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|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:06 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 30
Well, that was fine with him. He wasn't especially happy himself. To Bourchier's credit, he'd refused to allow even Victor Cachat to simply steamroller him. Instead, he'd flatly insisted on clearing Simões' presence with some higher authority before he'd go any further. Wilhelm Trajan, the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, hadn't been available -- he was off-planet at the moment -- so Bourchier had gone directly to LePic. Who, not unreasonably, had insisted on meeting Simões himself before he'd even consider authorizing his admittance into Pritchart's presence.
Zilwicki had no problem with that. What he did have a problem with was that their interview with the attorney general had been the first any of them had heard about what had happened -- or, at least, what Mesa claimed had happened -- in Green Pines. Discovering that he'd been branded as the worst mass murderer in recent memory tended to be just a tad upsetting, he'd discovered.
And thinking about how the people he loved must have responded to that lie was even more so.
"So, our wandering boy returns, I see," Pritchart murmured. She regarded all of them for a moment, then looked directly at Zilwicki.
"I'm afraid the galaxy at large thinks you're, well, dead, Captain Zilwicki," she said. "I'm pleased to see the reports were in error. Although I'm sure quite a few people in Manticore are going to be just as curious to know where you've been for the last several months as we are about Officer Cachat's whereabouts."
"I'm sure they are, too, Madam President. Unfortunately, we had a little, um, engine trouble on the way home. It took us several months to make repairs." Zilwicki grimaced. "We played a lot of cards," he added.
"I imagine so." The President cocked her head. "And I imagine you've also discovered there have been a few developments since whatever happened -- and I do trust you're going to tell us what it was that did happen -- in Green Pines?"
"I'm sure that will be covered, Ma'am," Zilwicki said grimly. "It wasn't much like the 'official version' I've just heard, but it was bad enough."
Pritchart gazed at him for a moment, then nodded slowly and looked at Simões.
"But I don't believe I know who this gentleman is," she continued.
"No, Madam President, you don't -- yet," Cachat replied. "This is Dr. Herlander Simões. Of the planet Mesa."
Pritchart's spectacular topaz eyes narrowed slightly. The first-class brain behind those eyes was obviously running at top speed, but all she did was sit back in her chair.
"I see," she said after a moment, gazing speculatively at the Mesan. "May I assume Dr. Simões is the reason you've been…out of touch, let's say, for the last, oh, six or seven T-months?"
"He's one of the reasons, Ma'am."
"Then, by all means be seated," she invited, waving a hand at the empty chairs on the other side of the table, "and let's hear what you -- and Dr. Simões, of course -- have to tell us."
* * *
"Readiness reports complete, Sir," Admiral Daniels reported. "All squadron and task group commanders report ready to proceed as ordered."
"Thank you, Bill," Fleet Admiral Filareta acknowledged.
He stood on the flag bridge of SLNS Philip Oppenheimer, flagship of the Solarian League Navy's newly designated Eleventh Fleet, gazing at the endless rows of status reports and thinking. The missile ships had taken a few days longer than expected to join him, which had given just enough time for a last set of dispatches from the Sol System to reach Tasmania. Which, in his opinion, was very much a mixed blessing.
The news that the Manties were closing wormhole termini to Solarian traffic was not something he'd wanted to hear. Whatever else it might indicate, it hardly sounded like the action of a star nation reeling from a surprise attack and terrified for its very life. One might have expected people in that position to be looking for ways to avoid infuriating something the size of the Solarian League, which didn't appear to have even crossed the Star Empire's mind. That was a disconcerting thought, and the fact that neither Rajampet nor his civilian masters seemed to share it was even more unpleasant. Judging from their amendment of his original mission orders, however, the only "thinking" they appeared to have done was to fasten on it as yet another Manty "provocation" to justify their own actions. They certainly hadn't been dissuaded by it, at any rate!
They probably think the Manties are just running a bluff, trying to convince us to back down, he reflected. And maybe they are. But maybe they aren't, too. Maybe it's an indication they're genuinely that confident they can stand up to us, instead, and I sort of wish at least someone in Old Chicago was willing to at least consider the possibility. That'd be asking too much, though, I guess, since it would require a brain bigger than a pea!
He shook his head mentally. It was far too late to be worrying about the blindness -- or desperation -- of the people behind his orders. It was too late to be worrying even about how large a hand Manpower might have had in drafting those orders in the first place, and at least four hundred and twenty-seven of the four hundred and thirty-one ships-of-the-wall which had been ordered to join him had actually arrived. That was a phenomenal accomplishment, by SLN peacetime readiness standards. In fact, he suspected the status reports on a half dozen or so of his SDs had been fudged by captains who had no intention of being caught short at a moment like this, but as long as they weren't covering up fundamental problems, that was fine with him.
The more the merrier, he thought sardonically, yet not even his cynicism was proof against commanding the most powerful armada the Solarian League had ever launched. As he looked at those status reports, at the glittering sea of icons, he was aware of the true size and power of the Solarian League Navy in a new and different way. His concerns about Manticoran weapons hadn't magically disappeared, by any means, yet despite those concerns, what he felt at this moment was the ponderous, unstoppable power of all those millions upon millions of tons of starships.
Four hundred and twenty-seven ships-of-the-wall. Thirty-two battlecruisers, thirty light cruisers, and forty-eight destroyers to screen the battle squadrons and provide the scouts they'd probably need. And fifty fast freighters (and personnel transports), all with military-grade hyper generators and particle screening. All told, his command counted almost six hundred starships, massing over three billion tons. Indeed, his wallers alone massed 2.9 billion tons, and counting the freighter and transport crews, he commanded over 2.7 million naval personnel, which didn't even count the transports' 421,000 Marines and support personnel. By any meter stick, it was an enormous force, and fifty percent of the missiles in his SDs' magazines were the new dual-drive Technodyne Cataphract-Bs. He would have preferred a heavier warhead, but that was what the five thousand pods loaded with Cataphract-Cs were for. At over sixteen million kilometers, their powered envelope was better than twice that of the Trebuchet capital missiles they'd replaced.
He was still a long way from truly leveling the playing field, assuming there was any truth in the Manty accounts of Spindle. As it happened, he was convinced there was quite a lot of truth in those accounts, but almost despite himself, he'd been deeply impressed when he saw the Cataphracts' performance numbers. Whether they'd come from Technodyne or the tooth fairy was far less important than how enormously his fleet's effective reach had been increased. He was going to be outranged by any surviving Manty system-defense missile pods, but he should at least come close to matching their shipboard missiles. If there was any validity at all to the Office of Strategy and Planning's assessment of the Star Empire's morale, that ought to be enough to convince them that no qualitative advantage could ultimately offset the sheer quantitative edge of the Solarian League.
Sure it will, he told himself. You go right on thinking that way. But don't get your ass so wedded to the concept that you end up getting yourself and a couple of million other people killed!
"Very well," he said at last, then drew a deep breath and turned to face Daniels once more.
"I believe we have a date with the Manties, Bill. Let's get this show on the road."
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:05 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 31
May 1922 Post Diaspora
"What the hell. I've always liked a challenge."
-- Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore
Chapter Ten
"More coffee, Your Majesty?"
Elizabeth Winton looked up at the murmured question, then smiled and extended her cup. James McGuiness poured, smiled back at her, and moved on around the table, refilling other cups, and she watched him go before she sipped. It was, as always, delicious, and she thought yet again what a pity it was that McGuiness made such splendid coffee when Honor couldn't stand the beverage.
The familiar reflection trickled through her brain, and she set the cup back down and gave herself a mental shake. No doubt her staff back at Mount Royal Palace had its hands full covering for her absence, but they were just going to have to go on coping for a while longer. Despite the grinding fatigue of far too many hours, far too much adrenaline, and far too many shocks to the universe she'd thought she understood, she knew she and Eloise Pritchart were still far from finished.
She looked across the table in the admiral's dining cabin aboard HMS Imperator at the president of the Republic of Haven, who had just finished a serving of McGuiness' trademark eggs Benedict and picked up her own coffee cup. Despite a sleepless night, following a day even longer than Elizabeth's had been, the other woman still looked improbably beautiful. And still radiated that formidable presence, as well. Elizabeth doubted anyone could have intentionally planned a greater physical contrast than the one between her own mahogany skin and dark eyes and Pritchart's platinum and topaz, and they'd been produced by political and social systems which were at least as different as their appearances. Yet over the last day or so she'd come -- unwillingly, almost kicking and screaming -- to the conclusion that the two of them were very much alike under the surface.
I wonder if I would have had the sheer nerve to sail straight into my worst enemy's home system -- especially after what those "mystery raiders" did to us -- and admit my secretary of state doctored the correspondence that sent us back to war? After so long, so many deaths, because I got played, maneuvered into doing exactly what someone else wanted? Even having Simões' story to back me up, selling that to someone with my reputation for carrying grudges to the grave and back again took more plain old-fashioned gall and guts than any three women ought to have. Especially after I'd proven this "Alignment" could play me just as thoroughly as it ever played her.
Elizabeth's mind flicked back over the last two Manticoran days. Even her formidable intelligence was having difficulty coping with the tectonic shock which had just rumbled through her entire known universe. It seemed impossible, preposterous on the very face of things, that a mere two days could have changed everything she'd thought she knew about two decades of bitter warfare and millions of deaths, yet it had. And it explained so much.
"So," she said, sitting back from the table she shared with only Honor, Pritchart, and Thomas Theisman, "is Simões telling the truth or not, Honor?"
The two Havenites looked at Honor with slightly surprised expressions, and Honor smiled. Nimitz was sound asleep on his perch, and after the night which had just passed, she saw no point in waking him up.
"There's a reason Her Majesty's asking me, instead of Nimitz or Ariel," she told her guests. "As it happens, I've been hanging around with treecats long enough to have caught at least some of their abilities. I can't read minds, but I can read emotions, and I know when someone's lying."
It was astonishingly easy for her to make that admission to the leaders of the star nation she'd fought her entire adult life.
Pritchart blinked at her, then those topaz eyes narrowed in thought, and the President began nodding -- slowly, at first, then more rapidly.
"So that's why you make such a fiendishly effective diplomat!" she said with something very like an air of triumph. "I couldn't believe how well a total novice was reading us. Now I know -- you were cheating!"
The last word came out in something very like a laugh, and Honor nodded back.
"Where diplomacy's concerned, according to my mentors in the Foreign Office, there is no such thing as 'cheating,' Madam President. In fact, one of those mentors quoted an old axiom to me. Where diplomacy is involved, he said, if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying hard enough."
Elizabeth snorted in amusement, and Theisman shook his head.
"In this instance, however," Honor continued more seriously, "what Her Majesty is asking me is whether or not I can tell if Dr. Simões is telling the truth. I already informed her" -- she looked directly at Pritchart -- "that I knew you were, Madam President. On the other hand, I also assumed you would have expected from the beginning that Nimitz would have been able to tell me and that I would have passed his observations on to Her Majesty, so I didn't feel any particular scruples about that."
Pritchart nodded again, and Honor shrugged.
"What I can tell you about Simões is that his anger -- his outrage -- at this 'Alignment' is absolutely genuine. The pain inside that man is incredible."
She closed her eyes for a moment, and her nostrils flared.
"Everything I can 'taste' about his 'mind-glow' tells me he's telling us the truth, in so far as he knows the truth. Whether or not McBryde might have been passing along disinformation is more than I can say, of course. But, on balance, I think he was telling the truth, as well. It all fits together too well with what we've already seen, and with what Simões can tell us about their hardware."
"And there are still so damned many holes in it," Elizabeth half-snarled.
"Yes, there are," Honor agreed. "On the other hand, I'd say the Star Empire knows infinitely more than we knew yesterday, Elizabeth…given that we didn't know anything at that point."
Elizabeth nodded slowly, then looked at Pritchart.
"So, I guess what it comes down to," she said slowly, "it's where we go from here. Whatever happens, I want you to know I'm enormously grateful for the information you've provided us. And I think we can both agree that the war between Haven and Manticore is over."
She shook her head, as if, even now, she couldn't quite believe what she'd just said. Not because she didn't want to, but because it seemed impossible, like something which couldn't possibly be true because of how badly everyone wanted it to be true.
