[Buchreihe] David Weber - Honor Harrington

[Nighthawk_]

SPOILEREs gab aber nun mal keinen Zeitsprung.
Und damit geht der Havenkrieg momentan eben noch weiter.
Entsprechend diskutiert man in SftS ja dann auch ob die 8th Fleet dem Havensystem vor einem Friedensangebot einen Besuch abstatten sollte. Oder ob man Bolthole nach einem Waffenstillstand noch hochnehmen sollte.
Ich denke doch, das dies neben Oyster Bay in MoH die tragende Rolle sein wird. Honor wird mit der Achten ins Havensystem fliegen und dort einen Waffenstillstand diktieren.
Unabhängig davon wie der Cliffhanger aufgelöst wird. So wie ich das verstanden habe wird man die meisten noch im Bau befindlichen SD(P)s eh rechtzeitig verlegen können sodas kurzfristig genügend Schiffe vorhanden sein werden um das Manticore System zu schützen. Und Apollo für die Systemverteidigung sollte auch irgendwann mal kommen.

[Eagleeye]

SPOILEREs gab aber nun mal keinen Zeitsprung.
Und damit geht der Havenkrieg momentan eben noch weiter.
Entsprechend diskutiert man in SftS ja dann auch ob die 8th Fleet dem Havensystem vor einem Friedensangebot einen Besuch abstatten sollte. Oder ob man Bolthole nach einem Waffenstillstand noch hochnehmen sollte.
Ich denke doch, das dies neben Oyster Bay in MoH die tragende Rolle sein wird. Honor wird mit der Achten ins Havensystem fliegen und dort einen Waffenstillstand diktieren.
Unabhängig davon wie der Cliffhanger aufgelöst wird. So wie ich das verstanden habe wird man die meisten noch im Bau befindlichen SD(P)s eh rechtzeitig verlegen können sodas kurzfristig genügend Schiffe vorhanden sein werden um das Manticore System zu schützen. Und Apollo für die Systemverteidigung sollte auch irgendwann mal kommen.

Ok, das ist wirklich Spoilerisch, deshalb ist auch meine Antwort abgedunkelt

SPOILERMit Deinen ersten beiden Punkten - daß Oyster Bay und die Friedensverhandlungen zwischen Haven und Manticore Schwerpunkte im nächsten "Hauptreihenbuch" bilden werden - gehe ich konform. Womit ich allerdings nicht einverstanden bin, ist, daß Manticore Haven einen Frieden aufdiktieren wird.

Manticore (in Person von Harrington, der ich eine maßgebliche Rolle zumindest bei den Vorverhandlungen zubilligen würde; und sie wird definitiv dann wohl auch bei den offiziellen Gesprächen dabei sein) wird im Gegenteil alles nur Mögliche tun, um Haven a) das Gesicht wahren zu lassen und b) den Boden für ein künftiges Waffenbündnis zu bereiten. Letzteres vor allem dann, wenn Zilwicki und Cachat im Zuge ihrer Ermittlungen nicht nur mit Indizien sondern mit Beweisen für die mesanische Einmischung aufwarten können ...

Zu Apollo: In Baens Bar wurde mehrfach darüber spekuliert, daß möglicherweise die Produktionsanlagen für MDM bzw für die Apollo-Leitraketen im Zuge von OB erheblichen Schaden nehmen könnten. Insofern könnte Manticore zwar die Schiffe bzw. die Systemverteidigungs-Infrastruktur haben - aber irgendwann nichts mehr, was sie damit abfeuern können ...

[Nighthawk_]

SPOILER
Warum sollte Manticore nicht diktieren?
Sicherlich, sie werden jetzt nicht gerade die Zerschlagung des Havenreiches fordern, aber faktisch befinden sie sich doch in einer besseren Situation als Haven Verhandlungen angeboten hat. Das militärische Ungleichgewicht müsste sich schon niederschlagen. Allein um die Königin zufrieden zu stellen...
Das man versuchen wird ihnen das Gesicht wahren zu lassen und man langfristig ein Bündnis anstreben will ist sicherlich richtig.
Ein Zurück zum Status Quo abzüglich Trevors Stern wird es aber mE nicht geben. Haven wird den abtrünigen Systemen Autonomie in Ausicht stellen und auch die Position von Bolthole rausrücken müssen.

