Date: January 10, 3026
Location: Liao
Title: Think Like a Liao
Author: Susan Putney
Type: Short Story
Synopsis: House Liao presides over a New Year's celebration on Liao, welcoming the Year of the Tiger. Maximilian Laio is joined by his wife Elizabeth, his daughters Candace and Romano, and his son Tormana (see notes). A parade has been going past in review since noon, featuring BattleMechs in the colors of House LuSann, Eridani stallions, and block-long paper dragons. Tormana is eager to be away from the pomp and circumstance, and be back in the field with the First Ariana Fusiliers. One of the things making him eager to be away is the presence of his father, the Chancellor, who took the time to present him with an itemized list of his shortcomings when the family gathered on New Year's Eve.
Following the parade, much to Tormana's disgruntlement, the royal family staffs a reception line at the Liao palace, with the elite of the Confederation passing in review in holiday costumes. Tormana is dressed as a "Japanese corporate warrior of the 21st century," (a bathrobe, obi, and katana). Tormana manages to deeply offend Michael Hasek-Davion's personal representative, industrialist Edgar Bentley, by accusing the FedSuns mercenaries "Sharp's Cavaliers" of atrocities (staking civilians to the ground and stepping on them with BattleMechs) and cowardice. Romano explains that Bentley's son commands Sharp's second regiment, the Stompers.
Tormana attempts to slip out of the reception before Candace makes him dance, but he is accosted by Maskirovka Director Chandra Ling, who chides him for trying to escape, since he's the most eligible bachelor on the planet. Tormana dismisses that claim, noting he's a disinherited younger son and a Mandrinn exiled from his holdings. His tone grows harder as he asserts that he isn't a bachelor either - he still considers himself married to Hanya No Cha. Ling sighs, and comments how strange it was that she just "disappeared." She warns him that his father, the Chancellor, wants a son who knows his place, rather than one who criticizes his policies and insults his guests. She informs him that Max plans to reconcile and appoint him the Duke of Bandora.
Tormana rejects the entreaty, saying he will neither reject his wife nor sweet-talk war criminals. He angrily declares that he has no stomach for Liao-style politics and scheming. He much prefers the straight-forward honest life in the military, and takes pride in being a good officer and taking care of his men. Ling warns that this offer is his last chance, but Tormana does not relent, and storms out of the reception.
Notes: In this story, as in many other early references to the character, Max Liao's son is called Tormana. The last reference to "Tormana Liao" is in the 3056-dated "Hot Spots" book. The earliest reference to "Tormano Liao" is on December 19, 3055, in "Assumption of Risk," so 3055-3056 seems to be around when the official spelling changed. I have no idea whether this was a conscious editorial decision or a typo that propagated, like the Kaznejov -> Kaznejoy change.
It appears that the Chinese Lunar Calendar undergoes some significant changes after the departure from Terra. Using a calculation tool to look up 3026, it would be the Year of the Pig on Earth (and that not until February 10, not January 10), but it's the Year of the Tiger on Liao. So, would worlds that no longer look to Terra still use the Terran lunar calendar? They still use the Terran Julian calendar, but the Year of the Tiger won't be until 3030 on Earth. (The Federated Suns still seems to go according to the Terran Lunar calendar, since they name Operation RAT after 3028 being the Year of the Rat.) (Most likely, Michael Stackpole did a better job of working the math out than Susan Putney, but there's still the possibility that the Liaos decided to re-do the calendar to reflect the lunar phases on Liao, Sian, or Capella - which would be consistent with their Liao-centric cosmology.) It's also interesting that the New Year's parties have a strong element of Halloween, assuming the costumes are part of the holiday, rather than it just being a costume party in honor of the holiday.
This is a magnificent character portrait of Tormana/o Liao, and Susan Putney does a fantastic job of setting up the basis for the father/son conflict. Max, of course, is no stranger to generational conflict, having orchestrated the coup that overthrew his own father and brought him to the Chancellorship. One might suspect that Max may be paranoid that his son could be plotting to follow in his footsteps. Tormana may prefer a simple military life now, but he certainly grows into his Liao heritage of scheming and manipulation through his work with Free Capella, though it all blows up in his face when he tries his manipulations on Peter Steiner-Davion and Kai Allard-Liao. He regains his stride when he becomes an advisor to Katrina Steiner, but is generally outdone at every turn by Sun-Tzu.
Hanya No Cha is rescued from Brazen Heart by the Federated Suns during the 4th Succession War, and is reunited with Tormano/a after his surrender. They had a close relationship with Hanse Davion, and established homes on New Avalon, Liao, St. Ives, and Brazen Heart. Hanya helped Tormano/a set up a network of agents in the Capellan Confederation to undermine Romano's regime (Free Capella). They have two children - a boy and a girl - and she is very active in social causes championed by Melissa Steiner-Davion. She became depressed and inconsolable after Melissa was assassinated. The 20 Year Update's description of Brazen Heart as her homeworld, and noting that they went back and built a vacation home there, becomes somewhat odd in the context of the writeup in Handbook: House Liao, which describes it as the moon of Brighton with a breathable atmosphere, but no nutritive plant life, and home to a major prison facility, whose influential prisoners spent their lives mining copper by hand.
Chandra Ling is, I feel, a character that was severely underutilized. Whereas Subhash Indrahar and Quintus Allard got a lot of page time in the Warrior Trilogy, Chandra Ling gets cut out of all the key intelligence operations by Max's "crisis team" of Alexei Malenkov (MIIO agent Alex Mallory), Justin Xiang (Davion mole Justin Allard), and Tsen Shang (Romano's puppet). I can appreciate that Michael Stackpole already had Subhash Indrahar to work with in the Warrior Trilogy, and didn't want to just repeat his scenes with Subhash-in-a-dress, but this scene hints at the potential her character had. This is, in fact, her only speaking scene in the entire BattleTech canon.