector to secede were… unclear at best), but the scores of other, smaller-scale defections (whether their new employers had officially left the League yet or not) added yet another problem to the many the SLN was facing. It wasn't a problem she'd failed to anticipate; Indira had drawn her people in 34th Fleet from worlds that could be expected to stick with Sol to the bitter end and people who could be expected to stick with her where the former could not be found. Brock had not been an old hand with 34th Fleet despite in most ways being someone Indira would have wanted to recruit; she had been one of the squadron commanders for the two squadrons attached to her regular fleet when she was sent out to do something about Sanderson's raids on Solarian League protectorates and the Rivendell Republic making off with an entire SLN Frontier Fleet detachment in the process of seceding. But Adrienne Brock was from Heimdall, and her people had been almost certain Heimdall would not stay with Sol if the League splintered, and they had been correct.

Her nephew was more than capable, but he had never shown the signs of discontent with Battle Fleet's standard operating procedures that she looked for in people she brought into her fleet. Which was perhaps why he was already a Vice-Admiral despite being over thirty years her junior. And he would certainly tell his grandfather anything of consequence that happened with her fleet.

"He'd be my most junior squadron commander. And reporting directly to Misaki, not to me. I'd have to give him Brock's squadron; none of the old 34th Fleet squadrons would work with a commander brought in from the outside right away. And I don't know how much longer the Manties will let us use their wormhole to send dispatch boats back to Sanderson."

"I think you misunderstand. Leaving an observer with your fleet is not the primary reason why I would ask that Rajiv accompany it." He was careful not to say spy. "But it would be a good idea to signal to the rest of the fleet that you have my complete support."

She could live with that. And finding a better vice-admiral than her nephew on short notice would be difficult. Oshigiri's replacement would be trickier; she had not misled her father on that. If Madison Keeley had declined Admiral Michaels' offer, the Commodore could perhaps have taken over for Yao on her staff while he moved to field command. Granted, transferring someone that senior from Frontier Fleet to Battle Fleet was all but unheard of, but Michaels' chief of staff had impressed her. As it was, the most capable senior person she'd 'appropriated' from the former Rivendell Sector Frontier Fleet detachment was Captain Eric Grant, who'd also been on Michaels' staff – the line captains having all been part of the Rivendell Sector's change of allegiance. Which meant somewhat more shuffling, but ended up with another one of her old hands as a squadron commander.

"I will take him, then. And father – I'm not entirely sure earth is much safer than a fleet command for someone like us these days. So be careful."