House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (26 page)

The Star Empire of Manticore

7/24/1920 PD

Hamilton Hall,

Saganami Island

John—

I wish you could have been here to hear Duchess Harrington’s address at Last View last month! There are so many things I’ve tried—we’ve all tried—so hard to teach them, impress upon them, but they’re so damned young. They’re so damned full of their own immortality, they still find it so hard to believe the universe could exist just fine without them in it. I know—I know! We were all like that once, and maybe it’s just as well we were. If we’d known then what we know now, how many of us would have stuck it out? Worn the uniform? Seen so many of our friends die?

Sorry. I don’t mean to be all doom-and-gloom or rain all over your parade. You know the score as well as I do, after all. One of the things I hate most about being Commandant—or even a Queen’s officer, sometimes—is the way I have to keep my mouth shut, especially in front of the middies, about the sort of things that “undermine respect for civilian authority.” When I think about the systematic way High Ridge and those other bastards threw away everything—everything, John!—that you and I and everyone else fought and died for. About the way we were right on the brink of outright military victory. We had them—we had them, and there wasn’t a single damned thing they could do about it, and High Ridge and those other bastards decided to play politics instead. Damn it, you know as well as I do who was really behind the Cromarty Assassination. Hell, without Duchess Harrington, they’d have killed Her Majesty as well! Don’t tell me for one stinking second High Ridge didn’t know that just as well as you and I do. The son-of-a-bitch knew Saint-Just ordered it, and he still insisted on “negotiating” with the Peeps. He let them wiggle off the hook, when we could’ve dictated terms to Saint-Just in Nouveau Paris itself, because it was more important to him to break Her Majesty’s kneecaps in the House of Lords to protect his own precious ass and political power, and God knows how many men and women in uniform have been killed because that was more important to him than winning the damned war. I don’t know, anyway, and when the nightmares are especially bad, I try not to know how many of my midshipmen and midshipwomen are going to die for the same frigging reason. Kids, John—good kids, my kids—and they’re going to be killed because a clutch of self-serving, conniving politicians didn’t care what their actions were going to cost anybody else.

And I can’t say a word about it in public without violating the Articles of War and my own oath as an officer of the Queen.

Sorry. There I go again. I’ll try to behave better.

Look, they’re supposed to be pulling me out of the Academy, sending me back to the Fleet sometime in the next few months. I don’t know where yet, although there’s some talk about a task force in Home Fleet that needs looking after. Can’t say I really like the thought of going up against the Peeps now that they’ve duplicated the MDM and built pod-layers of their own, but we’re still better than they are, and we’ll still kick their asses in the end. In fact, I think Duchess Harrington’s on her way to do a little preliminary ass-kicking of her own right now, and the truth is, I wish I was with her. But remember what Mom always said, “If wishes were fishes, we never want food.”

Anyway, I’ll be seeing you and her and the kids next month, once I get the semester shut down and I can grab a little time for myself. I’ll bring along a chip of Duchess Harrington’s address. If you’re still as much like me as you’ve always been before, it’ll send a shiver down your spine, I promise. But they’ll do good, my kids. It won’t matter to them whose fault it is, or why so many of them are going to die. They believe, John. They believe in duty, and honor, and responsibility. They believe there are things in this universe worth dying for. And they believe in those things strongly enough to go out and do the dying for the people they love and the things they care about. That’s what Last View is all about, really, and it’s what Duchess Harrington put into words for them so well. She touched that belief of theirs because she believes, too.

And when you come down to it, John, so do I.

Gotta go. Kiss Martha for me, hug those kids, and tell Mom to get the grill fired up. I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks, little brother.

Love,

Betty

—excerpt from a letter from Vice Admiral Lady Beatrice McDermott, Baroness Alb, Commandant, Naval Academy, Saganami Island, to her younger brother, Commodore John McDermott, one year before her death in the Battle of Manticore.

