Tradedesk
In which there are many meetings.
…well, that seems a pretty clear statement that Bechimo was built in or shortly after Jethri’s time, with Arin’s ideas as guidance. There have been other people named Arin (there’s one in Crystal Dragon), and there might even have been another who was a noted thinker on subjects of interest to traders, but it’s not likely there was another who was all that and had a son who took a different path.
But we’re still stuck with the fact that the beginning of Ghost Ship states straight up that Bechimo has been awaiting a captain for over five hundred years – which is to say, since two hundred years before Jethri was born.
(On another, less contradictory, note, we have another hint to go with the one from “Intelligent Design” of a technological underpinning for psychic abilities in the Liaden Universe.)
PA: There have been other people named Arin
Yes, but with Uncle’s history, and Arin as his “brother” do we really think those were other people rather than all the “same” one?
Since the question at hand was “when was Bechimo built”, that’s not really the point. The point was more that the name Arin has been attested at numerous points in history, centuries apart, so saying “Arin was involved” doesn’t, in itself, tell us anything about what century the thing happened.
Oh, right. Got it, thanks!
This chapter begins with a long paragraph which itself ends with: the same subetheric channels that he utilized in his communications with the Others .
So, yes, we’ve been introduced to this idea of “subetheric channels.” But what concerns me is the mention of capital O “Others.” Who are these “Others”? Is he referring to the other self-aware ships? This reference to the “subetheric channels” being what the dramliz might use made me interpret the reference, with its important capitalization, as some new metaphysical presence yet to be explored/explained. But thus far—through the next few books—we have no further similar reference.
p.s. Jump to chpt 28, where we are given some more information . . .