George J. Smith wrote:I'd like to see the lead up to the compensator malfunction of queen consort Solange's ship. Was it an accident or did Haven engineer it?
It was almost certainly sabotage.
See the short story about Crown Princess Adrienne ... don't remember which anthology it's in off hand. At any rate, the two who were hired to assassinate her also discussed that incident, and one of them commented on the odds that that ship - one that's probably the most carefully maintained ship in the Star Kingdom - just so happened to have the first compensator failure in centuries (I think it was centuries). While it technically could have been an accident, it seems ... highly unlikely that it was, in fact, a genuine accident, and not the result of malevolent action. It does, however, seem to be the case that the no-doubt thorough investigation into the incident was unable to find proof of the failure being intentional, or if it did find proof, that the proof was suppressed for some reason or another (likely the fact that if Havenite involvement could be or were to be publicly/officially proved, it would be an act of war, for which Manticore would not have been prepared or able to survive, not unlike the situation with the assassination of King Roger, the current Queen Elizabeth's father).
As to whether or not it was Haven, and if so, how directly Haven was involved ... I think it is more likely that not that Haven, Havenite agents, and/or Havenite-sympathizing Manticorans, had some degree of involvement. They, in turn, may or may not have been manipulated into it by MAlign agents, but there's no way to know for sure.