Introduction

The Star Empire of Manticore is a constitutional monarchy comprising twenty-one member star systems, thirty-four protectorate star systems, and a wormhole junction with seven mapped termini. The capital planet, Manticore, shares a binary star system with the planets of Sphinx and Gryphon.

Combined, the fifty-four star systems of the Star Empire of Manticore are ethnically diverse, the product of large-scale diaspora immigration from Old Earth and other Core Worlds. Manticore is also a xeno-diverse star nation, home to two sapient nonhuman species: the Treecats of Sphinx and the Medusans of the Basilisk System.

Humans migrated to the Manticore binary system in 1416 PD (Post Diaspora) aboard the sublight hibernation ship Jason and colonized three planets: Manticore (Manticore-A III), Sphinx (Manticore-A IV), and Gryphon (Manticore-B V). The colony’s founder, the Manticore Colony Trust, consisted of shareholders primarily from Old Earth Western Europe, with a small number from the Ukraine and the North American Federation.

Following the death by plague of sixty percent of the original colonists, more colonists needed to be recruited and were subsidized heavily. Before inviting the second wave of colonists, Planetary Administrator Roger Winton and the Manticore Colony, Ltd., Board of Directors adopted the current Constitution of Manticore, which established a constitutional monarchy and ennobled the original colonists and their descendants. The Constitution of Manticore includes a Declaration of Fundamental Rights applicable to all citizens, although franchise is limited to those who have paid taxes for at least five consecutive years. With the offer of Manticoran nobility also available to those second wave emigrants who purchased sufficient land credits, the Kingdom of Manticore grew quickly in population and economy.

Manticoran territorial expansion was limited before the Second Havenite War. However, due to the discovery of the seventh terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction in 1919 PD, the admission of the Talbott Quadrant to the Kingdom, and the resumption of the War with Haven later that same year, the Star Kingdom of Manticore needed to adapt to be able to manage the wildly disparate star systems and populations that had come under its control. The Star Kingdom of Manticore formally became the Star Empire of Manticore (SEM) in 1921, forming an Imperial government that provided greater flexibility and increased ability to meet the needs of all member and protectorate star systems under their new government.

Astrography

The Manticoran Wormhole Junction has had a significant effect on the Star Kingdom of Manticore and, more recently, on the formation of the Star Empire. Due to the far-flung coverage of the Junction, the Star Empire has not followed any of the traditional models of expansion adopted by other star nations. While the Star Empire’s borders stretch almost nine hundred light-years between its farthest systems, all of its members systems are clustered around the termini of the Junction.

The formal borders of the Star Empire include twenty-one member star systems, thirty-four protectorate star systems, and the wormhole junction, with seven mapped termini. The capital planet, Manticore, shares a binary star system with the planets of Sphinx and Gryphon.

With twenty-two habitable planets and over twenty-seven billion people, the Star Empire of Manticore is the largest by total area and, including the populations of the protectorate star systems, boasts the second largest population of the Verge star nations.

The Star Kingdom’s transformation into the Star Empire began with the annexation of the Basilisk system in 1865 PD. Following the first phase of the Havenite Wars, Trevor’s Star sought annexation in 1914, and the Lynx System sought membership in 1919 following the discovery of the Lynx Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. These star systems, all of which share access to the Junction, are collectively referred to as the “Old Star Kingdom” and form a single territorial unit within the Star Empire.

The Silesian protectorate systems became territories of the Star Kingdom in 1920 PD, following intense negotiations with the then Silesian government and the Andermani Empire. At this time, the protectorate systems do not hold voting membership in the Star Empire, although that may change in the future. The Star Empire actually came into existence in 1921 following the admission of the Talbott Quadrant, which was organized into a separate, federated territorial unit at the Constitutional Convention in the Split System.

Finally, a number of single system star nations are treaty signatories in the Manticoran Alliance. Some of these systems, such as the Marsh system just outside the borders of the old Silesian Confederacy, while not considered Manticoran territory, still have a significant Manticoran presence.