"Mind you," she continued, "I don't expect everybody to be delighted about that. For that matter, a few days ago, I probably would have been one of the people who wasn't delighted myself," she admitted.
"Trust me, there's the odd couple of billion Havenites who probably feel exactly the same way," Pritchard said dryly.
"And that's the sticking point, isn't it?" Elizabeth asked softly. "Stopping shooting at each other -- that much I'm sure we can manage. But it's not enough. Not if Simões' and McBryde's story is true after all."
"No, it's not," Pritchart agreed quietly.
"Well," Elizabeth smiled with very little humor, "at least I can feel confident now that you'll keep the Republican Navy off our backs long enough for us to deal with this Admiral Filareta."
"Actually," Pritchard said, "I had something else in mind."
"Something else?" Elizabeth's eyebrows rose.
"Your Majesty -- Elizabeth -- the Mesan Alignment wants both of us destroyed, starting with the Star Empire. I don't know if it honestly believes the SLN can do the job where you're concerned, or if it was anticipating we'd do it when we recognized the opportunity it had given us. But it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the Solarian attack on you is simply one more step in a strategy directed against both of us. So I think something a bit more pointed than simply stopping shooting at each other might be in order."
"Such as?" Elizabeth asked slowly, eyes slitted in concentration.
"I understand your missile production facilities have been taken off-line," Pritchard said. "Tom here tells me you've undoubtedly got enough of those ungodly super missiles in your magazines to thoroughly kick the ass of this Filareta if he really insists on following his orders. But that's going to cut into your reserves, and given that the Alignment managed to rip the hell out of your home system, I think it would be a good idea for you to conserve as much ammunition as you can in hopes we'll find someone a bit better suited to playing the role of target."
"And?" Elizabeth's eyes were opening wider in speculation.
"Well, it just happens that Thomas here has a modest little fleet -- two or three hundred of the wall, I believe -- waiting approximately eight hours from Trevor's Star in hyper. If you're willing to trust us in Manticoran space, perhaps we could help you encourage Filareta to see reason. And while I'm well aware our hardware isn't as good as yours, every indication I've seen is that it's one hell of a lot better than anything the Sollies have."
"Are you offering me a military alliance against the Solarian League?" Elizabeth asked very carefully.
"If McBryde was right, there isn't going to be much of a Solarian League very much longer," Pritchart replied grimly. "And given the fact that the same bunch of murderous bastards who shot up your home system are also directly responsible for you and I having killed a couple of million of our own people, I think we could say we have a certain commonality of interest where they're concerned. And it's not a case of selfless altruism on my part, you know. We're both on the Alignment's list. Don't you think it would be sort of stupid for either of us to let the other one go down and leave us all alone?"
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:58 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 32
Brown eyes and topaz met across the table littered with the remnants of breakfast, and it was very, very quiet.
"We're still going to have those problems, you know," Elizabeth said almost conversationally after a moment. "All those people on both sides who don't like each other. All that legacy of suspicion."
"Of course." Pritchart nodded.
"And then there's the little matter of figuring out where this Alignment's real headquarters is, and who else is fronting for it, and what other weapons it has, and where else it has programmed assassins tucked away, and exactly what it's got in mind for the Republic once the Star Empire's been polished off."
"And, now that I think about it, there's the question of how we're going to rebuild our capabilities here, and how much technology sharing -- and how quickly -- we can convince our separate navies and our allies to put up with. You know there's going to be heel-dragging and tantrum-throwing the minute I start suggesting anything like that!"
"I'm sure there will be."
The two women looked at one another, and then, slowly, both of them began to smile.
"What the hell," Elizabeth Winton said. "I've always liked a challenge."
She extended her hand across the table.
Pritchart took it.
* * *
"You're joking!"
Chairman Chyang Benton-Ramirez looked incredulously at Fedosei Mikulin and Jacques Benton-Ramirez y Chou. The three men sat face-to-face in the Chairman's high-security private briefing room, buried under the roots of the West Tower of the Executive Building in downtown Columbia. Benton-Ramirez had been more than a little irked when Mikulin insisted on meeting in person, rather than com-conferencing. He had plenty of other things he could spend time doing besides hiking clear over here and then taking the lift shaft down five hundred meters, but Mikulin was his most trusted advisor. That was why in addition to his at-large directorship he was Commissioner of Central Intelligence for the Republic of Beowulf.
And why Benton-Ramirez had accepted his "invitation" to join him here despite the inconvenience.
Benton-Ramirez y Chou, Third Director at Large of the Planetary Board of Directors (and one of the Chairman's cousins), on the other hand enjoyed a carefully ill-defined relationship with Central Intelligence. That was because he was also the Planetary Board's unofficial (very unofficial) liaison to the Audubon Ballroom. It would never have done for the Board (or -- especially! -- its intelligence services) to admit overt contact with the Ballroom, even here on Beowulf. If anyone had wondered why, the way Manticore had been hammered over the Green Pines Incident made the reasons crystal clear. Despite which, everyone knew that contact existed, and most people were pretty sure Benton-Ramirez y Chou, as the ex-chairman and current vice-chairman of the Anti-Slavery League, did the contacting. It was one of those "don't ask, don't tell" situations, and the fact that the customarily aggressive Beowulfan newsies had never once asked the question said volumes about how Beowulf in general regarded the genetic slave trade.
That wasn't why Benton-Ramirez y Chou was here today, though. No, he was here because another of the Chairman's cousins was deeply involved in what Mikulin had just reported.
"I'm absolutely not joking, Chyang," Mikulin said now. "I realize we're not supposed to spy on our friends, but everyone does, and I doubt anyone in Manticore smart enough to seal his own shoes doesn't know we do. Although, to be fair, I'm not sure how happy they'd be to find out just how highly placed some of our…assets actually are."
"Your niece wouldn't happen to be one of them, would she, Jacques?"
"No, she would not." Benton-Ramirez y Chou's voice was considerably colder than the one in which he normally addressed the Chairman. Benton-Ramirez y Chou was a small man, with dark hair and sandalwood skin. He also had almond eyes, which he shared with his sister…and his rather more famous (or infamous) niece. "And if I'd ever been stupid enough to ask her to become any such thing, she would have told me to piss up a rope," he added succinctly.
"Oh, I doubt she would've put it that way," Benton-Ramirez said with a chuckle which was oddly apologetic. "I'm sure Duchess Harrington would have been considerably less, um, earthy."
"Not if I'd asked her to spy on Elizabeth, she wouldn't have been," Benton-Ramirez y Chou smiled tartly. "In fact, what she'd probably have done is rip off my head for a soccer ball!"
"All right, point taken," the Chairman acknowledged. "But I assume from what you're telling me, Fedosei, that whoever our informant is, we can place significant confidence in this report?"
"Yes," Mikulin said flatly.
"Damn." Benton-Ramirez shook his head. "I know we were hoping they'd at least stop shooting at each other, especially after we warned both of them Filareta was coming, but I never expected this!"
"None of us did," Mikulin agreed. "But, to be honest, the fact that Elizabeth and Pritchart have decided to bury the hatchet is actually a hell of a lot less important than the reason they decided to bury it."
There was something very odd about his voice, and the Chairman glanced at Benton-Ramirez y Chou. The other man's expression was an interesting mix of agreement and something that looked like lingering shock, all backed by a white-hot, blazing fury. Despite the self-control he'd learned over the decades, Jacques Benton-Ramierz y Chou had always been a passionate man, yet Benton-Ramirez was more than a little taken aback by the deadly glitter in those dark-brown eyes.
"What do you mean?" The Chairman sat back, eyes narrowed. The fact that Eloise Pritchart had gone unannounced to the Manticore Binary System and apparently agreed to some sort of alliance against the Solarian League, especially after how savagely the Star Empire had been weakened, struck him as one of the more fundamental power shifts in the history of mankind. So if Mikulin found something else even more significant…
"I think the notion of a Manticore-Haven military alliance is going to be interesting enough to the rest of the universe, Fedosei," he observed.
"I'm sure it is," Mikulin said grimly, "but what's even more 'interesting' to me -- and to the rest of Beowulf, I'm pretty damn sure -- is that the reason Pritchart made this trip to Manticore is that Zilwicki and Cachat have resurfaced. And it turns out that where they've been all this time was either on the planet Mesa or on their way back from it."
Benton-Ramirez's narrowed eyes widened, and Mikulin shrugged.
"We only have very a preliminary report at this point, Chyang," he pointed out, "and our source hasn't been able to give us everything. Or even come close to everything, for that matter. But from the little bit we do have, it seems Zilwicki and Cachat were in Green Pines -- both of them were there, together -- about the time the explosions went off. And it sounds like they were involved, albeit peripherally, as well. Hopefully we'll have better intelligence on that pretty soon, but the key point is that they brought out a Mesan with them, and the Mesan in question is providing all kinds of information. Information that, frankly, contradicts almost everything we've thought we knew about Mesa."
"I beg your pardon?"
Benton-Ramirez' tone sounded preposterously calm, but it wasn't really his fault. It was simply that no one could process information like that without the equivalent of a massive mental hiccup. If there was a single star system in the entire galaxy upon which Beowulfan intelligence had expended more effort than Mesa, or about which it was better informed, he couldn't imagine which one it might be. Ever since Leonard Detweiler and his malcontents had relocated to Mesa, the system had been Beowulf's dark twin. The source of one of the galaxy's most malignant cancers, and the undying shame of the society from which its founders had sprung.
The possibility of errors in Beowulf's intelligence appreciations of Mesa was one thing. In fact, Benton-Ramirez had always assumed there had to be such errors, since Mesa was painfully well aware of Beowulf's interest in it and had always taken steps to blunt Central Intelligence's operations there. But Mikulin clearly wasn't suggesting mere "errors" -- not in that tone of voice, or with that expression.
"If what we've heard so far is any indication, most of what we thought we knew about Mesa isn't just mistaken, it's a deliberate fabrication on Mesa's part," Mikulin said now, his voice harsh. "I'm not ready to sign off on the reliability of what we're hearing at this point. To be honest, there's a big part of me that doesn't want to admit even the possibility that we might have been that far off, and the meeting between Elizabeth and Pritchart took place less than forty hours ago. All of this is still pretty damned preliminary, and God only knows how many holes there could be in it. But, assuming there's any validity to it at all, Mesa's had its own plans -- plans that go a hell of a lot deeper than just making money off the genetic slave trade or even rubbing our collective nose in how much contempt they have for the Beowulf Code -- literally for centuries. Not only that, but the Manties have been right all along in saying it's behind what's been happening in Talbott and the Yawata Strike, as well. And not just because Talbott brought the Star Empire's borders too close to the Mesa System, either. Apparently, they've got plans of their own where the entire human race is involved, and I think we can be pretty sure that if they had plans for the Star Empire and the Republic of Haven, they've got to have a page or two for dealing with us, as well."
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:02 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 33
Chapter Eleven
"What are the odds your people will actually ratify this, do you think?" Elizabeth Winton asked almost whimsically.
"Not as good as they would have been once upon a time," Eloise Pritchart admitted from the other side of the small Mount Royal Palace conference table. "I've used up a lot of credit with Congress -- and the voters, for that matter -- in the last three T-years. And admitting our Secretary of State doctored the correspondence in the first place isn't going to make our firebrands any happier."
"That's what I thought, too. Pity. I was hoping you'd have a better chance with your legislative branch than I'm going to have with mine."
Elizabeth pursed her lips, looking at the document on the display in front of her. As treaty proposals went, it was about as bare bones as things got, she reflected. Neither she nor Pritchart had traded away their star nations' sovereignty for a handful of beads, but she was sure critics and partisans on both sides were going to carry on as if they had. And little though she liked to admit it, there was still plenty of wiggle room. They hadn't tried to nail things down in fully finished, set-in-stone form. Instead, they'd roughed out a list of absolutely essential points to be submitted to the Havenite Congress and Elizabeth's own Parliament, coupled with a specific provision that other treaties would deal with the still-outstanding points a little thing like twenty years of bitter warfare were likely to have created.
Still, if someone had told her she and Pritchart could accomplish this much, agree to this much, in only seven days, she would have suggested they be confined in a nice, safe cell. Yes, there were still huge gray areas, but what they'd gotten down in written form proved that knowing one was about to be hanged (or invaded by the Solarian League) truly did concentrate one's mind wonderfully. This treaty, rough as it was, created an alliance between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven which committed each of them to the defense of the other. There hadn't been time -- with one exception -- to consult with the Star Empire's allies, but Eloise had been careful to bring every one of those allies' ambassadors on board, and most of them had initialed the draft on their governments' behalves. The Andermani ambassador hadn't, yet that was hardly surprising, given the traditional Andermani realpolitik. By the same token (and for the same reasons), he hadn't voiced any official opposition to it, either, though, and the Andermani Empire was an "associated power" rather than a full member of the Manticoran Alliance, anyway.
