Underwriter Mehta

Anand Mehta worked the Combine's hull-loss desk, the office that priced insurance on warships and paid out when they died. Twelve years of that taught him which conditions raised the loss rate, and which captains lost ships above their bracket. The desk has the cleanest numbers on the fleet. He read all of them.

Fleet command processed his transfer in three days. They were right that he would be competent. They were wrong that he would stop doing the actuarial work. The Premium Paid is named for the principle. In a fight he prices every enemy hull and commits only when the expected payout beats the expected loss. The workings stay on a slate at his station. He is thirty-eight and unhappy with his salary, which the desk could have told the Combine was too low.