Information I'd love to know

cthia wrote:Are we absolutely sure that the Solarian League - some rogue element thereof, isn't in cahoots with the MALign, even if forcibly so?

What if the MALign, and it seems that they would, have their own version of the North Hollow files with a noose around key Solarians' necks. Solarians who may know exactly where the Mesan bolthole is.

Well, actually, we know for a fact that the Alignment has blackmail material on a number of officials in the Solarian League. Filareta, for instance. We also know that the Alignment has placed at least one actual agent high up in Solarian intelligence, through assassinations, reassignments, and other means. However, we can be absolutely certain that none of these people know where Darius is. In fact, almost none of them except for true agents know of the existence of the Alignment. The Alignment is pulling their strings through other puppets, such as Manpower.

Knowledge about the existence of Darius is limited to a very small number of people, all of whom are deep inside the Onion. Of those, even fewer know the location of Darius, and almost all of those will soon be on Darius. Knowledge of Darius is very very tightly compartmentalized. People who are merely being used, blackmailed, or tricked into doing the Alignment's bidding generally don't even know the Alignment exists.

wiki wrote:Late 1520 PD - Speaks Falsely is introduced to Climbs Quickly and Death's Fang Bane.(SK1)

I can't remember if Speaks Falsely is human or cat. Any tac-witches online?

Now I know there's a 'Sings Truly' treecat. This all got me to wondering. Like Star Trek's Spock and native Vulcans, can a treecat tell a lie? Textev?

Seems it would be a no-no. Singing lies would quickly travel throughout the species, and unwinding a lie may not be at all practical, or efficient. Considering their empathic sense, seems it'd be impossible for an empathic species to pull off. But what about injured cats, those that have become mind blind. Could be lied to, or lied with.

cthia wrote:Are we absolutely sure that the Solarian League - some rogue element thereof, isn't in cahoots with the MALign, even if forcibly so?

What if the MALign, and it seems that they would, have their own version of the North Hollow files with a noose around key Solarians' necks. Solarians who may know exactly where the Mesan bolthole is.

It seems extremely unlikely that the MAlign would have trusted that information outside of the highest levels of the onion. And that if there were any Solarians who had that knowledge, they would have been Ramjampet'ed just before Houdini went into effect.

cthia wrote:

wiki wrote:Late 1520 PD - Speaks Falsely is introduced to Climbs Quickly and Death's Fang Bane.(SK1)

I can't remember if Speaks Falsely is human or cat. Any tac-witches online?

Unfortunately I don't own those books yet; I think my 15 year old would enjoy them as an entry into the Honorverse. If I remember right -- read the story a LONG time ago, however, Speaks Falsely was a human scientist that was attempting to kidnap tree-cats, who falsely befriended Stephanie Harrington.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

cthia wrote:Are we absolutely sure that the Solarian League - some rogue element thereof, isn't in cahoots with the MALign, even if forcibly so?

What if the MALign, and it seems that they would, have their own version of the North Hollow files with a noose around key Solarians' necks. Solarians who may know exactly where the Mesan bolthole is.

It seems extremely unlikely that the MAlign would have trusted that information outside of the highest levels of the onion. And that if there were any Solarians who had that knowledge, they would have been Ramjampet'ed just before Houdini went into effect.

I'm gonna vote "tally zero", other than Mesan plants like McGown, especially anyone close to the Rajampet level. They want the whole SLN in the dark and stupid. I don't see them downplaying "Haven Sector" tech if they have any idea what is what, and MA bolthole would certainly have blown that idea wide open. Luzak -- who is pretty dang smart and likely tuned in to all things naval got surprised by the range of the Cataphract(s), and even Filerata noticed "those weren't shipped from SLN storage", though I'm misquoting him.

SharkHunter wrote:

cthia wrote:Are we absolutely sure that the Solarian League - some rogue element thereof, isn't in cahoots with the MALign, even if forcibly so?

What if the MALign, and it seems that they would, have their own version of the North Hollow files with a noose around key Solarians' necks. Solarians who may know exactly where the Mesan bolthole is.

fallsfromtrees wrote:It seems extremely unlikely that the MAlign would have trusted that information outside of the highest levels of the onion. And that if there were any Solarians who had that knowledge, they would have been Ramjampet'ed just before Houdini went into effect.

I'm gonna vote "tally zero", other than Mesan plants like McGown, especially anyone close to the Rajampet level. They want the whole SLN in the dark and stupid. I don't see them downplaying "Haven Sector" tech if they have any idea what is what, and MA bolthole would certainly have blown that idea wide open. Luzak -- who is pretty dang smart and likely tuned in to all things naval got surprised by the range of the Cataphract(s), and even Filerata noticed "those weren't shipped from SLN storage", though I'm misquoting him.

