Yawata strike

George J. Smith wrote:

Bill Woods wrote:
I don't see how the Andermani could beat Henke. She left from Talbott Quad as soon as she knew the outcome of 2nd Manticore, with only a delay of about three weeks at Meyer System. Unless the Andies took the wormhole to Lynx and cut off the dogleg, how could they possibly get to Mesa first?
And, at the end of Cauldron, how would Honor not know about their ETA? And yet she only tells Zilwicki about Henke.

Unless they went from Trevor's Star via the MWJ to Beowulf then hopped across to Visigoth and took the wormhole to Mesa.

But then they wouldn't be taking the people on Mesa by surprise. And again, Honor would know, and be telling Zilwicki about them.

Bill Woods wrote:
I don't see how the Andermani could beat Henke. She left from Talbott Quad as soon as she knew the outcome of 2nd Manticore, with only a delay of about three weeks at Meyer System. Unless the Andies took the wormhole to Lynx and cut off the dogleg, how could they possibly get to Mesa first?
And, at the end of Cauldron, how would Honor not know about their ETA? And yet she only tells Zilwicki about Henke.

George J. Smith wrote:
Unless they went from Trevor's Star via the MWJ to Beowulf then hopped across to Visigoth and took the wormhole to Mesa.

Bill Woods wrote:But then they wouldn't be taking the people on Mesa by surprise. And again, Honor would know, and be telling Zilwicki about them.

All supposition. We don't know how long Henke was at Meyers. Certainly long enough for considerable progress to be made in cracking open various individuals files, and we don't know how long it took her to go from Tillerman? to Meyers - should be only a week or two, but we don't know. The only firm date in the book is August, 1922, and that is before she decides to move on Meyers. While it is a reasonable assumption that Henke is the one who showed up at the end of CoG, we won't know until David writes the next book, and I suspect that he's not telling, if only to keep his options open, if a sudden brilliant idea should occur to him, taking him in a new direction.

Bill Woods wrote: I don't see how the Andermani could beat Henke. She left from Talbott Quad as soon as she knew the outcome of 2nd Manticore, with only a delay of about three weeks at Meyer System. Unless the Andies took the wormhole to Lynx and cut off the dogleg, how could they possibly get to Mesa first?
And, at the end of Cauldron, how would Honor not know about their ETA? And yet she only tells Zilwicki about Henke.

George J. Smith wrote:
Unless they went from Trevor's Star via the MWJ to Beowulf then hopped across to Visigoth and took the wormhole to Mesa.

Bill Woods wrote:But then they wouldn't be taking the people on Mesa by surprise. And again, Honor would know, and be telling Zilwicki about them.

fallsfromtrees wrote: All supposition. We don't know how long Henke was at Meyers. Certainly long enough for considerable progress to be made in cracking open various individuals files, and we don't know how long it took her to go from Tillerman? to Meyers - should be only a week or two, but we don't know. The only firm date in the book is August, 1922, and that is before she decides to move on Meyers. While it is a reasonable assumption that Henke is the one who showed up at the end of CoG, we won't know until David writes the next book, and I suspect that he's not telling, if only to keep his options open, if a sudden brilliant idea should occur to him, taking him in a new direction.

We do know, pretty nearly:
Henke received news of 2nd Manticore about 3.5 weeks after it happened ("eight days"{ch.5} + "just over two weeks"{ch.29}) and left Tillerman for Meyers about two days later{ch.29}. Ch.30 is the first chapter in July.
She arrived in ch.33, which is the first chapter in August. "[O]ver two weeks" later{ch.35} she and Lecter discuss interrogating Hongbo, which she does in the next chapter. "[S]everal hours later" she decides to leave for Mesa, and does so "a couple of days" later{ch.36}.
So her total time at Meyers is about 3 weeks, leaving in late August (or perhaps early September).
I don't know the flight time from Meyers to Mesa, but from New Tuscany it's "the next best thing to forty-five T-days" by conventional dispatch boat{MoH,ch.4}. New Tuscany's on the far side of the Talbott Quad, so from Meyers, about a month?

