Bechimo
Dockside
In which there are many meetings.
Any one of these problems would be relatively easy to deal with by itself; it’s the way they’re all happening at once that makes things difficult.
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Bechimo
Bridge
In which there are some potential security issues.
We end this chapter with two meetings about to take place, and I’m not sure what to expect of either of them.
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Minot Station
Transient Crew Cabins
In which Clarence pays the bills.
It occurs to me that Veep Semimodo has not actually met Ambassador Hevelin yet. If he had, he might, rightly or wrongly, react differently to the prospect of incurring the Ambassador’s displeasure.
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Minot Station
In which Theo does not steal a spaceship.
Everything seems to be going well, but somehow I’m still on edge.
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Bechimo
Minot Station
In which Theo has a plan.
If this were a movie, the latter part of this chapter would be the lock-and-load montage showing each member of the team preparing for the big action. And if this were a movie, I suspect it wouldn’t include Theo’s conversation with Bechimo; it’s good writing to show that the bonding takes time and effort and doesn’t just automatically go well, just as it’s good writing to show that gaining the trust of the pathfinders takes time and effort and doesn’t just automatically go well, but unlike the pathfinders it lacks the spice of imminent danger if it goes wrong.
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Minot Station
Transient Crew Cabins
In which Rig Tranza receives a letter from Theo.
That’s a nicely worded description from Win Ton of how he ended up on the crew. I particularly like “the universe placed me on the deck of the ship she commands now”, which sounds unexceptional if you don’t know the backstory.
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Bechimo
Bridge
In which Bechimo‘s crew consider their next move.
It looks like we’re heading into the big moment now, whatever it is; the book’s starting to do that thing where the chapters get shorter and closer together which is such a great trick for increasing the pace and sense of urgency when the reader isn’t reading them one chapter a day.
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Minot Station
In which Bechimo‘s exec and chief technician are in conference.
I agree with Kara that there’s something here not quite adding up, but I’m not sure yet what it is.
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Bechimo
Bridge
In which Bechimo‘s crew plan their approach.
Or perhaps we are not getting more thrilling action just yet. I hope this is building up to something really good, because it’s taking a lot of chapters to build. (And again, this is something I made worse for myself by reading one chapter at a time.)
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Bechimo
Bridge
In which Win Ton discusses his student’s future.
It probably says something about my priorities as a reader that my reaction to the end of this chapter was something along the lines of, “All this getting-to-know-each-other is fine, but at last! more plot!”
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