Moment of Honor

by Cold Fire

Chapter Four

Chapter Four
War is like fire. It rages on, but eventually it does end. Many people just get burnt before the end.
-Lisa Kalbernacky, 1857 P.D.

“...and that about sums it up. A good parallel to draw would be about 100 years before Diaspora. They’re probably about to make their own starships, so it probably would be safe to give them current technology. Of course, we would need official recognition to do that.”

“Thank you, Stevens. Are there any questions?” Honor was holding a meeting in her briefing room, and she had collected all of the captains and executive officers for this meeting, plus her own staff.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Tremaine said. “How do you plan to get that recognition and still keep this system safe from any advancing forces?”

“I plan to leave all but Stalwart and Forceful here, giving this system defense against at least a hundred Solly SDs.”

“Hold on a moment, Ma’am.” Captain Graves, Stubborn’s commanding officer, was looking at her with a pained expression. “You mean that we’re going to leave a sentient race in the line of fire with only six superdreadnoughts to protect the system from attack?”

“That’s exactly what I said, Captain. Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, I suppose not.”

“All right.” Honor looked around at the expectant faces of her officers. “Then I’ll leave within 24 hours. You all know your duties. Carry them out. Dismissed.”

* * *

Honor looked at Queen Elizabeth, monarch of Manticore, and tried not to winch as Elizabeth finally settled down. “I appreciate your concerns, Your Majesty, but we really have nothing to lose here.”

“Nothing to lose?” Elizabeth scoffed. “Honor, you know better than most the dangers of giving a sentient race advanced technology. Hell, you were there on Basilisk, and the meddlers there nearly got you killed! What makes you think this will be any different?”

Honor shook her head. “There’s a difference, and a large one at that. First of all, these ponies are much further along than the Stilties. The Medusans were only in their late Bronze Age, while these ponies are just about to reach space, which is an impressive achievement. While it’s true that their culture is much different than ours, they are just as intelligent as us, which makes them logical allies. And finally, there remains the fact that they have an amazing control over space as it is. Have you read our briefing on the unicorn’s horn?”

“No,” the Queen admitted sheepishly.

“Well, it’s quite impressive. I assume you have heard of Old Earth electric eels or New Texas contralions?” She got a nod in return. “Well, in essence, this is much the same thing, except in much finer detail. Their horns use packets of muscles specifically designed to exert an electromagnetic field over any specific thing, and the way they can manipulate that field is truly beyond compare. They are capable of a much finer control over things, and some even are able to control the fields at such a level as to change the molecular structure of objects themselves.”

“That’s… impressive.”

“Yes, impressive. But is it useful to us? And can trust them?” Prime Minister William Alexander spoke up for the first time.

“Maybe, maybe not. What really matters is that we now have access to a brand new pool of intelligent bodies who aren’t war tired. We need these ponies if we’re going to take the fight to the Sollies.”

“All right, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt” Alexander said. “I’ll try and get permission past Parliament, but I’m not promising anything. If this ends up like another Basilisk, I’m going to be stuck with the blame, and if they stab us in the back, I’m not going to be the one taking all the blame.”

* * *

Two months and a flurry of debating later, Honor Alexander-Harrington was back on the deck of Stalwart as it cruised back to the star people were calling “Celestia”. They had the permission to bring the ponies in and leap them ahead, and it was up to Honor to make it work. She chuckled as she thought about how hard she had fought to get that permission, but that was all behind her now as the two SDs crossed the alpha wall back into normal space. The com section reported the receipt of the FTL challenge, and Tremaine beamed back his acknowledgement and response. Everything went according to plan for once in Honor’s life, and she was grateful that it had. Everything had a tendency to turn to mush around her, and she didn’t want to deal with any more.

Stalwart and her companions were in orbit around the planet and Honor was once again descending down in the pinnace, except this time she was nothing but smiles. The fleet craft descended rapidly, and at about a hundred meters Honor could make out the ponies waiting for her down on the ground. Another pony, Rainbow Dash, was escorting the pinnace down. The craft landed with a soft thump, and the crew exited the pinnace.

Honor smiled as she saw Twilight Sparkle walk up to her. The purple pony was nervous, and she blurted out “Did they say yes? Are we to get newer technology?”

“Indeed you are, but before we start giving you the tech, we need to speak with you and your rulers. In private.” Honor made a little motion to Twilight’s friends, and Twilight followed her gaze.

“Oh, right. Um, if you’d care to join the Princesses and I over here?” Twilight nodded to a row of benches hastily set up fifty or so meters away, and Honor nodded. They made their way over, and Honor didn’t need Nimitz to know that the Princesses were bursting with curiosity. Honor sat down, and the princesses sat across from her. “So, what did you need to say?”

“It’s hard to know where to start, but I’ll just dive in. The Star Empire of Manticore is at war. We have been at war for a very long time, and we are about to fight the biggest entity in space that we know of. Luckily, we have Haven on our side this time, but this is still going to be one of the hardest, longest, and bloodiest wars of all time. We are going to be building spaceships faster than we can man them, and even then we’re not going to have enough ships. In order for us to give you this technology, we have to have the assurance that you’re either going to be allied with us in this war or be a neutral observer. We don’t need to be fighting any more people than we have to at once.”

“Of course we’ll ally with you! Uh, I mean…” Twilight stopped as she looked at the other two princesses. Luna seemed willing to sit this discussion out, and Celestia took the lead in simply nodding. “Yes, yes, we will be your allies. We would be honored to fight with you.”

“Excellent! In that case, Your Highnesses,” Honor took out a rather large briefcase, “if you would care to sign here, I welcome you to the Grand Alliance.”