Flag In Exile

Gryphon vintage, a blush chablis from Wishbone, Gryphon's small, southern continent, was a bit sweet for Honor. She preferred a good, tart rose' or rich burgundy, but the Star Kingdom's softer wines had proven popular with Grayson palates, and it made an acceptable aperitif.

The steward finished pouring and withdrew, and Honor watched her guests sample their wine. She'd made a point of inviting Jackson to lunch after each Sunday's services, and Sutton joined her for virtually every meal as part of his ongoing professional education. He was far more confident and comfortable with his duties than he had been, but the social skills which went with a flag lieutenant's role still needed a little polishing. Besides, he was a member of her official 'family,' and she liked him.

She took a sip from her own glass, then looked at Jackson.

'If you don't mind an infidel's opinion, I particularly liked today’s hymns, Abraham. Especially the one after the second lesson.'

'I never mind compliments, My Lady,' the chaplain replied, 'and I'm rather fond of that one myself.'

'It didn't sound much like the other Grayson hymns I've heard, though,' Honor observed.

'That's because it's much older than most of our sacred music, My Lady. I believe the original version was written back in the nineteenth century, ah, the third century Ante Diaspora, that is, on Old Earth by a man named Whiting. Of course, that predated space travel. In fact, it predated manned aircraft, and it's been revised and updated several times since. Still, I think the original feeling comes through, and you're right: it is beautiful. And appropriate to naval service, I think.'

'I agree. But, then, I usually like your taste in music. I only wish I had a singing voice that didn't sound like a GQ alarm.' Jackson's raised glass acknowledged both the compliment and her wry commentary on her own voice, and she smiled back, but then her expression turned thoughtful.

'You know,' she said slowly, 'it still feels... odd to me to hold official church services on a warship.' Jackson quirked an eyebrow, and she shook her head quickly. 'Not wrong, Abraham, just odd. Manticoran warships do have services, and any captain always tries to adjust her duty schedules around them, but they're purely voluntary, and the people who conduct them usually have other duties, as well. The RMN doesn't have a Chaplain's Corps, you know.'

'Well, fair's fair, My Lady,' Jackson said after a moment. 'A Grayson would find the notion that any Navy could survive without chaplains equally odd. Of course, we've made some concessions, and rightfully so, I think, since we started 'borrowing' so many Manticoran personnel. Attendance at service used to be compulsory, not optional, which would hardly be suitable now. Besides, even when everyone in uniform belonged to the Church, I always felt conscripting worshipers probably wasn't exactly what God had in mind.'

Sutton started to speak, then closed his mouth and shifted in his chair, and Honor glanced at him.

'Yes, Jared?' she invited. The flag lieutenant hesitated a moment longer, he was still uncomfortable about injecting himself into a conversation between his seniors, then made a small grimace.

'I was just thinking, My Lady, that it's a pity certain other people don't feel the way Brother Jackson does about 'conscripting worshipers.'' He looked down the table at the chaplain. There was a hint of apology in his eyes, but also a lot of anger. Jared Sutton had developed a strong, personal loyalty to his admiral, and he didn't like Edmond Marchant a bit.

'If you're referring to Lord Burdette, you don't have to worry about my feelings, Jared.' Jackson shook his head wryly, but the bitterness poisoning his usually cheerful expression belied his light tone. 'I don't have a clue where that situation's going to end, but I know Reverend Hanks well enough to suspect he's not taking Burdette's activities very kindly. Bad enough for the man to remove the Sacristy's choice from the pulpit by force without ordering his steaders to attend services conducted by that sorry bas...' The chaplain broke off and flushed. The noun anger had almost betrayed him into using was hardly suitable for a clergyman, and especially not in Honor's presence. 'I mean, by Marchant,' he finished instead.

'Yes, well, that's getting a bit afield from my observation.' Honor moved the subject firmly away from Burdette and Grayson's religious... well, crisis probably wasn't the right word yet, but it was moving in the right direction, and Jackson accepted the shift.

