Dutiful Passage
In which Lady Selph goes visiting.
Not much of immediate moment happens in this chapter, but a lot of things are about to happen.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 17
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Tag Archives: Guild of Portmasters
Trader’s Leap – Chapter 13
Dutiful Passage
Pommierport
In which there is an unexpected detour or two.
I think that when Priscilla talks about “ambient noise”, she doesn’t mean quite the same thing as the Haosa do when they talk about “the ambient”. If it is, it’s noteworthy that the course of action suggested by her training is to try to block it out.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 11
Dutiful Passage
In which Padi makes connections and Shan receives news from home.
The looper families Shan mentions are among those who have appeared or been mentioned in the Jethri-era stories: the Smiths were the first family to have norbears travelling with them, the Tragers were friendly with Jethri’s family, and the Wildes did that ill-fated bit of experimenting with Old Tech.
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Trader’s Leap – Chapter 9 (V-IX)
Dutiful Passage
Millsap Orbit
In which Padi has a long day.
Shan has a plan: to visit the Redlands, which it turns out is not one country, or even one planet, but a system with three inhabited planets.
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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.
Shout of Honor – Chapter 2
In which Commander Vepal finds an ally.
The drinking establishment named “The Headless Yxtrang” echoes an established pattern on Earth — there have been, for example, several taverns that commemorated some soldier’s deeds in the Crusades by being named “The Saracen’s Head”. Vepal sees a more metaphorical resonance with his own situation: the problem he is trying to solve is that the Yxtrang are collectively headless, in the sense of lacking the leadership they need.
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I Dare – Chapter 46
Day 44
Standard Year 1393
Surebleak
In which Surebleak Port requires the assistance of the planetary government.
The two Juntavas pilots join the collection of characters for whom the authors have not chosen to provide pronouns, although the fact that we have their names and that they’re Terran names gives one a basis for speculation if one chooses.
I think this is the second mention of timonium in publication order, and the first mention of it being commercially developed in the present, although there are numerous mentions in the early prequels – which kind of makes me wonder what it’s used for in the present, because in the prequels it’s associated with forbidden Old Tech, which I would have thought would mean there wasn’t much money in digging up more of the stuff.
I Dare – Chapter 35
Day 376
Standard Year 1392
Spaceport
Surebleak
In which the Surebleak Portmaster has unexpected visitors.
The portmaster double act is a favourite entry in the roster of memorable minor characters.
The fact that Pat Rin’s gift is one of Ajay’s rugs, which he’d spoken earlier of trying to get on sale at the Port, suggests the tenor of the rest of the gifts: they’re not just nice gestures, they’re product samples, examples of what the bosses’ territories have to offer.