The one ally there had been time to actually consult was the Protectorate of Grayson, three and a half T-days from the Manticore Binary System by dispatch boat. Elizabeth had sent Benjamin Mayhew word of Pritchart's totally unexpected visit the day the president arrived, and Benjamin Mayhew, with a decisiveness and speed unusual even for him, had needed only hours to decide where he stood. He'd sent back his enthusiastic support…and his only brother as his personal envoy.
Michael Mayhew had arrived yesterday, just in time to put his own signature on the draft as Grayson's plenipotentiary. Which, given most Manticorans' attitude towards their most constant ally, could only be a major plus. Not to mention demonstrating to all the Star Empire's allies as conclusively as humanly possible that William Alexander and his government were not Michael Janvier and his government.
So now all they had to do was submit it for the approval of the Manticoran Parliament and the Havenite Senate.
"All," she thought glumly. As in "all we have to do is find the philosopher's stone and we can turn as much lead into gold as we want." We can ask both of them to expedite on an emergency basis and point out that there's no time to be sending drafts back and forth for revision, but how much good is that really going to do? However big the crisis, we're talking about politicians, and that means any number of wannabe cooks can be counted on to shove their spoons in and start stirring, damn it.
"Actually, I think you're both being overly pessimistic," another voice said, and two pairs of eyes, one brown and one topaz, swiveled towards the speaker.
"I hate to point this out, Admiral," Pritchart said with a lopsided smile, "but I suspect you've had a bit less experience dealing with legislative idiots than Her Majesty and I have."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that, actually, Eloise," Elizabeth said, and grimaced when Pritchart looked back at her. "Don't forget, she's a steadholder. I realize steadholders have the sort of absolute power you and I only fantasize about, but she still has her own Chamber of Steaders to deal with, and she's been pretty hands-on about the job. Whenever we've let her out of uniform, at least. For that matter, she's a sitting member of the Conclave of Steadholders on Grayson and our House of Lords. She's spent her time in the trenches, and she was front and center of the Opposition during our delightful interlude with that ass High Ridge. She knows a lot more about how it works than that innocent demeanor of hers might suggest."
"I suppose that's true." Pritchart cocked her head. "It's hard to remember just how many hats you've worn, Your Grace."
"Her Majesty's comments aside, I won't pretend I've had as much legislative experience as you two," Honor replied. "On the other hand, she's right that I'm not a complete stranger to ugly political fights, and both of you are just about dead on your feet. My feeling is that both of you are so worn out from working on this thing that it'd be a miracle if you didn't feel pessimistic. In fact, if I'd thought it would've done any good, I'd've chased you off to bed every night to make sure you got at least eight solid hours."
Pritchart considered her thoughtfully and decided she wasn't really joking. And while the President of the Republic of Haven wasn't accustomed to being "chased off to bed," she rather suspected Honor Alexander-Harrington could manage it if she put her mind to it.
"Interesting you should say that, Honor," Elizabeth observed. "My beloved spouse was saying something rather similar last night. Or was it the night before?"
"Probably the night before. Justin's a lot better at making you rest than you are at remembering to rest."
"I don't doubt he is," Pritchart said. She kept her voice light, although she knew Honor, at least, had sensed the spike of pain which went through her as she remembered nights Javier Giscard had made her rest. "At the moment, though, I'm more interested in why you think our estimate is overly pessimistic, Admiral. I don't doubt you're right about how tired we both are, and I know how fatigue and worry affect people's judgment, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're wrong and you're right."
"Of course not, Madam President." Honor leaned back, sipping from a stein of Old Tillman and shrugged. "Despite that, though, I think you're both underestimating the selling power of what each of you have gotten out of the other. Your offer to help us deal with Filareta when you didn't have to do anything of the sort -- when you had every reason not to, in fact -- is going to buy you a lot of goodwill in the Star Empire. And Elizabeth's renunciation of any reparations will smooth a lot of ruffled feathers in Nouveau Paris…not to mention cutting the legs right out from under that snot Younger."
She smiled almost dreamily at the thought.
"Your own suggestion that we hand all of Second Fleet's units back to the Republic won't hurt, either, Honor," Elizabeth pointed out, and this time Pritchart nodded.
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:08 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 34
"It certainly won't. And neither will Admiral Tourville's glowing report on how well his people were treated after surrendering," she agreed, then sighed. "I've always regretted ordering that attack, and the number of people who got killed -- on both sides -- because I did is always going to haunt me. But at least something good may come out of it in the end."
It was Honor's turn to nod, although the good Pritchart was referring to hadn't come solely out of the Battle of Manticore. Thomas Theisman's determination that any prisoners his Republic took would be decently treated had gone a long way towards washing the taste of StateSec's barbarisms out of the Star Empire's mouth. And for that matter --
"Your decision to bring all the tech people Admiral Griffith captured at Grendelsbane along with you is going to do even more from our side," she said quietly. "Especially the fact that you brought them all home -- made their repatriation a unilateral concession -- without knowing whether or not we were even going to talk to you."
"That was a master stroke," Elizabeth put in, her voice equally quiet, and shrugged when Pritchart looked back to her. "I'm not trying to suggest it was all political calculation, and neither is Honor. But once it sinks in that you'd decided to repatriate forty-two thousand Manticorans without any preconditions -- and forty-two thousand trained and experienced shipyard workers, at that -- one hell of a lot of entrenched ill feeling is going to take a shot on the chin. Especially given how desperately we need people like that after the Yawata Strike."
Pritchart shrugged a little uncomfortably.
"Well, we'll find out soon enough whether we're being too pessimistic or Duchess Harrington's being too optimistic, I suppose," she said. "Especially when we go public about my presence here in the Star Empire."
She still wasn't positive that was the best idea. They couldn't keep her arrival a secret forever, of course -- in fact, she was amazed it hadn't already leaked, given the number of ambassadors who'd been consulted -- but once Elizabeth handed the treaty over to Parliament, that little secret was going to be as thoroughly outed as any in the history of humanity. Nor was she blind to the PR advantages in publicizing her "daring mission." Yet she was still the woman who'd ordered the resumption of hostilities almost three T-years ago…and the one who'd ordered Thomas Theisman to Launch Operation Beatrice against this very star system.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that." Elizabeth waved one hand.
She and Pritchart had discussed the president's concerns in detail, and the empress was convinced the other woman was worrying unduly. Yes, the Battle of Manticore had killed an enormous number of people, but far fewer than the Yawata Strike, and all of them had been military casualties. Unlike the people behind the Yawata Strike, the Republic had scrupulously avoided preventable civilian casualties. After fifteen T-years fighting the People's Republic, even the most anti-Havenite Manticoran had been only too well aware of what a change that represented, and the contrast with the slaughter of the Yawata Strike only underscored the difference. Say what the most bigoted Manticoran might, the restored Republic had fought its war with honor, and the majority of Manticorans knew it.
"To be honest, I'm more concerned about Simões," Elizabeth went on. "We've got to go public with most of what Cachat and Zilwicki brought back from Mesa, or we're never going to sell this to your Congress, Eloise. For that matter, there are enough diehard Haven-haters in the Star Empire to make it a hard sell here without that, even with Filareta bearing down on us! But the bottom line is that it's still awfully thin for anyone who's inclined to be skeptical about what we've been saying about Mesa -- or Manpower, at least. And, frankly, with the best will in the universe, there's only so much Simões can confirm."
Pritchart sighed heavily in agreement. Then she surprised both of the Manticorans -- and herself -- with a sudden snort of amusement.
"What?" Elizabeth asked after a moment.
"I was just thinking about a conversation Tom Theisman and I had on that very subject," the President replied, and cocked her head at Honor. "I believe you've met Admiral Foraker, Your Grace?"
"Yes, I have," Honor agreed. "Why?"
"Because I've turned out to be even more prophetic than I expected. Right after Cachat and Zilwicki brought Simões in, we were discussing the intelligence windfall he represented, and Tom was waxing pretty enthusiastic…until I asked how valuable an intelligence source he thought Shannon Foraker would have been outside her own specialty."
"Oh, my." Honor gazed at her for a moment, then shook her head. "I hadn't really thought of that comparison, but it does fit, doesn't it?"
"Too well, actually."
Pritchart smiled tartly, but the unfortunate truth was that Herlander Simões really was a male version of Shannon Foraker…and in more ways than one. Like Foraker, he'd been so immersed in his tightly focused researcher's world that he'd been almost totally oblivious to the "big picture." For that matter, the people responsible for the Mesan Alignment's security had obviously taken pains to encourage his tunnel-vision. Also like Foraker, however, his apolitical disinterest in the system in which he'd lived had been shattered. Foraker's awakening had led directly to the destruction of twenty-four State Security superdreadnoughts in a star system called Lovat, and while it was unlikely Simões was going to inflict anything that overtly dramatic upon the Alignment, the long-term effects of his defection were likely to be far worse, eventually. But that was the problem, because "eventually" might not offer a great deal of short-term benefit when it came to getting the draft treaty ratified.
No one was ever going to get Simões back into obliviousness again, yet his fierce determination to do anything he could to smash the Alignment didn't change the fact that he could offer virtually nothing concrete about the Alignment's master strategy, its military resources, or exactly how the Mesa System's open power structure fitted into the Alignment's covert structure. None of those things had mattered to him before Francesca Simões' death, and he hadn't exactly been taking notes for a future defection after his daughter's termination, either.
The president thought once more of the tragedy of Jack McBryde's death. Most of what they "knew" about the Alignment came from the information he'd produced to convince Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki to help him and Simões defect. Kevin Usher's Federal Investigation Agency had turned up forensic evidence which strongly corroborated at least some of McBryde's allegations, and Pritchart was thankful they had even that much, but without McBryde himself to be debriefed in detail (and trotted out to testify before Congress and Parliament), they still had far more questions than answers. Questions whose answers almost certainly would have helped enormously with the ratification fight she expected.
And let's face it, Eloise, she told herself, McBryde would've been a lot more convincing than Simões as a "talking head" in front of the media, too. I believe everything Simões has told us, and God knows the man's got motivation by the megaton! But he simply doesn't know enough -- not firsthand, not in the areas that really matter -- to sell a determined skeptic our version of The Truth. And, bless him, but the man is a geek of truly Forakerian proportions.
She shuddered at the memory of the last time Foraker had testified before the Senate Naval Affairs Committee. Even today, her inability to translate her own technical expertise into political-speak was awesome to behold. In the end, Theisman had been forced to trot out Linda Trenis to interpret for his pet tech witch.
"You know a lot of people, and not just Mesans or Sollies, are going to say this whole thing is one huge fabrication," she went on out loud.
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:56 pm
Posts: 2249
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 35
"Of course they are, even if no one with a functional cortex is going to be able to come up with a reason why we fabricated it." Elizabeth's voice was a growl of disgust. "I mean, obviously it's hugely to the Republic's advantage to make it all up as a way to justify stepping into the ring against something the size of the Solarian League beside the star nation it's been fighting for the last twenty years! The fact that I can't imagine why you did that isn't going to keep idiots from figuring there has to be a reason. Not that they're going to be able to suggest one that holds water, either!"
"Well, at least the 'cats will vouch for Simões' truthfulness," Honor pointed out, stroking Nimitz, who lay curled in her lap. The treecat raised his head with an unmistakably complacent purr, and Ariel added a bleeking laugh of his own from the back of Elizabeth's chair. The two of them looked so smug Honor laughed and gave one of Nimitz's ears a tug.
"As I was saying," she continued, "and at the risk of overinflating -- further overinflating, I should say -- two unnamed furry egos, the 'cats can confirm he's telling the truth, and a lot of people here on Manticore will trust their judgment. That may not cut much ice anywhere else, but nothing we could say would convince someone like Kolokoltsov to just take our word for it, anyway. And while I could wish he'd been involved in developing this 'spider drive' of theirs, instead of the 'streak drive,' the stuff he's already given Admiral Hemphill makes it obvious he knows what he's talking about. And what he does know about the 'spider drive' dovetails entirely too neatly with what happened to us for him to be some delusional nut. Not to mention" -- her voice hardened -- "pretty thoroughly demonstrating that Mesa must have been behind the attack, since no one else could've close enough to hit us that way."
