penny wrote:I maintain that Honor could not go around busting up civilians. That is why she was reprimanded. But the reprimand seems to be one-sided, because ultimately the Queen was grateful for the alliance. Which is why Honor was rewarded. One could say that the Queen's justice was unfairly biased.
That's possible.
But I find it simpler to say that you're judging two things here. One was the outcome of the mission to Grayson (and to Casca, in a lesser extent), in which the Foreign Office and RMN, working together, managed to expose and defeat a Haven-sponsored incursion, capture PN personnel, and through those actions get a far more beneficial treaty with Grayson. There's a side-benefit that Manticore wouldn't have known yet, but this also prompted the Mayhew Restoration and moved the power away from the Keys.
The other was the RMN and Foreign Office's officers relationship, in particular Honor and Houseman. In this case, it was not good.
But the latter does not prevent the former. It's not fruit of the poisonous tree.
Could Young have been challenged when he cut and run with his ship? Could his honor be called into question, causing him to have to challenge?
He was court-martialled for it. Once that judgement was delivered, no one should have cause to question it and challenge to a duel. If the war had already been declared, then the CO on the scene (Sarnow) could even deliver summary justice for cowardice on the face of the enemy. His first officer could have removed him from command for the same reason, but that requires their knowing the crew will back them in the action, which may not have been possible to know in the heat of the battle.
I believe one cannot be challenged to a duel for taking actions while executing their job, unless they've stepped outside of the remit of said job. For example, police are allowed to use lethal weapons in the course of their job to protect the innocent. But the job may in turn investigate and punish actions that did fall outside.
Could Honor have challenged Young to a duel after he attempted to rape her? Could anyone in Honor's family have challenged Young because of his attempted rape of Honor? The family's honor would be threatened.
And like above, this is a criminal offence. There's no duel: Young should be prosecuted, found guilty, and sent to jail. And because there's a trial, there could be no duel between the two parties for any other reason.
If instead he had just insulted her and openly disparaged her because she had refused to have sex with him, then yes, I think she could then have challenged him. So long as this doesn't fall into the Kingdom's laws against calumny, which would bring back into criminal or civil dispute, not a duel.
At any rate and at the end of the day, if it would have gone to court, Honor could be let off the hook because she acted in the best interest of the Star Kingdom and its national security, which would have superceded Houseman's particular rights concerning the matter.
She was let off the hook because it was physical abuse. The punishment can't be disproportionate to the offence. She could also have been demoted or faced some other type of administrative punishment (like being put on half-pay). But I don't think that would deserve a dishonourable discharge or something more serious.
There were extenuating circumstances, but I think those are Houseman's actions that prompted the abuse, not the success Honor had in the mission. The latter should not be taken into account, because the ends should not justify the means.
He could have prosecuted her in civil court, but as we discussed before, that would have revealed his actions that led to the altercation, which would potentially end his career and his usefulness to his allies. It was far better for him to not do so and instead lean on those allies to unofficially punish Honor.