Liad
Trealla Fantrol
In which Val Con’s family are concerned for his whereabouts.
There’s more about certain aspects of Liaden culture in this one chapter than there is in all of Agent of Change, although that’s perhaps only to be expected when Agent of Change was about a Liaden surrounded by Terrans and this chapter features two Liadens interacting on Liad itself.
I’m a bit puzzled by the mention of Val Con being a Scout Captain in a time past, because it was said several times in the later chapters of Agent of Change that his present rank is Scout Commander, and Commander is usually the rank below Captain (traditionally, it meant that although one was not a captain yet one had risen far enough to be put in command of an unrated ship) — and I don’t picture Val Con doing anything that would have got him busted down a rank. Maybe the Scouts just do ranks differently. Maybe it’s just a typo.
This is the first chapter not to contain any reference to Miri since almost the beginning of Agent of Change, which in a way underlines how much Val Con’s family don’t know about what he’s been up to.
A mild corruption between naval and marine ranks could easily have flipped them: a marine Captain ranks below a naval Commander. Also, there are rank systems in which a Commandant (which could easily be corrupted into Commander) is senior to a Captain in the same service (the Irish Army appears to be an example). Further, for example in the Los Angeles Police Department, a Police Commander is senior to a Police Captain. It seems unlikely to me that Liaden scout ranks are descended from Terran ranks, but even if they are, there is ample precedent for this usage.
It is, by the way, rather peculiar that an army or marine Captain is inferior to a naval Captain, as both ranks descend from the same medieval position (that of the nobleman who had purchased the right to command a company). Early British warships had two commanding officers: the Master was in charge of sailing, and the Captain was in charge of the company of soldiers embarked on it. The soldier Captain was, of course, senior, because after all, ship of war. Later, smaller ships combined the roles, creating the rank of Master and Commander (from which the naval Commander rank derives). Large ships retained the split between the (soldier) Captain and the (sailing) Master, though eventually Captains were appointed from the ranks of Master and Commanders, and thus knew also sailing, not just soldiering. The role of the Master diminished, until the position was completely eliminated in the 19th Century.