Chessel’s World

In which the authorities act against an ongoing criminal enterprise.

Okay, so it’s “The trade goes wrong, launching more plot”, then. I didn’t expect it to go wrong this way, though in retrospect perhaps I should have.

Did the portmaster’s office know, when they invited Shan to a reception later in the day, that he was involved in an ongoing criminal enterprise? As Shan says, the specification that he should come alone isn’t necessarily sinister.

Shan’s reflection on the reception he received in Dayan port keeps another of the story’s balls in the air — Dayan port being where Lomar Fasholt used to live and trade. (And it occurs to me for the first time that it may not be coincidence that the planet Dayan and Sintia’s port city of Dyan have such similar names.)

I like how we have Padi trying to figure out why Shan chose to offer the goods he did, followed later by Shan reflecting on why he did.

We now have the third mate’s name: Dil Nem Tiazan. This is a name we’ve encountered before; he was one of the relatives to whom Miri was introduced at her first dinner under Erob’s roof.