Zu Apollo:
Stellt sich eh die Frage wo der ganze Kram gebaut wird.
OB wird sich ja wohl hauptsächlich auf die großen Werftanlagen konzentrieren.
Ob da die Produktionsanlagen liegen sei dahingestellt.
Und auch ob OB so vernichtend sein wird. Wenn Manticore noch rechtzeitig entdeckt was da los ist sollte man doch in der Lage sein eine erhebliche Anzahl von Schiffen in Abfangposition zu bringen.
Mir ist zwar nicht vollkommen klar wie groß der manticorianische Schlachtwall momentan ist, aber zwei, drei Dutzend of the Wall für jeden Planeten stellen schon ein erhebliches Abwehrpotential da.
Da stellt sich dann die Frage inwieweit Mesa über die manticorianische Raketenabwehr unterrichtet ist.

[ThorKonnat]

SPOILER
Ich hatte eig den Eindruck gewonnen das Oyster Bay sich vorwiegend mit Biologischen und Chemischen Waffen befasst und hätte eher auf einen Angriff auf die planetare Bevölkerung als auf orbitale bzw im Raum befindliche Produktionsanlagen getippt.

Warum Manticore keinen Frieden diktieren wird dürfte klar sein: das Parlament wird zwar nach Frieden schreien aber keine Bedingungen diktieren da zuviele Freiheitler etc pp vertreten sind und selbst die Königin, nach dem ersten Blutrausch, wird sich wohl eher für gemäßigte Verhandlungen aussprechen da wenn man alles diktiert den Feind unzufriedener macht und so größere Chancen auf spätere erneute Konflikte bestehen.

[Nighthawk_]

SPOILER
Kann mir nicht vorstellen das Oyster Bay auf biologischen und chemischen Waffen bassiert und Mesa damit die Planetare Bevölkerung angreifen will.
Das wäre doch ein ziemlich klarer Verstoß gegen das Eridani Edict, Mesa würde sich damit nur selber in den Fuß schießen.
Denn da werden wesentliche Teile der Liga sicher nicht mitziehen wollen.

Soweit ich mich noch erinnere hat Elizabeth nach dem High Rigde Desaster eine ziemlich konfortable Mehrheit in beiden Häusern. Ich kann mir da nicht vorstellen das es politischen Widerstand gegen einen für Manticore günstigen Friedensschluss geben wird.

[ThorKonnat]

SPOILER
Worin OysterBay jetzt besteht hat glaub ich DW noch nicht genau verraten, aber so wie er bisher Mesa beschrieben hat fällt es mir schwer an einen direkten militärischen Angriff (wie versteckt auch immer er beginnt) vorstellen. Da Mesa schon immer eher Geheimnistuer, Giftmischer und hinterhältige Gauner beherrbergte passt ein Biologisch/Chemischer Angriff schon eher ins Bild. Dazu kommen 2 Dinge die das begünstigen würden. Zum einen ist die Liga so desolat das ews wohl ewig dauert bis von dort eine Reaktion kommen wird, wobei zum Eridanus Edikt bisher nur steht er verbietet planetare Bombardements mit ballistischen Waffe, und zum 2ten ist die Situation Haven/Manticore derzeit so aufgeheizt das wohl alle eher denken es sei Haven gewesen und sich die Wut gegen diese richten wird.

Was das diktieren von Bedingungen angeht, es stimmt schon das die Queen Rückhalt genießt und ein zimlicher Hitzkopf ist, aber Offiziere wie White Haven oder Lady Harrington werden durchaus auf sie einwirken und zur Mäßigung anhalten. Ich kann mir durchaus jetzt einen Verhandlungsfrieden vorstellen der beiden Seiten zum Vorteil gereicht. Außerdem wenn rauskommt das Mesa dahintersteckt verbünden sich beide eh so schnell, so schnell können wir wohl gar nicht lesen *gg*.

