“I’m saying—” Olivia continued, raising her voice over both of them. “I’m saying that capital ships don’t hold cities. Back in the Solar System, we might not have had inertia-defying terraforming ships, but we had capital ships that could throw rocks down into gravity wells. We could’ve destroyed anywhere we wanted just as badly as the Storm King wrecked Othar. But we still had wars. Why? Because the threat of destruction might work on leaders, but it doesn’t work on whole populations. People don’t take shit forever. They don’t keep working if their lives are ruined. They don’t want to see their whole world turned over to some asshole with a fancy starship just because he threatens them collectively.