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Honorverse favorite passages

Join us in talking discussing all things Honor, including (but not limited to) tactics, favorite characters, and book discussions.
Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by roseandheather   » Sat Dec 20, 2014 3:48 pm

roseandheather
Admiral

Posts: 2056
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:39 pm
Location: Republic of Haven

Theisman leaned forward, reaching across the desk, and captured [Eloise’s] hand and gripped it fiercely. “Yes, he fooled you. Well, he fooled me, the rest of the Cabinet, and the entire goddamned Congress, as well! You just said it yourself—you didn’t have the power to declare war without advice and consent, and you got both of them.”

"But I asked for them. It was my policy," she said softly. "My administration."

"Maybe it was. But the way we got here doesn’t change where we are, or the options we’ve got. So…."

He looked into her eyes once again, still holding her hand.

"….which way do we go, Madam President?"
At All Costs

do not speak to me

do not even look at me

my heart is busy breaking

again

God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...
~*~


I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.

Javier & Eloise
"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley..."
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by cthia   » Sun Dec 21, 2014 8:53 pm

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

roseandheather wrote:
Theisman leaned forward, reaching across the desk, and captured [Eloise’s] hand and gripped it fiercely. “Yes, he fooled you. Well, he fooled me, the rest of the Cabinet, and the entire goddamned Congress, as well! You just said it yourself—you didn’t have the power to declare war without advice and consent, and you got both of them.”

"But I asked for them. It was my policy," she said softly. "My administration."

"Maybe it was. But the way we got here doesn’t change where we are, or the options we’ve got. So…."

He looked into her eyes once again, still holding her hand.

"….which way do we go, Madam President?"
At All Costs

do not speak to me

do not even look at me

my heart is busy breaking

again

Oh my, I love this tender passage Rose. Thanks for it.

God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...

Where is this from, classic poetry? Yours? It's ... very nice.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by George J. Smith   » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:10 am

George J. Smith
Commodore

Posts: 873
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:48 am
Location: Ross-on-Wye UK

God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...

cthia wrote:Where is this from, classic poetry? Yours? It's ... very nice.



It's from the Disney film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Bette Midler was the artist who sang the song
.
T&R
GJS

A man should live forever, or die in the attempt
Spider Robinson Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977) A voice is heard in Ramah
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by cthia   » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:13 am

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

George J. Smith wrote:
God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...

cthia wrote:Where is this from, classic poetry? Yours? It's ... very nice.



It's from the Disney film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Bette Midler was the artist who sang the song


Oh! Thanks George!

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by roseandheather   » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:01 pm

roseandheather
Admiral

Posts: 2056
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:39 pm
Location: Republic of Haven

Dame Estelle Matsuko, Knight of the Order of King Roger and Resident Commissioner for Planetary Affairs on the planet Medusa in the name of Her Majesty Elizabeth III, Queen of Manticore and Defender of the Realm, rose behind her desk as her office door slid open. The tall naval commander who stepped through moved with the graceful stride of muscles accustomed to a gravity a great deal higher than Medusa's .85 g, and the treecat on her shoulder looked around with interested green eyes. Dame Estelle examined the pair of them with equal but hidden curiosity even as she extended a hand in welcome.

"Commander Harrington."

"Commissioner." The commander's crisp, clipped accent was as clear an indication of her birth world as the treecat or the way she moved, and her grip was firm but carefully metered. Dame Estelle had felt the same sort of handshake from other Sphinxians—and the few who'd absent-mindedly forgotten to watch what they were doing made her grateful for the ones who remembered.

"Won't you be seated?" Dame Estelle offered as the commander released her hand, and her brain was busy making mental notations.

Harrington carried herself with assurance, and Dame Estelle revised her original age estimate upward by five years. She was a striking woman, with a pale, strongly sculpted face and large, expressive eyes almost as dark as Dame Estelle's own. Her hair was clipped shorter than most men's under the white beret, and she wore an unmistakable air of competent professionalism. A far cry, the commissioner reflected, from the second-raters the Navy had been dumping on her, especially since Janacek took over the Admiralty. Yet there was a tension under Harrington's disciplined surface. An uneasiness. At first she'd thought it was her imagination, but a closer look at the commander's companion had disabused her of that notion. The treecat was curious about his surroundings, yes, but his long, slender body was taut and wary, and Dame Estelle had seen enough 'cats to recognize the protectiveness with which his tail wrapped about Harrington's throat.
On Basilisk Station

And thus we meet the other - and, if truth be told, very first - love of my Honorverse life.

