Tag Archives: Jump pilot’s ring

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 2

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In which Daav returns to Chonselta.

I wonder about Aelliana’s grandmother sometimes. She usually comes up when Aelliana is reminded of happier times, before Ran Eld was nadelm, and it’s clear that under the old delm’s eye he’d never have gotten away with behaving the way he has done. And yet… the situation which allowed him to get away with it once the old delm was gone did develop under the old delm’s eye; he was already showing the kind of man he’d grow into before she died, and some of how he turned out must be due to how he was raised by his mother — and thus in some measure to how she was raised by her mother.

The half of this chapter with Daav in it is a reprint from the final chapter of Scout’s Progress, give or take a few punctuation tweaks and altered choices of wording. Most of the latter are in the narration; the only ones that result in an actual change of event, if you’re interested in comparing them, are a couple of refinements in the paragraph where Master Kestra describes the treatment Aelliana has been given for her various injuries.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 37

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In which there is a death in the family.

I do really appreciate the glimpses we get in this novel of Birin Caylon, the human being behind Delm Mizel. Possibly the more so because there are so few of them.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 36

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In which Delm Korval goes visiting again.

This seems like a good time to mention a thing I like about this novel: Aelliana rescues herself.

She has had help along the way, and wouldn’t have done as well without it, but her achievements are her own, seized with her own hands. This isn’t a story about how she needed someone to save her. It was her own idea and decision to seek an escape, her own skill that won her her ship and her license. And, in these later chapters, she escaped from the house by herself, after rescuing herself from the worst effects of the Learning Module.

I love the bit where Daav is politely but firmly establishing his intention to stand in Mizel’s hallway as long as necessary.

(And speaking of Daav, it’s interesting to note at which points in the chapter Daav is “Korval” and at which points “Daav” comes to the fore.)

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 33

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In which two women return to face that which they fear.

My reaction to the middle section of this chapter is rather like my reaction to Chapter 27 of Trade Secret (which, if you don’t recall it, consisted largely of the single word “Yes!“). Aelliana has come a very long way since the beginning of the novel.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 29

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In which Aelliana frames and tries a piloting addendum under stringent field conditions.

I have to admit that the details of Aelliana’s course addendum go straight over my head. But it certainly sounds impressive.

The quote at the beginning of this chapter is the fragment that eventually grew into the short story “The Space at Tinsori Light” (which, chronological order being what it is, we have already had). Here, its purpose is only to add another angle to the introduction of the pilot’s ring.

The Space at Tinsori Light

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In which Jen Sin yos’Phelium leaves his ring at Tinsori Light.

This is one of my favourite of the Liaden short stories, but I’m having the problem again of not knowing what to say about it, and not feeling moved to talk about things I might have made more of if it were my first reading.

The story does not give a specific date, though we know it’s before Scout’s Progress and on the other hand the presence of an autodoc on Jen Sin’s ship argues for it being later than Balance of Trade. I stuck it here because there was a gap, and I thought it fitted thematically with the stories we’ve been reading lately, with the concern about Old Technology.

The Old Tech autodoc that repairs Jen Sin is clearly related to the one Cantra had in her ship, complete with the “you’re now in perfect health, but you could be better than perfect” spiel.

The thing I’m wondering is: how did that set of coords find its way into Korval’s set of emergency destinations in the first place? Someone connected with Jela might have known about the Tinsori waystation, but that was in the old universe, and as Lorith points out the Light’s location and coords changed in the transition to the new. The optimistic option is that somebody marked the space down as a quiet, out-of-the way place to hide out for a bit (like Bechimo‘s favourite hiding place in Dragon Ship) without noticing or being noticed by the Light. A less reassuring possibility is that there was someone else in the past, less suspicious than Jen Sin, who had their ship repaired by the Light and then took it back into the wide universe.