Honorverse ramblings and musings

Star Trek wiki wrote:Constitution-class starships, the captain and two senior officers were required to initiate the destruct sequence, using the following, concurrent codes.

Each officer would state their name, rank and corresponding code:

1. "Destruct sequence 1, code 1-1 A."
2. "Destruct sequence 2, code 1-1 A-2B."
3. "Destruct sequence 3, code 1 B-2B-3."

The computer would then reply:
The countdown begins (2285)
"Destruct sequence completed and engaged. Awaiting final code for (time interval) countdown."

The commanding officer would then state:
"Code zero zero zero. Destruct. Zero."

The sequence could be aborted at any time until T-minus five seconds by the captain or highest-ranking officer, with the command "Code 1-2-3-continuity, abort destruct order." Beyond that, the destruct order could not be cancelled.

Galaxy class starships were also equipped with auto-destruct systems. There were two systems used for auto-destruct on such vessels. The first, and primary method involved the shutting down of antimatter containment, plus an overload of the warp core. The resulting explosion was estimated to be equivalent to the detonation of 1,500 photon torpedoes.

The secondary method involved the setting off of charges spread throughout the ship, which was estimated to be equivalent to the detonation of 1,000 photon torpedoes. This secondary method was used on the saucer section during separated flight operations or throughout the ship when the primary auto-destruct system was offline. (TNG reference: Technical Manual)

To activate the auto destruct, the two senior officers - usually the Captain and First Officer - would touch a computer panel and identify themselves to the main computer. The Captain would instruct the computer to set the auto-destruct. The First Officer would then be asked if he or she agreed with the decision. Once that agreement was given, the computer would begin the auto-destruct sequence. The auto-destruct could be canceled at any point prior to T minus 0. The computer would check to see who was on board, and could accept auto-destruct commands down to the level of operations manager. Originally, the computer was set to give a five minute countdown, but a later modification was made allowing the countdown to be modified. (TNG reference: Technical Manual; episodes 11001001; Where Silence Has Lease)

SharkHunter wrote:Mechanism wise, likely all a self-destruct needs to do is cause the fusion containment bottles to fail, and bah-boom, thermonuclear explosion(s) in a contained space. Given that a ten megaton nuke can pretty much level an area several kilometers wide and vaporize anything close in, I think that'd do it. Not to mention having plenty of fusion materials aboard on the missiles, etc.

Execution wise, I'd bet it would be following a keyed sequence, vs. the Trek verbally spoken codes, which included voice authentication. I always thought that that was a nice TV touch, but one that wouldn't work in the real world, by the way, if the bridge were open to vacumn or filled with explosions, no audio, right?

Back to the Honorverse. I would imagine that a self destruct would in theory have to be authorized from one location, say the command chair, and then the keystrokes entered elsewhere, etc. to prevent a single "mad officer" from blowing up a ship. Filerata's Folly was triggered by a bridge bomb killing everyone who could have surrendered vs. triggering a self-destruct of the ship, after all.

Leads to my pet theory about the destruction of the StateSec SD's watching twelfth fleet is that Foraker knew her way around the SD computers WAY better than any StateSec officer or crew enough to selectively reprogram the self-destructs to be triggered remotely, similar to how the "wooden horse" self-destruct command that Mesa put into the PN-Exile ships.

cthia wrote:I'm always thinking of some odd thing or another. (I know, right?! Such is the mind of a lab rat.) And the latest to come to mind is the fact that, in the Honorverse, tubing is the common and preferred method of handling pregnancies. Other than Allison, I'm not sure a treecat has had a chance to sense the feelings of a pregnant woman come to term. Much less a bonded mate, such as Nimitz and a six-to-nine month pregnant Honor. I wonder what effect that may have on the link. Surely a (woman-with-child)'s emotions are continually spiking and in an uncontrolled state of flux. And we don't currently know what emotions are running rampant in a fully formed child. Consider the both in series, or parallel. One feeding off the other.

Just things that make you go ... hmmm.

SharkHunter wrote:Back to the Honorverse. I would imagine that a self destruct would in theory have to be authorized from one location, say the command chair, and then the keystrokes entered elsewhere, etc. to prevent a single "mad officer" from blowing up a ship. Filerata's Folly was triggered by a bridge bomb killing everyone who could have surrendered vs. triggering a self-destruct of the ship, after all.

SharkHunter wrote:Leads to my pet theory about the destruction of the StateSec SD's watching twelfth fleet is that Foraker knew her way around the SD computers WAY better than any StateSec officer or crew enough to selectively reprogram the self-destructs to be triggered remotely, similar to how the "wooden horse" self-destruct command that Mesa put into the PN-Exile ships.

SWM wrote:

cthia wrote:I'm always thinking of some odd thing or another. (I know, right?! Such is the mind of a lab rat.) And the latest to come to mind is the fact that, in the Honorverse, tubing is the common and preferred method of handling pregnancies. Other than Allison, I'm not sure a treecat has had a chance to sense the feelings of a pregnant woman come to term. Much less a bonded mate, such as Nimitz and a six-to-nine month pregnant Honor. I wonder what effect that may have on the link. Surely a (woman-with-child)'s emotions are continually spiking and in an uncontrolled state of flux. And we don't currently know what emotions are running rampant in a fully formed child. Consider the both in series, or parallel. One feeding off the other.

