Honorverse ramblings and musings

wiki:
San Martin was the only habitable planet in the Trevor's Star System, and home to the Republic of San Martin, an independent star nation that eventually became part of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

cthia wrote:

wiki:
San Martin was the only habitable planet in the Trevor's Star System, and home to the Republic of San Martin, an independent star nation that eventually became part of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

Been meaning to ask. What is the present government of San Martin?

What was the government prior to Haven acquiring Trevor's Star, during, and after Manticore reacquired?

I wonder about the hidden stress a Star system is subjected to during unscheduled takeovers. Are they allowed to continue with their own governments? Forced to take on a facsimile thereof of the occupying power's? Does their currency change? San Martin, with the back and forth changing hands of Trevor's Star, must have been forever shell shocked.

cthia wrote:[snip]
It broke Honor. She went to Grayson and almost died. The fire had died! She no longer looked to herself as a capable officer. What??? Wesley asked her if she'd help train the GSN. She couldn't believe he, the GSN, would want an old, semi-retired Admiral who'd lost her fire. That's just how she saw herself. She thought of herself as an out-of-sorts officer. Her confidence had waned. She had lost her sharp edge. THAT hurt to assimilate. Heck, Wesley Matthews couldn't believe his windfall. That he might receive the input of Admiral Honor "Salamander" Harrington because the idiots-to-be in the RMN has sent her to his waiting and appreciative arms. It hurt me that politics, something Honor didn't like, in tandem with a shattered heart, had all but broken her.

Jonathan_S wrote:

cthia wrote:[snip]
It broke Honor. She went to Grayson and almost died. The fire had died! She no longer looked to herself as a capable officer. What??? Wesley asked her if she'd help train the GSN. She couldn't believe he, the GSN, would want an old, semi-retired Admiral who'd lost her fire. That's just how she saw herself. She thought of herself as an out-of-sorts officer. Her confidence had waned. She had lost her sharp edge. THAT hurt to assimilate. Heck, Wesley Matthews couldn't believe his windfall. That he might receive the input of Admiral Honor "Salamander" Harrington because the idiots-to-be in the RMN has sent her to his waiting and appreciative arms. It hurt me that politics, something Honor didn't like, in tandem with a shattered heart, had all but broken her.

Just one nitpick - at the time she was asked to help train the GSN she wasn't an admiral in anybody's navy. So it's unlikely she felts like a semi-retired one.

Now a "somewhat less than mint-condition captain" I'll grant you.


(And none of this nitpick is intended to attack or refute your very real points about where her mind was or the lack of support she felt)

Weird Harold wrote:

cthia wrote:I like every description of Susan Hibson. But one thing I've never understood about the military and never had an opportunity to ask. Why is there a height limit? Perhaps, perhaps a case can be made for the need to keep vertically challenged people out in present times. But in the Honorverse, an under the mark applicant from Gryphon or Sphinx can still get the job done.

Without height limits, militaries would have to develop and produce equipment (clothing, boots, packs, etc) to fit antoher ranges of sizes -- instead of Sm, Med, Lg, XL, they'd have to produce XSm, Sm,...XL, XXL, XXXL sizes for everything.

Remember, there is also an upper limit to height and weight, so removing the lower limit would also require removing the upper limit.

cthia wrote:And it's interesting that Susan Hibson elected to join the Marines, with her barely hitting the height mark. Seems intuitive that people may have pushed her around a bit too much in grade school. No more of that schit!

Read The Hard Way Home in Worlds of Honor.

stewart wrote: There are other, more practical reasons for height maximums and minimums --
In the old Soviet Army, the crew of the T-54 / T-55 tanks were generally short 5ft to 5ft8in because the physical interior of the tank.
USN / USAF fighter jets also have a size range based on the confines of the cockpit.
NBA Star David Robinson had a growth spurt at the end of high school AFTER he had been accepted at Annapolis. The USNA basketball team didn't complain (nor did the Olympic Team) but I believe Robinson had first wanted submarines and ended up on surface ships instead.

-- Stewart

Hutch wrote:Very true, stewart. For another example, I've been aboard two WWII submarines (U-505 in Chicago and the USS Cod in Cleveland) and like your T-54 example, 6-footers would have been very uncomfortable there. (In comparison, the USS Nautilus in Groton, CT) is very spacious in comparison)

Hutch wrote:
Very true, stewart. For another example, I've been aboard two WWII submarines (U-505 in Chicago and the USS Cod in Cleveland) and like your T-54 example, 6-footers would have been very uncomfortable there. (In comparison, the USS Nautilus in Groton, CT) is very spacious in comparison)

JeffEngel wrote:

cthia wrote:Been meaning to ask. What is the present government of San Martin?

What was the government prior to Haven acquiring Trevor's Star, during, and after Manticore reacquired?

Before and after Haven, San Martin had an elected presidency - by best guess, likely something very, very roughly like a U.S. system. After annexation, it's similar locally if changed at all, but with a peerage in the House of Lords and representation in the House of Commons. More details should be in _War of Honor_, at the fingertips of people who aren't me.

cthia wrote:Honor took so much schit from Pavel. Through it all, she did what the Good Book asks us to do. 'Turn the other cheek.' Honor turned so many cheeks she was beginning to lose appendages - which literally symbolized giving and losing a piece of herself. And everyone that she should have been able to count on, thought she was able to count on, let her down. When Honor needed someone, anyone... the most ... they let her down.

. . .

But surely, her Monarch would understand. Honor had done none other than to serve her Monarch with outstanding fealty. She had given everything of herself for her Star Kingdom. And never asked for anything for herself. Ever.

. . . Hamish Alexander wished she wouldn't do it. Even forbade her to, amidst outward disappointment, which cut her deeper than Nimitz' claws ever could. The government didn't understand her. And Elizabeth. The Queen herself. Her friend. Couldn't back her.

. . . .

How could Elizabeth allow her government to collect retribution from Honor?

. . . .

Many thought she was a crazy, loose canon. But she was anything but. Everyone, and the assinine situations around her, was making her crazy. Hell, Honor was sane. It was all the shit that everyone was subjecting her to that was making her, would have long ago made anyone else, insane! Honor was in danger of losing herself. No one listened to her and truly understood, that she needed to do what a woman needed to do, for her!

Little wonder Honor didn't just walk in some public place strapped with a pulse carbine and jimmy flat blast everyone! "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!?

Now, I understand why Elizabeth couldn't support Honor's actions. And, I was endeared to Elizabeth even more for that. Honor had become Elizabeth's friend. In many ways her equal. And not many others did Elizabeth respect more than she respected Honor. No one has to tell me the pain and distress that had to cause, and probably still causes, Elizabeth. But she was a Monarch, with the lives of an entire Star Kingdom on her shoulders. She bore that weight as she always had. Her decision to allow her government to 'run Honor out of town,' was the kind of decision that Honor respected in her Monarch.

But just this once, Honor needed total support, as she was about to lose the only type battle she was ill-equipped to fight. A personal, emotional one.

Please forgive my rant. Like Honor, I needed to vent. Frustration is like a sneeze. If you try to contain its buildup, it can hurt someone.