Tag Archives: Melchiza Station

Saltation – Chapter 1

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Shuttle Approach
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
Eylot

In which Theo arrives at Anglingdin Piloting Academy.

Theo is off to piloting school (and, since it’s apparently still within a year of her time on Melchiza, it looks like she achieved the six month prep time Jen Sar said would be the minimum if she was a good student).

She turns out to be wrong about not seeing the three student pilots again soon, although perhaps the encounter by the luggage will be their last; it’s been a while since I first read Fledgling and I don’t remember. Somehow, though, I doubt it. I do recognise two others who appear or are mentioned in this chapter as people Theo will be encountering again with some regularity.

Fledgling – Chapter 40

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Vashtara
Mauve Level
Stateroom

In which Jen Sar attends a meeting.

I’ve said before that one of the things I’m enjoying about doing this re-read is being able to trace connections and find repeated names that I wouldn’t have noticed at the speed I normally read. In this chapter, the familiar name is Professor Skilings, revealed here as one of the conspirators, but already known to us from Chapter Sixteen as a high-ranking member of the faculty with a reputation for being a bad enemy to people who gain her enmity, and also incidentally the lady whose play for Jen Sar, though unrewarded, inspired Kamele to place her relationship with him on an official footing.

Sub-Chancellor Kylin’s name, on the other hand, doesn’t ring any bells.

It’s interesting that Jen Sar’s response to having a gun brandished at him is to hide behind the furniture. It’s possible that he’s playing it safe, since the years he’s spent living on a safe world might after all have dulled his edge to the point that he can’t be sure of being able to handle the situation, but don’t think I believe that, and I rather suspect he’s playing safe more because nobody on Delgado knows that he has experience being at the wrong end of a gun, and he’d prefer to keep it that way.

Kamele’s hand gestures, the ones which Theo finds reminiscent of hand-talk without being actual signs she recognises, might be Liaden gestures Kamele has picked up off Jen Sar. I seem to recall similar hand gestures being used by Liadens in conversation in past stories; the clearing-away gesture in particular sounds familiar.

Fledgling – Chapter 39

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Melchiza Station

In which Theo and Kamele start for home, Jen Sar enters the home stretch, and Hafley can never go home again.

Clyburn stops pretending to be the kind of bubble-headed male no Delgadan would suspect of being a criminal mastermind, and is revealed to be, among other things, a pilot. Which suggests further covering-up from his relative in Admin, since he wasn’t issued a pilot’s ID when the research team arrived. It also makes me wonder again about the divided motivations of the blue-shirts: if he’s a pilot and a native Melchizan he must have known enough about how Melchizan pilots think to be able to predict that they’d protect Theo. Although that assumes he knew Theo was a pilot, and I get the impression that came as an unpleasant surprise to him on the bus; apparently he wasn’t paying enough attention to Theo on the Vashtara to notice how she’d been spending her time. He must be kicking himself for that now (or, if he’s the kind of person who is never at fault for their own lapses of judgement, finding some excuse to blame Theo).

For all the trouble it’s caused in the past, Theo’s pilot nature has been really helpful several times this trip, both in obvious ways like protecting her at the Transit School and in indirect ways like leading her into a situation where she can, unlike the sheltered Kamele, recognise violent intent in time to avoid danger.

Fledgling – Chapter 38

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Melchiza
City of Treasures

In which Kamele and Theo are reunited.

It’s all very well for the Chaperon to say that perhaps Kamele might tour the school next time she visits; even supposing there’s any likelihood of a next time, which I doubt, I somehow suspect that no matter how many visits Kamele might make it will always turn out that the schedule is too tight.

The detail about Jen Sar having installed an Orbital Traffic Scanner in his office to keep him company while Kamele and Theo are away is one of those prequel-type details that doesn’t seem particularly significant to someone following the story in chronological order, but has a special resonance to those of us who first read the series as it was published: it happens that in publication order the first time we met Professor Jen Sar Kiladi he was sitting in his office listening to the Orbital Traffic Scanner at just the right moment to change the course of his life.

Fledgling – Chapter 31

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Vashtara
Breakfast All Year

In which Cho and Win Ton bid farewell to Theo.

When I finished reading this chapter, my eyes might have been a bit wet too.

Despite saying to Theo earlier that very few of her teachers on Delgado are likely to be pilots, Cho knows that there’s at least one, because Theo already knew some piloting lore when they met. She must have a good idea who it is, too; Theo’s told her outright that Professor Kiladi was the one who introduced her to the lacework, and probably has likewise mentioned that it was him who chose and proposed the Suwello lessons (and if she hasn’t, Cho’s the type to have been able to find it out anyway). But I think she’s refraining from being specific at least partly by way of nudging Theo herself to the realization of the role Jen Sar has played in her education.

Fledgling – Chapter 20

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Vashtara
First Class Dining Room

In which Theo and Kamele meet Cho sig’Radia and Win Ton yo’Vala.

One of the pleasures of reading the series in chronological order is the return of old friends, or at least of familiar names. We have met a scout of Line sig’Radia before, in “Phoenix”; that was a century ago, however, so I don’t suppose this is the same scout, though there are some similarities between the two. Senior Scout Cho sig’Radia is established as a person of intelligence and keen observation, but will nevertheless prove subsequently to have had at least one significant failure of insight in this chapter.

It appears that the research expedition has gained some members; in addition to Kamele, Theo, and the two professors emeritus from the forensic team, Chair Hafley has somehow ended up coming along, and a couple of people have brought their onagratas. Hafley’s is named Clyburn Tang — I think. The first time he’s mentioned is with a reference to “Clyburn’s onagrata“, which confused me considerably because up to now the word has only been used of a woman’s partner, but if one accepts that the word can be used in either direction the sentence falls into place and is consistent with various other indications that Clyburn is Hafley’s onagrata (and she, presumably, is Clyburn’s onagrata). Certainly, there doesn’t seem to be any other reason for the expedition including a man with no academic position whose main ability seems to be talking at length about clothes.