Tag Archives: Xavier Ponstella Ing

Agent of Change – Chapter 18

In which several people are given things to think on.

Miri and Val Con are clear of Lufkit, but they’re not clear of trouble yet. Justin Hostro is sending people after them —

— I find myself wondering how he was able to discover their destination, when so far the name of Volmer has been spoken only in the hearing of Turtles. Perhaps Watcher mentioned it while he was in Xavier Ing’s custody, though that seems unlikely; a more plausible possibility is that the process of setting the ship for the journey included filing a destination with local traffic control —

— and near the end of the chapter we’re introduced to a new group of people, who act as a reminder that there are other dangers in the wide universe, which Miri and Val Con might now be heading toward.

Agent of Change – Chapter 17

In which Miri and Val Con discuss weapons.

At first it seemed like a quick turnaround that, less than a day after Miri tried to ditch the madman, it’s her reassuring him that he’s not a danger to her. But there was that demonstration, after she tried to ditch him, of how much importance he places on her survival, and even before that it wasn’t really what she was concerned about. Even when she admitted to being afraid, she made the point that it wasn’t Val Con himself she was afraid of. And I think, on reflection, that when she was bothered by his first demonstration of the Loop’s capabilities, what bothered her wasn’t just the apparent calmness with which he was able to discuss her death, but the calmness with which he was able to discuss his own.

On an entirely different note, I find myself wondering whether Professor Thos. Swift, author of the Young Person’s Book of Space Drives, was a member of the same faculty as the originator of the Antonio Smith Method.