Shaltren
Juntavas Headquarters
In which Edger and Sheather decide to search elsewhere.
Edger and Sheather have apparently been sitting around on Shaltren for the last few months, waiting for any response to the Juntavas danger-tree broadcast. Maybe that doesn’t seem like such a long time to a Turtle, though it’s long enough that even they are getting a bit impatient. I bet it seemed much longer to the Juntavas.
Delgado
Leafydale Place
Standard Year 1393
In which Scout Reserve Captain Daav yos’Phelium returns a favour.
Speaking of first published appearances, this is Kamele’s, brief as it is, and it gave me entirely the wrong impression of her until Fledgling came out. I blame the translators’ decision to use “mistress” as a substitute for whatever word they use on Delgado, because while it has the advantage of bypassing a lengthy explanation it fails to capture the actual spirit of Kamele’s relationship with Jen Sar. On the other hand, I admit there were also some failings of comprehension on my part, regarding (a) the actual likelihood of Daav getting in the kind of relationship that “mistress” implies, and (b) the fact, which is mentioned right there in the story, that they’ve been together long enough for her daughter to be grown up.
This may also be, even more briefly, the first published mention of timonioum.
One of the purposes of this re-read was to see what new associations would come out of the stories by reading them in a different configuration: what would come out of a story by reading it near another story I maybe hadn’t read it near before? In this case, a new thing that struck me was the first dissonant detail: after a couple of pages of Jen Sar Kiladi getting ready for a fishing trip, just as he always does, he pauses to run through the Rainbow pattern. Reading the story so soon after Carpe Diem, with everything it has to say about the Rainbow and about the Rainbow being a Scout thing, that really jumped out at me as a sign that Professor Kiladi isn’t the groundhugging academic he appears. It says, if one didn’t already know, a great deal about his background in a very few words.
Another association that I don’t think I picked up before this re-read is that Acting Scout Commander sig’Radia has the same surname as Senior Scout Cho sig’Radia, the friend and mentor of Daav’s daughter. Probably a relative, not the same person; “Phoenix” has established that sig’Radia has a history of producing Scouts, and this story says straight up that Daav doesn’t know her. (I wonder, though: I don’t think Kiladi ever actually met Cho sig’Radia other than through written correspondence, and if he did notice the connection Daav wouldn’t make anything of it while he’s keeping the Kiladi connection quiet; conversely, of course, Cho sig’Radia knows Theo’s father only as Kiladi and has no reason to suspect he’s Daav. And one who was a Senior Scout a few years ago might have progressed far enough to become Acting Scout Commander now — especially since the “Acting” suggests that the Department’s recent actions have resulted in some rapid movement in the line of succession.)
I’m pretty sure I got the significance of the Richard A. Davis Portmaster Aid Foundation first time, though.
I seem to recall there being something I wanted to say about the bit where L’il Orbit casts shade on Kiladi’s piloting skills, but the only thing that’s coming to mind now is that it was never Kiladi, in the old days, who was called “schoolteacher”. And that there’s a bit of an irony in Daav yos’Phelium being named as a reliable pilot considering what happened the last time he was seen piloting a spaceship.
In which Captain Rolanni goes to Shaltren sooner than expected.
This is an important story for the Juntavas, laying the groundwork for them to be something a bit more nuanced than The Space Mafia.
The pacing of this story didn’t quite work for me the first time I read it, with all the build-up to Kore’s escape attempt/Rolanni’s rescue attempt, and then it suddenly didn’t matter because Chairman Trogar meets his fate in an unrelated Act of Turtle. (And I got the feeling that the role of the Turtles isn’t sufficiently set up for someone who hasn’t read Carpe Diem first — though I’m in no position to say for sure, since I did read Carpe Diem first.) On this re-read, I got a better feeling of how the two things aren’t entirely unrelated; for one thing, if Sambra Reallen hadn’t called the department heads to a meeting as a distraction from Rolanni’s rescue attempt, they wouldn’t have been on hand to witness the Chairman’s downfall, and Reallen wouldn’t have been there to take hold of the situation before it got out of hand.
(Incidentally, from the mentions of them in this story, the department heads seem to be functionally just such a council of elders as Chairman Trogar boasted to Edger did not exist and had no power over him.)
Also, I’m thinking now, Rolanni’s attempt to rescue Kore is a bit like like Marguerite’s attempt to rescue her husband in The Scarlet Pimpernel, in that whether she will succeed in rescuing him is not the big question of the story; the big question was already answered when she decided she had to make the attempt.
It struck me on this re-read that “Kore” is also the name of a figure in Greek mythology, but I think that’s probably just a coincidence, notwithstanding that this Kore also has what might be understood as a descent into the underworld.
Another more useful thing that struck me on this re-read is that Rolanni’s personal and professional history places her as part of whatever the modern equivalent is of the trading family network that Jethri’s family was part of back in Balance of Trade.
Something I noticed the first time and again on this re-read is that we get very little detail about Kore’s employer, the High Judge, not even a name; I suspect the authors were leaving room to fill in details if he showed up in another story later. The first time I read this story, I wondered if he might be Clarence O’Berin, but that was mainly because I wanted more stories about Clarence; what little we get about the High Judge’s personality doesn’t really fit. It’s definitely not Clarence, anyhow; “Shadow Partner” has him still holding down the position on Liad many years after the High Judge started on the career path that led to him being the High Judge.
