In Enemy Hands

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For the movie of the same name, please see "In Enemy Hands".

In Enemy Hands
Honor Harrington Books
Image:InEnemyHands.jpg
Author	David Weber
Genre	Military Science Fiction
Publisher	Baen Books
Release date	1996
ISBN 0-671-57770-0

In Enemy Hands is a military science fiction novel, the seventh in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

As the story begins, Honor has just been promoted to Commodore in the Manticoran Navy for her actions in Honor Among Enemies, a rank so high that she will never personally command a military starship again. The promotion came through as she returned to her steading on Grayson, after having spent the previous few months advising and working with the "Weapons Development Board" (an organization in the Navy headed by Admiral Sonja Hemphill; it is charged with overseeing the Research and development for the Navy as a whole, and for recommending whether to, and how, to use the newly developed technology); in the previous book, the WDB had assigned some early examples of the new generation of Manticoran naval technology to Honor, and wanted feedback as to the performance in actual combat.

Honor did not return alone: however, as her treecat Nimitz had mated with Samantha, one of her former officer's treecat, and had borne treekittens; as well, Nimitz's clan had dispatched 8 adult treecats to help raise the kittens and also to establish a new treecat colony on Grayson. During a party in the Harrington Steading, Honor and Admiral Hamish Alexander discuss the WDB's radical suggestions: as authored by Harrington, the final recommendations were to radically revise the fleet, by beginning the construction of a new class of superdreadnaughts (with hollow cores, appropriate for releasing large numbers of missilepods- self-contained launchers of missiles which permit simultaneous launch of more missiles than a single ship typically can fire, in effect a massive force-multiplier; new vessels analogous to aircraft carriers, which instead carry souped-up LACs (Light Attack Crafts); and a new generation of remotely-deployed EW drone. Hamish in a kneejerk response to any smacking of the technological-innovation oriented jeune école (French for "young school") or Sonja Hemphill, and opposes the recommendations without examining the full report, and Honor forcefully refutes his opposition. As she argues for the recommendations, Hamish realizes that he has feelings for her they can never express: Hamish is her superior officer, and married.

In an attempt to escape her own feelings, Honor goes with Alistair McKeon on a convoy escort mission to the Adler system, a small system near the frontline. The Adler system, unbeknownst to most parties, had been the victim of a lightning sneak attack masterminded by Citizen Rear Admiral Lester Tourville of the DuQuesne base, under the orders of Thomas Theisman. Tourville knew perfectly well that he could not hold system, but had arranged this thrust so that he could destroy the system pickets, and capture any inbound traffic- traffic like the convoy Honor's heavy cruisers were shepherding. During the hyperspace transition, Honor boarded Alistair McKeon's heavy cruiser, the Prince Adrian, for his birthday party, and was still aboard as the Prince Adrian dropped out of hyperspace well before the rest of the convoy, as it had been assigned to be the point guard. Due to the absence of the expected system picket, the Prince Adrian proceeds cautiously, detecting the PNS ships waiting to ambush the convoy; the only possible course is to draw off the ambushers away from the convoy. They hold off the Havenites long enough for the transports to escape. Then, out matched and unable to escape (the impeller nodes necessary to survive a transit into hyperspace were damaged in the battle), Honor orders McKeon to surrender.

At first, Honor and her officers are treated respectfully by Tourville and Admiral Thomas Theisman, who remember Honor's treatment of Havenite prisoners such as Tourville's own staff officer, Shannon Foraker, and the Havenite officers plan to intern Harrington and her officers in a Navy-run POW camp instead of turning her to State Security. Unfortunately, their efforts are brought to nought when Cordelia Ransom, the People's Republic's Secretary for Public Information, who happened to be in-system testing Theisman's political loyalty and developing propaganda intervenes and demands that the Manticorans be surrendered to her. Unable to deny Ransom and her State Security (or "StateSec") enforcers, Admiral Theisman has little choice but to transfer Honor to Ransom's men and helplessly watches as StateSec troopers beat her.

Honor, Alistair, Horace Harkness, and the rest of the crew are transferred to, and held prisoner on the Havenite battlecruiser PNS Tepes. Tepes, which belongs to State Security and not to the Havenite Navy, is Ransom's personal flagship and is bound for the Havenite prison planet of Hades, where Ransom intends to execute the sentence the Legislaturists passed upon Honor for attacking and blowing up a Havenite Q-ship (the events of On Basilisk Station). The rest of the prisoners are merely sentenced to lifetime imprisonment on Hades. The journey towards Hades is marked by Honor's torture at the hands of StateSec and the general mistreatment of the other Manticoran prisoners, as well as the defection to the Republic of Horace Harkness.

Back home, Allison Chou Harrington is attempting to cure genetic diseases on Grayson by setting up a modern genetic clinic, and the treecats begin setting up their first off-planet colony. The Manticoran Admiralty is occupied defending against Esther McQueen's attacks and preparing their new weapons, hoping to deliver a knock-out blow to end the war.

Unbeknownst to StateSec, Harkness had no intention of truly defecting, and after fooling his assigned watchdogs, Harkness hacks into the security systems, utterly disabling them, the communications, and sabotaging the boat bays and causing massive explosions. He breaks out his fellow Manticorans, and while a group rescues Honor, the rest escape fighting their way through Tepes converging on the remaining undamaged boat bay. There, they jury-rig the four remaining small vessels: the first is programmed to go on an unmanned kamikaze ride through the minefields surrounding Hades- Harkness expected the nuclear mines to detonate, blinding sensors and covering their escape; the second and third assault shuttles were used to escape the ship; and the fourth ship was masterfully modified to bring its impeller wedge up inside Tepes, causing a catastrophic explosion, killing Cordelia Ransom and all aboard. But despite their remarkable escape, they find themselves injured (among other injuries, Honor's left arm is amputated) and in a potentially worse situation: they are stranded on Cerberus III, facing a well-provided for prison camp and unknown amounts of space forces.