Bechimo
In which the Assembled have come to consensus.
I appreciate Kara making the effort to be polite and not ruin the moment by laughing at everyone.
Stone Ronin’s a good choice to be the speaker for the group seeking useful employment, being the one among them with the most prior experience in that area. I still want to know how he ended up working for the Gilmour Agency, though.
PA: by laughing at everyone . . . laughing at *everyone*? Isn’t she laughing at what Kodele Orgham is saying? That the Assembled will actually go forth and “teach others, in [Theo’s] name”? Having grown up in a household and a diaspora culture that values only the authority of the Delm, she still sees Theo as odd and immature in this area of insisting on arriving at consensus. Whereas the machines and Theo’s other shipmates are ready to offer respect to Theo for the success of her dealings with the Assembled, Kara still only finds it amusing.
I’m with Ed8r, but only partially.
My inference-based impression is that Kara was indeed smothering a chuckle, but her humor seemed aimed at herself and at the irony of the moment. Laughing at her own earlier snarky doubts, now she accepts the value of discussion and sees wry humor in Theo’s consensus training actually saving the day and becoming a welcome tool in smartship problem solving.
Just how that bit struck me. Subjective!
Oh, nice, Skip! I agree with your assessment. Much more generous toward Kara than I was!
Thanks. For me, Kara adds a lot to the crew. In contrast to Theo, Bechimo, Joyita, and Little Tree (who needs a name), she adds a grounding of common sense, social sense, and practicality. Her doubts about consensus building felt credible, so her subsequent wry humor also felt so.
The thing I thought set Kara off was the bit about teaching others consensus-building in Theo’s name, as if it was an amazing new invention that Theo came up with on her own.
I don’t think Kara disdains consensus-building as such — as we’ve been told in the other plot thread, that’s the basis of Liad’s government. I think she just doubted it would work in this case, and found it piquant that Theo, with her different upbringing, not only had no doubt that it would work but considered it the obvious solution.
Yes, I totally agree with that, too. A multifaceted response.
However, I’m not sure Liaden government is where Kara is coming from. Her own experiences are more embedded in clan / delm based hierarchy.