Uncompromising Honor chatter

stewart wrote:

cthia wrote:While reading UH, I recall a strong bit of foreboding forming in the pit of my stomach when I learned of so many very important people who were going to be in Beowulf space when the attack came in. Of course, the gist of this thread came to mind, because it would have been crazy for the MA not to take advantage of such an opportunity to kill so many important targets with one attack, if it had been privy to the target rich environment. As a result though, the GA just may find the MA now. If only because of the noise produced from so much shouting and joy after the MA receive the news of who was killed in the attack. I sure hope the author didn't get that idea from reading that thread, because I'd sure hate to be responsible, in any small part, for that abortion.

At any rate, I recalled feeling a little anxious over Code Romeo -- or whatever the defense condition was when Jacques and Hamish received it -- that directed them to act as they did. I wondered why the safest place wouldn't be to get dirtside immediately, but iinm, that was the plan after docking Anachronism. At any rate, I thought I saw Hamish's death coming. I also worried about the death of all of those very important people assembled in Beowulf, in light of that notion contained in the previously referenced thread, exacerbated by the numerous light years of discussion of the many people projected to die in that system. Weber certainly did a fine job of setting us up for that curvy screwball. I can just see him sitting at his computer laughing like an evil genius about that one.

Weber must have been feeling rather fiendish on the order of the cats on Grayson during the cultivator prank. What a sigh of relief I felt when Hamish survived. Squalls of tears I shed on that passage alone! It ultimately made me discard my weapon of choice if ever I meet the author. Arming myself with a super soaker in lieu of a pitchfork is somewhat acceptable. Maybe. ::shrug::

Another thing UH reminded me of is the forgotten notion I had long ago of the idea of a cat self-destructing from mere hearsay of its mate's death. It would be highly ironic if Nimitz had died from his heartache before learning that Sam had survived. In light of UH, perhaps Weber should get his own armsmen. LOL

.

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Honor and Nimitz were both in a suicide spiral -- not eating, sole focus on their final duty. If the Duke of Comarty had not set a new speed record, Hamish and Sam may have discovered Honor and Nimitz both expired in her cabin after returning the Sol system to pre-Diaspera technology.

-- Stewart

tlb wrote:I expect the Detweiler Plan is to get the LRPB into place and then let it slowly sink in that this is what Mesa wanted.

tlb wrote:I expect the Detweiler Plan is to get the LRPB into place and then let it slowly sink in that this is what Mesa wanted.

Peregrinator wrote:I wonder to what degree the LRPB is part of the onion. Certainly some people are, but I wonder if others were part of the "good" Mesan Alignment (the one that ordinary Mesan society knows about).

tlb wrote:

tlb wrote:I expect the Detweiler Plan is to get the LRPB into place and then let it slowly sink in that this is what Mesa wanted.

Peregrinator wrote:I wonder to what degree the LRPB is part of the onion. Certainly some people are, but I wonder if others were part of the "good" Mesan Alignment (the one that ordinary Mesan society knows about).

Although I believe that the LRPB was at the heart of the Detweiler Plan, that need not mean that everyone involved in it were within the onion. As you say, some of them could just have been "good Mesans" working for the uplift of all humanity.

It does seem as though some the experiments that the LRPB was supervising should not become public knowledge, from the Onion's point of view.

UH wrote:“And so to business,” Daniel agreed. “There are two or three projects we need to discuss—someplace besides over lunch in a restaurant, I mean—but the main thing is that, as of today, Silver Bullet’s ready for production. We still have a couple of bugs to address, but they’re mostly software issues. The prototype hardware’s performed almost perfectly, and Test and Eval signed off on it yesterday.”

“That’s great!” Benjamin raised one hand in a thumbs-up gesture. “Faster than I expected, too.”

“Well, most of the hardware was pretty much off-the-shelf. We’d already been tweaking the torpedo’s drive for you, and the gravitic sensors are out of our own grav com R&D. The biggest problem was power supply, really. My people haven’t been able to duplicate the Manty micro fusion plants yet. I think they’re on the track, and I’m actually predicting that they’ll pull it off in the next T-year or so, but it won’t be any sooner than that. Assuming Collin’s people don’t manage to steal the plans for us. Any chance of that?”

“’Fraid not.” Benjamin shook his head, his expression much less cheerful than it had been. “I had a report from him a couple of days ago. Apparently, the Manties are rolling up his networks in a big way.

cthia wrote:But of course, there very well should be members of the LRPB who are a part of the Onion. So I imagine, anyway. And from there the LRPB goes on to utilize its own flunkies, dupes, mules, expendables. I always viewed the LRPB as the Alignment's Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has to be as far on the inside as one can get to be effective.

I'm willing to bet hide nor hair of the LRPB can be found in the decision to attack Beowulf. As I've stated before, I see a conflict of interest brewing on the horizon between the LRPB and the clones. The LRPB most likely don't share Daddy Daycare or his clones' impassioned need for revenge. It's just business for these guys. As it is for most Board of Directors. I'd be really surprised if there isn't some butting of heads and cutting of ties down the bumpy road to come.

****** *

What is the difference between Silver Bullet, used at Beowulf, and the graser torp that was used in the Yawata Strike?

UH wrote:“And so to business,” Daniel agreed. “There are two or three projects we need to discuss—someplace besides over lunch in a restaurant, I mean—but the main thing is that, as of today, Silver Bullet’s ready for production. We still have a couple of bugs to address, but they’re mostly software issues. The prototype hardware’s performed almost perfectly, and Test and Eval signed off on it yesterday.”

“That’s great!” Benjamin raised one hand in a thumbs-up gesture. “Faster than I expected, too.”

