I think that the way the wills are written is insurance against anything happening to them.

And I wouldn’t be too sure that the conversation about Stacy is just background. From what I’ve seen so far, David is fairly predictable in dropping clues. I don’t think Stacy would be mentioned this early if she wasn’t going to play some kind of part later.

Well, clearly not every negative incident. However, notice the assassination attempt in the Andermani Empire using Mesa’s proprietary assassin biotechnology. I’ve never found a credible reason why they’d do that one unless they wanted to destabilize the Anderman Empire. There are lots easier ways of doing a field test, after all.

Consider a hamburger. No, wrong story (oops!)

Consider a basketball. Or volleyball or soccer ball. Think of that as the Solarian League out to the Protectorates, but not the Verge. Now put an orange near it. Think of that as the (People’s) Republic of Haven. Now add a couple of plums nearby, and think of them as Sileasia and the Anderman Empire.

Now look at all the rest of the space around the soccer ball. How likely is it that none of that space contains any star nations or nascent star nations that are large and well enough organized that the Mesan Alignment considers leaving them alone to be an unacceptable risk?

The story is in one relatively small corner of the Verge. The rest of the Verge is a heck of a big place.

As to when Mesa came out of the shadows? The first time there was a scene with Albrecht Detweiller. I don’t remember if there was one in Shadow of Saganami or Crown of Slaves, but there were scenes scattered all through At all Costs and Storm from the Shadows. And, of course, part of Torch of Freedom actually takes place on Mesa.

For those who don’t know, David had planned to give Honor “Nelson’s death” in the big battle in _At All Costs_. IE Honor would have won the battle but died afterwards.

Her last words were to ask Queen Elizabeth to make peace with Haven.

The War with the Alignment would have started much later when Honor’s children were adults.

@14 John. I don’t really have any complaints about those multi-page embedded infodumps. Its just that I sometimes don’t have enough patience to read them very carefully. So then I say wrong things. It is embarrassing! And I can’t really find the answer to Thirdbase @12.

@17 So Drak, Eric Flint saved Honor’s life? Hoorah!

Before Mesa/Manpower started to become the enemy, you had people wondering if Haven was involved an early assassination attempt on a Manticore princess (the first member of the royal house to be adopted by a treecat).

After Masa/Manpower started to become the enemy, people started to wonder if Mesa was involved in that assassination attempt.

However, David Weber has established (in either The Shadow of Saganami or Storm from the Shadows) that the Alignment was involved in the fall of the old Haven Republic.

Also, in The Shadow of Saganami, we learn that Commodore Saganami’s last battle was against ‘pirates’ supported by Manpower and elements in the Silesian government.

While the state of affairs in Silesia might not been caused by the Alignment, we have learned that Mesa/Manpower/the Alignment have been involved in trouble making long before the Haven-Manticore war.

David Weber has said that the Alignment (if not by that name) has always been part of his plans for the Honorverse.

In the early books was (for good reasons) focused on the Haven vs Manticore story line.

Mesa/Manpower started to become important when Eric Flint asked David Weber for a common enemy for Manticore agents and Haven agents to ally against. That was in “From The Highland” in the _Changer of Worlds_ collection.

Of course, bringing up Mesa/Manpower as an enemy early changed David Weber’s plans and saved Honor’s life. [Wink]