Tag Archives: Clutch transport vessel

The Gate That Locks the Tree – Act 2, Scene 1

Beset in the belly of the storm
Enter Toragin, the blue-and-red driver, Chelada

In which Toragin del’Pemridj’s quest hits a detour.

A new act brings a new viewpoint character: Toragin del’Pemridj, Clan Lazmeln.

We’ve heard of Line del’Pemridj before: a Lady del’Pemridj was one of the guests at the garden party in “A Choice of Weapons”. And Clan Lazmeln: in Carpe Diem, when Shan was refusing absolutely to let Nova strong-arm him into a contract marriage, he mentioned that he’d been married twice already, once to Padi’s mother and the other time for clan-political reasons to someone from Clan Lazmeln.
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Accepting the Lance – Chapter 22

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?”

Accepting the Lance – Chapter 20

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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Accepting the Lance – Chapter 18

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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Accepting the Lance – Chapter 16

Surebleak Port
Portmaster’s Office

In which the Clutch are a law unto themselves.

Now I’m trying to picture how things would have gone down if Korval had still been living on Liad when Emissary Twelve came to visit. Liad has a busier airspace than Surebleak — and an active planetary defence system — so Liaden traffic control might have been moved to express its displeasure more forcefully. I don’t know if it would have made much difference to the emissary, though; Turtles build their ships pretty tough.

Accepting the Lance – Chapter 15

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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Neogenesis – Chapter 26

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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Moon on the Hills

Surebleak

In which Korval acquires a new neighbour.

It’s an evocative name, “World’s End”. There’s the obvious sense in which the place is named, referring to a physical boundary, a place where the world comes to an end, but there are other things it could mean, such as a temporal boundary, a time when a world comes to an end. Sometimes a person’s world can come to an end even though the planet continues untouched. Yulie’s world might have ended when he lost the last of his kin. It might have ended today, if Boss Conrad had been someone other than the person he is.

(And isn’t it interesting how, when he’s talking to Yulie, he’s mostly Pat Rin but sometimes he’s Boss Conrad for a moment or two?)

It’s also interesting to speculate how things might have gone differently if Yulie’s brother hadn’t got himself killed before Boss Conrad showed up, and had been the one handling the negotiation for road access.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 5

Arin’s Toss
Solcintra Port
Liad

In which Theo’s father tells her the truth.

Theo’s conversation with her father is one of those things that’s obviously significant but I don’t know how to talk about. (I do wonder if it helps Theo to learn that Val Con’s mother was a respected scholar. It seems like it might make the whole preposterous situation feel slightly more familiar.)

Either Theo’s taxi ride from the Port or her nap, or both, must have consumed a considerable amount of time, since it is now the day set for Korval’s departure and Theo left the Port at dawn the previous day. (Local calendar, explicitly stated, so it’s not one of those things where the Standard Day changes halfway through the local day.) No, excuse me: Theo went to call a taxi at dawn; maybe the city’s in such a commotion at the moment that it took most of the day to turn up.

The detail about Trealla Fantrol is interesting; they couldn’t take it with them, but they weren’t going to let it fall into anyone else’s hands. In which light, I wonder what it says that they didn’t mind letting Liad keep the formal gardens.

Tomorrow: “Moon on the Hills”, then back to Chapter 6.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 3

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.