Elaine Komandorski

Elaine Komandorski aka Georgia Sakristos, aka Lady Georgia Young, Countess of North Hollow is a fictional character in the Honorverse. She first appears in "Field of Dishonor" where she is a minor antagonist and again in "War of Honor" where she plays again plays a minor role. Her background is further elaborated on in "Crown of Slaves"

Georgia Sakristos is first introduced -- in "Field of Dishonor" -- as aide to Dimitri Young, Earl North Hollow, a leading politician, influence peddler, and shadowy manipulator, where she is, as the author puts it, employed as a dirty tricks specialist. The book makes it clear that her allegiance to Earl Young is based largely on his possession of evidence of past crimes on her part, but what those crimes are remains undisclosed. When the Earl dies, she enters the employ of his son Pavel Young, the chief enemy (on a personal level at least) of the series' eponymous heroine, Honor Harrington. Pavel forces her to engage in sexual activities with him and physically abuses her, as evidenced by a black eye and several comments made throughout the middle part of the novel.

She is instrumental in arranging the assassination by duel (at the hands of Denver Summervale, a professional duelist who first appeared in "On Basilisk Station") of Paul Tankersley, the lover of Honor Harrington and ex-first officer to Pavil Young. The reasons for Pavel's intense hatred of Honor are discussed, at length in the proceeding novels "On Basalisk Station" and "The Short Victorious War", as well as revisted briefly in "Field of Dishonor". Georgia is also responsible for leaking information to Harrington's allies vis a vis the identity of the man who paid Summervale, thus arranging for Honor to kill both Summervale and Pavel in duels. Georgia uses this opportunity to erase the evidence against her.

She returns in "War of Honor", now married Pavel's brother, Stefan, the current Earl Horthhollow. The two have managed to parlay the "legendary" "North Hollow Files" (a collection of blackmail material, both real and fabricated, on many of Star Kingdom of Manticore's leading political figures, including its current Prime Minister, Michael Janvier aka Baron High Ridge) into positions in the government. The Young's and the Janvier's are both members of the Conservative Association, which Weber describes as "reactionary" and "concerned with noble privledge" in his notes at the end of "More than Honor", the first of four collections of short stories set in the Honorverse.

Georgia is eventually confronted by Catherine Montaigne and Anton Zilwicki who have, through methods not fully disclosed in "War of Honor" but expanded upon in "Crown of Slaves", discovered that Georgia Sikristos is actually Elaine Komandorski. Elaine has an extensive history of being investigated by the Manticore police for various financial crimes, specifically industrial espionage and swindling. She is also suspected of committing two murders and is linked to one suicide. This is Weber's way of revealing Elaine / Georgia's deep dark secret, the one Dimitri and Pavel had used to control her.

When Georgia / Elaine proves unimpressed by Montaigne and Zilwicki's evidence, they further explain that they have discovered that Komandorski entered the world as a genetic slave and that, in exchange for her freedom and 500,000 Solarian credits, she helped the Mesa based Manpower Incorporated, the Honorverse's preeminent (and the only one mentioned in any of the books) perveyor of "genetic slaves", capture a freighter full of escaped slaves. After undergoing biosculpt (a process in the Honorverse apparently similar to plastic surgery) to change her appearance and remove the identifying slave tattoo from her tongue, she took the name Elaine Komandorski and settled herself on Manticore in Landing City. They threaten to turn this information over to the anti-slavery terrorist organization known as The Audubon Ballroom if she does not agree to destroy (in a way that leaves no doubt that they have, in fact, been destroyed) the North Hollow Files. Since the Audubon Ballroom, and especially its leader Jeremy X, have a long and bloody track record of exacting vengeance on anyone associated with the genetic slave trade, this is a very serious threat and Komandorski agrees. Although not explicitly stated in the text, it is implied that Georgia does indeed arange for the North Hollow home in Landing City (the capital of the Star Kingdom) to explode with no fatalities and then flees the Star Kingdom for parts unknown.

Significance

Elaine / Georgia is a key supporting character in two of the eleven (so far) books in the Honor Harrington series. While she has relatively few appearances and never comes face to face with Honor, her actions are pivotal to the plots not only of the novels in which she actively appears, but to the overarching plot of the entire series.

She also provides a contrast to all the other escaped slaves in the series, who are, to a man, depicted as heroic (if sometimes brutal and ruthless) and selfless. This is never more apparent than in "Crown of Slaves" where her backstory is discovered by Anton Zilwicki. In "Crown of Slaves" the escaped slaves, including Jeremy X, Saburo X, and W.E.B. du Havel, are all depicted as well educated, responsible, and respectable figures. W.E.B du Havel is a leading humanitarian and statesman, while Elaine is a traitor, a murderess, and a thief.

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