Just things that make you go ... hmmm.

Treecats were bonding with humans long before tubing became a common method of birthing. I am quite certain that treecats have been close to pregnant women over the last several hundred years. If nothing else, Stephanie Harrington gave birth, so Lionheart must have felt it. Now, that must have been interesting.

wiki wrote:Dame Stephanie Harrington OM was a Manticoran citizen and the first human to be adopted by a Sphinxian treecat. She was also the one who gave the treecat species its name.

Stephanie was born on the planet Meyerdahl on January 7, 1507 PD, the only child of Richard Harrington and his wife Marjorie. She was extremely intelligent, her test scores placing her squarely in the top per mil of the entire human race. Her family originally lived in the city of Hollister on Meyerdahl, but migrated to the Star Kingdom of Manticore aboard the transport ship Madeleine Davenport, arriving on Sphinx in 1517 PD.

At the age of eleven T-years, she was the one who figured out how to obtain images of whatever was stealing celery from various farms and greenhouses from all over Sphinx. Climbs Quickly, a treecat of the Bright Water Clan, became fascinated with her and her mind-glow. He came to her assistance when she broke her left arm and severely injured her right leg in a hang-gliding crash, even protecting her from a hexapuma. When he was grievously wounded, Stephanie defended him and mortally wounded the hexapuma with a vibro-knife. After the incident, her father came to her rescue and she took Climbs Quickly with them to be treated. Neither knew then that their experience would later become known as bonding. Thus, she became the first human ever adopted by a treecat. (HHA1.1: ABF, SK1)

Stephanie named the treecat Lionheart. She joined the Sphinx Forestry Service – which was no great shakes at the time – at the age of seventeen and almost singlehandedly reorganized it into one of the finest eco-management organizations in their sector of the galaxy. She eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was awarded the Order of Merit, but declined the Order of the Star Kingdom. Simmons wrote a biography of her named Trailblazer of Dreams, and Tsukie Akimoto painted a well-known portrait of her and Lionheart.

She was the driving force behind the passage of the Ninth Admendment of the Manticoran Constitution in 1568 PD.[1] The amendment recognized treecats as sentient beings – with minor child legal status – on all three of the Star Kingdom's worlds.

According to General MacClintock, she was the youngest person to ever discover an alien sentient species, and the 'only' person to face an attacking hexapuma armed only with a vibro-belt knife and survive.

Stephanie Harrington retained her maiden name when she was married, and had six children, two of which were also adopted by treecats. In fact, her decendants had a higher percentage of treecat adoptions than any other family.
According to Sings Truly, Stephanie lived between seventeen and eighteen "turnings" (Sphinxian years) after her adoption, which would suggest that she lived a little over a hundred T-years, a long life indeed in a pre-prolong society. Upon her death, typical of bonded treecats who had lost their companions, Climbs Quickly died by suicide. (HHA2.2: WPD, SK1, SK2)

Having just arrived on the planet Beowulf, Lieutenant Alfred Harrington of the Royal Manticoran Navy is met by Captain Jacques Benton-Ramirez y Chou of the Biological Survey Corps. He is soon told by the local Manticoran military attache that the meeting was likely not coincidental.

On the following day, Harrington rubs shoulders with a fellow student, an entitled Manticoran aristocrat named Franz Illescue, who is himself meeting a young Beowulfer named Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou, who is in fact Jacques' twin sister. His complaining about Harrington inadvertently sparks an interest for the Lieutenant in the young woman. Both are irritated by their immediate strong attraction to each other, but neither dares to act on it.

A crisis arises when Allison is kidnapped by Mesan agents in order to force her brother to hand over BSC secrets. Alfred senses that something is amiss, and follows her by using the latent psychic connection he has been having to the young woman for days, while Jacques alerts his superiors at the Corps.

Alfred finds Allison and her kidnappers in a hunting lodge outside the city, and quickly starts killing off the Mesans using his advanced combat training. When he finds one of them torturing their hostage with a neural whip, he bashes the man's skull in with the butt of a pulse rifle. He takes Allison away from the compound, but the remaining Mesans hunt them down, cornering them in a ditch not far away. A firefight ensues, in which Alfred holds off the attackers long enough for Allison to call Jacques. Minutes later, a BSC assault shuttle arrives, bombing the Mesans' position and killing all but one of them.

Some time later, Allison wakes up in a hospital, with her brother and Alfred by her side. He explains that the BSC and the Audubon Ballroom have interrogated the sole survivor of the Mesan team, and, using the information he provided, are in the process of killing every person involved in the operation, including at least two targets on Mesa itself.

Allison then talks to Alfred. He confesses that he decided to go to medical school and become a healer because he was just too good at killing people. Referencing the ancient story of Beauty and the Beast, Allison tells him that maybe they were meant for each other, their love making up for each other's shortcomings.

cthia wrote:Stephanie's bio always chokes me up. You can certainly see who passed a lot of DNA down to Honor. Again those strong female characters I O SO dearly love. Stephanie was a female version of Stephen Hawkins. Stephanie Harrington. Same initials anyways. It's odd that Stephanie's birth planet was a world within the Solarian League. Those original Meyerdahl modifications, it seems, were particularly successful and produced a fair share of very capable humans with some very high IQ's. Yet, where are they within the League? Surely they didn't all move to Sphinx.