Duckk wrote:Your conditions are incorrect. Again, transiting the junction was not the plan. Reread chapter 25 from ART:“Admittedly, it never occurred to me Beowulf might be so far gone as to actually invite Manty wallers through into Beowulf space to threaten the League Navy,” Kolokoltsov conceded. “On the other hand, I never expected Admiral Tsang to be so frigging stupid as to actually try to fight her way through when Beowulf told her no, either!” It was his turn to shake his head, his expression disgusted. “She was supposed to back off ‘in deference to Beowulf’s expressed wishes’ — to let the Beowulfers stand on their ‘constitutional rights’ so we got the credit for showing restraint in the face of their irrationality!”
It is implied that Rajampet gave secret orders to force a military confrontation with Beowulf as part of the Alignment's plan, but the one officially approved by the Mandarins was simply one of posturing.
I had always read that as Tsang's orders were "If Beowulf brings a fight, break off" not "You arn't supposed to ACTUALLY go through the terminus." She seemed surprised to actually see the Beowulf wall there when she started the move from the space anchorage. (and totally flabbergasted to see the RMN wall)
“I suppose you’d better go ahead and notify Terminus Traffic Control that we’re going to be making transit shortly.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Well, I bet that’s going to make the Beowulfers happy,” Takeuchi murmured, his voice low enough for only Tsang to hear.
“They’re just going to have to live with it,” Tsang replied flatly. “And it’s not as if they haven’t had enough time to adjust—”
“Excuse me, Fleet Admiral.”
Tsang broke off in midsentence and turned back towards Marceau, eyebrows rising as the com officer’s peculiar tone registered.
“Yes, Sherwood?”
“You’ve got an incoming priority com request, Ma’am.”
“From Traffic Control?” Tsang was surprised. She didn’t doubt the traffic control authorities were going to be unhappy with her announcement that she was coming through their terminus anyway, whatever the Beowulfan system government might have decreed. But the terminus was thirty-three light-seconds from Warshawski; there was no way Marceau’s transmission could have reached it yet, and any response would be at least a half-minute behind that.
“No, Ma’am,” Marceau said, still with that peculiar edge to his voice. “It’s originating from near the terminus, but it’s from Vice Admiral Holmon-Sanders, not Traffic Control.”
Tsang glanced quickly at Takeuchi. Marianne Holmon-Sanders was the Beowulf System Defense Force’s senior in-space officer, ranking just behind Admiral Corey McAvoy, the chief of naval operations. She was also the commanding officer of the BSDF’s First Fleet—its only fleet, really—which made the fact that the incoming message was from her even more interesting.
To me, that means Tsang was intending to transit prior to the interaction with the Beowulf fleet.