Honorverse ramblings and musings

For the most part, I generally agree with everyones assessment as well.

We could be underestimating how many people may have the protocols though. I always personally entertained the thought that the MAlign gave the protocols to everyone outside the Onion, however delaying activation of protocols until needed. I wonder if the time-limited nature could, would, be attributed to, or become a factor only after activation, if the notion of administering - yet delaying activation is possible. The MAlign has been shown to be very paranoid, or cautious. Or both. Making me to believe that they wouldn't take any chances with information being discussed by anyone, outside the Onion. Accidentally losing too many people would seem to be less of a disaster than losing too much information. In light of the easy way there is to grow the people and having centuries at best and decades at least, to do so. If needed.

Also, since Simoes, there could be sweeping (no pun intended) changes made. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

As far as my thoughts on Darius, I only thought the protocols would be given to everyone on planet in case there was an uprising. Since Jeremy X and a few others have shown what their tailored type of (conformance ) can deliver.

If everyone on planet has not been given the protocols on general purpose, then I'd surely like the thought of Jeremy finding his way back to Darius and riling the natives.

In case everyone hasn't made the connection, the protocols are a sure way to kill an uprising quickly, whether in or out of compliance of intended protocol safeties. The kill switch could serve double duties where the natives are in force.

Oh! And if the protocols are administered to everyone, it would make it far easier to keep track of any missing, escaped or abducted people, giving it triple duties. Affording the MA far more bang for their bucking troubles.

One other thought. There could be another explanation why Simoes is still alive. The signal could be continually sent internally from a self-contained power source embedded somewhere in the brain or body which has a shelf life like a pacemaker. Unless the specifics of the signal has been given somewhere which invalidates that notion. Different degrees of signal enforcing could be utilized depending on the risk.

Also, if the possibility of my previous post is a reality, then Simoes may yet still be killed, being activated and killed asap if he comes within distance of an MA operative who may continually send out the signal locally.

Whatever the case may be, I'd consider that their countermeasures have surely been upgraded and changed since Jeremy X and Simoes.

I wonder if Eloise and Javier donated gametes prior to Javier's death? I ask because I find the prospect of having a story arc utilizing "The Three Musketeers" quite engaging. We have Raoul, Katherine and Estelle or Astin (depending on the gender) gallivanting around the galaxy fighting the dreaded MAlign.

Astin or Estelle arrives much as D'Artagnan did in the Three Musketeers to begin our next story arc. I believe they would know each other. I sincerely doubt that Honor wouldn't make the effort to get to know Eloise' children even if Eloise dies to end the first story arc.

As ramblings and musings go, this one is really intrigues me. It goes to the heart of how RFC wants to tell the stories of Honor's children. Will the story be like their mother's, which depicts how the growing capabilities of a remarkable woman absorbs ever more responsibilities in her nation's grand struggle? Or will it be something else, perhaps it will be about how remarkable people contend with truly sinister villains? Well, perhaps not sinister in the classic "Snidely Whiplash" sense, but an insidious cabal of ubermenschen determined to dominate the lesser breeds of humanity. Lord, that's space opera at its quintessential best!

I can't wait. Many of these considerations will be foreshadowed by UH. I can't wait for that either! AAARRGGG!

Hi cthia,

They don't need kill switches on Darius because all the genetic slaves are happy, protected and respected; at least according to the MAlign.

Then the difficulty of targeting any kill switch to kill only those few malcontents without losing all the billions of good loyal servants who believe in the MAlign plan for the galaxy would set the MAlign too far back in their economic power and military production at such a critical time, that they might lose after they reveal themselves, which I suspect they would do almost anything to avoid, to include increasing all the benefits offered to the genetic slaves.

Which could lead to further interesting problems down the road.

L

cthia wrote:For the most part, I generally agree with everyones assessment as well.

