Five Light-Hours out from Surebleak Libration Point Five
In which some spacefaring devices have things to say.
And now we know where the Department of the Interior sent its fleet of Old Tech war machines, though I think we’d all been assuming the answer anyway.
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Surebleak Orbital Influence Zone
Northern L5 Limits
In which Bechimo makes an unusual discovery.
Libration points, or Lagrangian points, are points in a system involving two large orbiting objects, such as a planet and its sun, where the balance of forces means a smaller orbiting object may maintain its position relative to the two larger objects. There are five such points in any given system; the first three tend to be unstable, meaning an object in one of those orbits will drift out of it over time, but the last two are stable when the mass ratio between the two larger objects is greater than a particular size, and it’s not uncommon to find smaller objects orbiting in a planet’s L4 and L5 points. For instance, the regions surrounding Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points are both home to sizeable clusters of asteroids orbiting in sync with the planet.
I don’t believe we’ve encountered Remco before, but we have of course heard the name of Carresens in several different contexts. One of which is that the Carresens family operates a shipyard at Margate, which among other things produced the Free Ship Disian.
Surebleak Port
Office of the Road Boss
In which Delm Korval has visitors.
Well, there’s an answer to my question about how things would have gone if Emissary Twelve had done this on Liad, anyway.
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Surebleak Orbital Influence Zone
In which Bechimo’s crew prepare to report.
The Theo/Bechimo part of the series isn’t as close to my heart as the Miri/Val Con part, and part of why is scenes like this, where the characters are talking over technical problems that mean something to them but don’t mean much to me. Miri and Val Con spend a fair amount of talking about problems that need solving, too, but their problems are usually about people, which I find inherently more interesting.
Surebleak Orbital Influence Zone
In which Bechimo discovers a new taste sensation.
Because of the name, and the fact that they’re first introduced as a breakfast food, I’d been picturing maize buttons as a kind of breakfast cereal, small and eaten in clusters. It appears from the description here that they’re more in the line of a pastry, large enough to be enjoyed individually (but small enough to be snatched up in a handful).
Surebleak Port
Portmaster’s Office
In which the Clutch are a law unto themselves.
Now I’m trying to picture how things would have gone down if Korval had still been living on Liad when Emissary Twelve came to visit. Liad has a busier airspace than Surebleak — and an active planetary defence system — so Liaden traffic control might have been moved to express its displeasure more forcefully. I don’t know if it would have made much difference to the emissary, though; Turtles build their ships pretty tough.
Surebleak Port
Scout Headquarters
In which Clonak ter’Meulen sees a ghost.
Looks like the separately-published Neogenesis outtake describing part of Daav and Aelliana’s visit with Kamele remains in continuity; it fits neatly into the space left between their last scene in Neogenesis and their first scene here.
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Bechimo
In which Bechimo is unhappy.
My immediate reaction to Theo wondering why Val Con wants a future for Free Intelligences was “You have met Jeeves, haven’t you?” But I suppose that’s not a full answer; after all, Jeeves already had a specific judgement recognising him, so the new broader judgement might not make a lot of difference to him personally. But he’s not the only Free Intelligence Val Con knows; for one, there’s Tocohl. Come to think of it, I don’t think Theo knows about Tocohl yet.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which Bechimo’s crew prepare for action.
Stost is missing the crew and seems like he’d welcome a chance to serve on Bechimo again, but hasn’t yet reached the point of coming right out and saying so except possibly to Chernak. Chernak might feel the same, but seems to be trying to talk herself out of it. Both of them are probably used to thinking that it’s not up to them where they get assigned, which would have been the case in the life they’ve left behind, but here and now I reckon if they expressed a preference it would have more effect than they’re used to.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which Theo has breakfast.
I wonder if we can read anything into the order that names come to Theo’s mind when she’s thinking of who she’d miss if she severed ties with Korval. Probably not much that we didn’t already know. Her father was obviously always going to be first, and she spent a lot of time hanging out with Luken last time she stayed at Jelaza Kazone, so it’s not surprising that he’s second.