Conference Room Able
Pilots Guildhall
Volmer
In which the bad news keeps on coming.
Caratunk is a planet we’ve heard of before: it’s where Jethri’s father met Iza Gobelyn.
And we heard about that in the same chapter which first informed us that “there are secrets in all families”, a phrase that’s associated with a particular family, and a particular person who is likely to be the same person Win Ton is on his way to meet. It amuses me that he’s implicitly included in Win Ton’s reference last chapter to unspecified people “even less reputable” than Scouts or Juntavas.
The fact that Win Ton was at Nev’lorn when the fighting broke out is interesting, and offers an additional reason for the Department to have decided the time was right for overt action. (And prompts one to wonder what might have happened if he and Daav had encountered each other there.)
And now the bad news from home has caught up with Theo, having been somewhat delayed by Kamele’s lack of familiarity with the options for sending an urgent message long-distance to a person in motion. There’s an irony here: Theo does know where to find her father – or would, if she had the means to link together several things she’s learned recently – but, lacking those means, she doesn’t know that she knows.
Poor suffering Win Ton. He got it from both sides. This chapter pulled on my heartstrings.
You mention Caratunk and Jethro. His dad was Arin, who is Uncle’s brother, yes? The Arin of Arin’s Toss courier ship? It seems possible that Bechimo was built at the time of Balance of Trade. Ghost Ship says it is about 500 years old, while Jeeves is about 700.
Bechimo can interact with Old Dark Tech, seemingly to bring it into the fold. From this chapter, Bechimo’s key worked with Old Dark Tech on the Department’s ship, where they tortured Win Ton. Another self-aware ship, I suppose. And later, it says the Dept’s ship suffered when Win Ton did. I think Bechimo does something similar in Dragon Ship, persuading the enemy ship to jointly create a gravity push, so he could evade (push) enemies away when cornered (maybe outside Eylot?) Bechimo became infected as a result of the collaboration, sort of, thus needing the new struvan unit (sp?).
Except this chapter:
“The Old Tech, Theo, it—interacts with other devices of its kind, and not always at direction. The key—our keys—they are aware of our presence, or even our distance; in some fashion I do not understand. They interact with each other and they draw on the power and ability of other Old Tech. How else would the key forcibly taken from me keep returning to my cell?”
Win Ton goes on to say the Dark ship suffered when he suffered, and helped him escape.
All very spooky, but I’m not clear on what’s happening. This timonium is a puzzle. Is all dark old tech made of timonium? Is anything “innocuous” made of it? Does it compare with anything on earth?
There is a lot of incidental evidence suggesting that Bechimo was constructed around the time of Balance of Trade, or rather a little bit after. That line from Ghost Ship is actually one of the few exceptions, and a bit of a problem for the theory, because Balance of Trade was only 275 years ago.
I think it’s been fairly solidly established that Old Tech uses timonium as a key element, but I don’t think it’s true that everything that uses timonium is Old Tech. There are mentions of present-day commercial exploitation of timonium; that’s what they were digging up on Surebleak in the days before it became a backwater. Also, I suspect the Bedel use timonium in their tech, which might qualify as Old Tech but isn’t Dark.
I don’t think timonium compares to anything presently known on earth; it’s one of those mysterious elements unknown to modern science that space opera has found so useful over the years. (I have an idea that it might be a stable island transuranic element, but I can’t remember if that’s from the books, or an author interview, or just something I made up – and anyway, that doesn’t tell us anything because the whole point of stable island transuranic elements, from the point of a science fiction writer, is that they are mysterious elements unknown to modern science…)
Have the authors ever presented a timeline or chronology?
You offer up a wealth of information. Thanks! I have never even heard of a stable island transuranic element.
Turns out that my husband, a materials physicist, has heard of it. He had this to say, when I asked him about it:
Well, they (Lee & Miller) probably read something about Seaborg’s theoretical island of stability, a combination of protons and neutrons that hold together, so the element doesn’t decay, yet the element is radioactive, and beyond uranium on the table of elements. (Greater than 92.) All the isotopes of uranium are radioactive. An element that’s heavier than uranium YET STABLE does not exist on earth. And uranium itself is not stable; both isotopes eventually decay.
Such elements can be synthesized in a partical accelerator or nuclear reactor. But they don’t “live” long, and are expensive to make.
So, it sounds like the notion of true stability in transuranic elements is the problem. It’s where science meets fiction (or theory).
He doesn’t think it would exist “out there” either, but he has no imagination. ? Lol. So now I have a slight grasp on this timonium concept.
By the way, in this chapter Win Ton said: “And my keepers told me they would unleash these devices they’d collected, to destroy Liad…They promised, as if it were a chernubia, to allow me to help!”
Umm? Why would the Dept of Interior destroy Liad? They are totally pro-Liadian.
And do you have any idea which planet the bad guys were orbiting, that served as the Department’s repository of so much old tech?
The authors did include a timeline of the series in one of their self-published short story collections, years ago, but of course it’s missing a lot of things now. The Liaden Wiki has a fan-made Timeline that builds on that base and is more up to date.
I’ve found the bit I was thinking of about timonium — in Crystal Soldier, it says “timonium was long considered to be an impossible element, semi-stable despite its atomic number, radiating in an unnatural spectrum”. So that’s the link to the island of stability hypothesis, and also I think the most detail we get in the series about what timonium actually is.
Here’s a fun fact I just learned while googling: in our universe, Timonium is the name of a suburb of Baltimore — which just happens to be the city the authors used to live in…
That is a very good question about destroying Liad. It seems like either there are two different covert and ruthless organizations infiltrated into the Scouts, or the entire Department is not on the same page about what their ultimate goal is…
OH, yay! What a great timeline! I am impressed! Thanks for the link. There is so much on the wiki that I haven’t yet explored, having only recently found the site.
You found the elusive timonium citation! It validates your recollection in the hypothesis. Good enough! Probably the authors want to keep its qualities open-ended, so almost anything can happen.
Timonium, Maryland. Lol. Baltimore to Maine.
Two totalitarian organizations? Maybe the timonium is making the Dept of Interior agents crazy. Creating a schism.
Remind, the director Val Con captured in the HQ tunnels on Liad turned on the non-stop killing machines, knowing they could kill thousands, perhaps the entire planet. I never understood how he could do that. Neither could his agent, also captured. Now it makes more sense, in light of what Win Ton said. Yet is seems odd.