Honorverse favorite one-liners

cthia wrote:Cauldron of Ghosts

Colonel Nancy Anderson tapped her bottom teeth a few times with a thumbnail, in an unconscious mannerism that her subordinates had labeled grief-unto-others.

Surely, I don't need to give anyone more than one guess as to whom this reminds me of. Do I?

Err yes, actually. This is an international multi cultural forum after all and we're at about Honorverse #20-odd so my poor old brain sure doesn't remember every character that well.

cthia wrote:Cauldron of Ghosts

Colonel Nancy Anderson tapped her bottom teeth a few times with a thumbnail, in an unconscious mannerism that her subordinates had labeled grief-unto-others.

Surely, I don't need to give anyone more than one guess as to whom this reminds me of. Do I?

Randomiser wrote: Err yes, actually. This is an international multi cultural forum after all and we're at about Honorverse #20-odd so my poor old brain sure doesn't remember every character that well.

But but but, Sandra Crandall! She was always tapping her nails on something to the woe of everyone around her, with the disposition of a Grizzly bear with hemorrhoids trying to pass pinecones and was considered a gross libel to Grizzlies.

cthia wrote:

Cauldron of Ghosts wrote:Colonel Nancy Anderson tapped her bottom teeth a few times with a thumbnail, in an unconscious mannerism that her subordinates had labeled grief-unto-others.

Surely, I don't need to give anyone more than one guess as to whom this reminds me of. Do I?

Seems to me that Cynthia Lecter probably qualifies while she is thinking. Michelle Henke about wanted to smack Captain Lecter upside the head because she was drumming with *cough* the silverware. (SoF, towards the end of the book]

Yes/no?

cthia wrote:

Cauldron of Ghosts wrote:Colonel Nancy Anderson tapped her bottom teeth a few times with a thumbnail, in an unconscious mannerism that her subordinates had labeled grief-unto-others.

Surely, I don't need to give anyone more than one guess as to whom this reminds me of. Do I?

SharkHunter wrote:Seems to me that Cynthia Lecter probably qualifies while she is thinking. Michelle Henke about wanted to smack Captain Lecter upside the head because she was drumming with *cough* the silverware. (SoF, towards the end of the book]

Yes/no?

But but but, Sandra Crandall cornered the market on it! Plus! She even dressed the part. Her uniforms always had meat drippings and maybe a couple of eggs that escaped her mouth all over it!

Cauldron of Ghosts

The people being channeled through the compartment were genetic slaves who’d been born, bred and shaped by bondage. They had learned long ago that resistance simply led to suffering.

The expressions on their faces weren’t so much despairing as simply blank. Despair was an emotion, after all—and Manpower’s slaves discovered as children that emotions were dangerous to such as they. Those looks made Nancy furious, but she let no sign of her anger show on her own face.

I'll never be able to get thru CoG without psychiatric treatment.

Cauldron of Ghosts

She went about the business in a quick, almost perfunctory manner, giving each slave a scan with the medical detection device in her hand before they passed into the personnel tube beyond.

The device would catch anything obvious, like a contagious disease or late-stage cancer.

Well well. Can we say Star Trek's tricorder device?

Where no man has gone before. Seems the Enterprise did indeed make contact with the Honorverse.

Cauldron of Ghosts

The other reason the medical technician didn’t pay much attention was even simpler. Given the nature of Manpower’s production methods, it was a given that a high percentage of their slaves would have some long-term medical problems. The sort of radical genetic engineering that created such slaves often produced unwanted side-effects. A slave bred for great strength might have a severe blood pressure problem, for instance, or be prone to renal failure.

Well, I'll be a monkey's Uncle. Though I shouldn't be, since that idiom denotes surprise. And surprised? Well I shouldn't be.

I cannot remember the particular thread. Though the specific thread is only of a peripheral concern. However, my Romanian friends argued vehemently a while back that genengineering slavery to its Honorverse equivalent would produce drastic, unavoidable side-effects. I guess this is the entire contention between Mesa and the galaxy at large. But the point being, that the slaves would have all sorts of medical, physical, emotional and mental ailments.

I will email my friends this passage. As myself, they probably haven't arrived at CoG.

Their discussion included possible "treatment" of said condition if freed. Said discussion was way over my head. But now my interest is rekindled. I hope there is a support structure in the Honorverse for freed slaves. If so, who would champion it. Beowulf? And I wonder what that would "do" in causing what "reverse side-effects" from "reversing the process?"

