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And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking about it

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And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking about it
Post by runsforcelery   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 3:25 am

runsforcelery
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Okay, I'm not telling you where in the book this is from and I don't guarantee that every single word of the original is included in the snippet. :twisted: Gotta keep some cards tucked up my sleeve, after all! :lol:
__________________________________________________________________

Harrington House
City of Landing
Planet of Manticore
Manticore Binary System System


“Well, I guess that’s everything.”

Honor Alexander-Harrington stood in the quiet library. Rain pounded the skylight overhead. It was barely midafternoon, but the overcast day was dark and murky, and somehow it felt cold, despite Landing’s warmth. She listened to the rain as she looked around her at all the familiar furnishings, the shelved books, the paintings, the subdued lighting. But she didn’t really see any of it, and she looked like a stranger standing in someone else’s house, unable to understand how she’d come there.

“If you’re sure,” her mother said.

Allison stood beside Honor with Katherine in her arms. Raoul was in the nursery. He burst into sobs anytime Honor was in the same room as him, clinging to her with desperate strength. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, but there was no question that he was able to taste her emotions, whether or not he could truly feel anyone else’s. She needed to cling to him as desperately as he needed to cling to her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t inflict that on him, not now, not when he was only a baby and no one could possibly explain it to him. And so she’d handed him as gently as she could to Lindsey Phillips and walked out of that nursery, heart breaking at his sobbed “Mama! Want Mama!” from behind her. Now he lay exhausted in his crib, and the White Haven treecats huddled around him like guardian gargoyles, somehow blunting the worst of his sorrow and fear. Katherine was subdued, obviously aware something terrible had happened, yet at least she’d been spared the terrible weight of someone else’s grief, and Honor reached out to lay a gentle hand on the little girl’s head.

For a moment, something seemed alive behind the frozen flint of her eyes, but then she took her hand from Katherine’s head and whatever it had been disappeared once again into the ice.

“I have to get back to the ship. We’ve got a lot to do, and I don’t want to lose the time window.”

“If you’re sure,” Allison repeated with a very different emphasis and Honor looked at her.

Honor had raised every barrier she could against the emotions of those about her. Her ability to feel what others felt wasn’t something she could turn off or on. It simply was, an inescapable part of who she’d become over the years. She had learned to . . . adjust the volume, though, and she needed that now. Needed it because the loss and the pain and the fury pouring into her and Nimitz from everyone around them threatened to drag them under. That tide of emotion threatened to break her concentration. Threatened to divert her from the task before her, and nothing could be permitted to do that.

But her mother’s very special anguish could not be escaped. The grief over the death of her beloved twin brother. The knowledge of how Jacques’s death, especially like this, would hammer all of Alfred Harrington’s wounds from the Yawata Strike.

And fear. Fear for her daughter.

“I’m sure, Mother.” There was no emotion in Honor’s voice, but she managed a brief caricature of a smile. It vanished quickly, and her nostrils flared as she reached up to the silent, grieving treecat on her shoulder. “Like I told Elizabeth, this has to end. And I’m going to end it, once and for all.”

Allison shifted Katherine’s weight so she could lay one hand on Honor’s arm.

“I know you are, sweetheart.” Her voice was calm, almost serene, despite the tears glittering on her lashes, and she shook her head. “I know that, believe me. But you come back to me. Raoul and Katherine need you now, more than ever. And your father and I — We’ll always need you, Honor. So you come back to us.”

“Mother, I’ll be aboard the fleet flagship.” She managed another fleeting smile. “The Sollies don’t have a thing that could touch her in a standup fight. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we just didn’t make that clear enough.” A very different expression replaced the smile, and her frozen eyes filled with a chill, flickering fire. “That’s one of the oversights I intend to set right.”

She felt Allison’s concern spike higher, but she refused to allow it in, denied it access to the frozen helium of her purpose. She knew what Allison really meant. Knew what her mother really wanted to say was “Give me back my daughter and take away this stranger. Give me back the person who still knows how to love, how to care. Give me back my child and give back the mother my grandchildren need.”

But Honor didn’t know if she could do that.

She didn’t know if anyone could do that.

She reached out, touched her mother’s cheek very gently, and her thumb brushed away one of Allison’s tears.

“Take care of Daddy and the babies,” she said softly.

“Of course I will.”

“I know.”

