Melchiza
City of Treasures
In which Kamele and Theo are reunited.
It’s all very well for the Chaperon to say that perhaps Kamele might tour the school next time she visits; even supposing there’s any likelihood of a next time, which I doubt, I somehow suspect that no matter how many visits Kamele might make it will always turn out that the schedule is too tight.
The detail about Jen Sar having installed an Orbital Traffic Scanner in his office to keep him company while Kamele and Theo are away is one of those prequel-type details that doesn’t seem particularly significant to someone following the story in chronological order, but has a special resonance to those of us who first read the series as it was published: it happens that in publication order the first time we met Professor Jen Sar Kiladi he was sitting in his office listening to the Orbital Traffic Scanner at just the right moment to change the course of his life.
The “nameless one” who helps escort Theo to Port Three assures her: Melchiza values pilots, as you saw. Wow. He is apparently unable to even imagine her reaction to what she “saw.” He continues by inviting her to: continue your education with us, and join the Melchizan Pilot Corps, even encouraging her to retain her badge to make reapplication simpler. He must not have any experience off-world. Only someone whose worldview has remained entirely provincial, OR someone who is so firmly entrenched into pilot-privilege that he no longer sees what the rest of the Melchizan population must endure, could think that Theo would have any desire to return. And that’s before she knows anything about her mother’s experiences!
Not only that – but there are a lot of people in such repressive systems that prefer to turn a blind eye or forget they even know about this everyday oppression. They are so accustomed they don’t see it anymore – also they don’t see how much they live by its rules. Similar to all the surveillance and law changes that sprang up after 11th November. “Since I don’t do anything unlawful – why should I care about what data is available about myself on the internet or what personal bank data is recorded or how easily police and state agencies might get on personal data?”
Also that nameless person might have been required to say something like this. Some kind of general standing order for foreign students that get the pilot school tag.
Othin: might have been required to say something like this
In fact, as I was writing my comment, copying and pasting his two utterances, I noticed how very rote they sounded. So you may have the right of it.