Shipyear 65
Tripday 181
Third Shift
14.00 hours

In which Shan receives the news from Sintia.

Have I mentioned that I have a lot of respect for Mr dea’Gauss?

It’s not mentioned here, but we know from “A Matter of Dreams” that the incident that led to Priscilla’s expulsion involved not only the saving of three lives but also the ending of one, under similar circumstances of defense-under-pressure as the death of Dagmar Collier. It’s possible that, when Priscilla gave herself up as a murderer Shan would no longer wish to be associated with, she had the earlier death on her mind as well as the recent one. A person might be able to persuade herself that one slaying was an aberration that might be discounted as long as it didn’t become a habit, but then to find herself doing it again…

There may not be a more appropriate time after this to make an observation about Priscilla’s name. In full it is Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza, following the form of a Spanish naming custom in which a person’s surname is in two parts, one inherited from each parent, and connected with “y” (which means “and”). In the Spanish tradition, the important part of the surname would be the first half, inherited from the father, and the short form of Priscilla’s name would be “Priscilla Delacroix” — but in fact, as we’ve seen more than once in this novel, the short form of her name is “Priscilla Mendoza”, giving precedence to her mother’s surname, which fits with the matriarchal nature of the society she hails from.