The discussion is so far beyond my grasp that even the proper terms eludes me.

saber964 wrote:I hope you enjoyed that asshole? I certainly did.

I must say that it's been a long time since I last read such a good illustration of how a missing coma can change the meaning of a whole sentence.
Poor, misunderstood Wanderman. What are readers going to think of him now ?

--snipping--

cthia wrote:

Cauldron of Ghosts wrote:The other reason the medical technician didn’t pay much attention was even simpler. Given the nature of Manpower’s production methods, it was a given that a high percentage of their slaves would have some long-term medical problems. The sort of radical genetic engineering that created such slaves often produced unwanted side-effects. A slave bred for great strength might have a severe blood pressure problem, for instance, or be prone to renal failure.

...
I guess this is the entire contention between Mesa and the galaxy at large. But the point being, that the slaves would have all sorts of medical, physical, emotional and mental ailments.
...
Their discussion included possible "treatment" of said condition if freed. Said discussion was way over my head. But now my interest is rekindled. I hope there is a support structure in the Honorverse for freed slaves. If so, who would champion it. Beowulf? And I wonder what that would "do" in causing what "reverse side-effects" from "reversing the process?"

You are correct about Beowulf, in fact, their "rescue" of OldEarth was based in their ability to do just that, i.e. to design fixes to radical genetic engineering induced problems. Likely those are also sources of Regen and Prolong in the recent Honorverse, though those "recent" techniques don't work perfectly for everyone in every age group.
--edited, I originally had it wrong-- I'd put Flag in Exile--
Still, consider that in "Echoes of Honor", after an amount of deep research, Allison Harrington was able to nano-engineer a fix for the fertility problem that Grayson had experienced ever since their second generation. We also read in Torch of Freedom that they routinely scan their ex-slave immigrants to determine somatic types, so that they can apply the known "fixes" for common problems. There's also some textev in CoG, TorchOfFreedom, etc. and short stories (In Fire Forged has a bit) that ex-slaves had emigration and medical priority nearly automatically if they reached Beowulf, and similar care applied when the RMN freed slaves en-masse, which is why the BSC, and RMN tend to have a higher number of ex-slave children and descendants in their ranks per capita than anyone else.

Hi SharkHunter,

I think you meant Echoes of Honor not FIE, where Allison figures out how Grayson survived such terrible radiation, almost ten years after FIE.

L

SharkHunter wrote:--snipping--
*quote="cthia"*[quote="Cauldron of Ghosts"]The other reason the medical technician didn’t pay much attention was even simpler. Given the nature of Manpower’s production methods, it was a given that a high percentage of their slaves would have some long-term medical problems. The sort of radical genetic engineering that created such slaves often produced unwanted side-effects. A slave bred for great strength might have a severe blood pressure problem, for instance, or be prone to renal failure.

...
I guess this is the entire contention between Mesa and the galaxy at large. But the point being, that the slaves would have all sorts of medical, physical, emotional and mental ailments.
...
Their discussion included possible "treatment" of said condition if freed. Said discussion was way over my head. But now my interest is rekindled. I hope there is a support structure in the Honorverse for freed slaves. If so, who would champion it. Beowulf? And I wonder what that would "do" in causing what "reverse side-effects" from "reversing the process?"*quote*
You are correct about Beowulf, in fact, their "rescue" of OldEarth was based in their ability to do just that, i.e. to design fixes to radical genetic engineering induced problems. Likely those are also sources of Regen and Prolong in the recent Honorverse, though those "recent" techniques don't work perfectly for everyone in every age group.

Still, consider that in "Flag In Exile", after an amount of deep research, Allison Harrington was able to nano-engineer a fix for the fertility problem that Grayson had experienced ever since their second generation. We also read in Torch of Freedom that they routinely scan their ex-slave immigrants to determine somatic types, so that they can apply the known "fixes" for common problems. There's also some textev in CoG, TorchOfFreedom, etc. and short stories (In Fire Forged has a bit) that ex-slaves had emigration and medical priority nearly automatically if they reached Beowulf, and similar care applied when the RMN freed slaves en-masse, which is why the BSC, and RMN tend to have a higher number of ex-slave children and descendants in their ranks per capita than anyone else.[/quote]