"I thought you said she had none-"

Esmay waved that away. If this woman, even this one woman, would listen to what she'd worked out, maybe it would help Brun. "I don't mean sexual morality. I mean her personality, her way of doing things. They're talking-they were talking-as if she were just a game piece. Unless she's dead, she's planning and doing something-and if we don't know what, we're going to find our plans crossing hers."

"But the Guernesi said there's no way to communicate with her-that pregnant and nursing women are sequestered, and besides, she can't talk." Still, Marta's eyes challenged Esmay to keep going.

"She needs to know she's not forgotten," Esmay said. "She needs to know someone thinks she's competent-"

"You sound as if you thought you understood her," Marta said.

"They silenced her," Esmay said, ignoring that invitation. "That doesn't mean she can't think and act. And-did they tell you about the children on that merchant ship?"

Marta frowned. "I . . . don't know. I don't think so. What does that have to do with Brun?"

Quickly Esmay outlined her new theory. "If they didn't kill those children, if they were taking them, they'd have put Brun in with them. That might be enough to keep her alive-if she thought she had a responsibility to the children. And she'd be planning some rescue for them, I would bet on it."

"I suppose it's possible . . ."

"And besides, for her to come out of this in the end, even if she is rescued, she needs to feel that she had some effect. It's one of the things they taught us, and Barin knows from experience .

. . a captive who is just rescued like a . . . a piece of jewelry or something . . . has a much harder time regaining a normal life. She was not just captured; she was muted, and then raped-made pregnant. All her options closed. They should be thinking beyond getting her out, to getting her out with some self-respect left."

Marta looked at her with a completely changed expression. "You're serious . . . you couldn't have come up with that if you didn't really care. That's good thinking, Lieutenant-excellent thinking.

And I can tell you that you're right-the planning group is not considering any of those things."

"Can you get it across to them?"

"Me? It's your idea."

"But I don't know how to get anyone to listen to me. They're so convinced I wanted something bad to happen to her, none of them will let me near the planning sessions, let alone speak. If you tell them, maybe they'll consider it."

"You're not asking for credit-"

Esmay shook her head. "No. Brun's the one in critical danger. Of course, I'd like to be the one to come up with the best solution . . . but it's better that someone comes up with it, than have it ignored."

"I'll . . . see what I can do," Marta said. "In that and other situations."

Admiral Serrano frowned as the door opened, but her expression eased as Marta Saenz swept through.

"Marta! I heard you were back from downside. We missed you the past few sessions. Lord Thornbuckle was actually making sense when you left, but he's foaming at the mouth again."

"I was prowling amongst the troops, as you'd put it. And I just had a little conversation with your Lieutenant Suiza," Marta said.

"Her." The admiral frowned again. "A very disappointing decision, encouraging her switch to command track. She's not working out at all."

"You've got the bull by the wrong leg," Marta said. "Did you know the girl was besotted with your grandson?"

"I know they formed an attachment on Koskiusko, which I'm glad to see is no longer important."

"Oh, but it is," Marta said. "The silly child fell madly in love for the first time in her life, and nothing in her background told her what to do when a rich, beautiful, charismatic blonde moved in on her love life."

"But she's-what?-almost thirty."

"She's also Altiplanan, lost her mother when she was five, and apparently no one told her about anything to do with love. So when she finally fell, she fell like the side of a mountain.

Something she heard in a class on professional ethics started her worrying about whether she should have-as if rules ever affected gravity or love-and while she was fumbling around trying to put her emotional affairs in order, Brun started playing come-hither with your grandson. Who resisted, by the way, but Esmay didn't know that when she blew up."

"I can hardly believe-"

"Oh, it's true. And your grandson is equally besotted with her, though he's tried to fight it. He was angry and hurt that Esmay didn't trust him, and-since he wasn't the one feeling unsure and jealous-he was appalled at her attack on Brun."

"Where did you get all this . . . inside knowledge of my grandson's head?"

"His heart, not his head. By poking around being a nosy old woman and then a more . . . er . . .

traditional grandmother than you are. He could hardly confide his guilty passion to you, now could he? Not when his lady love was in your black book and he knew your position was shaky, with dear Admiral Hornan doing his best to grab your command."

Admiral Serrano looked thoughtful. "They both still think they're in love, do they?"

Marta chuckled. "All the symptoms. They blush, they tremble, they look shy-it's rather sweet, actually, as well as unmistakeable. I admit my fondness for young love, messy though it often is.

It's why I helped Raffa and Ronnie get free of their appallingly stiff-necked parents. So you can quit looking for hidden political motives in Lieutenant Suiza's behavior-this is the oldest story

in the book."

"That may be, but it doesn't excuse-"

"What she said? No. But if her commander had known from day one that this was a squabble over a man, would he have handled it the way he did?"

Admiral Serrano pursed her lips. "Well . . . probably not. We do get late bloomers from time to time, and they do usually make a mess of things at least once." The admiral sounded thoughtful, less harsh.

"Making a mess of love is part of growing up," Marta said, nodding. "Making a mess of someone's career, however, requires the connivance of others."

"I don't follow you." But the dark eyes were alert, watchful.

"Well . . . as the resident sweet old lady in this facility-" The admiral snorted, and Marta flashed a quick grin but went on. "The youngsters tell me things. They always have. It's why I was Raffa's favorite aunt. I'd already begun to wonder how so shining a young hero could become everyone's favorite wicked woman quite so fast. I suspected that someone else's interest lay in making Lieutenant Suiza look as bad as possible, and I found that the tainted effluent, as it were, led to a few sources quite remote from Copper Mountain. That's why I went planetside, so I could do a little discreet database poking from a civilian facility."

"And you found-?"

Marta held up her hand and ticked off points on her fingers. "I found Academy classmates of Esmay's who were jealous of her success-who resented her honors-who would be quite happy to see her back in tech track, or out of Fleet, because she can fight rings around them. Much that's been attributed to her has come from these sources, and they've put the worst possible interpretation on what she did say. The people who've actually served with her are confused and upset right now, but find it hard to believe she could be the way she's now being painted. I found others who want to get influence with your grandson because he's a Serrano . . . who are very glad to put a barrier between him and Lieutenant Suiza."

"All very interesting-but are you sure you're hearing the truth?"

"Vida-remember Patchcock? My nose for this kind of nastiness-"

"Yes . . . all right . . . but that doesn't get Lieutenant Suiza off the hook for what she actually said and did. And there's a witness to her saying that Brun wasn't worth starting a war over."

"So did I, m'dear. So did you. So did the Guernesi ambassador, more than once. We wrapped it in platitudes, but you know and I know that no one-not even the Speaker, and certainly not his daughter-is worth starting a war for. Taken in context, what she actually said cannot be construed to mean that she thought all those things attributed to her."

The admiral spread her hands. "So-what do you propose to do about this? Since you came here, I presume you have a plan in mind."

"Well . . . having played fairy godmother to at least three other romances recently-you know about Raffa and Ronnie, but you don't know about the others-I feel I'm on a roll where love is concerned. If Esmay and Barin can work out their problems-"

"You mean you aren't planning to do it for them?" That with a challenging grin.