Tomorrow: Plan B
Shaltren
Cessilee
In which Grom Trogar demonstrates the extent of his power.
It is not that Grom Trogar rules unchallenged, but that he has confidence that he can overcome whatever challenges are presented to him. This confidence is presumably based in past experience (I expect gaining and retaining the highest position in the Juntavas would have involved many challenges), but it seems to have led to him becoming incautious.
And so he puts himself in a position where his limits are discovered — very publicly, in front of delegates, security guards, unit managers, and all. None of whom, I notice, seem to be at all eager to avenge his death. Somebody who approaches challenges the way he does probably wasn’t winning any popularity contests; there are likely to be people in the crowd who are glad to see him go. The others might not be confident that they can take the Turtles even through superior numbers — or, if they think they have a chance there, perhaps they’ve asked themselves a question that doesn’t seem to have even occurred to Grom Trogar: If we do kill these two, who’s going to come and ask what happened to them?
That’s a beautiful detail about Edger and Sheather taking the time to ensure nobody might injure themselves by tripping over the lump of wall they removed.
Shaltren
Cessilee
In which Grom Trogar has found no cause to change his decision.
Grom Trogar claims at the beginning of this chapter that he regrets most deeply that he has found no cause to change his approach. He’s lying, but chances are he’s really going to regret it before long.
And frankly he can’t have been looking very hard: Justin Hostro found plenty of cause, and he only got given an hour to look for it.
Come to think of it, it’s interesting that Trogar got five days to consider, when Hostro only got one hour. Part of it, I expect, is deference to his more exalted station; as the Chairman of the Juntavas entire, his decision needs to weigh the needs of a hundred worlds instead of just one. And the situation is somewhat less urgent this time, with Miri and Val Con no longer in imminent danger of attack from the Juntavas.
I kind of wonder, though, if part of it is that Trogar did such a good job of offending Edger in their first meeting that Edger decided he needed five days to cool off, or else he might do something rash.
Shaltren
Cessilee
In which Edger and Sheather meet the Chairman of the Juntavas.
Here’s one indication that Trogar is lying to Edger: he says that Hostro has reported nothing about what happened on Lufkit, beyond the bare fact that he had Miri and then he didn’t — but he knows, without either of the Turtles mentioning it, about Costello threatening Watcher. (Or perhaps they did mention it, before the scene started, when they were explaining how they came to be standing in his office. What do you think?)
That’s an interesting bit of symbolism, the way Edger’s demonstration reduces most of the Juntavas-controlled worlds on the map to rubble — and the more so for the fact that it was just an incidental effect of Edger’s main intention.
Liad
Trealla Fantrol
In which Val Con’s siblings receive news of his doings.
The mention of “children, cats, and dogs” as potential hazards to navigation is, I think, the first mention of there being dogs in Korval’s Valley, or indeed on Liad. In fact, I’m not sure it isn’t the only mention of dogs at all in the series (outside of Necessity’s Child, which has a major character with a dog). Characters in the Liaden Universe are much more likely to be cat people, like their creators.
Speaking of children, we get a run-down of the youngest generation of yos’Galans: Shan’s daughter Padi has been mentioned before, as has his foster-son Gordy (who would be about 18 Standards old now), but this is the first mention of Nova’s son Syl Vor and of Anthora’s twins, Shindi and Mik. Unsurprisingly, in the latter case, since they’re “brand new” — which is a reminder that just as Val Con’s relatives are unaware of what he’s been up to lately, so is he unaware of their latest news.
In which the Juntavas let Miri and Val Con go.
A nicely unobtrusive example of virtue being its own reward: if Miri hadn’t thought about notifying the dead stranger’s family, she wouldn’t have found the coord page before it was spaced, and they’d have been in a heap of trouble.
Well. Not that they’re not in a heap of trouble as it is, with an Yxtrang ship bearing down on them, but you know what I mean.
In which the Juntavas catch up with Miri.
There’s something tricksy going on with the timing in this chapter: the scene with Hostro and Edger is clearly Edger returning after one hour to hear Hostro’s decision, as promised two chapters ago — even though several days have passed for Miri and Val Con in those two chapters. Clearly there’s been a bit of stretch-and-squash going on in the relative placement of the scenes that don’t involve Miri and Val Con.
I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that the period of time Terrans and the Clutch have been dealing together is roughly the same as Edger’s age.
Up to now, when considering Miri and Val Con’s potential (and now newly formalized) partnership, the emphasis has mainly been on Miri’s preference for playing single’s odds and consequently not being sure what she’d do with a partner — but it should be noted that Val Con, whatever he might have done when he was a Scout, has spent the last few years playing his own version of single’s odds, and his response to the ship being boarded suggests that he could do with brushing up on the finer points of having a partner himself. Trying to take sole responsibility for one’s partner’s safety is not how it’s supposed to work, even when it doesn’t result in the two of you being separated and then individually pinned down and captured.