On the ground
Faldaiza Port
In which somebody is taking an interest in Jela and Cantra.
I’m not sure I have anything particular to say about this chapter. Stuff happens, but I don’t want to just recount what happened without adding anything of my own.
I did like the detail that the bar is as successful as it is in part due to suggestions from Jela. A generalist is a useful person to have around.
Jela thinks Cantra is “a fine-looking woman” with “pretty green eyes”, and he appreciates her professionalism and is respectful of her. However, she is also a big question-mark in his current situation.
(The above observations are all from the previous chapter.)
Ragil, the soldier playing (or become?) barman, doesn’t think he wants to know Cantra, when Jela points her out.
Danby the redhead is obviously taken by her, in a pilot-out-for-fun sort of way. He’s willing to try to protect her from the bounty hunters. He is easily dissuaded, though, since there’s not much he can do without more trouble he hasn’t earned.
The bounty hunter manages to take Cantra with trickery, but doesn’t keep her. Ragil is correct about Cantra, if your interactions with her are not respectful.
I just laughed to find another redhead.
More politeness: Cantra can’t ask Jela what he’s a pilot OF because that just isn’t done. She does reason through the warning, though, and it was, without equivocation or confusion, a warning. And assuming one individual needs the help or protection of another can be construed as a grievous insult over the implied lack of ability to take care of herself. Pilot Jela gets off because he claims balance. He got her into their current mess; he feels he should help her out of it.
Two observations this time through:
The dancing seems to be in the style of a step dance. In fact when Cantra leaps and spins, she sees “high-stepping dancers” and “pilots jigging in place.” Maybe many were dancing without partners, just to work out some of the “kinks.”
Cantra’s knowledge of the way to defeat smartwire, and the fact that her suit had the right frequency already programed, gives us one more glimpse of Cantra’s past, living and trading on the dark side.