I think that it is very unlikely that any of the Mesan plans like McGown or Hanrahan have any knowledge of the location of Darius, even if they have their suspicions about its existence. It is certainly a piece of information I would hold very closely, known only to a very few trusted astrogators who have been fitted with nanotech killers in the event they are captured and questioned (or even start to talk about it).

Commander Truman accompanied Captain Harrington and Commander McKeon on a visit to Grayson Command Central for a meeting with Admiral Leon Garret. She was unhappy about Harrington's decision to inform Grayson of the RMN's improved Recon Drone technology.

Was their textev why Honor wasn't reprimanded for this? You just can't take it upon yourself to divulge classified data. It was still classified wasn't it?

cthia wrote:

Commander Truman accompanied Captain Harrington and Commander McKeon on a visit to Grayson Command Central for a meeting with Admiral Leon Garret. She was unhappy about Harrington's decision to inform Grayson of the RMN's improved Recon Drone technology.

Was their textev why Honor wasn't reprimanded for this? You just can't take it upon yourself to divulge classified data. It was still classified wasn't it?

She didn't simply take it upon herself. The senior military commander of the mission to Grayson decided, after due consideration and without time to confer with her superiors, that the best way to complete her mission was to release partial information about something on the official secrets list. That is the purpose of having somebody in command.

Also, consider what she told them; "We have drones that can communicate FTL. This is the pulse rate and general range." The information she did release was both minimal and nothing the Graysons could not have figured out for themselves just by having gravitic sensors. If she had handed them the blueprints she probably should have been arrested, but if she was going to use the drones any way, there is exactly zero reason not to tell the Grayson's what they are beforehand.

There is also the result; a signed treaty between the Star Kingdom and the Protectorate. Something like that forgives plenty of gray areas, like hitting a pile of slime that worked for her Queen.

cthia wrote:

Commander Truman accompanied Captain Harrington and Commander McKeon on a visit to Grayson Command Central for a meeting with Admiral Leon Garret. She was unhappy about Harrington's decision to inform Grayson of the RMN's improved Recon Drone technology.

Was their textev why Honor wasn't reprimanded for this? You just can't take it upon yourself to divulge classified data. It was still classified wasn't it?

crewdude48 wrote:She didn't simply take it upon herself. The senior military commander of the mission to Grayson decided, after due consideration and without time to confer with her superiors, that the best way to complete her mission was to release partial information about something on the official secrets list. That is the purpose of having somebody in command.

Also, consider what she told them; "We have drones that can communicate FTL. This is the pulse rate and general range." The information she did release was both minimal and nothing the Graysons could not have figured out for themselves just by having gravitic sensors. If she had handed them the blueprints she probably should have been arrested, but if she was going to use the drones any way, there is exactly zero reason not to tell the Grayson's what they are beforehand.

There is also the result; a signed treaty between the Star Kingdom and the Protectorate. Something like that forgives plenty of gray areas, like hitting a pile of slime that worked for her Queen.

I'm with you on it. I feel it was the right thing to do as well. Elizabeth did say come back with a treaty. Besides, Honor needed the cooperation of Garrett. Or she might end up without treaty, or ships.

But our officers can't go around divulging secrets. The means doesn't justify the ends. I suppose it is why Truman was so upset.

SharkHunter wrote:

wiki wrote:Late 1520 PD - Speaks Falsely is introduced to Climbs Quickly and Death's Fang Bane.(SK1)

Unfortunately I don't own those books yet; I think my 15 year old would enjoy them as an entry into the Honorverse. If I remember right -- read the story a LONG time ago, however, Speaks Falsely was a human scientist that was attempting to kidnap tree-cats, who falsely befriended Stephanie Harrington.

Confirmed regarding Speaks Falsely, mostly. He didn't so much befriend Stephanie Harrington as make some oblique use of her and Climbs Quickly for his nefarious ends.

And, from what we could tell in that story itself at least, he had no known or direct ties to Mesa, though indirect ones cannot be ruled out. Mesans would not necessarily be the only people with similar interests in treecats, after all, nor necessarily among the very first ones to go after them for telepathic genes.

(Incidentally, I am bewildered that they would be optimistic about getting a benefit for use in human or generally terrestrial genetic material out of alien genetic material. The odds of it even being DNA or RNA are astronomically low.)