.....well, one of the others..... I have a lot of love to spread around, okay?? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol: 8-)

But still, most definitely, the absolute very first.

Hello, my lady. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to meet you.

Now please go snog that one surprisingly badass admiral stupid because God knows he'll never make the first move.
~*~


I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.

Javier & Eloise
"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley..."
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by JeffEngel   » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:15 pm

JeffEngel
Admiral

Posts: 2074
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2014 6:06 pm

roseandheather wrote:Hello, my lady. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to meet you.

Now please go snog that one surprisingly badass admiral stupid because God knows he'll never make the first move.

Maybe he's just conducting an extended system recon before engaging? :P
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by SharkHunter   » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:50 pm

SharkHunter
Vice Admiral

Posts: 1608
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:53 pm
Location: Independence, Missouri

God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...

cthia wrote:Where is this from, classic poetry? Yours? It's ... very nice.

George J. Smith wrote:It's from the Disney film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Bette Midler was the artist who sang the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEpavnk7Uw

Probably my favorite disney tune of recent years ==>
not Bette Midler in the film, but on the soundtrack album. It was Heidi Mollenhauer in the film, the rendition I prefer.
---------------------
All my posts are YMMV, IMHO, and welcoming polite discussion, extension, and rebuttal. This is the HonorVerse, after all
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Tue Dec 23, 2014 1:17 am

fallsfromtrees
Vice Admiral

Posts: 1958
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:51 am
Location: Mesa, Arizona

"You're what?" Captain Reynaud demanded, and Lieutenant Andreas Venizelos wrinkled his brow in puzzlement."I said I'm your customs and security officer, Captain. I'm sure Captain Harrington's dispatch will explain everything."Reynaud accepted the message chip almost numbly, and Venizelos's puzzlement deepened. He couldn't understand why the ACS man looked so confused. It wasn't as if Venizelos were using any big words."Let me get this straight," Reynaud said after a moment. "Your Captain Harrington actually expects you and your people to be quartered here at Control? He means to leave you here to support our operations?""Yes, Sir, she does." The darkly handsome lieutenant stressed the pronoun's gender, and Reynaud nodded, but he still looked so dumbfounded Venizelos was moved to continue. "Why do you seem so surprised, Sir?""Surprised?" Reynaud shook himself, then smiled oddly. "Yes, I suppose 'surprised' is a pretty good word, Lieutenant. Let me just put it this way. I've been chief controller in Basilisk for almost twenty months. Before that, I was senior assistant controller for damn near two years, and in all that time, you're the first—what did you call it? security and customs officer?—anyone's bothered to assign me. In fact, you may be the first one any station commander's ever bothered to assign to Control.""I'm what?" Venizelos blurted, then flushed as he realized how exactly his tone matched Reynaud's original emphasis. The two of them stared at one another, and then the ACS captain began to grin."Now that I think about it," he said, "I believe I did read something in my original orders about the Navy being responsible for inspections and station security. Of course, it's been so long I can't be certain." He glanced at the habitat services tech standing at his shoulder. "Jayne, do me a favor and find the Lieutenant's people some quarters and get them checked out on the basic emergency procedures, would you? I've got some station regs to plow through to find out what the hell we're supposed to do with them.""Sure thing, Mike." The tech gestured to Ensign Wolversham, Venizelos's second in command, and Reynaud turned back to Venizelos, still grinning."In the meantime, Lieutenant, perhaps you'd care to join me in my data search?" Venizelos nodded, and Reynaud's grin grew broader. "And perhaps you'd care to tell me a little something about your CO, as well. But take it slow, please. I'm not as young as I used to be, and I don't know if I'm ready for the concept of a competent senior officer on Basilisk Station!"
========================

The only problem with quotes on the internet is that you can't authenticate them -- Abraham Lincoln
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by roseandheather   » Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:47 am

roseandheather
Admiral

Posts: 2056
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:39 pm
Location: Republic of Haven

SharkHunter wrote:God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn
Seeking an answer to why they were born
Winds of misfortune have blown them about
You made the outcasts; don't cast them out...

cthia wrote:Where is this from, classic poetry? Yours? It's ... very nice.

George J. Smith wrote:It's from the Disney film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Bette Midler was the artist who sang the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEpavnk7Uw

Probably my favorite disney tune of recent years ==>
not Bette Midler in the film, but on the soundtrack album. It was Heidi Mollenhauer in the film, the rendition I prefer.