The Manticore Binary System

The Manticore System consists of a G0 star of 1.12 solar masses with a G2 binary companion of 0.92 solar masses. Both stars orbit a common center of gravity 333 light-minutes from the A component and 406 light-minutes from the B component. The apparent eccentricity of the pair approaches twelve percent, and results in distances between the stars that range from 650 light-minutes at periastron to 827 light-minutes at apastron.

The total system population is close to three billion, spread among its three Earth-like worlds and its main asteroid belt. The majority of the population resides in the Manticore-A subsystem, although the Manticore-B subsystem’s Unicorn Belt’s asteroid extraction operations produce the lion’s share of the kingdom’s raw ores. Perhaps because of this space-going orientation, Gryphon provides a quite disproportionate percentage of the Star Kingdom’s merchant spacers and of the Royal Manticoran Navy’s and Marines’ personnel.

Manticore (Manticore-A III)

Radius: 6,496 km

Gravity: 1.01 G

Orbit Period: 629.83 T-days

Sidereal Day: 22.45 hours

Hydrosphere: 76%

Of the three worlds in the Manticore Binary System, Manticore was clearly the one with the most desirable real estate. Slightly larger than Earth but with a lower density, its surface gravity is almost exactly Earth standard. Manticore’s climatic zones and regions are comparable to Earth, but cover a larger temperate zone, due to favorable ocean currents and a lower axial tilt. It has a single moon, Thorson, which is much smaller than Earth’s moon, resulting in negligible tidal activity. Internal processes make Manticore moderately tectonically active. Like all life in the Manticore Binary System, Manticore’s protein chirality is right-handed, making it digestible to humans. Manticoran life is similar enough to Terrestrial life that only minimal engineered adaptations were required for crops and livestock.

Manticore is the breadbasket of the Manticore Binary System and the most heavily populated planet in the system. It is also the seat of government and the capital city of Landing is home to Mount Royal Palace as well as the Hall of Parliament, Admiralty House, and Burke Tower, the home of the Queen’s Bench Court. The University of Manticore, which is ranked in the top five percent of all university systems, galaxy wide, also maintains its primary campus in Landing. Major Manticoran industries include agriculture, aquaculture, mining, and a well-diversified industrial sector and research and development base. In addition, the corporate headquarters of over seventy-five percent of the financial houses and banks involved in the Star Kingdom’s enormous investment and banking industry are located in Landing. The total planetary population is just under 1.5 billion people as of 1921 PD.

Her Majesty’s Space Station Hephaestus serves as a combination shipyard, transfer station and living facility for nearly one million workers (both permanent and transient) and their families.

Sphinx (Manticore-A IV)

Radius: 6,953 km

Gravity: 1.35 G

Orbit Period: 1,903.65 T-days

Sidereal Day: 25.62 hours

Hydrosphere: 68%

Sphinx is a larger planet, with roughly a third again the mass of Earth and a denser atmosphere that can cause some adaptation sickness. It is tectonically less active than is typical of a planet of its mass but is more active than Earth. In recent geological times, it had a volcanic eruption at the Stubleford Traps that increased the CO
₂
levels considerably.

Sphinx is blessed with extensive mineral resources. Utilizing those resources, however, is complicated by long seasons and a climate that starts out chilly at the equator and gets markedly colder from there. It is only by dint of its extremely active CO
₂
cycle that Sphinx remains shirtsleeve-habitable to humans.

All major Sphinxian fauna are hexapeds, of which the most notable are the treecats, one of the few alien species thus far discovered that have approached human-level sentience. By the Ninth Amendment to the Star Kingdom’s Constitution, approximately one-third of the planetary surface belongs to the treecat clans in perpetuity.

Sphinx’s major industries are mining, forestry, and animal husbandry. Industry has been slow to develop but is now beginning to make considerable ground. Planetary population as of the 1920 PD census (291 AL) is approximately 1.1 billion humans and twelve million treecats.

