Oh Manticore, the Peeps,
the Peeps Are Calling

A parody of Danny Boy (music: the Londonderry Air, traditional; lyrics: Frederic Weatherly), ranging over David Weber’s Honorverse.

Oh Manticore The Star Kingdom (later Star Empire) of Manticore, Honor’s home nation — a constitutional monarchy built on wormhole-junction trade wealth. , the Peeps Slang for citizens of the People’s Republic of Haven, Manticore’s longtime rival and wartime enemy. This verse sits under the Legislaturalists, the hereditary governing class that has run the People’s Republic since long before the novel opens; no coup has yet remade the government. , the Peeps are calling,
In a Q ship A Q-ship is a type of civilian freighter. In On Basilisk Station, debris jettisoned mid-chase by the Havenite PMSS Sirius, an Astra-class freighter, leads Honor to guess it’s hull plating, hidden over a deadly cargo of weapons, and she calls Sirius a “disguised merchant raider,” like the ones Haven used against Trevor’s Star and Sheldon. Sirius isn’t the invasion; she’s the trigger. Honor then works out that Sirius is running to rendezvous with a Havenite battle squadron waiting beyond the system, to guide it in and seize the wormhole terminus before Home Fleet can reinforce it. Honor’s own battered Fearless, hiding a secret of her own (the untested grav lance), has to catch and destroy Sirius before she reaches that rendezvous. , whose nature is not seen;
But Honor Honor Stephanie Harrington, later Alexander-Harrington: the series’ protagonist, an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy. is their hostile plans forestalling,
And won’t betray the honor of her Queen Elizabeth III Winton, Queen (later Empress) of Manticore throughout most of Honor’s career. .

A child of Sphinx, her father’s rule forsaking,
she found him Climbs Quickly, a treecat scout: Sphinx’s native six-limbed arboreal species, once believed to be merely near-sentient, empathic, clan-living, and able to bond with a single human for life. In “A Beautiful Friendship,” he’d been raiding Sphinx’s greenhouses for celery for weeks before eleven-year-old Stephanie, bored and grounded by her father, set out to catch the thief; she finally does, in a nighttime thunderstorm, and the two feel an inexplicable psychic connection neither understands yet. Each can now sense the other’s direction, and while ostensibly out practicing hang-gliding she goes looking for him; he leads her away from his clan’s nesting grounds and, misjudging the wind, she crash-lands in the picket wood, where he finds her. locked in one last mortal fight His opponent was a hexapuma, Sphinx’s six-limbed apex predator. Climbs Quickly defends Stephanie first, distracting it until he’s gravely injured; she desperately wants him to save himself and flee, but the bond makes desertion impossible for him, and only then does she take up the knife herself. ;
she drove her blade home, though her bones were breaking,
and stood between him and the killing night.

Then Sings Truly Sings Truly, Climbs Quickly’s sister and Bright Water Clan’s second memory singer — always female, a memory singer is her clan’s living archive of history and wisdom, passed down as song, and normally too vital to risk in danger. cast aside her calling,
and led the clan herself against the foe;
no voice of song had led a clan to warring,
till kinship called, and duty bade her go.

So small, so soft, they seem a gentle wonder,
a child’s delight, and nothing more, they say;
yet claws that tore a hunting beast asunder
have taught the wise to walk a careful way.

A princess once, estranged and like a stranger,
her father scorned the treecats, tooth and claw;
till treecats came, and sensed the hidden danger,
and let the treecats’ rights be writ as law.

Then Roger King Roger III Winton, Elizabeth’s father and Manticore’s monarch before her. died, a murder’s plot in hiding;
Beth rose as Queen, though grief was hers alone;
so she pursued the truth, in secret biding,
and let the guilty go, but not unknown.

On Sphinx a treecat chooses once forever,
one bond, one heart, unbroken until death;
so Nimitz Honor’s bonded treecat, of the Sphinxian arboreal species once believed to be merely near-sentient; empathic and fiercely protective of his person. He bonded to her as a badly hurt juvenile named Laughs Brightly: he broke his own ribs and a foreleg attacking the peak bears digging for his crippled brother Sharp Nose, and Honor shot both bears dead. The bond itself forms afterward, as she holds him. chose her once, and left her never,
and shared her mind as surely as her breath.