We could be underestimating how many people may have the protocols though. I always personally entertained the thought that the MAlign gave the protocols to everyone outside the Onion, however delaying activation of protocols until needed. I wonder if the time-limited nature could, would, be attributed to, or become a factor only after activation, if the notion of administering - yet delaying activation is possible. The MAlign has been shown to be very paranoid, or cautious. Or both. Making me to believe that they wouldn't take any chances with information being discussed by anyone, outside the Onion. Accidentally losing too many people would seem to be less of a disaster than losing too much information. In light of the easy way there is to grow the people and having centuries at best and decades at least, to do so. If needed.

Also, since Simoes, there could be sweeping (no pun intended) changes made. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

As far as my thoughts on Darius, I only thought the protocols would be given to everyone on planet in case there was an uprising. Since Jeremy X and a few others have shown what their tailored type of (conformance ) can deliver.

If everyone on planet has not been given the protocols on general purpose, then I'd surely like the thought of Jeremy finding his way back to Darius and riling the natives.

In case everyone hasn't made the connection, the protocols are a sure way to kill an uprising quickly, whether in or out of compliance of intended protocol safeties. The kill switch could serve double duties where the natives are in force.

Oh! And if the protocols are administered to everyone, it would make it far easier to keep track of any missing, escaped or abducted people, giving it triple duties. Affording the MA far more bang for their bucking troubles.

Sounds like the rhetoric rendered by Hitler and the Nazi war machine about their happiness and contentment quotient, 'eh?

True, but the notion carries with it a warning shot across the bow - say 10 % randomly dropping like flies to adjust any attitude "malfunctions."

No more interesting down the road than any present mutiny on the bounty of slaves.

lyonheart wrote:Hi cthia,

They don't need kill switches on Darius because all the genetic slaves are happy, protected and respected; at least according to the MAlign.

Then the difficulty of targeting any kill switch to kill only those few malcontents without losing all the billions of good loyal servants who believe in the MAlign plan for the galaxy would set the MAlign too far back in their economic power and military production at such a critical time, that they might lose after they reveal themselves, which I suspect they would do almost anything to avoid, to include increasing all the benefits offered to the genetic slaves.

Which could lead to further interesting problems down the road.

L

cthia wrote:For the most part, I generally agree with everyones assessment as well.

We could be underestimating how many people may have the protocols though. I always personally entertained the thought that the MAlign gave the protocols to everyone outside the Onion, however delaying activation of protocols until needed. I wonder if the time-limited nature could, would, be attributed to, or become a factor only after activation, if the notion of administering - yet delaying activation is possible. The MAlign has been shown to be very paranoid, or cautious. Or both. Making me to believe that they wouldn't take any chances with information being discussed by anyone, outside the Onion. Accidentally losing too many people would seem to be less of a disaster than losing too much information. In light of the easy way there is to grow the people and having centuries at best and decades at least, to do so. If needed.

Also, since Simoes, there could be sweeping (no pun intended) changes made. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

As far as my thoughts on Darius, I only thought the protocols would be given to everyone on planet in case there was an uprising. Since Jeremy X and a few others have shown what their tailored type of (conformance ) can deliver.

If everyone on planet has not been given the protocols on general purpose, then I'd surely like the thought of Jeremy finding his way back to Darius and riling the natives.

In case everyone hasn't made the connection, the protocols are a sure way to kill an uprising quickly, whether in or out of compliance of intended protocol safeties. The kill switch could serve double duties where the natives are in force.

Oh! And if the protocols are administered to everyone, it would make it far easier to keep track of any missing, escaped or abducted people, giving it triple duties. Affording the MA far more bang for their bucking troubles.

The more people you have, the more complicated the whole thing becomes. For the guys captured by Cachat, it was to speak about the whole thing. How could you use that on some people working on projects?

And killing ten percent of a billion person world means ten million deaths at the same time. That would certainly cause resentment and grief, not to mention a real problem in terms of body disposal.

Chances are, only certain people will get the protocols. Note that the crazy woman (can't recall the name) who handled the nuke explosions on Mesa was killed by a nuke, not by a protocol.

Far simpler to have certain people under the protocols. Those involved in secret activities where they can be caught would be high on the list.

Note that Harahap was NOT under protocols when he was captured in Shadow of Sag... He answered questions and did not die.

Also, if you gave the protocols to a real lot of people, another group of people would know all about it. Try running those things (many requiring to be individualized) for a million people.

