Lt. Harcourt: I haven't picked up any grav-pulse transmissions. Anything they did get on us, aside from our footprint itself, has to be coming in light-speed. So whatever it might be, they won't have it for another twenty-five minutes or so. Lt Cdr Estwicke: By which time we'll have cut even the laser links and be very tiny needles in a very large haystack. Harcourt: Exactly, Skip. [cocking her head] By the way, Skipper, there's something I've always meant to ask. Estwicke: And what might that be? Harcourt: What the hell is a "haystack", anyway? ~David Weber
Havenite Admiral Marquette: There has to be some sort of underlying pattern to their target selection. I can't believe someone like Harrington is just reaching into a hat and pulling out names at random. For that matter, the spacing on this cluster of raids demonstrates she isn't. So try to get inside her head. Run it through the computers, kick it around, try to get some sort of feel for what kind of tendencies or inclinations may be pushing her choices. [later on] Mercedes Brigham: My idea of how to assign the task forces was to pull system names out of a hat. For some reason, neither Andrea nor Her Grace thought that was a wonderful idea. Honor: What I said was that it didn't seem very professional and it wouldn't do very much for the public's confidence in the Navy if we did it that way and word got out. ~David Weber