Starship Clarion,
Allied to Captain Robert Chen-Jacobs
Taking orbit around the world named Kago

In which Edger perceives a need for haste.

It seems we’re getting a quick tour of the other plot strands before we return to find out how Val Con and Miri’s shopping trip progresses.

This event has a specific date attached to it: it’s four days since Edger and Sheather left Lufkit, which they did on day 255 of the year, and thus a day or two after the scenes a few chapters ago of Edger’s messages arriving on Liad. How that lines up with Miri and Val Con’s plot strand is not obvious, because that has been proceeding in imprecise intervals of “a few days” and “a week” — but one thing that is clear is that the plot strands cannot be proceeding strictly in step. We’ve had Miri and Val Con’s first week on the new world in the interval between Edger’s message arriving on Liad and Edger himself arriving at Kago, an interval that as has already been mentioned is no more than four days. There has to have been some shuffling for the benefit of the dramatic flow.

The story of Captain Rolanni and the reason she is bound for a planet where respectable ships do not ordinarily go is told in the short story “Quiet Knives”. Speaking of shuffling for the benefit of the dramatic flow, I couldn’t find a good break in the novel to squeeze the short story into, so I’ve scheduled it in between the end of Carpe Diem and the beginning of Plan B.