She leaned close, kissed Katherine’s cheek, then leaned her forehead against her mother’s for a long, still moment.

And then Honor Alexander-Harrington, Duchess and Steadholder Harrington, turned and walked out of that foyer, into the driving Landing rain, down the steps to the waiting air car, without a single backward glance.


"Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as Piglet came back from the dead.
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by George J. Smith   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:38 am

George J. Smith
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I felt it was coming, but the fact that Jacques is (or could be giving rfc's qualifier) one of the victims is really annoying.
.
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: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by Dauntless   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 8:42 am

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before reading I was all "cool a new snippett" and now i'm "dammit did he really have to kill off another great character" while trying not to cry.
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by cthia   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:00 am

cthia
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Sob. First time a snippet has broken my heart and wrung tears from my eyes.

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: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by Lunan   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:24 am

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Reading this. I’m not sure Emily or Hamish survived what ever happened.
Shes leaving Katherine and Raoul with Allison and Alfred.
No mention of Hamish or Emily and they are in Harrington House with the White Haven tree cats.
These are telling signs.
Jacques is likely killed along with most fo the planetary board of directors in an Eridani violation, perhaps Hamish was on planet as a political observer?

Im also getting an Ivanava "I am death, god sent me" feeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaSmassvv4w

Honor goes to War (for real) with the Solarian League (not the SLN)
so what happens when a Goddess of War comes to town in a bad mood?
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by Rincewind   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:22 am

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Captain (Junior Grade)

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May God have mercy on the souls of the poor fools in the Solarian League who ordered and carried out this attack.

Because it is for DAMNED SURE THAT THE SALAMANDER WILL NOT!
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by pappilon   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:44 pm

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Rincewind wrote:May God have mercy on the souls of the poor fools in the Solarian League who ordered and carried out this attack.

Because it is for DAMNED SURE THAT THE SALAMANDER WILL NOT!


snippet the first wrote:The first is that Cachalot is only fifty-seven light-years from Beowulf. Strategy and Planning are busy assuming, on the basis of intelligence data they haven’t seen fit to share with us, that neither Beowulf nor the Manties have seen any reason to station a naval picket there, and I’m a little less confident on that head than Admiral Bernard.


I would caution you not to read too much into a snippet; especially when his Celeriness proclaimed it was (or maybe wasn't) somewhat redacted.

Also why would Hamish not be with his treecat, wherever he was when whatever happened ... happened. And when did Emily get adopted? As likely Jacques was on a mission at Cachalot and got caught in the boom. Of course, I may be totally wrong.

And it does seem Mom finally met The Salamander.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The imagination has to be trained into foresight and empathy.
Ursula K. LeGuinn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by NervousEnergy   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:10 pm

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Yeah, there's something missing here. Something bad. Honor's reaction seems far more extreme than her reaction after Yawata. I don't see how the loss of a distant uncle, no matter how close (especially to her mother) could produce that reaction. Even is said Uncle died along with millions of others it likely wouldn't have caused that degree of personal response.

The casualty list has got to be more extensive. And personal.
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by filbert   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:34 pm

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Lieutenant Commander

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Adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 42 . . .

What if Honor was late to that goodbye State dinner for Benjamin in the other snippet today, and the Sollies (or the Detweilers?) KEW'ed or otherwise took out Mount Royal Palace?

That would punch Honor in the gut (again) and piss her off (again) in equal measure, wouldn't it?
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Re: And another out of order snippet while I'm thinking abou
Post by cthia   » Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:45 pm

cthia
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“Mother, I’ll be aboard the fleet flagship.” She managed another fleeting smile. “The Sollies don’t have a thing that could touch her in a standup fight. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we just didn’t make that clear enough.” A very different expression replaced the smile, and her frozen eyes filled with a chill, flickering fire. “That’s one of the oversights I intend to set right.”


I've been saying it all along. The Sollies are simply never going to really get the message without it being delivered directly. The obvious force imbalance keeps getting lost in the mail, so the Salamander has to hand deliver it.

Remember, textev says...

"‘The Solarian League is like a hog. You have to kick it in the snout to get its attention.’”

I've always believed...

Sometimes you've got to fry a little bacon!

Except this time the Salamander may be interested in roasting the whole hog. I'm a country boy, we love ourselves a good old-fashioned pig pickin'.

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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