Spoiler(s) dangling threads

The treecats could easily go to Haven or Beowulf as a whole clan depending on the size of the clan in question. Remember Swaying Fronds clan? IIRC they had around 75-80 members. Or like Bright Water Clan which has sent several small colony groups to Grayson Gryphon and Manticore.

It occured to me to wonder why Beowulf was using (apparently) Manticorain Merchant ships as anti-missle screens for the various fabrication centers etc.

Manticore had all those lovely and mostly useless SLN SD's just parked at the other end of the Junction. Surely it would not be that hard to off load the missiles, change enough of the communications and control software to make them usable by remote control (as the merchaies were) and then shut down most of the habitable spaces. Treat them like you were going into combat and wanted to avoid sympathetic detonation between airfilled compartments. Cut out large sections of power relays to energy weapons mounts. Heck you could even leave the not so great counter missile energy weapons and tie them into the tactical systems.

Ok, it would be a major slap in the face to the SLN and the SL to have their captured ships used to defend the Beowulf orbitals, but it could be really effective. Massive hulks that could absorb a lot of damage and still just hang relative to what they are shielding. And even SLN energy counter-missle fire would be better than just using the hulls and their impellers to stop missles.

Just a thought.

Brigade XO wrote:It occured to me to wonder why Beowulf was using (apparently) Manticorain Merchant ships as anti-missle screens for the various fabrication centers etc.

Manticore had all those lovely and mostly useless SLN SD's...

Manpower. A civilian freighter usually has a full crew of less than 50, a SLN SD takes at thousand just to ferry it through the WHJ.

saber964 wrote:The treecats could easily go to Haven or Beowulf as a whole clan depending on the size of the clan in question. Remember Swaying Fronds clan? IIRC they had around 75-80 members. Or like Bright Water Clan which has sent several small colony groups to Grayson Gryphon and Manticore.

Not only could they, I would be frankly shocked if they didn't, at least to a certain extent. Haven in particular could probably house several smallish self-sustaining populations, and that doesn't include those "attached" to specific GA personnel.

The one concern I do have is treecat telempathy. It's been suggested, if not outright stated, that an unbonded treecat would not... do well outside telempathic range of others of the species. In the case of clans, or subsets thereof, this would obviously be mitigated, and would also provide mental 'support' for attached volunteer treecats to those in the GA leadership. (For example, I'd bet Shannon's and Sonja's treecats provide mental 'support' for each other given that they're so far away from Sphinx and neither of them are bonded.) And obviously, the treecats on Grayson seem to be doing just fine, despite their initially small population, so it's not unreasonable at all to see the same happening for Haven.

A concern I would have with all these far flung clans is the availability of the correct type of celery.

There is textev that the celery which was modified to grow on Sphinx fixed a mineral/nutrient that was also fixed by a native plant. That plant was used by the 'cats to maintain their telempathic abilities, and there is texteve that the lack of it was detrimental to those abilities.

Maybe there should be some research into formulating a supplement for the cats to take on a regular basis.

George J. Smith wrote:A concern I would have with all these far flung clans is the availability of the correct type of celery.

There is textev that the celery which was modified to grow on Sphinx fixed a mineral/nutrient that was also fixed by a native plant. That plant was used by the 'cats to maintain their telempathic abilities, and there is texteve that the lack of it was detrimental to those abilities.

Maybe there should be some research into formulating a supplement for the cats to take on a regular basis.

I don't think the 'cats would object to that in the slightest. Particularly not if said supplement came in the form of celery. In fact, I suspect that Adelina Arif and her furry friends are already at work on the problem. It might not have been an issue on Grayson, where Honor surely grows Sphinxian celery, or with other 'cats who adopted Manticorans, but those 'couple of dozen' 'cats who went off to Haven after Roger and Rivka's wedding had to have some kind of supplement with them.

Once 'cats begin to really disperse, I see the development of concentrated "supplements". Really those would be psychotropic drugs that juiced the 'cats telepathic abilities.

roseandheather wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:A concern I would have with all these far flung clans is the availability of the correct type of celery.

There is textev that the celery which was modified to grow on Sphinx fixed a mineral/nutrient that was also fixed by a native plant. That plant was used by the 'cats to maintain their telempathic abilities, and there is texteve that the lack of it was detrimental to those abilities.

Maybe there should be some research into formulating a supplement for the cats to take on a regular basis.

I don't think the 'cats would object to that in the slightest. Particularly not if said supplement came in the form of celery. In fact, I suspect that Adelina Arif and her furry friends are already at work on the problem. It might not have been an issue on Grayson, where Honor surely grows Sphinxian celery, or with other 'cats who adopted Manticorans, but those 'couple of dozen' 'cats who went off to Haven after Roger and Rivka's wedding had to have some kind of supplement with them.

Not much more than importing Sphinxian celery a few times a year. Or At least doing a little more genetic engineering on local celery or maybe Sphinxian celery can be grown locally. Plus remember in Fire Season Marjorie Harrington had developed a hybrid combo between Purple Thorn and Star Fruit.

Weird Harold wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:It occured to me to wonder why Beowulf was using (apparently) Manticorain Merchant ships as anti-missle screens for the various fabrication centers etc.

Manticore had all those lovely and mostly useless SLN SD's...

Manpower. A civilian freighter usually has a full crew of less than 50, a SLN SD takes at thousand just to ferry it through the WHJ.

this is what I was thinking too

I still want to know if all that flirting between Lester Tourville and Michelle Henke is actually going to go anywhere. (Like a bed.) Come on, RFC, you can't just leave us hanging!! Do Eloise and I get our dreamboat Manticore-Haven unifying marriage or don't we??