Sphinx is orbited by Her Majesty’s Space Station Vulcan, the second largest construction and commerce node in the home system, as well as two small moons, Perseus and Bellerophon.

Gryphon (Manticore-B V)

Radius: 5,939 km

Gravity: 1.05 G

Orbit Period: 615.51 T-days

Sidereal Day: 22.71 hours

Hydrosphere: 51%

Of the three habitable planets in the Manticore Binary System, Gryphon’s diameter, mass and planetary density are the closest to Earth’s. It is only borderline habitable, however, due to the slight hydrosphere and parts of its continental interiors are nearly Martian in their arid beauty.

Gryphon is a world of extremes. While the hydrosphere covers a relatively small percentage of its surface, its oceans are comparatively deep, providing the thermal reservoir that makes Gryphon habitable even with the combination of extreme axial tilt and large orbital radius. The end result is a rugged “continental” climate with extremely cold winters and, relatively speaking, scorching summers.

Gryphon has trade-worthy concentrations of rare earth elements and fissionable materials, but is otherwise mineral-poor. More than two hundred kilometers from the coasts, the land is dry for half the local year, then drenched as the fall rains come, which are followed by a hard freeze. Gryphon’s stark beauty, mountainous terrain, and excellent skiing make the recreation industry a primary contributor to the planetary economy. The planet is also home to a disproportionately robust planetary industrial infrastructure, partly because of ease of access to the Unicorn Belt and the Royal Manticoran Navy’s policy of basing much of its primary R&D complex there and producing many of its prototypes in Gryphon’s shipyards. As of 1920 PD, Gryphon had a planetary population of no more than six hundred million.

Her Majesty’s Space Station Weyland orbits Gryphon. It is significantly smaller than both Hephaestus and Vulcan, with an average population of just over three hundred thousand. Since the beginning of the war it has been closed to all civilian traffic. Gryphon has a single large moon, named Egg, which produces extreme tides on its deep, narrow oceans.

Unicorn Belt

The Unicorn Belt is the primary resource extraction location in the Manticore Binary System, being both the innermost and richest of the three asteroid belts in the Manticore-B subsystem. Just outside the hyper limit, at any given time there are at least twenty resource extraction motherships working their way around the belt, each with dozens of ore boats serving its needs.

Total Belter population as of 1920 PD was approximately three hundred million.

The Manticore Wormhole Junction

The Manticore Wormhole Junction, the largest wormhole junction so far discovered, has secondary termini at no less than seven other star systems. The “reach” of those termini give the Junction a critical location in the wormhole network, which has made it indispensable to the Manticore System’s thriving economy. A trip from the Core to the Verge via the wormhole, for example, could reduce travel time by upwards of six months as compared to making the same voyage through hyper-space. This generates substantial savings in operating costs and permits carriers to make many more voyages in the same time window.

Those advantages have allowed a star system with less than one-fifth the population of the Sol System to grow to a Gross System Product equal to seventy-eight percent that of the Sol System by 1900 PD and to exceed it comfortably by 1920, despite the strain of a major war against a far larger adversary. This is possible in no small part because the combined termini of the Junction directly cover an irregular volume of space over a thousand light-years across its widest point. The proximity to other wormholes and their warp bridges extends the Junction’s “reach” still further, however. For example, it would take 18.5 T-months for a freighter in the delta bands to make the 1,680-light-year voyage from Basilisk to the system of Mullins on the far side of the Solarian League. By way of the Junction and the warp bridge connecting Mullins to the Titania System, 116 light-years from Beowulf, the same ship can make the same trip in only thirty-eight days, or less than seven percent of the longer time. The implications for the transport of freight and passengers are apparent, and those same implications apply to the transportation of information, helping to explain Manticore’s emergence as the explored galaxy’s premier banking and financial markets center.