Arin’s Toss
Volmer
In which Theo is off to Liad sooner than expected.
It’s tempting to speculate, given the coincidence of the deadline, that the Uncle’s rush job has something to do with Korval’s departure from Liad. The trouble is, why would it be a rush job in that case? The Council gave Korval 144 days notice, which is tight for an established clan to gather up all its belongings but plenty of time for a nimble operator to line up a single courier.
Unless, perhaps, Volmer is so far from Liad that by the time news arrives of Korval’s expulsion, hot on the heels of the news of Solcintra being attacked, the 144 days are half over and there’s only just enough time for a courier to hotfot it back to Liad if they leave immediately.
The trouble with that is… well, there’s two problems:
One is that, if you break it down, that means it takes about 70 days for the news to travel from Liad to Volmer, and another 70 days for Theo to travel from Volmer to Liad. (The exact amounts are arguable – for one thing, the news probably travelled somewhat less urgently than Theo, so perhaps the split is more like 85-55 – but not enough to affect the point.) The point is, that means Theo’s dash from Volmer to Liad would last weeks without stopping for food or fuel. And since it’s specified that it consists of five Jumps, that means each Jump would be at least a week in itself. And that just doesn’t seem right.
The second problem is that we already know how far Volmer is from Liad, more or less, and it isn’t that far. We’re told in Agent of Change that Lufkit to Volmer is two days at a reasonable speed, and in Carpe Diem we learn that a suitably motivated pilot can go from Lufkit to Liad in another two days. Even at a comfortable amble – no, put it this way: even if the news travelled from Liad to Volmer by Clutch ship, and then Theo travelled from Volmer to Liad by Clutch ship, the entire round trip would take up only half of the 144 days.
Even if one throws up one’s hands and decides the Uncle’s rush job is just a coincidence, there’s still an issue, because Theo arrived on Volmer within twelve hours of the news that Liad had been attacked; are we to assume that Theo made the trip from Volmer to Liad in a few days in response to news that took months to travel the other direction? Well, perhaps we are; Shan does say in Conflict of Honors that news can take months to travel if it’s left to whoever happens to be going in the right direction instead of sent directly. And, after all, is there anyone on Liad who has any reason to send the news directly to Volmer? (Well, I expect the Uncle has someone keeping an eye on things there. But he could well have received the news quickly and decided to keep it to himself, leaving everyone else on Volmer to find out when the news arrived by a slower and more public channel.)
Tomorrow: Chapter 42 and I Dare Chapter 58. The order in which to read them is thereby left to pilot’s choice.
The timespans given really do not make any sense. Perhaps the authors just screwed up. Nothing much story-wise happened between Korval beeing thrown off Liad and them meeting Theo – they’re preparing for departure, but that’s not what the story is about. Thus, it does not feel like a huge time span to the reader.
It may be intentional (by the authors) that news took a long time to arrive due to growing political instability, but even that can’t account for several months. Volmer isn’t exactly “galaxy nowhere” – it has been mentionned frequently and is choosen by Theo for offering many routing possibilities. Not the kind of place that’d get news last. And as the news is unsettling shipping routes and affecting trade, it certainly is relevant not only to pilots.
So maybe the Uncle’s rush job had nothing to do with Korval, tempting as it is to draw the association. As I read the book, I wondered why Uncle would be selling anything to Korval. Or rather, why Korval would deal with him. They’ve always maintained a distance from him, when possible.
I didn’t necessarily think the Uncle was dealing directly with Korval — later books make clear that Korval chooses not to deal directly with him except in dire need — but I did think possibly he had some kind of scheme to take advantage of the situation, which would only come off if it was completed while Korval was still resident on Liad.
Incidentally, I’ve just finished reading The Gathering Edge, which establishes that news does travel slowly over interstellar distances — there’s a scene in which someone is only just learning about Korval being kicked off Liad, even more months later than this scene in Saltation. Although that’s in a backwater system, and Volmer’s described as a trade hub that seems more likely to get the news while it’s stil quite fresh.
But I’ve just now had a thought that might be more fruitful: Korval was given 144 days to get off Liad, but who’s to say they took all 144? Perhaps the Uncle did have up-to-date information about when they were scheduled to leave, and had Theo’s trip planned accordingly — and then news came in that the schedule had been moved up unexpectedly and now there was just time to get Theo there if she hurried.
Oh, yes, that last paragraph. I think your new idea makes sense. And Edger’s huge ship was already there, at the end of I Dare. So why keep him waiting around several months.
@ 144 days
Since I dare sets specific days there is no shortening of the given time interval. Daav and the Clutch ship arrive on Liad at day 59 after the Council’s decision. But Theo arrives on day 201 and Korval leaves on day 202.
Therefore we must assume that news about the attack on Liad traveled slowly to Volmer. Why?
One reason for this might be that immediately after the attack everybody had been busy with helping and sorting things out. There was the orderly transfer of the defense net to accomplish, so immediate travel away from Liad might not have been possible. Ships and their crews would have tried to help. The mercs and the Juntavas would have been properly the only ships of non-Terran origins. And the Juntavas may have had reasons of their own to keep the knowledge close. The mercs were also busy defusing the situation and getting their own people back.
Also the Scouts won’t find a reason to speak with outsiders about this. Either they kept gathering on Liad to help out or were busy rebuilding their bases, preparing their journey to Surebleak, or hunting the DoI.
Another reason why news is late reaching Terrran worlds is that Liad is mostly interested in Liad as well as most of those non-Liadens on Liad are not rich. That means no pinbeams from Liadens or Low Port to Terran worlds. Next to no Courier Ships would be going directly to Terran Worlds.
Also consider the conditions of space travel. Jumping from one planet to another might not consume that much time, but reaching a planet or space station from a jump point takes several hours or even days, thus lengthening the time with which news travels.
So even without an official news blackout there were reasons why several people and organizations didn’t spread the news. And why others were slow doing this.
News properly traveled with different speed in different directions. And while Volmer has routing possibilities – does it have ties to Liad?
Taking all this into account you all are certainly right that 142 days is quite a long time between the Council decision and Theo’s arrival on Liad.
Nicely worked out, Othin.
Are you doing your own reread or . . . ???