Alice Truman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rear Admiral of the Red Dame Alice Truman is a fictional character in the Honorverse. She is an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. An aristocrat ('The Honorable Alice Truman' originally) from a family with a long military history, intricately networked in the politics of the RMN.

She has commanded the starships HMS Apollo (a light cruiser), RMMS Parnassus (a Q-ship) and HMS Minotaur.

When commanding Apollo (as a Commander), in The Honor of the Queen, she set a hyperspace speed record between Yeltsin's Star and the Manticore Binary System. She was Honor Harrington's next most senior captain.

Parnassus was a 'Q-ship', an armed merchant cruiser disguised as a regular merchantman. This was a testbed for systems later used in the RMN's Light Attack Craft Carrier (CLAC) and missile-pod superdreadnought programmes. She was a Captain of the List by this point, and Honor's deputy in the squadron of four Q-ships. These events took place in Honor Among Enemies.

Minotaur, an experimental ship ('the best scale for a test is ten millimetres to the centimetre'), was the first CLAC, an aircraft carrier-analogue able to transport around 100 advanced Light Attack Craft (small, sublight warships - not fighters). This was also fitted with the first multi-drive missile launchers. These proved a nasty surprise to the enemy at the Second Battle of Hancock in Echoes of Honor. She was promoted to Rear Admiral shortly thereafter (jumping the rank of Commodore) and presumably this was when she was knighted.

She was brevetted to Vice Admiral in Ashes of Victory prior to Operation Buttercup, in which she served as Admiral White Haven's CLAC commander. After the installation of the High Ridge government, bad blood with the new management cost her confirmation of the promotion.

She appeared in War of Honor as a Rear Admiral, commanding TF34's CLACs. It is assumed that she will be given back her second star in At All Costs. Truman temporarily assumes command of Third Fleet, when Admiral Kuzak and the next most senior admiral are killed at the Battle of Manticore.

Truman is blonde; by some strange coincidence, all of her executive officers have been as well. It is unknown if this trend extends past her promotion to flag rank, but Michelle Henke comments in At All Costs that "For some reason, Alice Truman always seemed to have an executive officer, or a chief of staff, or a flag captain who was as golden-haired and blue-eyed as she was."

Marital/family status is unknown. A rough guess of her age as of 1920PD would be 65 Terran years. She is assumed to be at least a second-generation prolong recipient.