Pavel Young Lord Pavel Young, later Earl of North Hollow: a fellow officer and Honor’s recurring, increasingly dangerous enemy. tries assault in the shower,
But Honor’s not as helpless as he thought;
The battle was not Pavel’s finest hour,
With broken bones his lesson dearly bought.

Then blind Santino, deaf to danger nearing,
the raider fled, and broke the trap they’d laid;
then turned the ship, and gave the raider clearing,
so Bachfisch sent him off, and she was made.

Then fire struck home, and left her ship, unguided,
she dove beneath its wedge, and raked it through;
and Honor rose, her fear and doubt derided,
then earned an Ensign’s rank, in fire made new.

Then Houseman Reginald Houseman, a Manticoran diplomat who tried to order Honor off Grayson during a crisis, with no authority to do so. , who was such a blatant coward,
said she must leave, though duty bade her stay;
she slapped his face, as over him she towered,
she kept the Honor of the Queen that day.

Though DisHonorable Houseman had departed,
Though Honor’s ships and Grayson’s were but few,
All of her men will finish what they started,
And give to the invaders their fair due.

Honor is brave and knows full well her duty
And as a guest she will protect her host;
But don’t forget her cute and helpless treecat,
Who is the one the traitors should fear most.

Then hidden knives at Mayhew’s Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX, Grayson’s head of state, the target of the dinner attack this verse recalls. feast were gleaming,
when sudden death broke loose about the board;
but Nimitz woke, and set the hall to screaming,
and held the door against the coming horde.

When Grayson Grayson, a harsh, resource-poor planet settled by a fundamentalist splinter sect, later allied with and then a Protectorate closely bound to Manticore. was not facing just Masada Masada, a hostile theocratic splinter nation founded by Grayson’s original religious dissenters, and Grayson’s bitter enemy. ,
The Haven knife was at the Faithful’s throat;
Defiantly, brave Honor said de nada,
I’ll fight them off, though it cost my last boat.

Then Fearless HMS Fearless, Honor’s ship at the Battle of Yeltsin (The Honor of the Queen): outgunned and low on missiles, she closed to point-blank range to keep a Masadan warship from reaching Grayson. lost her smaller comrade, shattered,
with shot near spent, she closed to make her stand;
yet still she drove, though hull and spirit battered,
and staked it all to save the Grayson land.

Then, far unseen, a friendly fleet was flying,
a storm of fire compelled the foe to turn;
his bow laid bare, his hope of Grayson dying,
and Fearless struck, and watched the foe’s ship burn.

Though they said Honor had no right to slap him
When Houseman was just gibbering in fear,
She fought the Peeps although the odds were thought grim,
And they made her a steader and a peer.

Then Haven’s lords, with riots ever teeming,
to hide the rot at home, concealed no more,
chose war with Manticore, in secret scheming,
and made it out a short, victorious war.

Then Honor healed, though doubt within was burning,
till orders came to light the fading flame;
the Fleet reclaimed her, doubts to purpose turning,
and gave her Nike, ship of ancient fame.

Then Sarnow Admiral Mark Sarnow, Honor’s superior at the Battle of Hancock, gravely wounded there. fell, his final word half-spoken,
he begged them hold, and never break the line;
yet Honor knew his mind, his body broken,
and so she held the line by her design.

Then Young took fright, his courage all forsaken;
he broke and fled, and left his ships to blame,
while Honor’s captains stood, unmoved, unshaken,
and left his name to bear the mark of shame.

Now hidden ships bore down on Chin Rear Admiral Genevieve Chin, the Havenite commander whose pursuing task force is trapped and forced to withdraw at Hancock. , appearing,
her wall of battle trapped, with no way free;
and Chin, too late, felt cold defeat come nearing,
and turned for home, and let her quarry flee.

Then Parks reviewed the battle, well-defended,
and said her choice to hold the line should stand;
while Young, in fear, fled fast, and stood suspended,
and sent Lord Young to face his lost command.

Then bombs rained down, and Harris’ The 1905 PD assassination of Hereditary President Sidney Harris and his cabinet, the false-flag attack that brought the Committee of Public Safety to power. house was broken,
and Navy “traitors” bore the endless blame,
and one cold voice became the people’s token,
and forged a tyranny to bear his name.

