Sten/Heartwarming

In the second book, Sten and troops are Trapped Behind Enemy Lines and his Bhor friend Otho wants to mount a rescue mission. Cue a Bhor council to decide whether to go or not. This is old-style participatory democracy, and one elderly Bhor gets off-topic, rambling about his glory days. Finally, Otho interrupts -- interrupting is really bad manners, but his friends are dying -- by cutting off his beard (a sign this is Serious Business) and kneeling to demand a decision now. He's almost sure they'll vote against him, and then he'll be executed -- getting pushy at one of these councils is really bad manners -- but he had to do something. And then the old guy he rudely interrupted cuts off his own beard and kneels beside Otho to support him. Dead silence. They fly the rescue mission, of course.
At the beginning of book 8, we come in immediately after Sten has committed high treason by destroying Admiral Mason's task force before it could drop a planet-buster on the world of Jochi (on the direct orders of the Eternal Emperor). At this point only the bridge crew of Sten's flagship even knows anything has happened, and none of them save Kilgour know what his last orders from the Emperor really were. Sten can potentially tell his crew any lie he feels like with reasonable confidence it will stick long enough for him to reach a destination, or for them to have no choice about sticking with his rebellion for the long haul. So he immediately holds an all-hands assembly in the ship's hangar deck and tells everyone what is really going on, and flat-out begs them to do the sensible thing and get the hell off of the Victory before they're attainted with his treason. He's even prepared an evacuation ship. He concludes his speech by turning around and waiting for his crew to sort themselves out as either loyalist or rebel... and is utterly flabbergasted when he turns back.

Cind: I'd say at least ninety percent of your personal staffers have chosen to stay. You've really corrupted them. Call it at least two-thirds of the regular crew... and here I thought swabbies never volunteered for anything.

- Another Heartwarming moment in this sequence is that Sten was so flustered he actually forgot to ask Cind (who, unlike Alex, only found out about the treason at the same time the rest of the crew did) if she wanted to stay, but simply took for granted that she would. When Sten finally realizes his oversight and tries to apologize for it Cind gently shushes him... because Sten's having that much faith in her loyalty was, to her, the greatest compliment she'd ever been given.

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