cthia wrote:Perusing MoH looking for something in particular and rehappened upon this particular tidbit that slightly puzzles me, slightly...This could have been a point of contention when first trying to incorporate the notion of Grayson armsmen into the RMN. Especially with Janacek at the helm. Did Grayson armsmen ever formally obtain the proper security clearance?Mission of Honor Ch. 35 wrote:-snip-
Spencer Hawke, on the other hand, never even hesitated. He simply followed his Steadholder across her flag bridge and into the briefing room, then arranged himself against the bulkhead behind her.
Honor felt him there, at her back. Technically, she supposed, she should have instructed him to wait outside the briefing room door, given the security code Brantley had said the message carried. That thought had crossed her mind more than once over the years, in similar situations, yet it had never even occurred to her to actually do it with Andrew LaFollet, and she knew she would never do it with Hawke, either. He was a Grayson armsman, and he would guard his steadholder's secrets with the same iron fidelity with which he guarded her life.
She seated herself, set Nimitz on the conference table to one side of her terminal, and brought up the display.
"Put it through, Harper," she told the com officer when his image appeared.
"Yes, Ma'am," he replied, and disappeared, to be replaced almost instantly by a brown-haired, brown-eyed man of average build in the uniform of a captain of the list. She recognized him immediately.
"Good afternoon, Jackson," she said.
"Good afternoon, Your Grace," Captain Jackson Fargo replied quietly. "It's good to see you home again, although I wish it were under other circumstances."
"I know." She smiled briefly at the man who headed Hamish Alexander-Harrington's Admiralty House staff. "It's good to see you again, too, with the same proviso."
"Thank you, Your Grace." Fargo gave her a small half-bow, then cleared his throat. "The First Lord asked me to screen you. He's actually on Sphinx at this moment. Well, more accurately, he's aboard a shuttle which happens to be headed in your direction at this moment. His ETA is about twelve minutes, and he asked me to tell you he would very much like to join you aboard your flagship when he arrives, if that would be convenient."
A tiny flicker of joy flashed like distant lightning across the horizon of the emptiness within her, and she felt herself smiling ever so slightly.
"I believe, Captain," Lady Dame Honor Alexander-Harrington told him, "that I'll be able to find the time somehow."
WeirdlyWired wrote:IIRC Elizabeth herself, Herself granted diplomatic immunity. Seadholder Harrington being a Head of state of an allied Star system.
Thanks for reminding me of that.
Yet, diplomatic immunity does not equal security clearance. Diplomatic immunity as it would apply to someone possessing it in the U. S., e.g., simply means that said person cannot be prosecuted in our country for committing a crime in lieu of simply being booted out of the country.
It will not allow them to enter sensitive security areas.
A Grayson armsman cannot be prosecuted by Manticoran law. I suppose, since Haven is part of the GA, that the same immunity has been extended by the Havenites.
But still leaves the question of the formal security clearance. Being vetted.
High Ridge could have really been a skunk on this issue. Demanding that all armsmen first be vetted before allowed to be incorporated.
And much as I hate to admit it, he'd have a point. Governments or factions-like Maccabeus-could infiltrate Grayson Armsmen and attempt to "acquire" sensitive data, tactics, strategy, orders etc., or simply carry out a hit.