Then Paul Paul Tankersley, a Manticoran officer and Honor’s lover, killed by a hired duelist on the orders of Pavel Young, now Earl North Hollow. was slain, and Honor’s heart lay grieving;
a stranger came, and death was his demand,
she armed her grief, in ice and steel believing,
and vowed to hunt him down, by her own hand.

Then Summervale Denver Summervale, a professional duelist hired to kill Paul Tankersley and then Honor herself. , in pain, at last confessing,
was hired to kill them both, with Paul the first;
a weapon aimed at her, his hate expressing,
and named the Earl as author of the worst.

Then Honor forced the challenge Rather than leave Summervale to the law, Honor provoked him into challenging her, which let her choose the lethal Ellington Protocol he had hoped to avoid. Her uncanny kinesthetic sense let her draw and fire before he could raise his weapon. , cold and steady,
she named the terms that offered him no grace;
and drew and fired before his hand was ready,
and put her final bullet in his face.

Then Honor rose, her scarlet robe unveiling,
and claimed her right As a peer, Honor used her privilege to force an early maiden speech in the House of Lords and publicly challenged North Hollow, accusing him of murder, attempted murder, cowardice, attempted rape and abuse of power. to call him to the field;
and named his crimes, while all the House sat quailing,
and dared the coward, there, to fight or yield.

Then Young, in fear, betrayed the code by cheating Under the Dreyfus Protocol each duelist gets one shot after a formal turn. North Hollow broke completely while still walking out his paces, whirling to empty his pistol before the turn was even called; only one wild round found her shoulder. She fired three rounds into his heart. ,
his wild shots tore her shoulder, flesh apart;
and shattered her, but not her purpose, beating,
and three true rounds went straight to find his heart.

Then Honor’s gold raised domes Sky Domes: Honor’s crystoplast-dome venture on Grayson, backed by her own money and Manticoran technology. Harrington City stands under one, and the same technology was to be extended to farming, cutting food costs and easing the population limits Grayson had always lived under. of crystal, gleaming,
where Graysons breathed unmasked beneath the sky;
raised farms beneath the glass, where food was teeming,
and let a planet’s numbers multiply.

Then Marchant Edmond Marchant, a Grayson clergyman who publicly denounced Honor as a heretic before being stripped of his own pulpit. railed, and named her Satan’s daughter,
she turned his book against him, verse for verse;
then stayed the mob that sought his blood as slaughter,
the Sacristy pronounced his priesthood’s curse.

Then Mueller’s Steadholder Samuel Mueller, a conservative Grayson noble and the hidden mastermind behind the Sky Domes sabotage. school fell in, its children dying,
the stone gave way to sand, to hide their blame;
yet called it God’s will, and their conscience lying,
and preached that Sky Domes bore the whole world’s shame.

A rocket struck her pinnace, sent it falling,
a missile’s fire was sent to bring her low;
with Gerrick dead, and ninety-five, appalling,
yet Honor lived, to face a harder foe.

Then Nimitz struck, in fury never bending,
a gunman leveled fire against her breast;
then Hanks Julius Hanks, First Elder of Grayson’s Church of Humanity Unchained, who died shielding Honor from an assassin’s shot. stepped forth to die, her life defending,
her vest, and Hanks’ own body, did the rest.

Then Benjamin, at last, exposed the treason,
a plot to kill her, cloaked in holy lies;
then Honor named her foe, for ancient reason,
and vowed his many sins would mean he dies.

Then Burdette Steadholder William Fitzclarence of Burdette, the conspiracy’s public face, ultimately killed by Honor in a trial by combat. , cornered, still her death demanding,
he claimed his right to meet her, blade to blade;
then Honor watched, beyond his understanding,
one stroke, then two, and all his debts were paid.

Then Honor hid her dreadnoughts At the Fourth Battle of Yeltsin, Honor disguised her superdreadnoughts inside a formation of lighter ships, so an overconfident Havenite task force would attack what looked like a weak squadron. , weak in seeming,
a foe whose pride in fire and blood was bought;
then turned as one, their hidden power gleaming,
yet felt like murder, not the fame she sought.

