cthia wrote:IINM, there were Hermes Buoys littering the system, and they were introduced to Tsang. There were way too many to have been put there "recently." Even if they were, recent additions, Tsang had to have been blown away by the revelation that FTL capability wasn't just a pipe dream, and that their own founding member was not only comfortable with them being emplaced in the system, but was actually intimate with them long enough to have gotten over the capability.
The text isn't explicit whether Truman was talking to Tsang via FTL comms. The conversations across 30 seconds of light-lag are reported as normal conversations (even the ones taking 45 minutes, as if anyone would keep staring at a screen that long while waiting for an answer). So it's possible when Truman crashed the party, she was using regular light speed comms. But it's equally likely she was using an FTL relay so she could respond as quickly as Adm. Holmon-Sanders. Such a relay could easily have been deployed by Truman for the express purpose of talking to Tsang, so it's not a substantial investment nor did it need to take place more than a few minutes earlier.
Aside from that, there's no reported FTL in the system. That doesn't mean there wasn't any, but Tsang wasn't exposed to it. If there was, it was probably installed and operated by the RMN. The RMN can do that for anyone it chooses to, in any system that will accept its conditions and provide sufficient security for a state secret. Since there was no declaration of war, the SEM was a trading partner in good standing. There's no reason such an installation would be a betrayal.
There's no betrayal here.
That fact is what led to RFC crashing a party when we were positing that Beowulf broke some sort of "code of ethics" at the very least, if not an outright breach against the League for not divulging the reality of Manty FTL.
I'm telling you, "Straight out of a sci-fi novel," says Tsang.
RFC gets to choose what the laws and regulations are. If he says member worlds are not required to divulge secrets it acquires to the League government, then they aren't.
And even then there may be nuances. A member world might be obligated to pass along information material to the security of the SL. But there's a judgement call here: what is material to the security of the SL? The SEM had no intention of invading the SL. There was no declaration of war, making the SEM an enemy of the SL. The Beowulf System Board of Directors can truthfully say that it was trying to prevent a misunderstanding (Byng) from escalating any further than Crandall already had. And they were so saying, in the League Congress.
The blatant illegal attempted invasion of an ally without formal declaration of war and attempted coercion and threatening of Solarian citizens (in the form of BSDF personnel) prompted Beowulf to suspend its ties until the plebiscite. When it does so, it does not have to obey League rules even if a formal declaration of war happened.