I don't recall Simoes having been given nanites with a kill switch or something that needs to be confirmed routinely to not kill him.
Firebrand was not- in error and because of timeing (as apparently a lot of other "external" agents were given) some version of a fail safe which would kill him after a set amount of time if not given an update.
There was that security guy who died when talking Victor Cachet but that may have be either a timing thing or a nanite triggered when he was captured and facing interrogation (even if he wanted to spill everything voluntarily)
It appeared to me that there were a lot of people on Mesa connected (or being used by) the Alignment who were given some level of auto-kill treatment either for being out of contact too long or for capture situations. Some, perhaps many of them may have died in the Final Flourish as part of Houdini but that would have been because they were in the "don't really need-can't leave behind" lists. There would be others, probably many others like the security agent, who would have been out and about and not connected to many of the Alignment's internal registers and are effectivly already taken care - because they will "just die" post Houdini though it may get a bit messy. On the other hand, if you have some number (even a couple of thousand) "Seccies" who have been reporting through various low level contacts and are normaly out of contact (for cover) for long periods of time, then they will have catastrophic internal events when they hit the time limits. Even 3,000 "Seccies" who just die in the upheaval post Houdini are probably not going to trigger a massive set of autopies for things that look like heart-attacks or aneurysms or got mangeled doing someting when the planet is in chaos. These are people who worked directly or indirectly for the Alignment but they had regular jobs (even if it was security) or they had really good covers (like a Seccie working all sorts or odd jobs or surviving as a minor criminal) and died. Not like so biochemist team of 20 who perhaps all got killed when someone opened there wrong valves in the wrong order in a Class IV containment lab.
There was a lot of death going around between the Final Flourish and Albrects last surprise so people who died of stress are not going to raise much question.

ldwechsler wrote:The more people you have, the more complicated the whole thing becomes. For the guys captured by Cachat, it was to speak about the whole thing. How could you use that on some people working on projects?

And killing ten percent of a billion person world means ten million deaths at the same time. That would certainly cause resentment and grief, not to mention a real problem in terms of body disposal.

Chances are, only certain people will get the protocols. Note that the crazy woman (can't recall the name) who handled the nuke explosions on Mesa was killed by a nuke, not by a protocol.

Far simpler to have certain people under the protocols. Those involved in secret activities where they can be caught would be high on the list.

Note that Harahap was NOT under protocols when he was captured in Shadow of Sag... He answered questions and did not die.

Also, if you gave the protocols to a real lot of people, another group of people would know all about it. Try running those things (many requiring to be individualized) for a million people.

Everything the Malign has done has painstakingly been for billions of people. Individualizing it would seem to me to be a non-issue and automatic for the catalogued DNA of every Malign citizen. I think that would only become an issue for off-worlders and new blood. 'Course, I could be wrong too.

At any rate, you all could be right. After all, Joe Blow may not necessarily know Jack Schit. So no need to wire him. What's he gonna tell and who's he gonna call?

I simply entertain the thought because if Darius is ever invaded and the protocols are given as an annual or biannual or whatever type immunization against "loose lips" disease, it'd come in handy. Again, also handy for attitude adjustments.

In light of Simoes and Jeremy X, however, MO could have changed.

[ it occurs to me, that if everyone had kill protocols that were trusted, there would have been no need to include the security GAULS to escort, and potential kill if captured, all the scientists evacuating from Mesa to Darius during Houdini.
The fact there were escorts needed seems to hint that, even after Simones escape, those nanite protocols weren’t widely applied to ‘rear echelon’ personnel...

Jonathan_S wrote:[ it occurs to me, that if everyone had kill protocols that were trusted, there would have been no need to include the security GAULS to escort, and potential kill if captured, all the scientists evacuating from Mesa to Darius during Houdini.
The fact there were escorts needed seems to hint that, even after Simones escape, those nanite protocols weren’t widely applied to ‘rear echelon’ personnel...

Part of the GAUL's job was to ensure that there was nothing left to raise questions about, such as bodies with pulser darts in them, or people to wonder, such as ship crews who has seen five passengers board, but only two leave.