ThinksMarkedly wrote:Oh, I'm not disputing any of that. She needed to know and it was a big slap on her face, an up and coming officer the likes of which the RMN sorely needed. Which is why her mentor took it upon himself to deliver the news so he could ensure she understood it was not a slight on her capabilities.
I'm not sure how much sooner she could have been told. We don't know when exactly Fearless was selected for this, do we? Maybe Hemphill's office hadn't released the selection until the last minute.
Honor got briefed almost the moment she took command; which was while Fearless was still in the yards at Hephaestus being refit with the GL + ET combo. Though that obviously means Fearless was selected well before Honor was assigned -- however the choice to offer the command to Honor might have been a late breaking one. Or it might have been decided earlier but tradition might well be that no matter how promising the officer is you don't tell them of their next command while in the ATC; you wait until after they've formally graduated (even if there's no chance they're going to fail out)
And Honor went straight from ATC graduation to Courvosier's office, got his congratulations and was given her orders to assume command Fearless, and that "the rush was all because of the need to get her to Hephaestus to shepherd her new ship through its refit in time for the upcoming Fleet exercise" [OBS: Ch1]. Then headed right up to the station, without even "time for a full download before catching the shuttle."
But even if they decided a while back to give her Fearless they can't exactly brief her on the ship's new testbed weapons configuration before telling her she's being offered command
(And then she might, theoretically, inexplicably cripple her carrier by refusing the offer of command - in which case there'd be no reason to brief her)
So she came aboard, did the formal taking command ceremony - reading out the admiralties orders directing her to assume command - and McKeon welcomes her and starts walking her through the details of the ongoing refit and Fearless's new weapons fit.
It seems from the time she got, and accepted, her orders until she was briefed was probably less than an hour or two.
However I agree with you that it would have been better if Hemphill had arranged to fully brief Honor, between graduation and boarding Fearless, on the background, the ship's changes, and go over the proposed tactics. (Whether that's instead of, or after, being whisked over to Courvosier's office to be congratulated and given her orders). Ah well.