Bechimo
In which Bechimo has doubts.
There are some interesting details about Bechimo‘s background in this chapter. The Builders clearly gave some thought to the question of what might happen if the AI running their more-or-less autonomous ship, with full control over the airlocks and life support systems and all, turned out to be the kind of AI that sci-fi horror movies have warned us about.
Also, we get what I think is the first mention of Bechimo‘s preferred gender.
Bechimo
In which Bechimo has hope.
But before the new adventure begins, we have a Bechimo‘s eye view of the events of Saltation, which is largely recap for the benefit of new readers and those who didn’t just finish reading Saltation yesterday, but slips in a few new details about Bechimo‘s capabilities and world view.
If Win Ton was the first person to step inside Bechimo in over five hundred Standard Years, that would appear to rule out the idea that Bechimo‘s a product of the shipyard mentioned in Trade Secret, however well the incidental details seem to fit; it’s been less than three hundred years since the events of Trade Secret.