I prefer the film version, too. I just happened to think that particular verse was suspiciously apropos.

...I may or may not have rewritten this song to be an anthem for Haven at one point but I admit nothing. :D
~*~


I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.

Javier & Eloise
"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley..."
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Re: Honorverse favorite passages
Post by Hutch   » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:32 am

Hutch
Vice Admiral

Posts: 1831
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 12:40 pm
Location: Huntsville, Alabama y'all

It's been a couple of weeks, and some may claim I am just resurrecting this thread to either pad my post count or simply to maintain a vanity threat that I have heavily contributed to.

Upon reflection, I may have to plead guilty as charged.

That said, I do have a couple of passages that I don't believe have been posted yet; and should be, IMHO.

First up is a commnader in desperate straits, but unyielding in purpose....something a lot of Manty commanders seem to display.

From Shadows of Saganami.

"Good. Terekhov, clear." He looked back at Kobe. "Now record for Admiral Bourmont, please."

"Yes, Sir. Standing by to record."

"Admiral Bourmont," Terekhov faced the visual pickup, his shoulders square, his expression confident, and his voice was icy. "You've called upon my Squadron to surrender. Unfortunately, I can't do that. I came here to do a job—to neutralize the battlecruisers your star nation has been assembling to attack mine. I have not yet completed that task. Two of your battlecruisers remain undamaged, because I refrained from firing upon them in light of their proximity to the civilian portions of your Eroica Station complex. Should any of your armed vessels continue to approach my own command—and we have all of them under surveillance as I speak—I will have no option but to complete my task before withdrawing into hyper before any of your warships]can reach me. I regret to say it, but this will require a bombardment of the battlecruisers in question with contact nuclear warheads, and it will be impossible for me to permit the evacuation of your civilian workforce first."

He heard someone inhale sharply behind him, but his own expression never wavered.

"Should you choose to stand down your warships, and to maintain the present status quo unchanged pending the arrival of the approaching Manticoran relief force, I will be spared that unpleasant necessity. Should you choose not to stand down your warships and maintain the status quo, I will proceed with the bombardment. And under no circumstances will I permit the evacuation of your civilians. The choice is yours, Sir. You have two hours in which to make it and get your decision to me. Terekhov, clear."

He stopped and looked at Kobe. The lieutenant looked severely shaken, but he nodded.

"Good copy, Sir," he said with only the slightest tremor in his voice.

"Very well. Attach the latest tactical summary, including the positions of all of their units we currently have under observation. Then send it, please."
"Aye, aye, Sir."

"Now, Amal," Terekhov said calmly, turning back to Nagchaudhuri, "I believe you have a report to complete. We'll have time for that before Volcano arrives. If you please."

He walked back across the deathly silent bridge to the briefing room, his boot heels sounding clearly on the decksole, and Nagchaudhuri followed after only a brief hesitation. So did Van Dort. He hadn't been invited, but Terekhov wasn't surprised at all to see him after the hatch closed and he turned back to Nagchaudhuri.

"Yes, Bernardus?" he asked in that same, calm voice.

"Aivars, you are bluffing, aren't you? You wouldn't really massacre all those civilians?"

"Bernardus, we can't leave. Monica's squarely in the middle of a hyper-space grav wave. The only two ships we have left who can still generate Warshawski sails are Aegis and Volcano, and they don't begin to have the life-support to take all our survivors with them. And what do you think will happen to my people if I allow them to fall into Monican hands before the relief force gets here?"

Van Dort didn't answer the question. He didn't have to.

"But what if there isn't a relief force?" he asked instead.

"There will be," Terekhov said, with the certitude of God's own prophet. "And when it arrives, my people will be alive to see it."

"But you won't really bombard the battlecruisers?"

"On the contrary, Bernardus," Captain Aivars Alexsovitch Terekhov, Royal Manticoran Navy, said coldly. "If these bastards call my 'bluff,' I will blow their goddamned battlecruisers, and every civilian around them, to hell."


Italics are the authors'; bolding is mine.

As I have said before, that is one scary son-of-a-bitch.

And someone needs to send his wife to Talbott, because if he doesn't get laid soon.... :shock: :shock: :shock: :)
***********************************************
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

What? Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here! Boom. Sooner or later. BOOM! -LT. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5
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