LAST EDITED ON Jul-31-08 AT 01:24 PM (EDT)
 
>>Yeah. It looked like this was going to go according to plan after all.
>
>You know, for somebody who's trade is the Future, Skuld should know
>better than to tempt fate with that train of thought :P

Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

>I thought Kozue
>was not upset that she could go to Corwin and Utena's wedding, but
>that CORWIN was getting married.

Well, to an extent, she is. I mean, she knows she did the Right Thing, but that doesn't stop it from hurting. (As Corwin once asked her, "If this is the way things are supposed to be, if I did everything right and helped put the world back in its proper shape, then why do I feel so fucking bad?")

>implications from Day of Infamy given that Kilrah sends a Sivar
>blessed conquest fleet to help kick in the Earthforce/Federation's
>teeth in when the galaxy goes to shit in 2412.

Well, keep in mind, that's primarily a political thing. I mean, the Sivar Cult back on Kilrah has thought what they were doing was blessed by Sivar all along, and, well, signs point to "you're all on crack." Them saying "we've got a fleet blessed by our war god here!" doesn't necessarily mean it's any such thing.

>Coming this summer, to a theater near you. Wedding Crasher
>Kosh!

He didn't crash; he was invited. All the key members of B6's diplomatic staff were. Besides, they couldn't leave out the Koshmeister, I mean, come on. He and Minbari Ambassador Delenn were the highlights of the great trick-or-treating expedition of 2405. The trick he pulled when the ambassador from the Greater Rigel Sector Co-Prosperity Sphere didn't come across with some candy is still legendary.

>>"If that son of a bitch so much as twitches," she reported to
>>the rest of her team, "I'm gonna blow him straight to Derna."
>
>And now Red October quotes? This movement is one of the
>quipiest on record.

Yeah, I went a little overboard with that action, perhaps. In the interests of fuller disclosure, there's also a riff on The Right Stuff just above the "they don't like you" scene. :)

>One thing that I wonder though, Vigdis said
>that the wedding was also, in effect, declaring Utena a goddess, and
>the marks of divinity Utena ends up having made me wonder if it wasn't
>the literal truth. Is it too much to ask if this were the case? Or is
>it just a honorary, you're one of us now type of thing and not having
>the weight of it like when Corwin ascended?

The latter; the marks on Utena's face were a gesture on Verthandi's part while she was doing Utena's makeup, not anything to do with the Celestial System itself. Though for certain administrative and diplomatic purposes, Utena is (or will be - the status of her marriage is a little nebulous right now, thanks to Frigg's insistence on a partial ceremony out of sight of most of the crowd) considered a dís (as minor Asgardian goddesses not part of the bands of the Ćsir and Vanir are known), but she's been accorded no (additional) supernatural power. She's not the goddess of anything, if you like, in the way that Thor is god of thunder or Derek is god of comedy.

>Were they relying on the fact that the Earth Alliance would
>hesitate more in potentially starting a shooting war or was the EA
>that confident they could wave aside any treaties as bogus?

As Gryphon said when he was briefing Utena and the rest, the assumption was always that there'd be the usual few weeks of diplomatic harrumphing and some kind of fake incident along the Polish border to establish casus belli. Nobody figured the EA would just roll out of bed one morning and say, "Welp! Time to reconquer Tau Ceti!"

So no, there weren't any ships on station at the time. If the IPO stationed a ship everywhere they had an ally who might be attacked one day, they'd need quite a lot more ships. There were a few, both from the IPO and the WDF, hanging around the neighborhood through the "provisional government" phase, but once the new constitution was ratified and the elections taken care of, the immediate danger appeared to have passed. Gryphon suspected the EA might get up to some kind of shabby trick, but like I say, he figured there'd be handwaving first.

>>and HMS Illustrious of the Royal Salusian Navy...
>
>Wait, Salusia was a signature with Tau Ceti?

Oh, oops. That's a mistake. Illustrious belongs to the Salusian Imperial Guards; she's the ship assigned to escort the royal envoy (HRH the Princess Jessica, Baroness d'Alkirk) to the wedding (and the one we saw early on in the movement, when Corwin was arriving at B6). Since Princess Jessica is a reserve member of the IPO and this is an IPO alert situation, she has the right - indeed, the obligation - to get involved. As a member of the imperial family, she also has the right to take command of any Guards assets around - like Illustrious - and bring them with her. Unlike the RSN, the Guards don't answer to the Ministry of War; anything they do is on the imperial family's personal dime, not that of the political entity that is the Empire of Salusia. This is perhaps a fiddly point, but it'll stand up in court. Technically, Illustrious's involvement isn't the Salusian government butting into a treaty situation in which it is not involved; it's Jess bringing along some bodyguards. ... Okay, about 1200 of them, but still. :)

(Technically, since the RSN has mutual aid agreements with the WDF, regular navy ships could get involved; the WDF would just have to ask them for backup. That's what HMS Unfathomable is doing in the Tau Ceti system, though they aren't expected to shoot at anybody. For the shooting part, this way is simpler and doesn't get the Ministry involved.)

>You clearly are not on your A game.

All very true... assuming, of course, that Nanami's following orders. At this juncture I couldn't possibly comment on that. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
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