penny wrote:At any rate, and I say it again. It seems to me that being Chief of Missions should shield Houseman from and physical abuse from any officer of the navy. It should also have shielded said officer’s honor from being called into question from anyone but the navy. Reason being, if that rule isn't the metric, then any officer's actions could result in his honor being called into question because of the handling of his squad, picket or fleet.
Randy Steilman should potentially have been challenged. Where does it end?
Ordinarily you would be correct about Houseman. Where Houseman deviated was in shouting, threatening and being generally abusive to both Honor and Ambassador Langtry in a situation that was outside of his authority as head of the treaty mission. From HotQ:
Chapter 18 wrote:Houseman’s head jerked back up at the bottomless, icy contempt in that soft soprano voice. He recoiled for just a second, then slammed a fist on the conference table and yanked himself erect.
“I’ve warned you for the last time, Captain! You watch your tongue when you speak to me, or I’ll have you broken! My concern is solely for my responsibilities—responsibilities I recognize, even if you don’t—as custodian of Her Majesty’s interests in Yeltsin!”
“I was under the impression we had an ambassador to look after Her Majesty’s interests,” Honor shot back, and Langtry stepped closer to her.
“So we do, Captain.” His voice was cold, and he looked much less like an ambassador and much more like a colonel as he glared at Houseman. “Mr. Houseman may represent Her Majesty’s Government for purposes of Admiral Courvosier’s mission here, but I represent Her Majesty’s continuing interests.”
“Do you feel I should use my squadron to evacuate Manticoran subjects from the line of fire, Sir?” Honor asked, never taking her eyes from Houseman’s, and the economist’s face contorted with rage as Langtry answered.
“I do not, Captain. Obviously it would be wise to evacuate as many dependents and noncombatants as possible aboard the freighters still available, but in my opinion your squadron will be best employed protecting Grayson. If you wish, I’ll put that in writing.”
“Damn you!” Houseman shouted. “Don’t you split legal hairs with me, Langtry! If I have to, I’ll have you removed from Foreign Office service at the same time I have her court-martialed!”
“You’re welcome to try.” Langtry snorted contemptuously.
Houseman swelled with fury, and the corner of Honor’s mouth twitched as her own rage raced to meet his. After all his cultured contempt for the military, all his smug assumption of his own superior place in the scheme of things, all he could think of now was to order that same despised military to save his precious skin! The polished, sophisticated surface had cracked, and behind it was an ugly, personal cowardice Honor was supremely ill-equipped to understand, much less sympathize with.
He gathered himself to lash back at Langtry, and she felt the Grayson officer standing mutely to one side. It shamed her to know what he was seeing and hearing, and under all her shame and anger was the raw, bleeding loss of the Admiral’s death and her own responsibility for it. This man—this worm—was not going to throw away everything the Admiral had worked and, yes, died for!
She leaned across the table towards him, meeting his eyes from less than a meter away, and her voice cut across the beginning of his next outburst like a scalpel.
“Shut your cowardly mouth, Mr. Houseman.” The cold words were precisely, almost calmly, enunciated, and he recoiled from them. His face went scarlet, then white and contorted with outrage, but she continued with that same, icy precision that made each word a flaying knife. “You disgust me. Sir Anthony is entirely correct, and you know it—you just won’t admit it because you don’t have the guts to face it.”
“I’ll have your commission!” Houseman gobbled. “I have friends in high places, and I’ll—"
Honor slapped him.
As for Randy Steilman, he was challenged and beaten by Aubrey Wanderman in chapter 34 of
Honor Among Enemies. I hope you did not think there could be a duel between Steilman and an officer; that is out of the question. Duels have to be between people of approximately equal status; nobody (except another monarch) has the status to challenge the Queen and an officer cannot be challenged by an NCO and and NCO cannot be challenged by any enlisted. Conversely the challenge might be possible the other direction, but why bother when there are other ways to assert power and status.
