Codrescu Station
In which Bechimo arrives at Codrescu.
Theo’s verbal fencing with Eylot Control is very amusing – from a safe distance.
Eylot’s demands are several kinds of unreasonable, of course. The one that particularly strikes me is the newly-promulgated law against close approach to the planet without prior permission, the penalty for a first offense being impoundment and confiscation. Granting that Bechimo didn’t announce their arrival in a properly official way, I still find myself wondering whether, if they’d made a normal approach, Eylot Control would have thought to mention the new law before they came near enough to break it.
There’s a minor continuity lapse in this chapter, with Joyita announcing Bechimo‘s affiliation to the station as “Lucky Cat” instead of “Laughing Cat”. (I can’t think of any in-story reason for him to have got that wrong, either inadvertantly or deliberately.)
Lucky Cat, with the luck being central to Korval / Theo. Maybe it was not a mistake but written on purpose, supposedly a subconscious linguistic tell. As a mistake, it’s a cute one. 9 lives.
Anyway, here is a question. Text says:
“Establishing orbit,” Bechimo stated. “Acquiring Eylot planetary images, seventeen point nine seven light-minutes old.”
How can something be 17 light minutes old? That is a distance, not a time period. Yes?
Yes, it is, but I can accept it as a bit of piloting shorthand. What he’s saying is that the images are 17.97 minutes out of date specifically because the ship is 17.97 light minutes away from the planet (as opposed to being out of date due to network lag or for some other reason).
Using distance to mark time feels more complicated, but I guess it’s like saying, “The time it takes to drive to the ocean” from my house.