Something icy flickered in her eyes, and Nimitz's purr cut off abruptly as he half-rose with a sudden snarl. It was very quiet for a heartbeat or two, but then she gave herself a shake, touched the back of the 'cat's head gently, and smiled apologetically at the other two women.
"You're right about all of that, of course, Admiral." Pritchart agreed in a tone which diplomatically failed to notice the anger and pain which were seldom far from Honor's surface these days. "And it may convince us, and probably even Congress or your Parliament. But it isn't going to change the woman-in-the-street's mind if she's not already inclined to go along with it. And no conspiracy theorist worth her paranoia badge is going to buy it for a heartbeat."
"The best we can do is the best we can do, Madam President," Honor replied in something much closer to a normal tone. She smiled her thanks for the Havenite head of state's tact, then glanced at her chrono. "And assuming the news got released on schedule, we'll be finding out in the next couple of hours just how the Manticoran public, at least, is going to react."
* * *
"-- most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, Patrick!" Kiefer Mallory snorted several hours later. The tall, handsome political columnist was one of the Star Empire's more sought after talking heads, and he knew it. Now his dark eyes glittered as he waved both hands in a gesture of frustration. "Mind you, we're all aware of the threat the Star Empire in general -- and this star system in particular -- faces. And I won't pretend I wouldn't be delighted to find someone prepared to support us. But really --!" He shook his head. "I know I'm not the only one who finds all of this suspiciously convenient for the people who got us into this mess in the first place!"
"Oh?" Jephthah Alverson, a longtime Liberal MP who'd thrown his allegiance to Catherine Montaigne following the High Ridge Government's implosion, leaned forward to look down the HD set's conference table and raise a sardonic eyebrow. "Let me see, now…That would be Baron High Ridge and Elaine Descroix, wouldn't it?"
Mallory, who'd been associated with the Progressive Party for at least three decades (and who'd served as one of the now-vanished Descroix's public spokesmen, before her spectacular downfall), flushed angrily.
* * *
"My, he didn't take that one well, did he?" Emily Alexander-Harrington observed.
"No, he didn't," Honor agreed. Which, she thought, stretched out on the comfortable couch in Emily's private suite, was remarkably foolish of him. Nimitz was comfortably ensconced on her chest, and she tasted his agreement. Even a complete novice should've seen that one coming!
"That's because, despite any surface slickness, he comes from the shallow -- very shallow, in his case -- end of the gene pool…intellectually speaking, that is," Emily replied from the life-support chair parked at the head of the couch. She'd followed Honor's thought almost as easily as the 'cat, and the two of them glanced at each other with matching smiles.
Hamish was stuck in Landing, submerged in the latest deluge of Admiralty business, but Honor had decided she deserved at least one day at home at White Haven after her participation in the Elizabeth-Pritchart political marathon. She'd spent most of that day with her parents and her younger brother and sister, and her family's still sharp-edged grief, especially her father's, had taken their toll on her and Nimitz. At least Alfred Harrington was finally beginning to develop the emotional scar tissue he needed to survive, yet Honor was grateful to have this time with Emily to herself. She needed the older woman's serenity at moments like this, and there wasn't a more insightful political strategist in the entire Star Empire.
Which may be even more useful than usual over the next few weeks, she thought, watching the broadcast as Mallory responded to Alverson.
* * *
"There's a limit to how long the Grantville Government can go on blaming High Ridge for its own current problems." Mallory's tone could have melted lead, but at least he'd paused long enough to be sure he had his temper on a tight leash. "No one's trying to pretend mistakes weren't made on High Ridge's watch, although some of us continue to question the wisdom of sentencing an ex-prime minister to prison for the actions of his government. I know that's not a popular position, but the precedent of criminalizing political opponents is likely to produce all kinds of ugly fallout down the road. And dragging out the 'usual suspects' to wave like some red herring whenever someone criticizes the current government's policies is scarcely a reasoned response to the criticism, Mr. Alverson!"
"Really?" Madeleine Richter asked. "I was under the impression he was convicted of bribery, vote-buying, perjury, extortion, and obstruction of justice, not the actions of his government. Did I read the news accounts incorrectly. Kiefer?" She smiled brightly. "As for Jephthah's point, while I'll agree it's not an extraordinarily polished response, in this instance it does have the virtue of cutting to the heart of the matter. And it's not like your criticism was exactly nuanced and carefully thought out, either."
Mallory's flush darkened and Rosalinda Davidson shook her head. Richter, the sitting MP for East Tannerton, was a senior member of the Centrist Party. As such, her support of the Grantville Government was as much a given as Mallory's opposition to it. Davidson, on the other hand, had been a Liberal Party MP until she got washed out of office in the post-High Ridge tsunami. Since then, she'd earned her living as a columnist and lecturer, and although she and Mallory weren't exactly bosom buddies, they were united in their distaste for the current government.
"You know," she said, a bit pointedly, "bashing people for past or present political affiliations isn't the reason we're here tonight, Madeline. Or I was under the impression it wasn't, at any rate. Minerva?"
She turned to Minerva Prince, who with Patrick DuCain, co-hosted the awesomely popular and long-running Into the Fire. The syndicated show was only one of the flood of programs trying to cope with the bombshell revelation of Eloise Pritchart's presence in the Manticore Binary System, but it had the highest viewership of them all.
"You're right, of course, Rosalinda," Prince replied. "On the other hand, you know Patrick and I usually let our guests have at least some voice in where the discussion goes."
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
|Re: STICKY: A Rising Thunder Snippets
|by DrakBibliophile » Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:02 pm
Posts: 2249
Since the book should be available now, this is the last snippet.
A Rising Thunder - Snippet 36
* * *
"That's true enough," Emily agreed, smiling more broadly at Honor. "All that blood in the water's just what their ratings need!"
"I remember," Honor said feelingly, recalling her own Into the Fire appearance, when she'd been beached by the Janacek Admiralty. "And they're not above steering their guests' 'voices' when the water isn't sufficiently chummed, either."
* * *
"At the risk of undermining my own reputation as a troublemaker," Abraham Spencer said from the HD, "I suggest we all hang up our partisan political axes for the moment and concentrate on our official topic." The photogenic (and incredibly wealthy) financier smiled charmingly. "I know no one's really going to believe I'm not hiding in the underbrush to bash someone over the head myself when the moment's ripe, but in the meantime, there is this little matter of the Empress's proposed treaty with Haven. And that other minor revelation about the 'Mesan Alignment.'"
"You mean that so-called revelation, don't you?" Mallory snorted. "It's not as if anyone's offering the kind of evidence we could take to court!"
"Whether the allegations are accurate or not, there's not much question about their explosiveness, Kiefer," DuCain pointed out.
"Assuming anyone in the entire galaxy -- outside the Star Empire, at least -- is going to believe in this vast interstellar conspiracy for a moment," Davidson riposted. She gave Alverson a scathing look. "Especially given the open ties between certain members of Parliament and the Audubon Ballroom."
It was Alverson's eyes' turn to narrow dangerously at the obvious shot at Catherine Montaigne, but Richter intervened before he could fire back.
"You might be surprised how many people will believe it, Rosalinda," she said coldly, reaching up to stroke her dark blue hair. That hair hadn't been dyed or artificially colored; it was the legacy of a grandparent who'd been designed to the special order of a wealthy Solarian with idiosyncratic tastes in "body servants."
"I won't say the devil is beyond blackening," she continued, "but I will say that anyone who looks at Mesa with an open mind has to admit the entire star system, not just Manpower, has never given a single, solitary damn what the rest of 'the entire explored galaxy' thinks of it."
"You know my own feelings where the Ballroom is concerned, Rosalinda," Spencer put in, his expression turning hard. "No matter how much I sympathize with genetic slaves and detest the entire loathsome institution, I've never sanctioned the sort of outright terrorism to which the Ballroom's resorted far too often. I've never made any secret of my feelings on that subject. Indeed, you may recall that little spat Klaus Hauptman and I had on the subject following the liberation of Torch."
One or two of the guests snorted out loud at that. The "little spat" had taken place right here on Into the Fire, and the clash of two such powerful (and wealthy) titans had assumed epic proportions.
"But having said that," he continued, "and even conceding that this information appears to have reached us at least partially through the Ballroom's auspices, I believe it. A lot of odd mysteries and unexplained 'coincidences' suddenly make a lot more sense. And as Madeline says, if any star system in the galaxy is corrupt enough to have given birth to something like this, it's sure as hell Mesa!"
"And on that basis we're supposed to believe there's some kind of centuries-long conspiracy aimed at us and the Republic of Haven out there?" Davidson rolled her eyes. "Please, Abraham! I'm entirely prepared to admit the Mesans are terrible people and genetic slavery is a horrible perversion, but they're basically nothing more than examples of the evils of unbridled capitalism. And, no, I'm not saying capitalism automatically produces evil ends. I'm simply saying that where Manpower is concerned -- and looking at all the other transstellars headquartered in Mesa with it -- we're talking about something that makes the worst robber barons of Old Terra's history seem like pikers. People like that don't try to destabilize something like the Solarian League when they're doing so well swimming around in the corruption of its sewers!"
"Then why do you think President Pritchart made this unprecedented, dramatic voyage to Manticore?" Prince asked, and Davidson turned back to the hostess with a shrug.
"There could be any number of reasons. It's even possible -- however unlikely I think it is -- that she genuinely believes Mesa is after both of us. On the other hand, I think it's also possible she and her intelligence types, possibly with the cooperation of the Audubon Ballroom and its … allies" -- she pointedly avoided looking in Alverson's direction -- "concocted the entire story. Or least embroidered it, shall we say?"
"For what possible reason?" Spencer demanded. Davidson looked at him, and it was his turn to shrug. "As Kiefer himself pointed out a moment ago, the Republic's standing with us against the Solarian League. Could you possibly suggest any logical motive for people we've been fighting for twenty years to suddenly decide, completely out of the blue, to get between us and something the size of the Sollies at a moment when we're more vulnerable than we've been in over a decade? Forgive me if I seem obtuse, Rosalinda, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why any Machiavellian worth his -- or in this case, her -- 'I-am-devious' Evil Overlord's badge would do something that stupid!"
* * *
"I believe Abraham, to use Hamish's delightful phrase, is about ready to rip someone a new anal orifice," Emily observed.
"Odd," Honor said, "I don't seem to recall his using those two words."
"That's because he doesn't," Emily replied with a smile, then elevated her nose with a sniff. "I, on the other hand, am far more genteel than he is."
"That's one way to describe it."
"Hush!" Emily smacked Honor on the head with her working hand. "I want to see if Rosalinda has a stroke on system-wide HD."
"You wish," Honor muttered.
* * *
"I just acknowledged that Pritchart might genuinely believe all this," Davidson told Spencer tightly. "I think there are other possibilities, as well -- convincing us we're both on someone else's 'hit list' in order to extort such favorable peace terms out of us comes to mind, for example -- but of course she could really believe it. Which doesn't mean someone else hasn't sold her a fabricated bill of goods and used her to sell it to us. You just mentioned the Ballroom. Surely if it would benefit anyone in the galaxy for us and the Republic to turn on the Mesa System with everything we've got, it would have to be the Ballroom and its ideological allies, don't you think?"
"That's the most paranoid thing I've ever heard!" Alverson snapped. "And I can't believe the mental hoops you're willing to jump through to avoid admitting even the possibility that this McBryde might conceivably've been telling the truth! For that matter, the treecats verify that Dr. Simões, at least, definitely is telling the truth. Which means --"
"If you're prepared to take the treecats' word," Mallory interrupted. Several of the others looked at him incredulously, and he scowled. "What I mean is that we've had plenty of experience with people who've been brainwashed -- or simply misled -- into genuinely believing something that's demonstrably false. So far as I'm aware, not even the treecats' most fervent champions have claimed they can know when that's the case. Suppose for a moment Rosalinda's right about someone like the Ballroom wanting to fabricate a story like this. I'm not saying that's necessarily what happened; I'm just asking you to consider the possibility. In that case, knowing you were going to have to sell your story to the Star Empire, wouldn't it make sense to brainwash your 'star witness' into absolutely -- and honestly -- believing what you've primed him to tell us?"
"Oh, for the love of --!" Richter began.
"And, on that note, we have to go to break," Prince interrupted, smiling brightly at the camera while DuCain struggled mightily not to laugh. "Don't go away! Into the Fire will be back in just a few moments to continue this…lively exchange."
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]


text:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Reta Woodard of Embry-Riddle (Fla.) has been named NAIA National Women's Indoor Field Athlete of the Week and Adella King of Indiana Tech has been tabbed as the NAIA National Women's Indoor Track Athlete of the Week, the national office announced Wednesday. Woodard and King were selected based on their performances from Jan. 14 - 20.
Woodard, a native of Spring Hill, Fla., hit the NAIA "A" qualifying standard at the Gator Invitational hosted by NCAA Division I Florida on Jan. 17. She posted a toss of 17.93 meters (58-10) in the weight throw, taking third place. Three days later, Woodard again hit the NAIA "A" Qualifying Standard and won the weight throw at the Embry-Riddle (Fla.) Indoor/Outdoor Challenge. She recorded a throw of 19.24 meters (63-1 ½), taking first place and breaking her own school record. Woodard also won the Discus Throw with a toss of 42.89 meters (140-8).
King, a native of Detroit, Mich., took first and second in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash in the Tiffin University (Ohio) Carnival on Jan. 19. King defeated 40 other athletes, some from the NCAA Division I ranks, to take first place in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.48. She took second in the 200-meter dash with a clocking of 24.67. King ranks first in the NAIA in the 200-meter dash and second in the 60-meter dash.
The next Athlete of the Week announcement will be on Jan. 30. For the complete Athlete of the Week calendar, click here.
Field Nominees: Evan Shimanek, Oklahoma Baptist; Phoenix Duncan, Siena Heights (Mich.); Shykilia Sheppard, Wayland Baptist (Texas); Hailey Bull, College of Idaho; Val Veiock, Grand View (Iowa); Callie Walker, Midland (Neb.); Brittany Demmer, Clarke (Iowa); Mwale Kapande, Mount Mercy (Iowa); Austina Smith, Indiana Tech; Meghan Foster, William Penn (Iowa); Trineisha Gray, St. Ambrose (Iowa); Kate Fulton, Central Methodist (Mo.); Tara Cockerill, Briar Cliff (Iowa); Taylor Brown, Jamestown (N.D.); Whitney Burton, William Woods (Mo.); Neeia Cooperwood, Morningside (Iowa); Alyssa McDowell, Doane (Neb.).
Track Nominees: Stacy Warrior, Oklahoma Baptist; Jalesia Johnson, Siena Heights (Mich.); Angie Quiah, Wayland Baptist (Texas); Jasmine Sibert, College of Idaho; Nirvana Zalba, Missouri Baptist; Karen Graves, Midland (Neb.); Kelsee VanderBaan, Davenport (Mich.); Kristine Schissel, Clarke (Iowa); Khadijah Lane, Baker (Kan.); Kristen Garwood, Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.); Megan Byrne, St. Ambrose (Iowa); Lindsey Martin, Columbia (Mo.); Julie Oostrerhouse, Cornerstone (Mich.); Kortney Ellingboe, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.); Kaitlyn Loeffler, Central Methodist (Mo.); Breanna Mathes, Morningside (Iowa); Sydney Holtmeier, Doane (Neb.); Dominica Prokup, William Woods (Mo.); Karina Coelho, Embry-Riddle (Fla.); Carissa Hudson, Spring Arbor (Mich.); Hilary Halford, St. Francis (Ill.); Katie Bonnema, Dordt (Iowa).
2013 Women's Indoor Track & Field Athletes of the Week (Field, Track)
Week 1: Gabriella Dixson, Concordia (Ore.), Jura Levy, Oklahoma Baptist
Week 2: Reta Woodard, Embry-Riddle (Fla.), Adella King, Indiana Tech

