Tag Archives: Builders

Accepting the Lance – Chapter 8

Bechimo

In which Bechimo is unhappy.

My immediate reaction to Theo wondering why Val Con wants a future for Free Intelligences was “You have met Jeeves, haven’t you?” But I suppose that’s not a full answer; after all, Jeeves already had a specific judgement recognising him, so the new broader judgement might not make a lot of difference to him personally. But he’s not the only Free Intelligence Val Con knows; for one, there’s Tocohl. Come to think of it, I don’t think Theo knows about Tocohl yet.
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The Gathering Edge – Chapter 26

Bechimo
Crew Lockers

In which news is received of absent friends.

There I go again: the question I asked last entry is immediately answered, and not in the way I expected.
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The Gathering Edge – Chapter 25

Bechimo
Sync Shift

In which some things are opened that had been carefully sealed.

I don’t think I said this when it came up earlier: I like that Theo’s friends don’t all like each other just because all they like Theo. And that, on the other hand, it’s not held against them that they don’t; that’s just the way it goes, sometimes.
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The Gathering Edge – Chapter 13

Bechimo

In which preparations are made ahead of the captain’s debriefing.

Watching the Pathfinders try to make sense of Joyita while lacking the key detail about him is kind of amusing.
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Dragon in Exile – Chapter 19

Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak

In which Jeeves brings an urgent request to the delm.

That’s what you get, Miri, for tempting fate by being thankful you didn’t have to deal with Pat Rin’s problem in fleecy robe and slippers.

(It occurs to me that there’s a conceptual connection between Jeeves’s intention to create a child and what Val Con and Miri were doing when he interrupted, although Val Con and Miri presumably weren’t motivated by the same intention in this instance.)

The idea of Jeeves’s child coming to Korval is interesting; Jeeves, as far as I know, is not counted a member of the clan himself, any more than the other household servants. Perhaps it’s an option opened up by the fact that he came to the delm for permission. I don’t think a household servant would normally do that; inform their employer of a factor likely to affect their performance, yes, but the decision itself would be in the hands of their own delm. (I’m thinking, among other examples, of Jeeves’s predecessor Mr pak’Ora, who was called by his delm to serve his clan in another role, with his employer being given no say and left to cover his absence at short notice.) Jeeves, of course, doesn’t have a delm of his own, which may be another factor in Val Con’s offer. If it is an offer, and not an ultimatum: there have been cases where a child has gone to another clan as Balance for trouble caused by the parent. I don’t think that’s what’s going on here, even though Jeeves admitted fault for the present emergency, but I suspect that the possibility is one of the reasons he had to stop and think before accepting the delm’s word.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 39

Jemiatha’s Jumble Stop

In which Bechimo and his Captain rescue their crew.

Bechimo‘s reserve personalities were mentioned back in Ghost Ship, shortly after Theo first came aboard; Bechimo had just started really wondering if Theo was the right captain, and worried for a while that accepting her and Win Ton might be not only a bad judgement call but the first sign of a mental instability that would end with him being deactivated and replaced by one of the reserves. So there’s a kind of Balance to them being mentioned again now, when he’s come to the conclusion that it was the right call after all.

I am kind of wondering, however, what kind of situations the Builders were expecting Bechimo to get into, that they gave the ship the kind of abilities it demonstrates in this chapter.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 38

Jemiatha’s Jumble Stop

In which Bechimo gains a Captain.

Joyita stepping in to help Theo past her moment of panic ties back to the conversation earlier about whether Theo likes Joyita more than Bechimo, and why: Theo trusts her ship, but even so she finds it reassuring to be interacting with someone who has a face.

I mentioned, way back near the beginning of Ghost Ship, that the investiture of the Department’s new Commander reminded me of something that would happen later, and this is it. The installation of Bechimo‘s Captain seems to involve similar technology, although in a more refined form (or perhaps just in a form designed by someone who cared about the well-being of the person it would be used on).

Which brings to mind the question: If the Commander of Agents is in a similar relationship to the one Theo now has with Bechimo, who or what is the Commander in a relationship with? And for the more efficient pursuit of what purpose?

Dragon Ship – Chapter 37

Jemiatha’s Jumble Stop

In which the Galactic Trade Commission makes Theo an offer she can’t not refuse.

Something funny here: the outfit that gave Theo trouble in Ghost Ship was the Federated Trade Commission, not the Galactic Trade Commission. Maybe its name comes out differently in Trade than in Terran? Anyway, Theo says it’s the same group, and she’d presumably know. If it is the same, then it’s beginning to look like it has some kind of ongoing connection with the Department of the Interior, and Tokeoport wasn’t just a one-off case of a Department agent taking their name in vain.

Is this the first time B. Joyita has allowed anyone to see him stand up?

Dragon Ship – Interlude

Bechimo

In which Bechimo proposes to Theo.

This is, I think, only the second time in the entire series that there’s been an Interlude instead of a chapter. (The first was back in Crystal Dragon, when Jela and Cantra part company for what they believe will be the last time.) I don’t know what it portends that we’re getting another one now. It might be no more than that the scene was important enough not to be part of another chapter but too short to reach the minimum word length for a chapter in its own right.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 35

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”.)