I am waiting for the treecats to get to Haven and uncover the MA agent Colonel Nesbitt who gave Giancola the nanotech that killed Grosclaude. The same nanotech that the treecats can sense and that Haven and Manticore would love to get some physical evidence of.

From the list of characters in the book "At All Costs"


Nesbitt, Tony—Republic of Haven Secretary of Commerce; Jean-Claude Nesbitt's cousin.

Nesbitt, Colonel Jean-Claude—chief of security, Republic of Haven Department of State; Tony Nesbitt's cousin.


So if this MA thing is a generational descendant family thing, wouldn't both of them be MA agents?

StealthSeeker wrote:From the list of characters in the book "At All Costs"


Nesbitt, Tony—Republic of Haven Secretary of Commerce; Jean-Claude Nesbitt's cousin.

Nesbitt, Colonel Jean-Claude—chief of security, Republic of Haven Department of State; Tony Nesbitt's cousin.


So if this MA thing is a generational descendant family thing, wouldn't both of them be MA agents?

There is no evidence that Jean-Claude Nesbitt is one of the multi-generational Alignment plants. It is far more likely that is he merely a bought agent, who does not know who he is really working for.

StealthSeeker wrote:I am waiting for the treecats to get to Haven and uncover the MA agent Colonel Nesbitt who gave Giancola the nanotech that killed Grosclaude. The same nanotech that the treecats can sense and that Haven and Manticore would love to get some physical evidence of.

I don't think they can sense the nanotech itself. It seemed like they can sense the victim screaming inside his own head as his body does something he doesn't want it to do.
But, yeah, they may indeed pick up some odd reactions.
"So now we're going to do a deep recheck of anyone who might be working for the Malign."
[outside] "Great!" [inside] 'Oh crap!'

Bill Woods wrote:

StealthSeeker wrote:I am waiting for the treecats to get to Haven and uncover the MA agent Colonel Nesbitt who gave Giancola the nanotech that killed Grosclaude. The same nanotech that the treecats can sense and that Haven and Manticore would love to get some physical evidence of.

I don't think they can sense the nanotech itself. It seemed like they can sense the victim screaming inside his own head as his body does something he doesn't want it to do.
But, yeah, they may indeed pick up some odd reactions.
"So now we're going to do a deep recheck of anyone who might be working for the Malign."
[outside] "Great!" [inside] 'Oh crap!'

Yes, but they would be able to sense that Nesbit is untrustworthy - and any untoward emotions he may have. Not a smoking gun, but definitely enough to gve his human fellows an "I trust him less than a DeathFang" message.

Bill Woods wrote:

StealthSeeker wrote:I am waiting for the treecats to get to Haven and uncover the MA agent Colonel Nesbitt who gave Giancola the nanotech that killed Grosclaude. The same nanotech that the treecats can sense and that Haven and Manticore would love to get some physical evidence of.

I don't think they can sense the nanotech itself. It seemed like they can sense the victim screaming inside his own head as his body does something he doesn't want it to do.
But, yeah, they may indeed pick up some odd reactions.
"So now we're going to do a deep recheck of anyone who might be working for the Malign."
[outside] "Great!" [inside] 'Oh crap!'

I wonder - now that the GA knows about the nanotech in terms of what it does, from Jack McBryde's teasers, and has some sample of leftover oddity from Yves Grosclaude's remains, if they can't work up a blood test for it in someone's system before it is triggered. Not that the treecats aren't a great help, and useful in so many places and times that a blood test wouldn't be practical. But something to find out about it before it goes off would be a great relief all around.

JeffEngel wrote:I wonder - now that the GA knows about the nanotech in terms of what it does, from Jack McBryde's teasers, and has some sample of leftover oddity from Yves Grosclaude's remains, if they can't work up a blood test for it in someone's system before it is triggered. Not that the treecats aren't a great help, and useful in so many places and times that a blood test wouldn't be practical. But something to find out about it before it goes off would be a great relief all around.

The chemical oddity that they detected in Grosclaude's system was the decay products of the nanotech. Those products only form when the nanotech starts breaking itself down after doing its duty. They do not have any samples that would help them detect the nanotech itself, before it starts decaying.

That's not to say that they can't find some way of detecting it. Just that they don't have any samples to help.