Tag Archives: Laughing Cat Limited

Dragon Ship – Chapter 15

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Tradedesk

In which Theo is not getting through to people.

I thought at first that the ChivinTrade guy’s repeated emphasis on there being no need for Theo to come down and get planet dust on her boots sounded like some kind of resentful prejudice against spacers, but the information that he’s afraid of something suggests other possibilities. It might be connected to the politics Theo was hoping there wasn’t going to be any of; Chustling is the planet with the procedural, rather than meteorological, landing restrictions.

Compared to the status report at the beginning of the book, when Win Ton first went into the Remastering Unit, there’s been improvement in most measures, with Neurological and Skeletal the same, and Dermal, Reproductive, and Urinary somewhat lower (which might be a sign that the Unit is currently focusing its efforts on the bits Win Ton needs to survive).

Dragon Ship – Chapter 6

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Frenzel Port

In which presences make themselves known.

It would appear that Clarence is correct about the mysterious crowd being pitchmen and freeposters coming out from hiding in response to the Arrival Director’s departure, but my first thought was that they’d appeared in response to Theo’s attempt to disappear, like maybe they’d been standing in plain sight the whole time using the same technique, and using the technique herself had made them visible to Theo. Which would have been worrying, because it reminds me of the time back in Carpe Diem when Shadia discovered that there were more people surrounding her ship than there ought to be, and that time it was because she was being hunted by the Department.

I find myself wondering whether Clarence’s insistence on addressing Bechimo as “Chimmy” is part of an attempt to get Bechimo to address him as something other than “Less Pilot”.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 5

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Frenzel Port

In which Bechimo receives the valcomvoggen.

Well, that confirms that the Uncle was among the Builders and took part in the building of Bechimo. Which brings us back to the question of why, by the time Bechimo headed out into the wide universe, the Uncle had ended up on the Disallowed List.

An interesting reaction from the Sector Arrival Director to the news that Theo’s here to deal with Chaliceworks Aggregations. Perhaps a sign that someone who deals with that organisation is considered somehow unlikely to be a good target for whatever he was going to try to persuade her to?

Dragon Ship – Chapter 4

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Arriving Frenzel

In which Bechimo acquires an Executive Officer.

The bit about the Compressed Info Package containing all the ship information that port needs to facilitate docking makes me think back to Pat Rin and Cheever arriving at McGee, and Cheever reminding Pat Rin to tell the port that the ship used an old-style protocol. I can’t think of any reason why they wouldn’t be sending a CIP themselves, since it’s implied here to be standard procedure, and I’d think that kind of information would be in the CIP. On the other hand, Cheever says it’s worth mentioning because otherwise the port personnel might make an incorrect assumption, and I can believe he was figuring that, having made the assumption, they might skim over the relevant bit of the CIP and see what they expected to see unless it was backed up by a verbal reminder.

It occurred to me to wonder, while Bechimo‘s crew were dealing with Frenzel traffic control, whether they’re making much use of Bechimo‘s special method of space travel. Then I remembered that the last two chapters have been headed some variation on “Between Jumps”, which suggests not. Several reasons for that come to mind; one is that Theo probably still doesn’t know enough about the method to trust it, and another is that they’ve been specifically hired to test out a route that will presumably be followed in future by ships that don’t have Bechimo‘s advantages, so they need to follow it in appropriate fashion to get good data. And, of course, arriving by mysterious means would run the risk of annoying and puzzling traffic control.

Dragon Ship – Chapter 2

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‘tween Jumps

In which first board fails to answer to the pilot.

Even if Bechimo were in the right, messing with the function of the pilot’s controls is dangerous territory to get into, and Theo’s correct not to let him get away with setting a precedent.

Especially since Bechimo isn’t in the right: the Builder’s Rules, as reported in Ghost Ship, do not forbid involvement with Korval. They do say that it’s best to avoid dealing with Korval if possible, but they go on to admit that it sometimes might not be avoidable and even give advice on the best way to proceed in that case.

And if Bechimo genuinely believes that they ought to avoid entanglement with Korval, the time to have brought it up would have been when Korval offered Theo the loop contract. To accept Korval’s contract then, and complain now, suggests that Bechimo is acting out of other motives. (Or was too eager to accept occupation back then; in either case, a situation calling for reflection on Bechimo’s motivations and decision-making.)

There’s an interesting word choice during this scene, as a consequence of Screen Six tending to go to a flat unvaried colour when Bechimo is in a state of high emotion: when Theo announces the error test, the resulting display on Screen Six is described as “bright and untroubled”, which is a clear description of what the screen looks like and exactly the opposite of the state of mind it represents.

Ghost Ship – Chapter 30

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Boss Vine’s Turf
Surebleak

In which Theo is offered a trade route and a seed pod.

One advantage of re-reading is that when you know where the story’s going, it can be easier to make out what the foreshadowing is trying to tell you. For instance: Here is Clarence, who’s made himself unpopular enough that somebody came to shoot at him, and probably hasn’t helped his case much by being so unobliging as to shoot the person who came to shoot him. Might be he’ll soon be in a situation where a job that takes him offworld for a longish while will be just the thing he needs.

And Clarence’s visitor is interesting: Seems to have known him from when he was working on Liad, and got on the wrong side of him then. An independent operator, not a fellow Juntava, is my impression. It’s not just Korval’s friends who are making the trip to try their luck in the new land of opportunity.