[Sternengucker]

SPOILERalso ich bin mir ziemlich sicher dass die Crew dieses Spinnenschiffs die Werften erwähnt auf die sie zusteuern würden. Hier hatte ja schonmal jemand die Idee dass diese Schlepper wichtige Rollen in der Rettung der Werften bzw Neubauten bekommen dürften nachdem man sie überraschenderweise erst im 14ten Buch der Reihe vorgestellt bekommen hat , mit Bevölkerungszentren kannst du das nicht abziehen. Außerdem würde bei biologischen Waffen gegen Bevölkerungszentren einfach nur diese totale Vergeltungskonvention ziehen, die auch sonst gegen Orbitale Bombardements spricht. oder Atomwaffeneinsatz.
Manpower Unlimited wäre im Ar.... würde auch nur ein Beweisfitzelchen an die Öffentlichkeit dringen. Da halte ich Detweiler eigentlich schon für intelligenter als seine Macht so zu riskieren. Militärische Schläge (einschliesslich politischer Ermordungen) ja sicher... aber keinen Massenmord an Zivilisten. Außer auf Torch/Congo

[Eagleeye]

SPOILERalso ich bin mir ziemlich sicher dass die Crew dieses Spinnenschiffs die Werften erwähnt auf die sie zusteuern würden. Hier hatte ja schonmal jemand die Idee dass diese Schlepper wichtige Rollen in der Rettung der Werften bzw Neubauten bekommen dürften nachdem man sie überraschenderweise erst im 14ten Buch der Reihe vorgestellt bekommen hat , mit Bevölkerungszentren kannst du das nicht abziehen. Außerdem würde bei biologischen Waffen gegen Bevölkerungszentren einfach nur diese totale Vergeltungskonvention ziehen, die auch sonst gegen Orbitale Bombardements spricht. oder Atomwaffeneinsatz.
Manpower Unlimited wäre im Ar.... würde auch nur ein Beweisfitzelchen an die Öffentlichkeit dringen. Da halte ich Detweiler eigentlich schon für intelligenter als seine Macht so zu riskieren. Militärische Schläge (einschliesslich politischer Ermordungen) ja sicher... aber keinen Massenmord an Zivilisten. Außer auf Torch/Congo

Bist Du Hellseher, Sternengucker? In Baen's Bar ist nämlich - courtesy of David Weber himself - ein erstes Snippet zu Mission of Honor aufgetaucht ...

... a teeny-tiny snippet from Mission of Honor. Before you read this, you might want to consider that -- warmhearted and naturally benevolent soul though I am -- I'm not real likely to give you what you really need to set it fully into context. And you might also want to consider that it's not going to be reaching bookstores for another year. If, however, despite my best attempts to warn you about the potential frustration quotient you want to go ahead and read it anyway, here it is.SPOILERThe people who'd planned Oyster Bay had carefully arranged their attack to avoid anything that could be construed as a direct attack on the planetary populations of Manticore or Sphinx. Given the nature of the war they were planning to fight, it wasn't because the MAN had any particular objection to killing as many Manticorans as possible. But there was that bothersome little matter of the Eridani Edict, and while it was probably going to take a while for anyone to figure out who'd carried out the attack, and how, that anonymity wasn't going to last forever. Eventually, the fact that the MAN and its allies were the only people who'd had the technical capability to do it was going to become painfully obvious. There were plans in place to prevent the Manticorans from returning the compliment once they figured out who was to blame, but the Mesan Alignment's diplomatic strategies could be very seriously damaged if anyone figured out too soon how little the Eridani Edict truly meant to it.

That was the real reason the primary destruction of the space stations had been left to the torpedoes, which had overflown the planets and stayed well clear of them. The follow up laser heads intended to finish off the smaller platforms had come in on a similar trajectory, but some of the planners had argued against using any of them. Despite all of the safeguards built into their guidance systems, there was always the chance, however remote, that one of them was going to ram into the planet at relativistic speeds. And, the critics had pointed out, if that happened, the Alignment's opponents would inevitably claim it had been deliberate.

The final distribution of fire had been a compromise between those who distrusted the torpedoes' ability to do the job and those who wanted no missiles anywhere near either of the inhabited planets. And as was the definition of any compromise, neither side had been completely satisfied.

But however careful they'd been to avoid direct attacks on the planets, none of them had lost any sleep over the possibility of indirect damage from the bits and pieces of wreckage raining down into the planets' gravity wells. That, after all, was something totally beyond any attacker's ability to control, and no one could possibly question the fact that the space stations had been legitimate military targets and industrial platforms. Under those circumstances, the Eridani Edict's prohibition against deliberate attacks on planetary populations had no bearing. So if a few thousand -- or a few hundred thousand -- Manties were unfortunate enough to get vaporized when a fifty-thousand-ton chunk of wreckage landed on top of their town, well, making omelettes was always hard on a few eggs.

