“If life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.”
–Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
“Mr. Secretary! We just received this! Code magenta traffic warning about the Sol System, sir.”
“Criminy, Auren, don’t you knock? And drop the got’damn salute, son, I work for a living.”
Asker Theodus Auren looked befuddled. “But you’re the Secretary of Defense, sir.”
Darren Xanthopolous sighed, heavily. Auren was too damn serious. “Yes, asker, I know. I know damn well who I am. I also know there ain’t a got’damn reason on seven planets why you need to come busting into my office, actin’ like hellfire is raining down on Avalon, just for a damn traffic alert. Let’s see it.”
Auren handed Xanthopolous the signals intelligence. Xanthopolous studied it, shrugged, and said, “So they’re telling folks not to go to Earth. Nothin’ new there.”
“Sir – reread the third line.”
Darren looked at the soldier, and considered upbraiding him – he had far too much to do today to worry about comms traffic – but Darren had also been a leader for too long to yell at someone for doing his job. Instead he looked it over carefully.
“Aw, shit,” he said. “Does her worshipfulness know?”
“Sir?”
“Pryvani? You tell her?”
“Uh…no sir. I was just about….”
“Don’t. I’ll head up myself,” Xanthopolous said, grabbing his coat. “I’ll call the President on the way. And tell Twixie to move us to condition two.”
“Yes, sir.”
Xanthopolous returned the asker’s salute with a quick tap on his temple, and then headed out to the truck. He figured he may as well drive up to the residence himself, for all the time it would take him to track down a driver.
* * *
“To the Human ships currently operating in the orbit of Saturn: We have recovered your crewmate. She will survive, but you may not recover her. Saturn and all space outside of the orbit of the fifth planet in this star system is currently under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Fleet. You are to immediately return to inside the orbit of the fifth planet of this star system. If you attempt to approach Titan Station, or if you send any further vessels through the restriction sphere, your vessels may be boarded, confiscated, or destroyed. There will be no further communications.”
“Well,” said Xú. “A pleasant hello to you guys too. Sally Ride, you get that?”
“Roger that, Lem. I assume we’re going to ignore them?”
“You’re damn right we are,” Xú said, steaming. “I’m going to send them one message, and then I’m done, unless they recover their senses. You find that station. We’ll get Hala back or we’ll die trying. Xú out.”
Xú looked over at Maj. Kobayashi, who was sitting at comms. “Yoshi, open a channel, same frequency as the inbound one.”
She looked down, and tried to compose herself. “Titan Station, this is Xú Mùlán, the commander of the Terran Space Ship Stanisław Lem. We have come to this system in the spirit of peace and scientific exploration. We do not wish conflict with you. However, we will not depart this planetary system without the return of our crewmate. We would prefer that this be done in a peaceful manner befitting two spacefaring species, but rest assured, we are coming to get Maj. Nejem, one way or another, no matter the consequences. We will keep this channel open; we hope your next message will come soon, and show just a little more respect for the peoples who were born in, raised in, and who hold jurisdiction over this entire solar system. Xú out.”
The Shang Xiao sat back in her chair. “Time to Titan?”
“Fourteen hours, ma’am.”
“Maintain course. Captain-Lieutenant Bobrova, you have command.”
* * *
“…and so Niall figured he could change the diaper himself. How hard could it be? Sorcha was on the floor already.”
Niall and Naskia really just wanted to hug their daughter and go to sleep – it’s a circuitous trip from Archavia to Avalon, even using two jump gates. And even on one of Pryvani’s shuttles, travel will take something out of you. Still, their hostess had insisted on serving dinner for her guests and Sorcha and Alesia, and neither of the elder Freemans were going to tell Pryvani no, not after all she’d done for them.
“It was not my best decision,” Niall sighed, shooting his daughter a wink. His wife and her mother had enjoyed embarrassing them both with this story for what felt like 142 Titan years; with each retelling it became more disastrous for Niall, and Naskia’s heroism became that much more epic. Sorcha gave her dad a half-smile, and rolled her eyes; she and he had long ago agreed that the miracle was that this was the worst it ever got. Considering Sorcha had spent six Earth years as a sixty-odd foot tall two-year-old….