Then Honor stood, though death alone was waiting,
for even fear can make the strongest yield;
then summoned ghosts, a phantom fleet In the second engagement, Honor had a distant battlecruiser squadron broadcast false sensor signatures of eight fresh superdreadnoughts, bluffing the enemy into withdrawing. , for baiting,
and turned for home, the bluff still unrevealed.

Then Grayson’s Keys arose, their voices swelling,
and gave the Sword a second, hard-earned fame;
yet Mueller stood among them, treason dwelling
still hidden safe beneath his praise and name.

Then Honor turned her ship to face its ending,
to draw the battlecruiser off her prey;
one broadside loosed by each, their fires were blending,
left two dead hulks, adrift and far away.

Then Ransom Cordelia Ransom, Haven’s Secretary of Public Information, who revived an old fabricated murder charge to send Honor to Hades for hanging. doomed her death, to come tomorrow,
for murder framed in peace, a debt long owed;
her people broke through fire and bitter sorrow,
and freed her first, while Tepes’ wreckage glowed.

She led her people from their Hell-bound prison,
with hulls she’d seized to end their years of roam;
then turned her captors’ guns, all vengeance risen,
and brought her thousands out, at last, back home.

Then Esther Citizen Admiral Esther McQueen, Haven’s Secretary of War, who launched a failed coup against the Committee of Public Safety. struck, and claimed the Reds’ dominion,
her rivals seized, her Chairman struck down dead;
but Saint-Just Oscar Saint-Just, head of Haven’s State Security and the regime’s real power behind Rob Pierre, until Thomas Theisman’s own counter-coup. loosed a buried, nuclear minion,
and bought his throne with fire, a million bled.

Then Nimitz signed, his silent voice replacing,
to teach the Queen and Ariel to speak;
and years of silence, now at last erasing,
he gave all bonded hearts a voice to seek.

Then hidden death bore down, in silence closing,
twin shadows came to kill the Duke and Queen;
then Honor turned her hull, the first opposing,
and shielded one, though death fell in between.

Then Theisman Thomas Theisman, a Havenite admiral who overthrows Saint-Just and becomes the Republic’s Secretary of War. struck, his hidden strength unmasking,
his troopers took the tyrant’s guards, and passed;
then met the tyrant’s eyes, no mercy asking,
and shot him dead, his judgment first and last.

Then pain grew bright between two hearts unspoken,
and woke a bond no treecat yet had known;
Samantha Samantha, Nimitz’s mate and a treecat in her own right, later bonded to Hamish Alexander. leapt, her mated heart unbroken,
and made his silent grief and hers her own.

Then Hayes proclaimed a secret, shameful sinning,
that Honor’s heart for Hamish Hamish Alexander, a Manticoran admiral (later Earl, then Duke, of White Haven) and Honor’s long-unacknowledged love. had betrayed;
but Emily stood firm, her own faith winning,
and named them true, till doubt itself was stayed.

Then war came first in silence, softly falling,
a hidden shot no warning could prevent;
her cruiser died, her crew beyond recalling,
and one dead ship became war’s dark event.

Then Arnold Arnold Giancola, Haven’s Secretary of State, who secretly altered a diplomatic note to reignite the war for his own ends. struck alone, his hand unbidden,
and cut one word, and turned her peace to war;
the secretary’s guilt stayed safely hidden,
while armies bled for lies none bargained for.

Then Honor crossed alone to face the danger,
and warned her foe of what he could not know;
she gave her trust, though still to him a stranger,
and turned two fleets aside, and stayed the blow.

Then Benjamin, his treaty’s right commanding,
sent through the Junction ships that none could stay;
his fleet stood ready, guns and colors standing,
and made the waiting foe turn back that day.

Then Honor sprang the trap The Battle of Second Sidemore: Grayson’s Protector’s Own squadron, kept hidden even from Honor’s own officers, struck from behind while Tourville’s Second Fleet closed in on what looked like her weaker force. she’d long been hiding,
her Grayson warships struck the Peep line’s wall;
his fleet, too late, found ev’ry hope subsiding,
and half his broken warships met their fall.

Then Honor came, and felt his heart’s own burning,
a bond no mind-blind soul had known to hold;
two hearts, apart no more, in silence learning,
and named at last a truth too long untold.

