Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit

In which Padi has a long day.

Shan has a plan: to visit the Redlands, which it turns out is not one country, or even one planet, but a system with three inhabited planets.

Which, among other things, raises an interesting possibility: considering that the Civilized want as little to do with the Haosa as possible, it might be that Civilization and the lands of the Haosa are on two different planets. (Which, if true, would make Bentamin’s casual teleporting between the two rather more interesting.)

I think this is the first time we’ve heard of the “Named Beacons” as such, but we have encountered at least one named Beacon: Edmonton Beacon, which Tocohl and Inki visited in Neogenesis. In the context of Shan’s researches, it’s significant that one of Edmonton Beacon’s functions was said to be that it was the last waystation and safe Jump point on a route into (or first on the route out of) the area affected by the Dust.

The other place Shan mentions, Spadoni Station, is the setting of the short story “Revolutionists”. Shan’s mention that the route to Spadoni Station has recently cleared may give us a hint about when that story is set.

Another list of small talents, and this one has a new talent: Reversers. Of what, one wonders.

It’s odd to see Irikwae mentioned as a place where some of the persecuted vas’dramliz found refuge: when we visited Irikwae in Balance of Trade, it was a place where dramliz other than the useful Healers were still being persecuted, and Miandra’s account of the planet’s history has it that it was colonised by people who left Liad in protest when it stopped purging the dramliz, because they wanted the purge to continue.

And then there’s the incident that finishes the chapter: the Closing of the Door, which attracts the attention of both Lute and Moonhawk. (I still hope that someday we might get to see what Priscilla’s reaction was the first time Shan mentioned to her that he’d met Lute.) It’s not yet clear what Door has been Closed, nor what Padi’s stylus might have had to do with it, unless that was just a coincidence, nor what it portends that it drew comment from Moonhawk, who hasn’t been heard from much in recent years; presumably time will bring further information. My first thought, given the golden threads and everything, was it that it was Ren Zel sealing the rift to the old universe, but it seems early in the story for that.

Is this the first mention of Shan and Priscilla’s to-be-born?