“Well, most of the hardware was pretty much off-the-shelf. We’d already been tweaking the torpedo’s drive for you, and the gravitic sensors are out of our own grav com R&D. The biggest problem was power supply, really. My people haven’t been able to duplicate the Manty micro fusion plants yet. I think they’re on the track, and I’m actually predicting that they’ll pull it off in the next T-year or so, but it won’t be any sooner than that. Assuming Collin’s people don’t manage to steal the plans for us. Any chance of that?”

“’Fraid not.” Benjamin shook his head, his expression much less cheerful than it had been. “I had a report from him a couple of days ago. Apparently, the Manties are rolling up his networks in a big way.

cthia wrote:But of course, there very well should be members of the LRPB who are a part of the Onion. So I imagine, anyway. And from there the LRPB goes on to utilize its own flunkies, dupes, mules, expendables. I always viewed the LRPB as the Alignment's Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has to be as far on the inside as one can get to be effective.

I'm willing to bet hide nor hair of the LRPB can be found in the decision to attack Beowulf. As I've stated before, I see a conflict of interest brewing on the horizon between the LRPB and the clones. The LRPB most likely don't share Daddy Daycare or his clones' impassioned need for revenge. It's just business for these guys. As it is for most Board of Directors. I'd be really surprised if there isn't some butting of heads and cutting of ties down the bumpy road to come.

****** *

What is the difference between Silver Bullet, used at Beowulf, and the graser torp that was used in the Yawata Strike?

UH wrote:“And so to business,” Daniel agreed. “There are two or three projects we need to discuss—someplace besides over lunch in a restaurant, I mean—but the main thing is that, as of today, Silver Bullet’s ready for production. We still have a couple of bugs to address, but they’re mostly software issues. The prototype hardware’s performed almost perfectly, and Test and Eval signed off on it yesterday.”

“That’s great!” Benjamin raised one hand in a thumbs-up gesture. “Faster than I expected, too.”

“Well, most of the hardware was pretty much off-the-shelf. We’d already been tweaking the torpedo’s drive for you, and the gravitic sensors are out of our own grav com R&D. The biggest problem was power supply, really. My people haven’t been able to duplicate the Manty micro fusion plants yet. I think they’re on the track, and I’m actually predicting that they’ll pull it off in the next T-year or so, but it won’t be any sooner than that. Assuming Collin’s people don’t manage to steal the plans for us. Any chance of that?”

“’Fraid not.” Benjamin shook his head, his expression much less cheerful than it had been. “I had a report from him a couple of days ago. Apparently, the Manties are rolling up his networks in a big way.

tlb wrote:The problem with the LRPB trying to but heads with the Detweiler clones is that the "sons" have the power and the name. The board reports to them, and perhaps not even directly - but up through management to the one that is responsible for biological advancement.

I do not know why the graser torpedoes and the silver bullet devices are different, but I can make a guess: it is sort of the same difference between a laser warhead missile and mistletoe. Clearly the graser used as the weapon is the same, but the mission is different. The torpedo ghosted into position and then fired at an easily identified object; but the bullets had to find objects that were mostly on standby and stay undiscovered in close proximity until the SLN attack finally arrived, then finally destroy the targets as they came active (altogether a much more difficult task, which required much more power management).

cthia wrote:It's not so clear cut in every single case. The board has pretty sweeping powers. They usually have a more top down view of things, and the manager, founder, owner, has a more bottom up view.

The board oversees the decisions taken by management, and alters them according to plans, goals, and the strategic direction and focus of the company. Oftentimes this relationship has inherent conflicts built-in, and it's supposed to. It's set up to be a healthy relationship of checks and balances. (Do recall the management problems and issues of Apple about certain technical aspects of the OS, most notably its looks. Jobs always hated small screen devices less than 10in because of the user's app experience. After Steve Jobs, I had friends -- who once were considering dumping their stock -- suddenly excited about hanging on to it, because Jobs was bullish on investors but amenable to shareholders. Turned out to be a boon that we stayed in.)

Board members are oftentimes part owners themselves with stock options and their own net worth. I assume the Alignment operates on a cash flow basis as every other consortium. Therefore, they have a large input in decisions made about the company. Ultimately, it's rather hard to say without the author's input regarding the overall structure of the "consortium."

Certainly the Detweiler name is vastly important to the cause, and there is power inherent in that name. But structurally, we may find the truth isn't so clear cut.

There were moments when Jack suspected the Long-Range Planning Board had lost sight of that. Hardly surprising if it had, he supposed. The Board was responsible not simply for overseeing the careful, continually ongoing development of the genomes under its care, but also for providing the Alignment with the tactical abilities its strategies and operations required. Under the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that it should continually strive for a greater degree of . . . quality control.
And at least both the LRPB and the General Strategy Board recognized the need to make the best possible use out of any positive advantages the law of unintended consequences might throw up. Which explained why Zachariah's unique, almost instinctual ability to combine totally separate research concepts into unanticipated nuggets of development had been so carefully nourished once it was recognized. Which, in turn, explained how he had wound up as one of Chernevsky's right hands in the Alignment's naval R&D branch.

jchilds wrote:I like to think the LRPB has connections to the onion. I keep hoping we'll find that two of Albrect's unmentioned (so far) daughters run that side of the family business. Having the Mesan Alignment's matchmaking run by Rose and Heather Detweiler could be entertaining.

jchilds wrote:I like to think the LRPB has connections to the onion. I keep hoping we'll find that two of Albrect's unmentioned (so far) daughters run that side of the family business. Having the Mesan Alignment's matchmaking run by Rose and Heather Detweiler could be entertaining.

Daryl wrote:So could Pritchard have come from a hidden A line?