* * * * * * * * * *

"What?"

Andrew LaFollet snapped upright in his seat, one hand pressed to his earbug.

Außerdem hat er sich über die nächsten, anstehenden Projekte geäußert:

Hi, people --

I've been even busier than usual lately. Some of you know why that is, and it's not going to get better anytime soon. I thought, though, that since By Heresies Distressed is now out, I'd drop by and give you some idea of where we are on our various projects.

I understand Eric has started snippeting from Torch of Freedom. The good news is that the book is still scheduled for November; the not-so-good news is that what with Eric's bypass surgery (The idle layabout! Imagine taking time off just for something like that!) and all, we're not quite done writing it yet. The part that you're seeing in snippets is pretty much completed -- any changes in it are going to be purely minor tweaking and/or copy edit changes -- and we know what else happens, it's just not all written down yet.

Fortunately, most of my own part of the book is done, so I'm now beginning work on A Mighty Fortress, the fourth book in the Safehold series. I'll be doing two of those in a row for Tor, and hopefully both of them will be delivered by January. I think that's still doable, despite the fact that I'm a bit over a month late getting started on the first of them because of the delays in Torch.

In the meantime, we have almost all the stories for the next Honorverse anthology. (My story finally tells the tale of the Casimir Depot operation. Snerk.) We're still waiting for one, but my understanding is that Toni and Marla are planning on scheduling the book probably for the spring of 2011. Between now and then, however, Mission of Honor will be coming out next July. It's basically complete now, although I've just finished going back through it and revising to reflect things we decided to do in Torch of Freedom that I didn't know about when I did the original draft of Mission. There are probably going to be a few more tiny changes once Torch is officially completed, but I don't really expect them to amount to anything at all significant.

I'm not certain exactly where I'm going to be after the second of the two Safehold books currently scheduled. Given the fact that we already have Mission scheduled for November, and the anthology probably for sometime early in 2011, I'm thinking that I'll probably go ahead and do another Tor book early in 2010. If I get done with that by, say, the end of April, I'll be able to do another Baen book by August or September, which would mean it could be scheduled for the second half of 2011. I do have a non-Safehold book under contract with Tom Doherty now, so I wouldn't have to do three Merlin/mini way books in a row, which would probably be a good thing.

In addition, Toni has agreed to buy an Honorverse book which will be set 50 years or so before On Basilisk Station. Why would I be writing this book, you may ask? I'm glad you asked that. [G] The book in question happens to be about one Sergeant Alfred Harrington, Royal Manticoran Marine Corps. What? Marine Corps?

Yep. As I believe I've mentioned before, Honor knows where she gets her temper, and it seems there's a reason her daddy decided it might be a good idea for him to go into something besides the combat arms. Something to do with a minor unpleasantness he found himself forced to deal with during his own early military career . . . .

She's also agreed, although no sort of delivery schedule has been discussed, that it's getting to be time that we did an official Honorverse Companion. So that's probably going into the works sometime in the not too distant future. I've already decided which of my faithful minions are going to be tapped for the task, but at the moment I'm considering posting the rough draft (such time as its completed) here on the Bar so that interested 'Flies can help scrutinize it. Mind you, there are other times I think I'm insane to even consider turning the lot of you loose on the Honorverse. Can you say obsessive-compulsive? I knew you could.

I think that pretty much brings you all up to speed. Or, at least, as up to speed as I am myself, at this particular moment. ...
Take care, everybody.

[Sternengucker]

Hellseher? Muss man das dafür sein?

