Bechimo
In which the pathfinders seek context.
I have a feeling Clarence’s tale-spinning may be intending to convey information beyond the obvious, and perhaps a warning about the inadvisability of getting on the wrong side of Theo and her crew. In which case I don’t think the warning has been heard, or perhaps it’s been heard but laid aside as insignificant in the face of necessity.
Continue reading
Ynsolt’i Incoming
In which Bechimo finishes with its detour and arrives at Ynsolt’i.
And the narrative jumps forward, so we get no more information directly about what the norbears have to say or ask about Joyita. Whatever it is, it seems like it’s not a mark against Theo or Bechimo, seeing as they’ve been selected to host the Embassy Mobile to Norbears.
I wonder how much actuality there is behind the Embassy Mobile. It seems clear from the way Master Peltzer talks that it was genuinely Hevelin’s own idea to go travelling with Bechimo, but is the Embassy itself just a legal fiction to keep him out of trouble in systems that don’t like norbears, or are there actual formal diplomatic relations between norbears and the Clans of Men? Was the point of meeting Sinaya that the business required the approval of a higher-ranking norbear? It seems kind of unlikely – not, I should say, because I’m in any way doubting the intelligence of norbears, just that they don’t seem temperamentally inclined toward formal structures and hierarchies – but stranger things have happened.
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.
Conrad Café
Pilots Guild Hall
Volmer
In which Win Ton has overstepped.
This is one of those chapters where I’d probably have had a lot to say the first time I read it, but now it’s so familiar that I don’t remember my first reaction.
One thing I definitely didn’t think of the first time, since Trade Secret hadn’t been written then, is the way certain things that happen or are mentioned in that novel strike familiar echoes in the description of Bechimo‘s creation.
Incidentally, I’m intrigued by the name of the café. Obviously it’s not named after Boss Conrad of Surebleak, but perhaps piloting history contains some famous Conrad they’re both named after.
Primadonna
In Transit
In which Theo receives several more things unexpectedly.
Theo’s remark about Mayko being afraid she’ll lose the contract is, I think, a joke about Theo physically mislaying the contract before she has a chance to sign it, but in another sense I think Mayko actually is afraid that she, that is Mayko, will lose the contract — in these present unsettled times, it’s possible that a good pilot might find opportunity or necessity leading her down a path away from Hugglelans. And the more so if she’s given formal recognition as a first class pilot before those other paths are closed off.
Rig Tranza’s song about “the ship Jonny B” is perhaps a space-age descendant of the old folk song about the misadventures of the sloop John B. The one about having enough cooks for an army isn’t specifically familiar in the same way, but does sound appropriately folk-song-like.
Theo’s worry about urgent bad news from home turned out to be unfounded — this time. But if this is after all that eventfulness on Lytaxin, there is bad news from home that’s got to catch up with her some time.
Administrative Hearing Room One
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
In which Theo is pushed out of the nest.
I’m not sure which is a less fair event to claim as evidence of Theo’s “continued association with violent activity”, the one where she was attacked unprovoked or the one where her entire “association” with the activity was to get out of the way as it went past and do her level best not to get involved. I’m inclined to think the latter, with the additional note that the actual violence on that occasion was being done by official representatives of the lawful authorities, which makes it particularly unfair for those same lawful authorities to count it as an inappropriate event to be involved with.
(Although… was it these same authorities? There’s clearly been a shift in power since then, and it may well have gone as far as a complete change of government. We never did find out what cause Hap Harney was a martyr to; for all we know, the people who are now tarring Theo with his death were his people.)
Either way, they’re definitely being disingenuous in claiming the general unrest as justification for tightening their grip on things, considering who the actual restless people have been.
Erkes Dormitory, Suite 302
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
In which Win Ton takes Theo to dinner.
Although, as when yos’Senchul and Veradantha included Theo in their dinner plans, it might be that the flight time and experience is as great a gift as the dinner. (Which is not to knock the dinner; one is getting the impression that a dinner at Howsenda Hugglelans is no small thing itself.)
When the kissing gets started, Win Ton kisses Theo’s temple, her neck, and her ear; it’s Theo who kisses Win Ton on the lips, a move he’s not expecting. We’ve seen this before with couples kissing across the Liaden-Terran cultural divide; between Liadens, face-to-face kissing is an especially intimate gesture not usually added to the repertoire until a relationship is considerably further advanced than this.
Conglomeration of Portcalay
Eylot
In which one may have anything at Hugglelans as long as one eats it under red sauce.
Theo’s advisors probably do want to hear her answers to their questions about her future hopes, but I think she’s right that there are other questions behind the questions, and I think that by asking about her future they’re also hoping to learn more about her past. Especially after the question about whether her father aimed her anywhere in particular, I suspect they’d like to know where he’s coming from. If Wilsmyth has discovered that Jen Sar Kiladi has no current flight time, surely Theo’s advisors have done the same.
Theo’s answer brings to mind the fact that the med tech a few chapters ago was confident that the life of a courier pilot lay in Theo’s future without having to ask, and, it now appears, before Theo knew herself. It might just be that as a med tech in a piloting academy he’s seen enough courier pilots in training to recognise the signs (especially if one of the signs is “shows up in the dispensary after getting in a fight”!) but I’m inclined to take it as more evidence that he’s a soul-weaver.
Sturtevan Hall Dispensary
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
In which Theo consents to a healing.
I get the idea that Theo got more healing than she realises. The med-tech is, by his appearance and speech patterns, Liaden, which opens the possibility that he is not only a healer of bodies but also cha’dramliz, one who can ease troubles of the mind and the heart. In this case, offering both the immediate assistance of soothing Theo so that her body’s healing may proceed with best effect, and also looking to the longer-term and planting a few seeds that will help Theo avoid leaping into a fight too soon without hampering her fighting ability when (and, as the med-tech says, it is when and not if for a courier pilot) the time comes that she does need it.
All of which largely goes past Theo, who has never met a Liaden Healer and wouldn’t know what to expect; Win Ton did try to explain to her about the cha’dramliz once, but he didn’t get very far before being interrupted and as far as we know he never got back to the topic. I might have expected the Healer to provide more of an explanation when requesting her permission to proceed, but perhaps this is another instance of someone thinking Theo is more Liaden than she really is. (And the thought occurs that perhaps the Healer is not free to make an explicit offer; if the regulations require him to issue pain medication that he knows won’t be necessary, that suggests that his form of Healing doesn’t enjoy wholehearted official support here.)
Number Twelve Leafydale Place
Greensward-by-Efraim
Delgado
In which Theo’s parents find out what she’s been up to.
Cho sig’Radia’s cover letter doesn’t give any warning about what happened on Theo’s famous flight. The pilot who raised Theo might perhaps be trusted to realise that a flight which has drawn special attention and been deemed a valuable teaching aid probably involves a more-than-usual amount of adversity, but Kamele, who was raised on a Safe World and has little experience of pilots, could have used a warning.
Speaking of the pilot who raised Theo, I notice the narrator is again doing that thing of not referring to him by any particular name.