In the Hall of the Mountain King
In which Korval prepares to receive guests.
We have not previously encountered Finifter’s Shave, the ship that brought Toragin and Chelada to Surebleak, but the planet Finifter has been mentioned a couple of times. It’s one of the stops on Tan Sim’s trade route in Trade Secret, and one of the planets discussed in Culture Club in Saltation.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which Emissary Twelve has thoughts about change.
There’s a lot of thinking about the future in this chapter: about what they will do if Boss Surebleak wins, and, perhaps more importantly, what kind of future they will shape if Boss Surebleak doesn’t win.
That makes, I believe two appointments the portmaster has tomorrow, beginning two hours apart. I wonder if they will collide in some fashion.
Jelaza Kazone
The Tree Court
In which Emissary Twelve is making rapid progress.
The authors are playing with the timeline a bit in order to spread characters’ scenes out, I think. It’s unlikely that Miri’s last scene (showing the beginning of a long afternoon at the office) took place after Val Con’s last scene, which ended with him getting the message to come to the Tree Court — unless he took a very relaxed stroll from the outer garden to the Tree. Or perhaps I’m underestimating how long the conversation at the Tree takes; after all, a Turtle is capable of some impressive pauses for thought.
Surebleak Port
Office of the Road Boss
In which people want to talk about Clutch Turtles.
On one level, saying they’ll need a week or two to get an answer out of the emissary is stalling for time, but I’m not sure that on another level Miri doesn’t actually mean it. It is true that the emissary does talk faster than some Turtles, but she’s been here a day and still they’ve only got a very small part of the answer, not nearly enough to be answering questions like “How long is the emissary staying?” and “Can we expect any more of them?”
Jelaza Kazone
In which the Elders are taking an interest.
Seeing that working Turtles have names like “Edger” and “Sheather”, I wonder what the emissary is going to make of a human named “Shaper”.
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Surebleak Port
Office of the Road Boss
In which Delm Korval has visitors.
Well, there’s an answer to my question about how things would have gone if Emissary Twelve had done this on Liad, anyway.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which Delm Korval meets Emissary Twelve.
Way back when Edger was first introduced, there was a brief mention of the Ambassadorial Clans of the Clutch, whose members are shorter and svelter and speedier than the working clans such as Edger belongs to. It would appear that Emissary Twelve is an example.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which Korval is keeping its head down.
And now we’ve caught up with the final chapter of Neogenesis.
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Surebleak
In which Korval is keeping its head down.
Oh, yeah. And the survey team. I’d forgotten about them, what with so much else going on.
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Jelaza Kazone
Liad
In which Delm Korval considers Theo’s problem.
Not sure what to make of Theo thinking that Val Con looks familiar for some reason other than resembling their father. She hasn’t met any of the other relatives yet, and I’m pretty sure she’s never seen his mother — or has she? They talked about the Caylon at the Academy, but I don’t remember if it was ever mentioned them having pictures of her. (And of course if that’s it Theo wouldn’t be able to place the resemblance, because nobody’s mentioned to her who Val Con’s mother is.)
As for her assessment of Val Con as biddable and lacking in spark, it’s a choice between politely suppressed laughter and a wide-eyed Bugs Bunny “She don’t know him very well, do she?”
Until Val Con mentioned it, I don’t think I’d thought about the fact that Korval doesn’t just have its house and Tree to get off-planet, but all of the many ships it’s collected over the years (those that aren’t elsewhere already). I suppose it will have to allow its several shipyards to be seized – unless they’ve already been sold off or otherwise passed into other hands – but Korval never leaves a ship behind.