Du solltest allerdings in nächster Zeit besser altrosafarbene Mercedes Coupes meiden

Nee, nur Spaß

Die anderen News sind doch richtig nett. Na gut, abgesehen davon, dass Eric Flint einen Bypass braucht.
Besonders der Companion klingt verführerisch... zB müsste ich dann jetzt nicht grübeln was der Kram mit Casimir Station zu besagen hätte Gerade diese Nebenereignisse hinterlassen mich dann doch oft ratlos, wenn sie mal wieder erwähnt werden.
Und das Buch über Dr. Papa Harrington... immer her damit. Solange es neuer HH Stoff ist ohne dass er den Spaß am Schreiben von Hauptreihenromanen für Jahr(zehnt)e verliert und sich in wilde andere Universenschöpfungen vertieft Ich mein: vor Ende 11, Frühjahr 12 brauchen wir nach MoH eh nicht mit einem weiteren HH Hauptreihenroman rechnen. Dann ruhig auch mal so ein Experiment. Dasselbe gilt auch für Anthos... ich brauch nichtmal unbedingt ne Story vom Meister himself in so einem Band, hätte aber schon gerne nochmal was ähnlich haarsträubend komisches wie die arme alte "FRANCIS" bis jetzt direkt vor der Cachat Story aus demselben Band (Sword IIRC) mein absoluter Favorit

[Eagleeye]

Besonders der Companion klingt verführerisch... zB müsste ich dann jetzt nicht grübeln was der Kram mit Casimir Station zu besagen hätte Gerade diese Nebenereignisse hinterlassen mich dann doch oft ratlos, wenn sie mal wieder erwähnt werden.

Die Ereignisse rund um Casimir werden in Flints Story "From the Highlands" in der 3. Anthologie erwähnt. Honor - damals noch ein einfacher Lieutenant Commander und Kommandantin des Zerstörers Hawkwing - hebt diese mesanische Station aus und befreit einen Haufen Sklaven. Und Cathy Montagne, die damals noch Gräfin Tor war und auch ihren Sitz im Oberhaus noch besaß, stellte dort öffentlich die Frage, warum ein Offizier scheel angesehen wird, der einfach nur seiner Pflicht nachgekommen ist ...

Achso, außerdem hat er den Barflys einen Einblick in seine Honorverse-Bible gegeben; speziell in den Bereich, der sich mit dem Maya-Sektor befaßt. Das will ich natürlich hier auch nicht versäumen, wiederzugeben:

I should not be doing this. The last thing I need to do is to be spending time on the Bar (or anywhere else besides slaving away at the keyboard), but it is now 6:30 am, local, I'm about to go to bed, and I dropped back by before I toddled off. I noticed, when I did, that Eric has given you some extra snippets shedding a little light on Beowulf, and also that there has been Much Discussion about Maya. That being the case, I thought I would give you a little more info on the Maya Sector. The following is a partial citation from the Honorverse tech bible. I do not promise that it won't undergo revision as the sector develops as a player in the Haven Quadrant.

Take care, all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tlaloc/Smoking Frog:

Diameter: .97 Earth

Gravity: 1.01 Earth

Hydrosphere: 76%

The planet of Smoking Frog was named Talaloc by its original discoverers, and that remains the official planet name as far as the Solarian League is concerned. However, it was renamed Smoking Frog by its inhabitants about 50 T-years after its initial colonization because it has an exceptionally active "belt of fire." Eruptions are frequent, especially along the chain of very large volcanic islands stretching through the approximate center of the planet's largest ocean, and the name struck the inhabitants as wryly appropriate when nine major volcanoes erupted in the space of less than one local year.

The bulk of the system population lives on Smoking Frog, its single moon (Vorva), or the orbital habitats around it, with another 2.3 million living and working in the Quetzalcoatl Belt's platforms and habitats, and approximately 1.1 million scattered around other orbital habitats. The primary is considerably cooler than Sol, and the planet is somewhat further out than Old Terra, but Smoking Frog's energetic vulcanism contributes to a higher concentration of greenhouse gases and the average planetary temperature is within a few degrees of Old Terra's.

System notes and history:

The Maya System has several interesting astrographic features. The most striking of them is the Hunapu/Xbalanque dual gas giant system. Essentially, this consists of twin planets (Hunapu and Xbalanque) of near identical mass (both of them a bit smaller than Jupiter), orbiting a common center of mass. To make things even more interesting, the subsystem boasts seven additional moons which also orbit the same common center of mass. The sheer mass concentrated in the Hunapu/Xbalanque orbital shell has created an enormous asteroid belt -- the Quetzalcoatl Belt -- which was one of the major attractions for the original colonizing expedition. The Quetzalcoatl Belt is a rich natural resource, but didn't produce the "boom economy" the original colonists anticipated.

