Delgado
Efraim Agricultural Zone

In which Jen Sar and Theo each enter unexplored territory.

The folk-tale, and Theo’s response to it, shows a lot about the differences between Delgado and Melchiza. The moral ascribed to it is revealing about how Melchiza comes to be the way it is. The difference between Delgadan and Melchizan ideas of appropriate emergencies for childrens’ television perhaps says more about Delgado than Melchiza, or at least shows Delgado as standing further than Melchiza from present-day America on this subject.

The dance around Theo’s class assignment suggests that Melchiza’s Security apparatus, though omnipresent, is not directed always to the same goal. The order for Theo to be moved into the Parole Class must have come from some branch of Security — one suspects the branch which contains that helpful lady with the blue buttonhole who was so eager to help the research team avoid doing any research, or perhaps, if it’s a distinction with a difference, whoever might have been on the other end of Hafley’s mumu before she was made to turn it off — but Pilot-Instructor Arman seems to be of the opinion that whatever they’re up to is not worth endangering the health of a pilot.