Then Honor found new life had come unbidden,
a shield had failed, and left her waiting son;
she would not lose him, duty’s call not hidden,
and had him tubed, the war still to be won.

Then Mueller cried her son a nameless bastard,
and doomed to lose the steading’s rightful throne;
then buried law, by patient search, was mastered,
and named the child no bastard, but her own.

Then long-hid love was blessed, no longer hidden,
and Church allowed the vow that none had dared;
three hearts made one, where law had once forbidden,
and Honor’s house had two she loved, and shared.

Then Meares, his will not his, moved on unknowing,
and struck her guard, then aimed to take her breath;
yet Honor’s hidden hand, its power showing,
her hidden gun struck first, and dealt him death.

Then Solon’s The Battle of Solon: scouts reported light defenses, exactly the trap Admiral Giscard intended. Three Havenite task groups arrived from three sides, and Honor had to abandon her crippled friend Michelle Henke’s battlecruiser Ajax to save the rest. trap sprang shut on Honor’s sailing,
three hidden fleets appeared on every side;
her wounded ships fell back, their engines failing,
Ajax’s fate to Honor was denied.

Then Honor’s son was lifted, softly sleeping,
a son, though duty still to war had sworn;
then kneeling there, her guard, in vigil keeping,
and pledged his life, a vow forever borne.

Then Lovat burned, and Giscard’s Citizen Admiral Javier Giscard, the Havenite commander whose covering fleet is destroyed at Lovat. fleet was broken,
his shipyards fell, in ash and ruin lay;
and Giscard died, his final word unspoken,
and paid at last for Solon’s bitter day.

Then Tourville Citizen Admiral Lester Tourville, commander of the Havenite fleet that strikes at Manticore itself and is ultimately forced to surrender. came, three hundred sail proceeding,
D’Orville met him, dying where he fell;
then Kuzak’s fleet was caught, its wounds still bleeding,
and there her oldest friend heard his own knell.

Then Honor came, and Chin’s fresh fleet lay dying,
and Tourville saw his hope begin to fall;
then Tourville struck his colors, no more trying,
and gave his broken fleet, his ships, and all.

Then Honor stood, no longer bound to follow,
but spoke as peer against her sovereign’s ire:
“The guilt is Mesa’s Mesa, a Solarian League world built on a slave-labor economy, and the hidden power behind the Mesan Alignment conspiracy manipulating both Haven and Manticore. ” — bitter truth to swallow —
and stayed her hand, though not her heart’s desire.

Then fire fell, and Yawata’s kin were dying,
and Andrew died to bear her son away;
then Hamish saw the monster wake, undying,
and vowed they’d live to know, before they pay.

Then Pritchart Eloise Pritchart, President of the Republic of Haven, who secretly seeks peace with Manticore against the Alignment. came, the truth at last revealing,
that Haven’s guilt was false, the truth proclaimed;
and Honor’s gift bore witness, past concealing,
and enemies, as allies now, were named.

“My orders stand,” says Hajdu Vice Admiral Hajdu Győző of the Solarian League Navy, commanding the League force at Hypatia in Operation Buccaneer, the League’s plan to destroy the orbital infrastructure of any system it judges complicit with the Alliance after a deadline to evacuate. He gives Hypatia thirty-six hours, and answers the president’s plea (“You’d be killing hundreds of thousands—millions—of innocent civilians!”) with “I will execute my orders at the time I’ve given you.” (Uncompromising Honor, August 1922) , never heeding,
“the time I gave is all, though millions stay;”
the President Hypatia’s President Vangelis, who pleads with Hajdu. The system had voted to secede from the League and seek union with Beowulf. can only stand there, pleading,
and none can get them all so far away.

Four cruisers Rear Admiral Jan Kotouč’s four Manticoran ships (Task Group 110.2, about 1,900 personnel) meet the League’s thirteen battlecruiser squadrons at Hypatia. They destroy at least twenty-seven battlecruisers and kill Hajdu, but the squadron is almost all lost. Honor later says of it, in her broadcast to Sol, “Ninety percent of that cruiser squadron’s personnel paid with their lives.” (Uncompromising Honor) face the fleet, and still they’re fighting,
and twenty-seven battlecruisers fall;
the dark with Dazzlers, Dragon’s Teeth, is lighting,
and Hajdu, too, is dead, among them all.