Maya was originally surveyed (and the original planetary names were assigned) in 1107 PD, but the system wasn't colonized until 1500. By that time, it was evident that the Haven Quadrant (initially colonized 190 years earlier) was going to be a major magnet for settlement, and since the Manticoran Wormhole Junction wouldn't be discovered for another 85 years, it seemed reasonable to assume that habitable planets between the Solarian League's then existing borders and Haven would find themselves squarely in the path of a new wave of colonization. Maya lay directly in the center of the corridor the demographers were projecting would attract that additional colonization, but it was far enough out from the League's borders to be affordable by colony expeditions with relatively modest means. The attraction of the Quetzalcoatl Belt and the industrial potential it represented was another factor in directing attention to the system.

The original colonists came from several sources. The expedition was organized from the beginning as both a commercial enterprise and a politically motivated trek to greener pastures, with the organizers advertising in multiple star systems for the types of settlers they wanted. As a result, Maya had a degree of multi-ethnicity from the very beginning which was uncommon among such relatively small colonization efforts. At the same time, however, the new colony had attracted a remarkably homogenous social cross-section. What the planners were after -- and, by and large, got -- was a solid core of well qualified professionals from primarily middle-class and lower-class backgrounds who were dissatisfied with the type of oligarchical social stratification which had already become unfortunately common in the Shell of the Solarian League. They had powerful and similar, if not identical, concepts of how representational government should be organized and they believed in the capitalist system, but they had an ingrained and innate distaste for the sort of cutthroat exploitation they saw about them on their original homeworlds.

Given the industrial potential of Maya, and the anticipated influx of additional colonists and investment, they believed they would be able to establish an affluent, high tech world which would become an outlying member of the Haven Quadrant as its inner borders expanded back towards the League.

For the first half century or so, things went well for the new colony, proceeding pretty much according to the original game plan. Maya was too far from the Haven System itself to be more than a transit point for most of the wave of colonists being attracted to the Quadrant, but a steady trickle of through traffic paused in Maya, liked what it saw, and stayed. Natural increase and the influx of new settlers brought a steady growth in population on the planet Talaloc (renamed "Smoking Frog" by its new inhabitants in 1551 PD, which was also known as "The Pumice Year" because of its volcanic activity). Then, however, in 1585, disaster struck in the form of the discovery of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. Suddenly, it was possible to get to the Haven Quadrant via Manticore and Trevor's Star from the very heart of the League in little more than a couple of weeks, as opposed to the months-long hyper-space haul along the route through Maya's astrographic neighborhood.

The implications of the new routing weren't immediately apparent to the majority of Smoking Frog's citizens, but their local government recognized the writing on the wall very quickly. To be honest, although the Manticoran Wormhole Junction was a devastating blow to the colony's original development plan, it wasn't actively catastrophic to the colony itself. By the time it happened, Smoking Frog had its feet well under it, with a population of almost 100 million, and the investment which had grown out of the Haven Quadrant traffic before the Junction's discovery had provided the system with a solid industrial base. The economy's revenue stream took a heavy hit from the abrupt shift in shipping patterns, but the system was never in danger of the sort of internal collapse which had plagued so many cryo-ship colony efforts.

By 1630, Maya had adjusted quite nicely and had resumed a steady, comfortable, if not spectacular, rate of growth. In 1625, the Maya System planted its first daughter colony in the Sprague System. Additional independent colonies left over from the Havenite traffic days were already in place in Murray and Robert, although neither of them had fared as well as Maya had. Between them, the steadily growing colony in Sprague and the inhabitants of Murray and Robert provided Maya with a small but growing local network of interstellar commerce, and that network continued to expand as Maya began trading with the Republic of Erewhon, as well.

By 1700, however, it became evident to the Mayans that the steady expansion of the Solarian League -- and, especially, the operations of the Office of Frontier Security -- were eventually going to wash over them. The 200 years since their initial settlement hadn't been enough to change the Mayans' minds about the oligarchical system their ancestors had fled, and they had very few illusions about the sordid reality behind the high flown rhetoric of Frontier Security and its transstellar partners.

The fact that Maya and Sprague -- which were now trading regularly not only with Erewhon but with Edwin, Isaac, Poul, Randall, and even Trevor's Star -- were substantially more affluent than the vast majority of Verge star systems was only going to make them more attractive to Frontier Security. Clearly, something had to be done.

