Tim wrote:cthia wrote:I must apologize to Sonja Hemphill. I think most of us have been too hard on her. So we assumed she had a weapons development fluke, but as RFC has pointed out, as did Sonja herself, Fearless was simply meant to be a testbed. It is only human to remember one's controversial snafus (justified or no) than their many successes
Sorry disagree. At the least Honor should get Hemphill in a dark alley will no witnesses and kick the 'H' put of her and inflict as much damage up to but just short of death.
Hemphill did not do her duty and vote to convict and sentence Northhollow to death. That allowed Northhollow to have Tinkersley murdered.
This is my Treecat side coming out.
I understand you're channeling your treecat, but remember that sometimes the 'cats simply have to accept that two-legs do things their own way because . . . well, because they're two-legs.
Sonja voted to dismiss Young from the service in disgrace. She voted to remove him from any position in which he would ever influence the Navy in any way, aside from whatever political position he might be able to achieve (not, admittedly, a minor consideration given his father and his father's files). Her vote was also further vindication of Honor's actions which (as was pointed out) were themselves questionable under the letter of the Article of War but had been approved (arguably a political decision) at the highest level. She also voted to convict on all but the capital charge despite the argument presented (and which was, by the way, entirely accurate) that Young was himself the senior office in command at the moment he broke off. The JAG had decided that his ignorance of Sarnow's incapacitation meant that he didn't know he was legally in command and therefore constituted defiance of the officer he thought was still in command, but a narrow interpretation by the court could still have concluded that the JAG was incorrect and that the actual chain of command, not the one he believed obtained, covered him against his refusal to obey Honor's orders. (And, BTW, the desperate tactical decision --- in which Young hadn't been informed of the relief force's arrival --- could very easily have been construed as justifying his decision. Of course, there would still be the minor problem that (a) he hadn't been ordered to run for it by the superior he thought was still in command and (b) if he thought he was in command he failed to pass any orders to scatter on to the rest of "his" command, but the argument that the tactical situation justified his decision could and had been made.)
In addition to the above, Sonja was aware of the political dynamic in which Parliament (specifically the Lords) was holding up a desperately needed declaration of war, and she understood that the Conservative Association and its allies were prepared to hold it up still longer unless its behind-the-scenes corrupt kingmaker's (that would be North Hollow) son got off with his life. And it should be remembered that she had no reason to know or believe that Young would be so far gone in his hatred of Honor that he would hire an assassin to kill both her and Paul Tankersly.
In short, she faced a difficult decision in a case whose prosecution depended upon some difficult interpretations of military law, which was highly politically charged, and in which she was clearly willing to become the swing vote that gave Young's enemies and accusers 90% of what they wanted while giving Young's protectors/supporters a big enough concession to let the SKM get on with fighting the war (as it desperately needed to do) while the Peeps were completely off balance because of the Pierre coup and the purges of the Legislaturalists.
IF she'd had the least idea that Young would resort to outright murder, she would never have supported letting him off with his life. She didn't know that would happen any more than anyone else (including Honor or Paul) knew.
Honor still doesn't know who voted how on the court-martial. She's never asked Hamish, and even if she did, he wouldn't tell her. However, there have been rumors for years about how the vote broke down (and why) which are essentially accurate. That is, she's pretty darned sure who broke the deadlock and what the nature of the compromise was.
She doesn't like it. She's never liked it, and the fact that politics played the decisive role in saving Pavel from execution still leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. She has never, however, blamed Sonja for it because she recognizes that without her vote, Young would have been acquitted. She knows as well as anyone else that Sonja had no way to know what Young was going to do, and while she may deeply regret the consequences of his actions after Sonja's vote effectively spared his life, she doesn't blame Sonja for those consequences.
I'm not saying that she never blamed Sonja for them, and I'm not saying that she doesn't recognize Sonja's part in a clearly political outcome. I'm simply saying that now, years after the events, she knows that what happened was no one's fault except Pavel Young's and that holding Sonja guilty of his actions when there was no way anyone could have predicted those actions would be far worse than simply unreasonable.
Does she wish Sonja had voted to convict on all charges? Of course she does! Does she realize she lives in a real world where outcomes sometimes aren't decided the way they ought to be? Yes. Does she believe that Sonja provided the best outcome pragmatically possible at the time? Yes. Does she believe that someone should be held responsible for another's actions when there was no way for the someone in question to have predicted those actions? No, she does not.
