"Star Lines"

JohnRoth wrote:I seriously doubt that they would have created a special "Siberia" just for Simöes. It was something that already existed. Wherever it was, it was certainly protected by a suicide bomb build in when the installation was created, just like the Gamma Center.

If he was useful but not safe they would have shipped him to Darius.

kzt wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:I seriously doubt that they would have created a special "Siberia" just for Simöes. It was something that already existed. Wherever it was, it was certainly protected by a suicide bomb build in when the installation was created, just like the Gamma Center.

If he was useful but not safe they would have shipped him to Darius.

Well, maybe. Remember that the MAlign has been functioning on Mesa for around 600 or so years, and Darius was only discovered around 200 years before present, and has been a self-supporting going concern for less than a hundred. Moving "Siberia" to Darius is undoubtedly in the plan somewhere, but it may not have been done yet.

Actually the less developed Darius is, the more akin to Siberia it would be. Of course I guess we shouldn't press the analogy so hard. But perhaps there's a crappy orbital habitat that can be used as a gulag.

Simöes had become a total pain in the ass to the Alignment in a lot of ways.

He and his wife had been (which is normal) been given a child to raise which had been constructed from bits of various gem-lines to produce a specific desired result. The designers (and some of the Alignment's best genetic engineers thought that this time they had solved the problem(s) that had caused previous variations on this experiment to essentialy "crash" and either go nuts or othewise become "not useful" for the desired results. That the children really did become mental stewpots was just another problem, that they didn't live up to their expected potential but were subject to various psychological and other problems was almost besides the point.
Dr. Simöes made the catastrophic error of actualy accepting this child into his heart and wanted to keep "their child" (essentialy an adoption of a compleat genetic stranger who was an experimental construct) and was devistated and infuriated by the decision to "cull her".
The Alignment, however, found it needed Dr. Simöes as he was the one who was doing the best and most practical work on the new drive. So they had McBryde be his keeper and more or less nursing him along to keep him productive.
Yes, Siberia is an idea, just like the original part of Russia when all sorts of people who caused trouble or were politicaly untrustworthy but useful would be sent. Some were sent there to be worked to death. Others to labor at something the State wanted done but closely watched and never trusted, just kept around as long as they made progress on something the Soviets wanted.
The straight forward thing would have had Simöes have a "nervous breakdown" and be shipped off to some lab somewhere. But they seemed to have thought that wasn't going to work. So they stashed him in the Gamma Center rather than some remote highly secured facility on Mesa or have him sucombe to some illness (or suicide in irrational reaction to his daughter's death....they would never say "culling" or euthanasia... because they screwed up the experiment yet again. And Simöes's pain was eating at Jack McBryde's soul.......the rest goes downhill for the Alignment from there.

Honestly Torch of Freedom may be my favorite Honorverse book. It deserves to be read again.

Brigade XO wrote:The Alignment, however, found it needed Dr. Simöes as he was the one who was doing the best and most practical work on the new drive. So they had McBryde be his keeper and more or less nursing him along to keep him productive.
Yes, Siberia is an idea, just like the original part of Russia when all sorts of people who caused trouble or were politicaly untrustworthy but useful would be sent. Some were sent there to be worked to death. Others to labor at something the State wanted done but closely watched and never trusted, just kept around as long as they made progress on something the Soviets wanted.
The straight forward thing would have had Simöes have a "nervous breakdown" and be shipped off to some lab somewhere. But they seemed to have thought that wasn't going to work. So they stashed him in the Gamma Center rather than some remote highly secured facility on Mesa or have him sucombe to some illness (or suicide in irrational reaction to his daughter's death....they would never say "culling" or euthanasia... because they screwed up the experiment yet again. And Simöes's pain was eating at Jack McBryde's soul.......the rest goes downhill for the Alignment from there.

But wasn't he already working at the Gamma Center before the murder of the girl? I thought Jack was asked to babysit, because Herlander was needed to complete the project that was impacted by the emotional reaction. The security officer would not ordinarily be tasked that way; but they were both in place, so this was a compromise instead of carting him away for rehab.

tlb wrote:But wasn't he already working at the Gamma Center before the murder of the girl? I thought Jack was asked to babysit, because Herlander was needed to complete the project that was impacted by the emotional reaction. The security officer would not ordinarily be tasked that way; but they were both in place, so this was a compromise instead of carting him away for rehab.

Yes, he was already working at the Gamma Center and was in the midst of a project to improve the streak drive (what those improvements might be isn't stated). IIRC, Jack McBryde gave him the warning about "Siberia" as the project was about to wrap up.

Peregrinator wrote:

tlb wrote:But wasn't he already working at the Gamma Center before the murder of the girl? I thought Jack was asked to babysit, because Herlander was needed to complete the project that was impacted by the emotional reaction. The security officer would not ordinarily be tasked that way; but they were both in place, so this was a compromise instead of carting him away for rehab.

Yes, he was already working at the Gamma Center and was in the midst of a project to improve the streak drive (what those improvements might be isn't stated). IIRC, Jack McBryde gave him the warning about "Siberia" as the project was about to wrap up.

It would not have been difficult to have him picked up and shipped off to Darius. He had lost all his friends. But Houdini was not yet in effect. His escape led to a lot of things happening.

By the way, that should not have happened. There had to be other Mesans who knew what he did politically and some would have been offplanet. Just defect and live a life of ease for the info. But that would have spoiled plot elements.