subset: commoncrawl


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How Does Coenzyme Q10 Work?
Biological chemical reactions require helper substances known as enzymes. These enzymes are catalysts or helpers for the biochemical reactions, but are not used up or changed during the chemical reaction. Enzymes are specialized protein molecules, which generally require a mineral, such as magnesium or zinc, and a non-protein organic chemical, called a coenzyme. Examples of coenzymes are vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, and coenzyme Q10.
As mentioned previously, coenzyme Q10 is specifically utilized in energy production in the cells. There are approximately 100 trillion cells in the human body and each must produce its own energy to carry out its functions. The cells produce energy by burning primarily fats and carbohydrates. This burning or oxidation process occurs as a result of oxygen combining with these foodstuffs to produce carbon dioxide and water. The energy produced by these chemical reactions is converted to chemical energy in the form ATP molecules. These ATP molecules are available to supply energy to the various chemical reactions necessary for life. More than 95 percent of the oxygen we breathe is used solely for the purpose of making energy through this process of burning the organic substances.
Where in the cell does this occur and what is the specific role of coenzyme Q10? Within each cell are small subcellular particles called mitochondria. Here is where the energy production process takes place. The mitochondria contain electron transport chains, which are the fundamental units for energy production in our cells. Through a series of chemical reactions along this electron transport chain, the ATP molecules are produced. Other familiar substances are involved in this electron transport chain. These include vitamin C, riboflavin (or vitamin B2), niacinamide (or vitamin B3), vitamin E and others.
Coenzyme Q10, which is fat-soluble and therefore mobile in cellular membranes, plays a unique role in the electron transport chain. It is a mobile messenger link between the various enzymes of the chain. Each pair of electrons processed by the chain must first interact with CoQ10. If you think of the cell as a little engine, which uses oxygen to burn the organic fuels that come from the organic foodstuffs, you may think of CoQ10 as the part of the engine that provides the spark for this process. No other substance will substitute for CoQ10. Without CoQ10 there is no spark and therefore no production of energy for the cell. And, without energy, there is no life. Optimal electron transport to generate ATP depends upon there being optimal levels of CoQ10 in the mitochondrial membrane.


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An interesting blog post on view counting at Reddit reminded me of an old post I wrote almost ten years ago. Reddit engineer Krishnan Chandra wrote:
Reddit has many visitors that consume content without voting or commenting. We wanted to build a system that could capture this activity by counting the number of views a post received.
He goes on to describe the scaling and accuracy problems in this apparently simple goal. But he never addresses a few really weird assumptions the Reddit team appears to have made: that every Reddit user is logged in, or even has an account in the first place; that every Reddit user has only one account; and that every account is only ever used by one person.
As I wrote back in the ancient days of 2008:
Assuming a one-to-one mapping between users and people utterly disregards practical experience and common sense. One human could represent themselves to your system with several logins. Several humans could represent themselves as one login. Both these things could happen. Both these things probably will happen.
In other words, "users" aren't real. Accounts and logins are real. The people who use those accounts and logins are also real. But the concept of "users" is a social fiction, and that includes the one-to-one mapping "users" implies between accounts and people. In some corners of the vast Reddit universe, creating more than one "user" per account is as common as it is in World of Warcraft.
As I say, this is all from a blog post back in 2008. More recently, in 2016, I decided that the best way to use Reddit (and Hacker News as well) is without logging in. In other words, the best use case is not to be a "user":
reading Reddit without logging in is much, much more pleasant than being a "user" of the site in the official sense. The same is true of Hacker News; I don't get a lot out of logging in and "participating" in the way that is officially expected and encouraged. Like most people who use Hacker News, I prefer to glance at the list of stories without logging in, briefly view one or two links, and then snark about it on Twitter...
neither of these sites seems to acknowledge that using the sites without being a "user" is a use case which exists. In the terms of both sites, a "user" seems to be somebody who has a username and has logged in. But in my opinion, both of these sites are more useful if you're not a "user." So the use case where you're not a "user" is the optimal use case.
On the Reddit blog, discussing all the technical aspects of view counting, Chandra said the team's goal was to make it easy for people to understand how much activity their posts were driving, and to include more passive activity like viewing without commenting. But there's this obvious logical disconnect here, where Reddit excludes from this analysis any user who isn't logged in. You could even make the case that they'd be better served just pulling the info from Google Analytics, although that'd be naive.
First, given the scale involved, there's likely to be enough accuracy issues that a custom solution would be a good idea in either case. Second, Reddit's view-counting effort made no attempt to identify when two or more accounts belonged to the same human being, or when two or more human beings shared the same login. An off-the-shelf analytics solution could probably provide insight into that, but not definitive answers.
My favorite explanation for all this is that it's just a simple institutional blind spot: people who work at Reddit are probably so used to thinking that people who don't log in "don't count" that it seemed perfectly reasonable to literally not count them. The concept of "users" is such a useful social fiction that the company's employees probably just genuinely forgot it was a social fiction at all (or never realized it in the first place). However, if your goal is to provide view counting with accuracy, skimming over these questions makes your goal impossible to achieve.