In 1709, a conference was hosted in Shuttlesport, the capital of the Maya system. Its organizers chose their guest list carefully, and there was remarkably little publicity or public notice of any sort in light of the fundamental changes which emerged from it.

The Shuttlesport Conference put together a comprehensive strategy designed to turn Maya and its main trading partners into a political and economic unit. The Conference's delegates didn't expect to be able to turn themselves into a multi-system star nation in their own right -- or not, at least, to be able to do it quickly enough to give them the degree of "legitimacy" which would inspire something as greedy as OFS to keep its hands off of them. What they did do was to formulate a common economic strategy designed to bootstrap their less affluent members. At the same time, they deliberately fostered a sense of the "Maya Sector" as a cultural, economic, and -- to some extent, at least -- political unit. And, having carefully analyzed the reality behind the Solarian League's façade of representative government, the Conference delegates (and their successors) began very cautiously establishing direct contact with members of the bureaucracies which truly ran the League. At the same time, Maya began actively courting investment by Solarian transstellars, offering attractive opportunities . . . but putting into place local protections and controls at the same time.

The plan worked. By the time the ever outward-lapping OFS tide started arriving in their vicinity around the middle of the 18th century, the Maya Sector was ready. Instead of being involuntarily ingested by Frontier Security, the Sector actively petitioned for Solarian "protection" in 1772, and the influence it had spent the last 60-odd T-years obtaining on Old Earth through judicious investment (i.e., bribery) of bureaucrats and recruitment of major transstellar sponsors meant that its petition was granted very much on its own terms.

It was a straightforward bargain. Basically, it was a deal with two devils. Maya would accept a Frontier Security administration, but unlike a typical Verge protectorate, the citizens of the Maya Sector would retain local self-government and any sector governor (not a commissioner) appointed by OFS would have to be confirmed (accepted) by a majority of the Sector's voters. It was understood that Frontier Security would levy the usual "administrative fees" on the Mayan economy, since those "administrative fees" represented a substantial chunk of League's revenue stream in light of the constitutional prohibition of any form of direct taxation by the central government. At the same time, however, Maya had built an unusually comfortable relationship with the League's transstellars, which provided the "second devil" of their bargain. There was substantial local investment and ownership in most of those transstellars; local Solarian managers were often Mayan-born, and even those who had been transferred into Maya by their employers tended to become more Mayan than Solarian and settle comfortably into the local population; and the corporate masters of those transstellars had discovered that Maya was actually considerably more profitable for them, over the long run, than the sort of "slash-and-burn" exploitation which was the norm in the Verge. They recognized that they had a good thing going for them in Maya and used their own contacts with the League bureaucracy to protect their own perceived interests in the Sector. As a consequence, the Sector wielded an enormous amount of influence back on Old Earth for a collection of a mere eight Verge star systems.

Despite all of those protections, however, the Maya Sector was well aware that its degree of local autonomy existed on sufferance. A steady Mayan public relations effort on Old Terra helped to bolster a public perception of the Maya Sector as one of the jewels in Frontier Security's crown, which would make it more difficult for OFS to unilaterally abrogate the agreement which had granted that local autonomy, but no one who had watched Solarian bureaucrats in action could feel any huge degree of confidence in them. Moreover, despite the Sector's "interest" with members of the bureaucracy, and despite the protection of its transstellar "partners," the "administrative fees" being charged against the Sector's economy grew steadily as a percentage of its combined Gross System Products.

By 1911, 200 years after the Shuttlesport Conference, the Maya Sector, while well aware of how fortunate it had been, was beginning to chafe under the increasingly heavy hand of Frontier Security's "administrative fees." Moreover, OFS' exploitation of other Verge systems had grown progressively uglier over that same century and a half, and despite its own protected position, Maya didn't like what it was seeing. In fact, in many ways, the Maya Sector had become a breeding ground for subversively-minded people who didn't much care for their nominal Solarian overlords.

The significance of 1911 lay in the fact that it was in that year that Oravil Barregos was first nominated as Frontier Security's governor for the Maya Sector. He was confirmed by a narrow margin in the 1912 referendum on his appointment. In 1917, he was reconfirmed for a second five-year term, with 68% of the vote. In 1920, despite strenuous efforts by OFS to campaign against its own official "nominee," he won reconfirmation by a majority of 76%.

