Trident
Isolation Ward
In which Jela is isolated, and then made an offer he can’t refuse.
Jela gets put in quarantine. The tree gets put in quarantine. Corporal Bicra, who helped carry the tree, gets put in quarantine. Justifications are available, but Jela suspects somebody’s messing about. There is a hint that Corporal Kinto may be involved, though Jela doesn’t know what his motive might be.
And we may never get to find out, since the Commander shows up and offers Jela a job.
During their conversation, we learn that Jela has in the past found himself in command situations, where he has done well by the people below him but not always got along smoothly with the people above. “Alas, some ‘above my head’ have been raised to different rules and understandings of soldiers, duty, and necessity.”
We learn that independent thought and initiative are characteristics of M Strain (not always appreciated by the people above their heads), along with a distaste for idleness. We learn some more about X Strain as well, including the first mention of them by name. We get some details about Jela’s physical appearance (he’s shorter than a lot of people) and the med tech’s physical appearance (brown-skinned). (I’m keeping an eye on this, because I notice that the cover artist has depicted Jela as dark-skinned, and I’m wondering if there’s in-text support for it.) We also have the first appearance of pilots’ hand-talk.
I wondered why the authors portrayed Corporal Kinto as such a jerk. I decided maybe they were setting the stage for the unpleasant Yxtrang we meet in Agent of Change and Plan B.
Possibly, but I don’t recall it being said anywhere that Corporal Kinto was an X Strain, and I always assumed he was a natural human. Possibly he’s there as an example of the “different rules and understandings” that Jela dislikes in his commanders. Possibly he’s just there to provide texture to the narrative; it would be a bit dull (not to mention unconvincing) if Jela was well-liked by everybody he met.
You could well be right. Funny, I had just assumed he was like Jela.
Interesting that the Commander gives Jela three choices. 1) To stay as he is, 2) to return to what he was, and 2) to move forward into an unknown and possibly dangerous future that will not be an easy assignment. In response, Jela feigns indecision and laughs his head off. Into the future we go, danger-be-damned, Tree in tow.
The Commander tells him: “they assure me you show no signs of physical abnormalities, other than those any M grade soldier might show at this point in his career.” When I first read this comment, it passed right over my head with the assumption that it referred merely to possible damages/injuries he might have suffered in various campaigns during his career. Only later did I recall it as the first hints toward what it actually means for an M series soldier to “retire.”