Tag Archives: Bechimo’s safe space

Dragon Ship – Chapter 35

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Hoselteen

In which Kamele receives news of her daughter.

I like that the news of Theo’s activities comes from news sources that show a range of degrees of reliability and accuracy, where a writer less committed to worldbuilding might have just had one. (I particularly appreciate the detail of the biased summary on the Eylot situation saying “Eylot threatened with interdiction; vessel destroyed”, which makes it sound like somebody threatened Eylot for no reason and then destroyed a ship, instead of Eylot destroying a ship and being threatened with consequences.)

Joyita has acquired a fourth ring since last time they were mentioned, which was at Velaskiz Rotundo, just before Kara signed on as crew – and putting that way makes me wonder if that’s the key. Perhaps the fourth ring represents Kara, and the original two represent Theo and Clarence… or Theo and Win Ton, the holders of the first two ship keys, and the third was added at the point when Bechimo accepted Clarence as a crew member and not just a temporary nuisance. (It appears, I think, at about the same point that Bechimo stops objecting to being addressed as “Chimmy”.)

Dragon Ship – Chapter 34

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Bechimo

In which Bechimo‘s crew assess the damage.

It occurs to me to wonder just what it means for a pocket of space to be empty. Most of space, by definition, consists of emptiness; what is it about this particular spot that makes it emptier than any other?

I’m also curious about the image Hevelin shows Win Ton of Theo dancing. That seems more like one of Win Ton’s memories than Hevelin’s; Theo wasn’t in the mood for joyous dancing the first time she met Hevelin, nor during the run to Codrescu and Velaskiz Rotundo that ended with Hevelin coming aboard. Although I suppose there’s still the trip from Velaskiz to Ynsolt’i, after Kara joined the crew; Theo might well have been in the mood to dance then.

I had been noticing that there have been more explicit mentions of the ship’s gravity in this book than is usual for the series. I suspect now it may have been leading up to this introduction of the Struven Unit which provides the ship’s gravity and is also connected somehow to the ship’s Jump ability. (I also suspect now that there’s some connection between the malfunctioning Struven Unit and the unusual behaviour of the flotsam.)

Dragon Ship – Chapter 33

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Bechimo

In which Bechimo is concerned for the safety of his crew.

We lead off immediately with the important news: despite Bechimo’s concerns about the Remastering Unit being affected by the Department’s attack, Win Ton is all right.

Well, okay, the important news is that Bechimo is still in one piece, but that’s pretty much implicit in the news about Win Ton, right?

(As the chapter progresses, though, there are hints that maybe Win Ton’s recovery wasn’t entirely unaffected.)

I’d like to know a bit more about how Bechimo “extrapolated this location”. It makes sense that a place like this wouldn’t be somewhere you’d be able to learn the co-ordinates of from piloting records – for that matter, if the main appeal of it is that nobody else can find it, being able to find the co-ordinates in piloting records would be a disqualification – but extrapolated from what? while seeking the answer to what question?

Dragon Ship – Chapter 9

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Frenzel
Chaliceworks Aggregations

In which Theo counts her blessings.

The placement of the scene with Kamele says something about the authors’ priorities. If it had appeared a few chapters ago, it would have contrasted obviously (perhaps a bit too obviously?) with the scene at Jelaza Kazone which reminds us that the person Kamele is going to Surebleak to see isn’t there, and nobody knows when he’ll be back. Placed here, it instead invites the reader to compare and contrast the strong-mindedness of mother and daughter. It also gives context, for readers who didn’t know it or had forgotten, for Theo’s musings about her family in the following scene.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 26

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Bechimo

In which Bechimo gets his first introduction to Theo’s family.

Bechimo still hasn’t got the memo about being safe, but I suspect on some level he’s aware that Theo has a point and is being stubborn about it; the interplay with the Protocol module strikes me as the AI version of “knows he’s behaving badly and doesn’t care”. And even though he says that he’s only trying to do right by the wisdom of the Builders, I’m getting a definite flavour of “I know best”, or at least “I don’t trust anybody else to do this as well as me”, from his attitude.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 23

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Bechimo

In which Theo and Bechimo come to an agreement.

It’s a good thing for Theo (and, as she reminds us, Win Ton) that Bechimo agreed with her reasons for venturing out into the dangerous universe again. There doesn’t seem like there’s much she could have done if he hadn’t.

One hundred twenty-six years is a long time to be waiting in an empty patch of space with nobody to keep one company. Though perhaps, when it comes down to it, not that much worse than the other three hundred plus years spent waiting in more occupied patches of space with nobody to keep one company. When we get reminded how long Bechimo‘s been waiting for Captain and crew, the wonder is maybe that he’s not even less well-adjusted than he is. It’s probably a testament to how much care the Builders put into adjusting him in the first place.

Tomorrow: “Hidden Resources”, then “Kin Ties”, “Code of Honor”, then back to chapter 24.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 22

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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.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 21

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Bechimo

In which Theo has a few things to say about Bechimo‘s priorities.

Interesting that Uncle is on Bechimo‘s Disallowed List, when he told Theo he saw the ship when it was under construction. Did he start out working with the Builders, and do something that caused a falling-out? Or maybe the Builders already didn’t like him, and he only got to see the under-construction Bechimo briefly and had to sneak in to do it. (Either way, it might be support for the idea that Uncle’s shipyard in Trade Secret isn’t the yard that produced Bechimo, but a later attempt by Uncle to replicate the achievement.)

Because I need to imagine it looking like something, and because it seems appropriately science-fictional, I always picture Bechimo‘s discovery looking like the Utah teapot.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 20

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Bechimo

In which Theo has questions for Bechimo.

Yes, Theo, all of the above. Good luck with that.

Theo’s dubious, but we know from the prequels that it is possible in this setting for ships to travel from another universe into this – though not easy, which may explain why Bechimo‘s discoveries are always in pieces. Or, since Bechimo‘s also correct about the catastrophic event, it could be that they were in pieces already when they left their original universe.