'You were saying something about official and unofficial worship services, My Lady?' he asked politely.

'I was saying Manticoran ships don't have official chaplains. Of course, we've got so many religions and denominations that providing a chaplain for each of them would be the next best thing to impossible even if we tried.' She smiled suddenly. 'On the first SD I ever served in, the captain was a Roman Catholic, Second Reformation, I think; not the Old Earth denomination, the exec was an Orthodox Jew, the astrogator was a Buddhist, and the com officer was a Scientologist Agnostic. If I remember correctly, the tac officer, my direct superior, was a Mithran, and Chief O'Brien, my tracking yeoman, was a Shinto priest. All of that, mind you, just on the command deck! We had another six thousand odd people in the ship's company, and God only knows how many different religions they represented.'

'Merciful Tester!' Jackson murmured in a voice that was only half humorous. 'How do any of you manage to keep things straight?'

'Well, Manticore was settled by a bunch of secularists,' Honor pointed out. 'I hope you won't take this wrongly, but I sometimes think that what Grayson actually has is a church which spawned a state as a sort of accidental appendage. I realize things have changed, especially since the Civil War, but the very notion of a church-dominated state would have been anathema to the Manticoran colonists. They'd had too much historical experience with state churches back home.'

Jackson cocked his head as he listened to her, then nodded with an air of thoughtful comprehension, but Sutton looked puzzled.

'Excuse me, My Lady, but I don't quite understand,' he said.

'What the Steadholder means, Jared, is...' Jackson began, then broke off with a grimace. 'Excuse me, My Lady. I believe you were making a point.' His grimace became a grin. 'Sometimes I tend to backslide into confirmation class mode.'

'No, really?' Honor teased gently. The chaplain bent his head in a gesture of surrender, and she turned to Sutton. 'Both the people who settled Grayson and the people who settled Manticore came mainly from Old Earth's western hemisphere, Jared, but they had very different reasons for leaving the Sol System.

'The Manticoran colonists primarily wanted to get away from a grossly overcrowded planet. They felt crowded and hemmed in and they were looking for both living space and economic opportunity elsewhere, but very few of them signed on because they felt like a persecuted minority.

'Grayson's colonists, on the other hand, were classic religious emigres who did regard themselves as a persecuted minority. So whereas the Manticorans came from the entire spectrum of Old Earth's religious backgrounds, your ancestors came from a single one. That was, in fact, what set them apart from the entire civilization they were fleeing, which made it inevitable that they should develop a single state church and a theocratic state here.'

'I see that, My Lady, but what did you mean about the Manties' 'historical experience with state churches'?'

'Two-thirds of Manticore’s colonists were from Europe, and Europe had a history of sectarian violence and religious conflict that went back to, oh, the sixth century Ante Diaspora, at least. Whole nations had spent centuries trying to kill each other over religious differences, like your own Civil War. The colonists didn't want anything like that happening to them, so they adopted the traditions of those of their numbers who came from North America, where separation between church and state had been part of the fundamental law. In the Star Kingdom, the state is legally prohibited from interfering in religious matters, and vice versa.'

Sutton blinked. The notion of an explicit split between church and state seemed so alien that he looked at Jackson as if seeking confirmation that such a thing was even possible.

'Lady Harrington's quite correct,' the chaplain told him gently. 'And given the wide religious diversity in the Star Kingdom, its founders were very wise to set things up that way.' He smiled sadly. 'Anyone who studies history eventually comes up against the same cruel irony, Jared. Man has probably spent more time killing his fellows 'in God's name' than for any other single reason. Look at our own Civil War, or those lunatics on Masada.' He sighed. 'I know He loves us, but we must be a terrible disappointment to Him from time to time.'

The primary supports were all in, and Adam Gerrick stood on the scaffolding which crowned what would