Saltation – Chapter 17

Ops
Anlingdin Piloting Academy

In which Theo’s advisors advise her.

It’s clear from the conversation Theo’s advisors have with her when they get back to the Academy that their hand-talk discussion on the trip back covered a lot of ground on the topic of What Are We Going To Do About Theo? — not just in general, and for the future, but also in quite a bit of detail regarding how they would approach Theo with their conclusions. The moment when yos’Senchul surprises Theo to make the point about how she reacts to the unexpected — right when Veradantha is drawing her attention by talking about how she reacts to the unexpected — has the feel of having been choreographed in advance.

I wonder if there was any particular reason for Veradantha to pick Jankalim and Theopholis for her list to demonstrate that aspects of culture are universal. (It happens that Jankalim and Theopholis are respectively the first and last planets visited by the protagonists in Conflict of Honors. Theopholis has some striking cultural details, including a peculiarly unpleasant penalty for pre-meditated murder; Jankalim we didn’t really get to see much of, culture-wise.)

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