A bell chimed, and Pryvani looked over to the dining room’s entrance. “That’s odd,” she said to the small gathering. “I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
She walked over and opened the door, and dropped to a knee to speak to the visitor.
“Darren, hello! Wonderful to see you.”
“Hello, Portnoy. Hey, you didn’t tell me buttercup and the doc were comin’! I would’a brought something.”
“If he offers you moonshine,” Alesia said, “don’t take it.”
“Aw, bright-eyes, you’re no fun.”
“Tannhauser Gate is on break, we thought it might be good to visit our daughter, so we don’t forget what she looks like,” Naskia said. “Would you like to join us?”
“Unfortunately, I’m here on business. Paris, we got a bit of SigInt. They’re crackin’ down on the Earth blockade.”
“Really?” Pryvani said. “I’m surprised I hadn’t heard.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not the important part,” Darren said. “They’re warning folks not to cross the boundary from either direction.”
It took a second, but in turn, the color drained from Niall’s, Sorcha’s, and Pryvani’s faces.
“Oh, Dear Lord,” Niall said.
“Why – why is that important?” Alesia asked.
“Because,” Pryvani said. “There’s only one spacefaring species inside the restricted zone. Only one species that could cross it first from inside.”
“Humans,” Naskia said.
“Bingo, buttercup. And if they’re sendin’ this warning out, dollars to donuts they ain’t doing it just for fun.”
Niall chuckled in spite of himself. “Twenty-two years. Oh dear. Right on schedule.”
“You think the humans – you think they made it to Saturn?” Naskia asked.
“I think,” Niall said, “that it’s a reasonable hypothesis.”
“Darren, do sit down, have a bite. And if you all will excuse me,” Pryvani said, “I have a few calls to make.”
As Pryvani took her leave, Alesia stood up, saying, “Actually…I do, too.”
* * *
“Look, I’m sorry you turned your chair around, Navir, but for the 95th time, I didn’t make you do it!”
“Fine, but if you hadn’t been arguing….”
“You questioned Decurion Jons, Navir. You started it.”
“Look, if you really cared about me, you would’ve backed me up.”
Tigoni threw her arms up in the air at that. “Is that how you think this works? You say something idiotic and I back you up because you’re good at cunnilingus? No, Navir. No.”
“Look, you know how serious this is,” Navir said, sharply. “You and I could both lose our flight privileges for this. We could –”
“We nearly killed someone, Navir!”
“Just a human.”
Tig hauled back and slapped Navir, hard.
“How dare you,” she spat. “You show her respect. She’s earned respect.”
“Not saying she isn’t tough,” Navir said, rubbing his chin, “But I don’t want to give up my gorram career because of a pet.”
Tigoni stormed to the corner and grabbed her pack.
“Where are you going?” Navir asked.
“I’m going to see if I can bunk with Ulala,” Tigoni said.
“Oh, come on, Tig, it’s just a human!”
“No,” Tigoni said, wheeling on Navir. “No, she isn’t just a human. She’s a person. A pretty exceptional one from what little I’ve seen. And I’m not going to stay with someone who won’t acknowledge that.”
And with that, Decanus Tigoni Belfsec (2nd Class) turned on her heel, and left the quarters she had shared with her ex-boyfriend.
* * *
Rep. Loona Armac (Tannhauser West-Aspire Caucus) had made it through two terms in the Imperial House of Representatives, and was likely a shoo-in for a third. She’d had a good deal of success. Nine years in, and she had established herself as more than just a back-bencher. She was in line to serve as minority whip and head of the Aspire caucus after the next election, and while that was by no means assured, she had to admit, she was pretty happy just to be in the mix.
She had been dubious when Pryvani had strong-armed her into running, but once in office, Loona found she quite liked the job. She was really better suited to going on angry shouty talking head shows and shutting people down than writing for a living. Well – honestly, she was a decent writer. Pretty good, really. But Nonah so outclassed her there that she felt like a caricature artist working next to a master sculptor.
