Five Light-Hours out from Surebleak Libration Point Five
In which some spacefaring devices have things to say.
And now we know where the Department of the Interior sent its fleet of Old Tech war machines, though I think we’d all been assuming the answer anyway.
I think this is the first time Bechimo’s mentioned the name of the shipyard where he was built. It makes sense for it to be the Carresens shipyard at Margate, since we know that was where Disian was built, and Disian has a visible family resemblance to Bechimo. In “Wise Child”, Tolly describes the shipyard as “not exactly secret, but not much talked about”.
Clarence’s first comment about the mixture of ship signals and device signals was rather amusing: “Somebody lost a load of toasters and they’re talking to themselves?” And then, after Bechimo claims Stone Ronin as kin, Theo tells him: “You’ve got the clan face.” If readers didn’t snicker at that, they’re not paying attention!
I am curious about one of the comments we are told Theo picks out from the chaos of information Bechimo feeds through to her: “We know your scars.” What do you think that might mean? Do some of these devices recognize Bechimo from his time hiding amongst them?
I find the first chapter very interesting: “If they had a peculiarly powerful telescope or a very sensitive Jump detector and the leisure to look, the crew of Bechimo could have seen where they’d been five hours earlier. As it was, there were a few seconds of quiet in between as the Struven units split and merged the space around them.”
What do you take that to mean?
Does a five hour jump move one only as far as the edge of a powerful telescope’s range? Or is a jump managing that in a few seconds subjectively while taking 5 hours of the normal time flow? That is, is a jump not only moving in space but also in time? Does this seem at odds with other jump descriptions?
Where did the authors get the name Stone Ronin? Does it refer to the music of Ronin – Stones? Or is Ronin a reference to the action thriller film with Robert De Niro? Or just a reference to the old Japanese Ronin?
And will this Ronin find a new lawful occupation to serve in? Become part of the Surebleak defensive world net?
I believe the Ronin idea has nice resonances with the Scout Commanders judgment.
Ohtin, “five light hours” is a measure of distance, not of time: it’s the distance that light travels in five hours — approximately 3,353,000,000 miles. In a few seconds, Bechimo‘s Jump has taken them five light hours away from their previous position, so if they look back in the direction they came they could theoretically see themselves five hours ago — but at that distance, in practice, they would need an extraordinarily powerful telescope to see anything at all.
Ed8r, I don’t think the question about the scars is addressed to Bechimo. My understanding is that the Old Tech vessels haven’t noticed Bechimo’s arrival yet, and the questions they’re hearing are what the Old Tech vessels are asking each other. This fleet is the result of the Department throwing all its Old Tech at one target, so a lot of these vessels haven’t worked together recently, if ever.
So does the final version say “5 light hours” and not “5 hours earlier”? That would make a lot more sence.
@scars,
Paul, I’ll second that. My impression was also that the old Tech was still only talking among themselfs.
OT: @Ohtin
Your screen name here used to be spelled O-t-h-i-n. Sometime in late December, the order of the t-h was transposed to h-t. Was that change intentional?
Hey, there is that saying if a word has the same first and last letter as well as the right number of letters in-between than the brain sees it as correct. That seems to be what was happening. And yes it should be Othin. Thanks for pointing that out.
And oh I seem to have picked up other spellings too.
Othin, the chapter heading says “Five Light-Hours out”; the opening sentence says “where they’d been five hours earlier”.
The idea is that if they look back at where they were, they will be seeing light that left their previous location five hours ago, and so would see what was happening there five hours ago. Which will include them, if they had spent at least five hours at their previous location, which I believe is implied although I don’t think it’s explicitly stated.