Honorverse ramblings and musings

cthia wrote:I think it's time to upgrade Honor's finger. She only gets one shot. She has her entire arm to work with as far as circuitry. I'm thinking a high powered laser.

Sorry, cthia. You are misremembering. Honor's pulser is a standard military grade weapon with a standard military ammo clip. This is pointed out in Honor Among Enemies when she meets with Herzog Rabenstrange and when she is on the target range after she finds out she's pregnant in War of Honor. And while a laser sounds cool, the energy supply would probably be limited.

KNick wrote:

cthia wrote:I think it's time to upgrade Honor's finger. She only gets one shot. She has her entire arm to work with as far as circuitry. I'm thinking a high powered laser.

Sorry, cthia. You are misremembering. Honor's pulser is a standard military grade weapon with a standard military ammo clip. This is pointed out in Honor Among Enemies when she meets with Herzog Rabenstrange and when she is on the target range after she finds out she's pregnant in War of Honor. And while a laser sounds cool, the energy supply would probably be limited.

No, I'm sorry KNick. I misunderstood that Honor getting one use meant one shot. Thanks for clearing that up. An ammo clip is just fine!

Now her FINGERTIP is one use only if she puts a pulsar round through it. That would need replacing. IE during that failed assassination attempt with poor Tim Meares.

cthia wrote:I think it's time to upgrade Honor's finger. She only gets one shot. She has her entire arm to work with as far as circuitry. I'm thinking a high powered laser.

She removed a magazine when she disarmed her finger before meeting Chien-lu the first time. IIRC, she has a hundred shots before she has to resort to crude violence like using a serving platter for a Frisbee(tm).

You're probably confused because she only needed one shot when she used the finger for real.

Weird Harold wrote:

cthia wrote:I think it's time to upgrade Honor's finger. She only gets one shot. She has her entire arm to work with as far as circuitry. I'm thinking a high powered laser.

She removed a magazine when she disarmed her finger before meeting Chien-lu the first time. IIRC, she has a hundred shots before she has to resort to crude violence like using a serving platter for a Frisbee(tm).

You're probably confused because she only needed one shot when she used the finger for real.

There has been a time or two when I wish that I had a finger like that --- at church council meetings!!!

Don

If nimitz can prevent himself from chasing it....

Michael Everett wrote:

cthia wrote:I think it's time to upgrade Honor's finger. She only gets one shot. She has her entire arm to work with as far as circuitry. I'm thinking a high powered laser.

And on low power, she can use it to help her give tactical briefings...

Giancola:
Extremely ambitious and ruthless, he altered messages between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and Haven to weaken Pritchart. However, his actions resulted in the President's decision to resort to military force, beginning the Second Havenite-Manticoran War.

This has always bothered me, of how easy it was for Giancola to tamper with classified diplomatic messages. I know it is because he was trusted, and because of his position that he was able to do so. Yet it still seems odd that some sort of checks and balances aren't in place to prevent such a thing. In fact, I thought that was one of the whole points of the phrase "on the chip." I thought chips were secure, therefore I can't understand why protocol doesn't insist that the Head of State be present for the final draft of any and all diplomatic correspondence to be recorded 'on chip.' Especially in lieu of the fact that Eloise didn't entirely trust him at first.

He shouldn't of been able to, but he had access to an official Manticorian seal cause of a traitor on their end. So he could make any official communiques he wanted.

He was Secretary of State, it was his job to do this, and highly classified things like diplomatic correspondence were no doubt tightly compartmentalized.

cthia wrote:

Giancola:
Extremely ambitious and ruthless, he altered messages between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and Haven to weaken Pritchart. However, his actions resulted in the President's decision to resort to military force, beginning the Second Havenite-Manticoran War.

This has always bothered me, of how easy it was for Giancola to tamper with classified diplomatic messages. I know it is because he was trusted, and because of his position that he was able to do so. Yet it still seems odd that some sort of checks and balances aren't in place to prevent such a thing. In fact, I thought that was one of the whole points of the phrase "on the chip." I thought chips were secure, therefore I can't understand why protocol doesn't insist that the Head of State be present for the final draft of any and all diplomatic correspondence to be recorded 'on chip.' Especially in lieu of the fact that Eloise didn't entirely trust him at first.

He was able to change the outgoing wording because he was the Havenite Secretary of State. I seriously doubt President Obama reviews and approves the final wording of most of the messages John Kerry, as US Secretary of State, sends even to a major country of concern like Russia.

The fact that Prichart distrusted Giancola probably make it harder to insist on reviewing final wording before the digital signature was applied. That would be rubbing her blatant distrust into his politically powerful face; in a borderline offensive way. It'd cause polictical waves to force that on him.