Then Gogunov Rear Admiral Martin Gogunov takes command after Hajdu’s death and insists on proceeding: “It’s why we came! Vice Admiral Hajdu may be gone, but that doesn’t change the mission!” (Uncompromising Honor) swears nothing stops the mission,
but Petersen Commander Megan Petersen’s Arngrim, the last Manticoran ship left at Hypatia, destroys one chosen battlecruiser with nine laserheads and then gives Rear Admiral Yountz ten minutes to leave. Honor later says the squadron “saved at least six million lives.” (Uncompromising Honor) , with one ship, holds his ground;
nine laserheads all find their one position,
six million live, and safe, and whole, and sound.

Oh Manticore, the Peeps again are calling,
but this time we are joined in common cause;
today their genocide we are forestalling,
to punish them for breaking their own laws.

Oh Mother Earth, Erinyes The Erinyes, or Furies, the Greek goddesses of vengeance. are calling,
to teach the League to sing another tune;
her ships soon gone, her every plan now falling,
her yards will lie in ruins, none too soon.

Now grief leaves nothing more for her to cherish;
Alecto One of the Erinyes, “the unceasing”. Honor’s grief is Emily’s death, in her arms at White Haven, and the deaths at Beowulf; aboard Imperator she has “a vast, singing emptiness” and one purpose left. (Uncompromising Honor, January 1923) shows no pity; she shows less;
she means to see them brought low, then to perish,
no plea, no prayer, no pardon, no redress.

Tamuth naphshi im plishtim Hebrew, Judges 16:30: “Let my soul die with the Philistines,” said Samson as he pulled down the temple pillars at Gaza. , Honor’s weeping;
the temple’s pillars shake at her command;
she’ll spare the people, every promise keeping;
though hate cries out, she tries to stay her hand.

Their wedges strike; she watches, cold and burning,
till Brigham Mercedes Brigham, on Honor’s flagship. When Rear Admiral Ning-ju’s eight heavy cruisers strike their wedges, the universal signal of surrender, Honor says nothing, and Brigham grips her shoulders and shakes her; Honor orders the engagement aborted, and the more than five hundred missiles self-destruct with about ten seconds to go. (Uncompromising Honor, January 1923) shakes her hard—the word is said;
the barrage swerves, while every nerve is yearning,
and Honor spares the ones she wishes dead.

“Go out and fight!” the Mandarins The Solarian League’s ruling bureaucrats, the permanent officials who run the League. After Honor’s terms, Abruzzi threatens to have Admiral Kingsford shot for cowardice, and Kolokoltsov thinks she wants them to reject her terms, “to give her an excuse.” (Uncompromising Honor) are shouting;
but Kingsford The League admiral who refuses to sortie: “I have no intention of seeing them butchered for absolutely nothing.” He evacuates the deep-space infrastructure instead. (Uncompromising Honor) will not send his fleet to bleed;
they threaten court-martial, their fury spouting;
he turns to get the people out with speed.

“ One month Honor’s terms, broadcast to some ten or twelve billion viewers: a constitutional convention giving authority to elected officials; the right of any member system to secede by a three-quarters vote; the Protectorates and the Office of Frontier Security dissolved; property returned to the systems; no Alliance forces on Old Earth or League worlds; and, if the terms are not accepted within a month, four more of the wealthiest systems each month. (Uncompromising Honor, January 1923) ,” she says, “to call a constitution;
the Verge goes free; the Office meets its end;
or four more worlds will feel our retribution.”
yet none of hers will land, and none descend.

“We’ll fight on!” still the Mandarins are shouting;
but Gaddis Brigadier Simeon Gaddis arrests Kolokoltsov and the Mandarins, with Kingsford, Okiku and Tarkovsky, after an Alignment agent, Caswell Gweon, is found dead in Kingsford’s office. Kingsford then goes aboard Imperator to accept the terms. (Uncompromising Honor) comes, and none of them can plead,
and seizes them, and leaves no time for doubting,
while Kingsford goes aboard, and will concede.

Oh Manticore, the Peeps again came calling,
only this time a common foe was seen;
so we began the slavers’ plots forestalling
for Haven and the Honor of the Queen.