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Anabaptist Redux
Anabaptist Faith in the Postmodern Age
Ryan Robinson
Published October 25, 2012
· Updated May 19, 2018
Tags: Tony Jones
Ryan Robinson
It is easiest to identify Ryan as both theologian and tech guy. By day, Ryan is a Technical Consultant work with PeaceWorks Technology Solutions. There, he works on websites, CRMs, and SharePoint implementations.
Along with blogging here, Ryan is a founding member of the MennoNerds blogging network and a contributor to the book A Living Alternative.


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World Entertainment News Network
Oscar winner and "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg is turning herself into a comic book superhero for a new animated project.
The Sister Act star joined fans at New York Comic Con over the weekend to meet with industry executives and discuss her own graphic novel plans, which she hopes will give young readers a more realistic view of women as they age.
She explains: "I was pitching a comic book that I'm hoping to do … I've been a comic book kid all of my life. One of those things you don't see is … comic book heroes, female, with any hips, you don't see them over 12 years old, maybe something sagging a little, nothing is ever moving. So I'm working on something that will alleviate that."
"It will be me (as a superhero) … I do look like a comic book hero and I love that."
Goldberg, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in 1990's "Ghost," isn't the first celebrity to develop superhero powers in print — Ministry rocker Al Jourgensen is also launching his own comic book series, while actress Alyssa Milano, RUN-D.M.C. star Darryl McDaniels and singer Wayne Coyne have their own graphic novels too.


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Collection Overview
The University Archives documents the administration and activities of Wesleyan University since its founding in 1831. The Archives includes material in a variety of formats from presidents, faculty, student groups, departments, and more. In addition to Wesleyan's institutional records, SC&A also has several major collections of personal papers, including those of Henry Bacon, John Cage, and William Manchester. Another significant group of papers, the Collection on Legal Change, highlights people and organizations that shaped U.S. public policy in the 20th century. SC&A also holds local history materials about Middletown and the surrounding area.
Wesleyan's over 30,000-volume rare book collection ranges from medieval manuscript codices and early printed books (circa 1455-1505) to 21st-century fine press and artists' books, and covers numerous formats, including books, pamphlets, broadsides, and maps. The core of the rare book collection was donated to the University by George W. Davison (class of 1892) from his personal collection, featuring numerous incunabula, the four Shakespeare folios, and first editions from notable authors including Milton, Dickens, Austen, Byron, Shelley, the Brontës, and others. SC&A also holds the collections of other significant donors, such as Frank Kirkwood Hallock (class of 1882), Leonard Baskin, Caroline Clark Barney (class of 1895), Hugh Lancelot Beales, and Nathan Comfort Starr. More recent acquisitions have focused on fine press and artists' books – books that are unusual or special in both their form and content. These works of art challenge conventional understandings of the book format, and often tackle social and political issues.


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Money, star power and Hollywood awaited President Barack Obama on West Coast swing featuring a bit of official business but mostly fundraising for a Democratic Party eager to go on offense after a politically debilitating two months.
Obama, who was departing Sunday afternoon, planned stops in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, raising money for House and Senate Democrats as well as the national party.
High-profile events on the schedule included a reception at the home of retired basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson and his wife, Cookie, in Beverly Hills, Calif., and one at the house of Marta Kauffman, co-creator of television's "Friends".
The trip comes as Obama's health care law approaches a crucial Nov. 30 deadline for an improved insurance enrollment website whose catastrophic start Oct. 1 dealt a serious political blow to the White House. Also, the U.S. and other world powers just sealed a historic deal with Iran for a temporary freeze of its nuclear program.
In addition to a half-dozen fundraisers, Obama intended to use the trip to keep the heat on Congress to pass an overhaul of immigration laws. He planned to address that issue during a stop Monday at a Chinese recreation center in San Francisco, and to promote his economic agenda Tuesday at the DreamWorks Animation studio in Glendale, Calif.
In recent days White House officials have tried to draw attention back to the economy to avoid getting bogged down by the botched launch of the health care enrollment.
Lately, Obama has devoted time to raising money for the party, helping the Democratic National Committee reduce a massive 2012 debt and build up cash for House and Senate Democratic Committees.
The White House has been especially attentive to Senate Democrats to ensure that the party retains its majority in the chamber. The House is controlled by the Republican Party.
In Seattle, he was set to attend two events Sunday, one at the home of Tom Campion, co-founder of the clothing chain Zumiez, and the other at the house of a former Microsoft executive, Jon Shirley.


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Hitman 2 Texture Qualtiy 1
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The Economist has published a couple of interesting articles about how to deal with bad PR recently.
The first suggests that it is better to ignore bad PR than to fight it:
…rebuttals are unwise, argue Derek Rucker and David Dubois, of the Kellogg School of Management, and Zakary Tormala, of Stanford business school, three psychologists. By restating the rumours, Coke helps to propagate them. Its web page is a magnet for search engines. And people who read rebuttals tend to forget the denial and remember only the rumour, says Mr Rucker.
As information is passed around, important qualifiers are lost. A rumour may start as "I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard that…" Then it evolves into: "I heard that…" Finally it becomes: "Did you know that…?" Even when no one intends to spread falsehoods, they spread.
The second suggest that for startups and other unknowns, bad PR is better than no PR:
…if your starting point is obscurity, even bad publicity may be helpful, argues Alan Sorensen, an economics professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He looked at the effect of book reviews in the New York Times. In a study published in Marketing Science*, he found that well-known authors who earned glowing reviews for a new book could expect to sell 42% more copies, whereas a negative review caused sales to drop by 15%. For unknown authors, however, it did not matter whether a book was panned or lauded. Simply being reviewed in the Times bumped up sales by a third.
Mr Sorensen extrapolated his findings to other businesses. For small brands fighting for recognition in crowded markets, almost any publicity is beneficial, he reckons. One reason is that, for lesser-known brands, negative perceptions fade more quickly in consumers' minds than their general awareness of the product.
If you've had bad PR around your startup, let me know what you think.


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SAN FRANCISCO — Intel's (INTC) slumping stock touched a 52-week low for the third straight day before it started to attract investors looking for potential bargains.
The Santa Clara computer chip maker's shares sank as low as $20.80 in Friday's early trading before bouncing back. The stock had gained 18 cents to $21.01 in midday trading, still leaving the price 13 percent below from where it started the year.
Intel has fallen out of favor on Wall Street, primarily because of decline in personal computer sales as more people become enamored with smartphones and tablet computers such as Apple's (AAPL) iPad to surf the Web. The trend has been bad news for Intel because its microprocessors are used in most PCs, but most mobile devices depend on other chips that consume less power.
To make matters worse for Intel, its chips may be dropped from Apple's line of Mac PCs within the next few years, according to media reports earlier this week. Apple started using Intel's processors in its Macs seven years ago.
Even as the PC market has struggled, Intel remains highly profitable and in a strong enough financial position to be able to pay a quarterly dividend of 22.5 cents per share. That translates into an annual dividend yield of about 4.3 percent, an enticing return for investors who don't believe Intel's stock price will fall much lower.
Intel has designed a new type of chip for mobile devices in an attempt to become a bigger player in that market. The company also is counting on a revival in the PC market as Microsoft's recently released overhaul of Windows spawns more devices that can work both as traditional laptops and touch-based tablets. Most of those hybrid machines are relying on Intel's chips.


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In a speech railing against Iowa's gay marriage law, potential Republican presidential nominee Mike Huckabee addressed the crowd like a southern baptist minister while urging them to remember that it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Huckabee, who performed live and in person at the palatial Des Moines Sheraton, encouraged his captive audience to be "spiritual warriors":
"This battle is one that pits good against evil."
"Real faith is tested. It's not easy. And I know there are always those who say but if we take such a stand for righteousness. If we do hold to the idea – as you did in Iowa, and God bless you for it – then marriage still means that a man marries a woman and remains faithful in a partnership for life."
"If we truly cherish and believe that, and uphold that, I assure you, it will not always be popular and we may pay the price for it. And there may be some even here tonight who will say, will that make some people mad? And the answer is yes. Will it get me in trouble? Yes. Will it perhaps even cost me my job? Possibly. But if we gain the world and we lose our soul, will you please tell me what it has profited us?"
At least Huckabee did manage to get one thing right. If ever there was a battle that could potentially be considered as one that "pits good against evil", it could very well be the ongoing fight to allow people in loving, long-term partnerships to be with one another if they so choose.
Mike Huckabee Tells Followers to Fight Gay Marriage Even if It Costs You Your Job! [SheWired]
Mike Huckabee Calls On 'Spiritual Warriors' To Defend America From Gay Marriage [On Top Magazine]


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Media Contact: Joanna Norris
Associate Director, Public Relations
(904) 620-2102
U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of North Florida among its 2013 Best Graduate Schools. UNF was listed both in the business and education categories.
Each year, U.S. News ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. The rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students.
The data come from surveys of administrators at more than 1,250 programs and more than 13,000 academics and professionals, conducted during the fall of 2012 and early 2013.
UNF, a
nationally ranked
university located on an environmentally beautiful campus, offers students who are dedicated to enriching the lives of others the opportunity to build their own futures through a well-rounded education.