Oddly with a State Sec she trusted, and had a good working relationship with, it'd be easier to ask for and get co-approval of exact wording, or even to to apply her personal digital signature to "lock in" the wording. And in a good working relationship that wouldn't have to come off as distrustful micromanaging; it would be (and would be seen to be) cooperating on generating the best and clearest wording for very sensitive negotiations. But asking asking for the same thing from someone you are known to distrust sends a totally different message. (Unfortunately)


And of course with one blatant exception (the final clarification/demand for Trever's Star) most of the manipulation Giancola was doing wasn't on the outgoing Havenite wording. He was using the Mantie's key to forge changes in the notes from them. No amount of Pritchart micromanaging the wording of the Havenite notes would have prevented that. (Well I guess if she extremely publicly snubbed Giancola and insisted the copies of notes come directly to her, encrypted by the Manties as eye's only to the President, that would have prevented the edits. But that would have been a total hijacking of the normal process of diplomatic exchange. And demanding that really couldn't be seen, by anyone involved, as anything but a distrust that Giancola could be relied upon for something even so minor and passing the notes along correctly and in a timely manner. (After all everyone on the Haven side could verify the digital signature and confirm the message hadn't been altered since it was signed; and that it had been signed by a private key assigned to the Manticoran State Department. The crypto can't show that an unauthorized entity had a copy of the key and could use it to create valid signatures on anything.

cthia wrote:

Giancola:
Extremely ambitious and ruthless, he altered messages between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and Haven to weaken Pritchart. However, his actions resulted in the President's decision to resort to military force, beginning the Second Havenite-Manticoran War.

This has always bothered me, of how easy it was for Giancola to tamper with classified diplomatic messages. I know it is because he was trusted, and because of his position that he was able to do so. Yet it still seems odd that some sort of checks and balances aren't in place to prevent such a thing. In fact, I thought that was one of the whole points of the phrase "on the chip." I thought chips were secure, therefore I can't understand why protocol doesn't insist that the Head of State be present for the final draft of any and all diplomatic correspondence to be recorded 'on chip.' Especially in lieu of the fact that Eloise didn't entirely trust him at first.

Johnathan_S wrote:
He was able to change the outgoing wording because he was the Havenite Secretary of State. I seriously doubt President Obama reviews and approves the final wording of most of the messages John Kerry, as US Secretary of State, sends even to a major country of concern like Russia.

The fact that Prichart distrusted Giancola probably make it harder to insist on reviewing final wording before the digital signature was applied. That would be rubbing her blatant distrust into his politically powerful face; in a borderline offensive way. It'd cause polictical waves to force that on him.


Oddly with a State Sec she trusted, and had a good working relationship with, it'd be easier to ask for and get co-approval of exact wording, or even to to apply her personal digital signature to "lock in" the wording. And in a good working relationship that wouldn't have to come off as distrustful micromanaging; it would be (and would be seen to be) cooperating on generating the best and clearest wording for very sensitive negotiations. But asking asking for the same thing from someone you are known to distrust sends a totally different message. (Unfortunately)


And of course with one blatant exception (the final clarification/demand for Trever's Star) most of the manipulation Giancola was doing wasn't on the outgoing Havenite wording. He was using the Mantie's key to forge changes in the notes from them. No amount of Pritchart micromanaging the wording of the Havenite notes would have prevented that. (Well I guess if she extremely publicly snubbed Giancola and insisted the copies of notes come directly to her, encrypted by the Manties as eye's only to the President, that would have prevented the edits. But that would have been a total hijacking of the normal process of diplomatic exchange. And demanding that really couldn't be seen, by anyone involved, as anything but a distrust that Giancola could be relied upon for something even so minor and passing the notes along correctly and in a timely manner. (After all everyone on the Haven side could verify the digital signature and confirm the message hadn't been altered since it was signed; and that it had been signed by a private key assigned to the Manticoran State Department. The crypto can't show that an unauthorized entity had a copy of the key and could use it to create valid signatures on anything.

I understand all of both of your points. And it lightens many a dark area. It also raises other questions and concerns.

1. On the Haven side, both sides actually, if it was written explicitly into law as an unavoidable protocol to check all correspondence personally, in the same sense as Grayson Steadholders must be accompanied off planet by armsmen, then Eloise can't not (double neg appropos here) ask to do so as it is legally out of her hands and it would free her from the worry of social impropriety.

2. On Manticore's end, the passkey should only be known to Elizabeth herself, and maybe, maybe one other, as only two people carry keys to arm ICBMs. Therefore, if the passkey is acquired under those circumstances, then a serious breach in security is at hand.