Primadonna
In Transit
In which Theo receives several more things unexpectedly.
Theo’s remark about Mayko being afraid she’ll lose the contract is, I think, a joke about Theo physically mislaying the contract before she has a chance to sign it, but in another sense I think Mayko actually is afraid that she, that is Mayko, will lose the contract — in these present unsettled times, it’s possible that a good pilot might find opportunity or necessity leading her down a path away from Hugglelans. And the more so if she’s given formal recognition as a first class pilot before those other paths are closed off.
Rig Tranza’s song about “the ship Jonny B” is perhaps a space-age descendant of the old folk song about the misadventures of the sloop John B. The one about having enough cooks for an army isn’t specifically familiar in the same way, but does sound appropriately folk-song-like.
Theo’s worry about urgent bad news from home turned out to be unfounded — this time. But if this is after all that eventfulness on Lytaxin, there is bad news from home that’s got to catch up with her some time.
It has occurred to me since I wrote this entry that “enough cooks for an army” might be a reference to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan universe, and the tale of the Vor lord who tried to camouflage the army he recruited by arming the soldiers with kitchen knives and putting them on the payroll as cooks.