In which Inki sleeps.
Inki’s attitude reminds me of another SF series I’ve been reading lately, which features a planet where slavery has been practiced for many generations, and the slaves have their own secret culture and language, unknown to their masters. In the language of the slaves, the word for “death” and the word for “freedom” are the same.
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In which Inkirani Yo offers a trade, which is accepted, and another, which isn’t.
The fact that Dosavi Mikelsyn addresses Inkirani as “Translator Yo” suggests a few things about what she was up to when they first met, and specifically that she wasn’t working as a mentor in those days.
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Ahab-Esais
In which Inkirani Yo lays out the next move.
If there truly are multiple instances of the Uncle loose in the galaxy, each with their own interests and contacts, how do they decide which is the Uncle? I suppose the obvious answer is that at any given moment there is one who lives in Vivulonj Prosperu and hangs out with Dulsey, and that one gets to decide who his successor is, but it’s fun to speculate about less plausible options.
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In which Admiral Bunter and Tolly discuss necessary action and acceptable risk.
A nice piece of narrative judo, here. By having Tolly explain things to Admiral Bunter, the reader is informed of matters that will be relevant to the ongoing adventures of Inkirani and Tocohl, who couldn’t have handled that bit of exposition themselves without it coming down to them telling each other things they already know. As a bonus, there’s the little touch of irony that Tolly and the Admiral consider going to the place where they would have met again with their former companions, and then decide not to.
I also like the bit where Tolly is telling Admiral Bunter about the rumour regarding the Carresens-Denobli long-looper. He says that there is this rumour; he doesn’t say what he knows from his own experience of its accuracy. Of course that’s something he doesn’t need to be telling Admiral Bunter at this point in their relationship; all the Admiral needs to know is that there may be other people like him out there.
In which Tocohl explores the boundaries of her new situation.
An interesting narrative embellishment here: this chapter is set before the previous one, ending around the time it starts. The authors had a choice what order to reveal this information to the audience, and didn’t go for the obvious option. One consequence is that when the audience is reading about Inkirani preparing to tackle Tocohl again, they know that it’s not going to go how she expects but they don’t know any more than she does exactly what she’s going to find waiting for her.