[Eagleeye]

David war wieder sein übliches nettes Selbst, und hat den Barflies ein weiteres "Mission of Honor"-Snippet spendiert ...

Hi, Guys --

Before I disappear back into writing and not posting again, I thought I'd give you one more leeeetle snippet from Mission. Ain't agonna say where it's from or exactly what it's in reference to, but . . . . .

--------------------------------

Hamish Alexander-Harrington knew his wife as only two humans who had both been adopted by a pair of mated treecats ever could. He'd seen her deal with joy and with sorrow, with happiness and with fury, with fear, and even with despair. Yet in all the years since their very first meeting at Yeltsin's Star, he suddenly realized, he had never actually met the woman the newsies called "the Salamander."

It wasn't his fault, a corner of his brain told him, because he'd never been in the right place to meet her. Never at the right time. He'd never had the chance to stand by her side as she took a wounded heavy cruiser on an unflinching deathride into the broadside of the battlecruiser waiting to kill it, sailing to her own death, and her crew's, to protect a planet full of strangers while the rich beauty of Hammerwell's "Salute to Spring" spilled from her ship's com system. He hadn't stood beside her as she faced the man who had bought the murder of her first great love on the dew-soaked grass of the Landing City duelling grounds, with a pistol in her hand and vengeance in her heart. Just as he hadn't stood on the floor of Steadholders' Hall when she faced a man with thirty times her experience in the fencing salle across the razor-edged steel of their swords, with the ghosts of Reverend Julius Hanks, the butchered children of Mueller Steading, and her own murdered steaders at her back.

But now, as he looked into the unyielding flint of his wife's beloved, almond eyes, he knew he had met the Salamander at last.

[Nighthawk_]

Wurde ja mal Zeit das White Haven und Harrington zusammen auf die Jagd gehen
Fand es schon schade das sie mit der Nike keinen Einsatz unter ihm absolvieren durfte.
Worauf könnte sich das Snippet beziehen? Auf eine Situation unmittelbar während/nach Oyster Bay?
White Haven ist ja noch immer erster Lord der Admiralität, etwa ins Haven-System wird man ihn damit wohl kaum schicken.

[Eagleeye]

Wurde ja mal Zeit das White Haven und Harrington zusammen auf die Jagd gehen
Fand es schon schade das sie mit der Nike keinen Einsatz unter ihm absolvieren durfte.
Worauf könnte sich das Snippet beziehen? Auf eine Situation unmittelbar während/nach Oyster Bay?
White Haven ist ja noch immer erster Lord der Admiralität, etwa ins Haven-System wird man ihn damit wohl kaum schicken.

Ja, das wird auch in der Bar vermutet. Zumal David angedeutet hat, daß SPOILERwährend Oyster Bay ein Clan der Baumkatzen zerstört wird - es wäre also sehr gut möglich, daß diese Szene auf Sphinx spielt, während sie sich die angerichtete Bescherung ansehen und Hilfsmaßnahmen - so weit diese dann noch möglich sind - einleiten.

Eine andere, dort vertretene Meinung ist, daß Hamish bei der 8. Flotte ist, während diese SPOILERmit Filareta den Weltraum zusammenkehrt - auch da könnte es zu einer "Salamander"-Situation kommen ...

[Nighthawk_]

Technisch gesehen gibt es doch keine Achte mehr oder? Die wurde nach der Schlacht um Manticore doch zur Homefleet und Harrington temporär ihr Kommandant.

Welche Flotten gab es denn überhaupt?

White Haven hatte die Sechste während der ersten Manticoreanischen Offensive im ersten Havenkrieg.
Ich erinnere mich dunkel das Hemphill damals die Gegend umGrandelsbane mit starken Kräften hielt. War das die Zweite Flotte oder so?
Admiral Kuzak kommandierte dann später die dritte Flotte bei Trevors Stern.
Und für Harrington bildete man dann die Achte.

Sonst noch irgendetwas bekannt? Oder viel der Rest alles unter Kampfgruppen...

[ThorKonnat]

Torch of Freedom
Forthcoming
by David Weber and Eric Flint
Published 11/1/2009

Dann haben wirs wohl offiziell das am 01/11/09 Torch of Freedom erscheint. Na dann, ist ja nicht mehr lang hin.