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Eighteenth-century Venetian Drawings from the Correr Museum
National Gallery of Art, 1963 - Drawing - 58 pages
From inside the book
6 pages matching Würzburg in this book
Where's the rest of this book?
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Albertina album Alessandro Longhi Amigoni Arte Veneta artist's hand artists attribution Black pencil heightened blue-gray paper brown paper Burlington Magazine Byam Shaw Canaletto catalogue collection colored Correr Museum dated Diziani Domenico Tiepolo draftsman draftsmanship eighteenth century etching Exhibitions Fenyő Florence Fontebasso Francesco Fontebasso Francesco Guardi Francesco Simonini fresco Gaspare Diziani Gatteri Giacomo Gian Antonio Guardi GIAN BATTISTA TIEPolo gray paper gray wash Guarana heightened with white Inscriptions Literature Lorenzetti Marco Ricci Mattia Bortoloni Molin Morassi Moschini Mostra Museo Correr Lugt Novelli ş ş painter painterly paintings Pallucchini Pellegrini pen and sepia Petit Palais Piazzetta Pietro Longhi Pignatti Pittoni portrait probably Provenance Ragghianti Red chalk heightened Red pencil Rivista di Venezia Sebastiano Ricci sepia and sepia sepia wash Settecento Italiano sheets sketch sketchbook style unpublished drawing Valcanover Venetian Venetian Drawings Venice wash on yellowish white on blue-gray white on brown Windsor Würzburg yellowish paper Zoppetti Zuccarelli


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Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat is wielding his pen once more. According to news reports, the famous cartoonist, who suffered a severe beating in August, has regained 90 percent of the movement in his hands, which were deliberately targeted by his attackers before they dumped him on the side of a road.
Ferzat is renowned in the Arab world for his caricatures of authoritarian leaders. At the time of his assault, CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney took note of "the calculated crushing of something seemingly so fragile but actually so powerful as the hand that holds a pen."
Currently in London where a gallery is showing his work, Ferzat told the BBC that the uprising in his country has yielded a new "revolutionary art" in what people are writing, drawing, and singing. "It's unleashed a new creativity among ordinary people -- allowing them to speak and express themselves in ways they never could before," he said.


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Two things you always seem to need but that always seem to grow legs and scuttle away: can openers and bottle openers. This handy well-made tool from Kuhn Rikon combines both of those into one. Problem solved!
This particular piece of kitchen/bar gear will remove your lids without you having to pry them off and risk cutting your fingers. Plus it comes from a Swedish company and we all know the Swedes do things well (see Ikea). [CoolTools]


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cjames22 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 19 diseños de 7 diseñadores freelance.
This is going to be a fitness blog that answers peoples questions on fitness, nutrition, health and wellness. We need the capability to show video daily and to advertise our products. We are going through 99 designs because we don't want our blog to look like the rest of the FREE blogs out there. Our training is intense so we don't want daisy's on our web site. Think more fire fighter personalities that Martha Stewart personalities.
fitness filter
we are CrossFit certified trainers (http://www.crossfit.com) that run fitness boot camps. We want a blog to answer our clients questions, make them aware of fitness tips and build community with all of our supporters, as well as, promote our books and products.
- Color scheme - bold colors - black, red, blue, gold, etc.
- We could use help on a tag line
- Style is cutting-edge. Not traditional.
- Item 1...


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We lost our mayor today. Not one of the human mayors of the local towns, rather the anointed mayor of the Worcester County Humane Society.
His name is Shawnee. For the many of us whose lives he touched, it is a very sad day. Shawnee is well known in the area, especially by the many generous volunteers, employees and supporters at the shelter. His antics, fun-loving personality and charisma made him a legend in the dog and human world.
The memories and tales of Shawnee are too numerous to recount in this brief memorial. Suffice it to say that he was no normal dog. He loved his home at the shelter and despite the Director Kenille Davies' best attempts to find a "forever" home, Shawnee refused to leave "his town" in the paws of another. On more than one occasion, he left his forever home in the dark of night and made his way back to the shelter.
In fact, Kenille passed him on her drive to the shelter one morning as he made his journey back to the place he loved. Finally, Shawnee got his point across and Kenille capitulated – Shawnee was not going to give up his position in his "town".
Perhaps the most telling example of how popular and well-known Shawnee became was during the shelter's annual and biggest fundraiser – "Boardwalkin' For Pets". At this event, dog lovers are given an opportunity to "borrow" a dog from the shelter to walk. As a result, many of our dogs are able to participate. Shawnee was always in demand and never missed a chance to lead a parade. Two years ago, a young couple was awarded the opportunity to escort Shawnee in his main public appearance event. When they returned to the shelter with him afterwards, they spoke in amazement about all of the people along the way who knew Shawnee and would enthusiastically shout from the crowd – "Hey, there's Shawnee".
Shawnee touched many lives and will continue to do so, thanks to the efforts of the Worcester County Humane Society. He epitomized the joy, love and friendship that the shelter affords to its residents and the people who are fortunate enough to be adopted by one or more of them. He will be missed and always remembered. R.I.P. Shawnee.
Worcester County Humane Society Volunteers


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We bring out the best in wells - and people. The right entry-level opportunity has just surfaced at Halliburton. As a Frac Acid Operator Assistant I, your job is to learn basic safety and repair procedures using processes defined for this job. You will learn how to perform pre and post job inspections, perform and complete preventative maintenance procedures, and maintain support equipment. You can also expect to rig up and down service line equipment at the well site. Requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent and a valid drivers license. You must also have successfully passed company tests and met competency task list requirements for this job.
Halliburton is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
75 Udailiyah, AL Ahsa, Al Khobar, 31311, Saudi Arabia
Job Details
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Experience Level: Entry-Level
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Full Time / Part Time: Full Time
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Compensation Information
Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience.
Job Segment: Equipment Operator, Manufacturing


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Regardless of whether you sell pet food, accessories, or clothing, give pet owners an in store experience they'll rave about.
Pet owners know their pets deserve the best, now you'll be able to cater to them with a best-in-class point-of-sale experience that's as quick as picking products on your iPad through Shopify's handy application, having them swipe their card, and printing a receipt. Create happy pet owners and pets without the hassle.
Our solution is an all-in-one point-of-sale platform that gives complete control over your inventory, customers, and orders by syncing them across your online and physical stores.
Select customer products on your iPad, accept all major credit cards, and either print or email receipts in no time.
Shopify POS works with your existing credit card reader to accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards.
You can also setup custom payment options like debit, process partial payments, split tenders and more.
Use Shopify's dashboard to track customers and sales made both online and in your retail location using Shopify POS. Detailed reporting and analytics help you make the best choices to grow your business.
Upgrade your point of sale system with hardware compatible with Shopify POS.
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Owner, Amanda May Lingerie
or call 1-888-488-3465 for a free consultation.


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15th June 2017
Can the reputations of a company and its CEO ever be disentangled?
It's been another tough week for Uber. Mass firings (on harassment grounds, no less), boardroom resignations, reports of a 'toxic culture', allegations of inappropriate access to customer data (medical records, in this case), and probably more that I have already forgotten about in the fire hose of bad news… all capped with the 'voluntary' leave of absence by controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick. Most companies would struggle to cope with this in the space of five or ten years, let alone the short space of time that Uber has had to weather this ongoing and seemingly endless storm.
And yet… Uber remains the world's most valuable venture-backed private company; it is four or five times the size of its nearest rival, Lyft, with an 83% share of the ride-sharing market; and many users appear unphased by the company's travails.
All of this raises some interesting questions: To what extent is the reputation of a corporation tied to the reputation of its CEO? Does it matter how a company is run if the product or service it sells is in such demand?
The reputations of the CEO and the company they lead are, in most cases, intrinsiclaly linked. Many forward-thinking CEOs have recognized this, and have embraced social media as a means of enhancing the reputations of their firms. Research by Hootsuite showed that companies with 'social CEOs' were more likely to have better overall brand perception, and last year we looked at the opportunity for CEOs to fill the trust vacuum. (At Grayling, dedicated executive profiling programs are a common component of a response to a corporate comms brief, and social media is usually a component of that).
The CEO is usually the face of the company, at least as far as the corporate world is concerned, interfacing with the business media and – if the company is public – shareholders. And that is a crucial point: Uber is still a private company, and while Mr Kalanick has doubtless had some difficult conversations with his board and VC backers, that is not the same as dealing with Wall Street investors. Can you imagine Kevin Johnson of Starbucks, Steven Mollenkopf of Qualcomm or Brett Keller of The Priceline Group (all companies of equivalent value to Uber) behaving in the same way as Travis Kalanick?
It is unclear what Uber's plans are to go public, but if that is to happen, it is evident that Mr Kalanick either needs to 'fundamentally grow up and change' (his words), or else new leadership will be required to calm less forgiving shareholders. Either way, Uber needs a plan to align the personal brand of its leader, with that of its product.
Jon Meakin
15th November 2016
Will Kunkel, Executive Vice President for Creative and Content in Grayling New York, on the final of our #7for17 trends, Live and Uncut'Timing is everything' has been a favorite line to many but...Read More
8th November 2016
Danica Ross, Grayling San Francisco US Executive Vice President, on how brands can guide themselves through the 'the new space race' – part of our #7for17 trends series.In an era where brands...Read More
3rd November 2016
Russell Patten, Chair of Grayling's European Public Affairs practice, looks at one of the major political trends as part of our #7for17 series. It's been a turbulent year in politics, with the...Read More