Out of order snippet? WHAT out of order snippet?

Daryl wrote:Cthia, I suspect that is why they were sitting on 50 mega tons of nuke. Good luck finding any DNA.

runsforcelery wrote:I'm going to have to go back into lower profile mode here, because I'm working on two projects simultaneously that both need attention. I'll try to drop back in from time to time, though, and I'm going to aim for one in-order snippet a week. (Book's not coming out until next November, guys.) However, since I've been giving you out of order snippets, here's one more.

I think you can guess what they're upset about.

Did I ever mention that angry people sometimes make less than optimal decisions?

__________________________________________________

“None of that would’ve been necessary if not for the fucking Manties.” Gervais’s voice was a snarl. “It’s that goddamned loose warhead Gold Peak’s fault. If she weren’t such a maniac, if we hadn’t known she’d be coming for Mesa as soon as she possibly could, we wouldn’t have had to rush Houdini that way and Mom and Dad would be right here on Darius right now.”

A sort of sub-aural growl answered him, but Collin shook his head.

“Gold Peak may be the one who actually pulled the trigger, but it wasn’t just her. It was her whole damned ‘Star Empire’ and their goddamned friends. All of them. Elizabeth, Mayhew, Pritchart . . . and that bitch Harrington.”

cthia wrote:Why does everyone think Harrington's a bitch?

runsforcelery wrote:
Well, there are roughly 288,000 words in the manuscript. So if I hold myself to 1 snippet a week and the snippets to no more than 1,500 words, 52 snippets would be 78,000 words, or about 27%. (Doesn't count Rosie snips, of course! ) I really don't like snippeting much more than that, but 78-80,000 words would probably work out just fine. And, of course, the EARC will be available for those of you who want it well before next November!

quite possibly a cat wrote:
So I take it the MAlign isn't going to go for the "sit back, start up a news network in Manticore, start your sleepers working up the ranks in politics, work on your biosingularity in Darius and win in about 50-100 years plan"? because that would be a really good plan!

Or if they want to be really evil they use their knowledge of prolong-boosting to actively head off developments in that area by anyone else. That would be the ultimate in revenge honestly. See how long they can keep everyone else from hitting the Actuarial Escape Velocity?

ncwolf wrote:

quite possibly a cat wrote:
So I take it the MAlign isn't going to go for the "sit back, start up a news network in Manticore, start your sleepers working up the ranks in politics, work on your biosingularity in Darius and win in about 50-100 years plan"? because that would be a really good plan!

Or if they want to be really evil they use their knowledge of prolong-boosting to actively head off developments in that area by anyone else. That would be the ultimate in revenge honestly. See how long they can keep everyone else from hitting the Actuarial Escape Velocity?

Yeah, the last view we had of the happy alpha line couple on Darius* (Rufio ? and his lady love of one or three pseudonyms) did make me think they were going to disappear into the woodwork and not be heard from for ten to a hundred years.

Gervais' outburst (and the Mad Wizard's hint) makes me think they aren't going to be laying low like they really ought to.

And I wonder how far away Darius is from Mesa. I think it was either Cauldron of Ghosts or Shadow of Victory where it was mentioned (in a conversation between Rufio and the lady I think) that it didn't take that long, if you went straight there, by streak drive.

I wonder if Admiral Gold Peak is venturesome enough to check out a few systems with favorable stars. Hmm, if we can image extrasolar planets from earth nowadays (albeit with specialized equipment) how hard would it be in 1922 PD? Could you spot the planets in the Darius system from Mesa if you looked hard, with standard naval hardware sensors---Mantie or Haven hardware, I mean.

(*Or is Darius the system name and Detweiler is the planet and Leonard is the capital city?)

JohnRoth wrote:

ncwolf wrote:

Yeah, the last view we had of the happy alpha line couple on Darius* (Rufio ? and his lady love of one or three pseudonyms) did make me think they were going to disappear into the woodwork and not be heard from for ten to a hundred years.

Gervais' outburst (and the Mad Wizard's hint) makes me think they aren't going to be laying low like they really ought to.

And I wonder how far away Darius is from Mesa. I think it was either Cauldron of Ghosts or Shadow of Victory where it was mentioned (in a conversation between Rufio and the lady I think) that it didn't take that long, if you went straight there, by streak drive.

I wonder if Admiral Gold Peak is venturesome enough to check out a few systems with favorable stars. Hmm, if we can image extrasolar planets from earth nowadays (albeit with specialized equipment) how hard would it be in 1922 PD? Could you spot the planets in the Darius system from Mesa if you looked hard, with standard naval hardware sensors---Mantie or Haven hardware, I mean.

(*Or is Darius the system name and Detweiler is the planet and Leonard is the capital city?)

It's not that simple. Darius is one of the termini of the Felix junction. There are two other termini that haven't been disclosed. "Not that far by streak drive" may involve a pass through the Felix junction.

As far as sensors are concerned, that's an excellent question. We've got textev that Ghost Rider probes can read the names off of ship's hulls at many thousands of km distance, so I wouldn't put it past them to be able to.

ncwolf wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:It's not that simple. Darius is one of the termini of the Felix junction. There are two other termini that haven't been disclosed. "Not that far by streak drive" may involve a pass through the Felix junction.

As far as sensors are concerned, that's an excellent question. We've got textev that Ghost Rider probes can read the names off of ship's hulls at many thousands of km distance, so I wouldn't put it past them to be able to.

Re Felix junction. Good point.

Also, is it a junction terminus or tied to a terminus by a wormhole? And it seems one of these goes to Torch or rather the Torch wormhole goes to (a guarded terminus) near Darius if memory serves.

runsforcelery wrote:
(SNIP)

I think you can guess what they're upset about.

Did I ever mention that angry people sometimes make less than optimal decisions?

__________________________________________________

“None of that would’ve been necessary if not for the fucking Manties.” Gervais’s voice was a snarl. “It’s that goddamned loose warhead Gold Peak’s fault. If she weren’t such a maniac, if we hadn’t known she’d be coming for Mesa as soon as she possibly could, we wouldn’t have had to rush Houdini that way and Mom and Dad would be right here on Darius right now.”

A sort of sub-aural growl answered him, but Collin shook his head.

“Gold Peak may be the one who actually pulled the trigger, but it wasn’t just her. It was her whole damned ‘Star Empire’ and their goddamned friends. All of them. Elizabeth, Mayhew, Pritchart . . . and that bitch Harrington.”