At this point, Loona was honored that Nonah even let her copy edit her work. Nonah, of course, wouldn’t have trusted anybody else with the job.
Loona was idly going through Nonah’s latest manuscript – a retelling of an Earth story about a girl, a daughter of a former emperor, whose brothers were killed fighting on opposite sides of a civil war. The emperor was refusing to let her bury her rebellious brother, but she kept insisting that both her brothers were owed respect. It seemed obvious to Loona that the girl was right, but then, the emperor in the story kept making one bad decision after another.
“You’re not paying a bit of attention to me, are you, boss?”
“No, Ammer, I’m not. I’m sorry. I know, it’s important that I get money lined up for the preservation of the Emperor Kraon XIV Observatory at Tannhauser Gate University. I promise, when I meet with Oed Havn, I’ll be happy to offer support for the establishment of the University of Tauron if he agrees to back the observatory funding.”
“That one of Nonah’s?” Ammer said, pointing to the manuscript.
“Yeah, it’s good. Sad, though.”
“Her sad stories are her best,” Ammer said. “All right, you’ve got a while, go ahead and edit it – you’ve earned a break with your performance in Floor Leader’s Questions last week.”
Loona smiled at the human on her desk. “Well, it’s funny how the question that my human majordomo slipped me just happened to catch the Floor Leader off guard.”
“And me, just a human you found in a pet store.”
They both laughed at that; Ammer was a native Avalonian. For political reasons, however, it had been established that he was born and raised as a pet on Archavia. No sense making people wonder what Pryvani Tarsuss had going on over on her private moon.
“Ammer, if I had found you in a pet store, I never would’ve bought you. You’re too sardonic.”
“Yeah, I’d make a lousy pet. All right, I’ve just got one last thing….”
Ammer didn’t get out the last thing, however, because Loona’s pad started chiming. “Oh, hang tight, Mr. Smit. I have to take this, but I won’t be long.”
“I can get out of your hair,” he said, but Loona had already opened the connection.
“Lessy!” she said, excitedly. “Kiddo, your mom was just complaining that we never hear from you!”
“Hi, Aunt Loona,” Alesia said.
Loona frowned when she saw her honorary niece’s face. “What’s wrong?” Loona queried. “Is something wrong at Avalon?”
“No. I mean, nothing more than usual. But I wanted to see if you had heard anything about a change in the status of Earth.”
“Huh? No, no. I would have told your boss – sorry, Ammer, Senator Tarsuss – as soon as I did.”
Ammer smiled wryly. He’d been trying to get Loona to refer to Pryvani as Senator Tarsuss in the office for…well, a long damn time at this point. It wasn’t as if Pryvani took her duties as a hereditary senator particularly seriously, but then, that was pretty much the first requirement for being a hereditary senator. Still, referring to her as a Senator helped Loona establish herself as her own entity, not one of Pryvani’s minions.
Not that half the empire wasn’t a minion of Pryvani at some level, but it was good to pretend.
Ammer forced himself to pay attention, and as soon as he did, he kicked himself for drifting off.
“…so they’re now warning of crossing it from inside the sphere defined by the fifth planet. Why would they do that, unless….”
“…unless they were worried about Earth trying to make contact with us,” Loona finished. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. I assume Pryv – Senator Tarsuss is looking into things?”
“She is,” Alesia said.
“Have her call me when she gets a chance. I know, it could be tomorrow. But….”
“I will. Sorry to call you out of the blue with a disaster.”
“Just do me a favor, and call your mom, please? She worries about you. You’re her baby daughter.”
“I know, Aunt Loona. I will. Promise.”
“That’s a girl. Love you, and tell Sorcha hello for me. Bye.”
Ammer and Loona looked at each other for a good long minute. Finally, Ammer said, “Fuck. It looks like I might owe Inna another apology.”
* * *
“This is the last thing you want to do if you want my crewmates to stay away.”
“You’ve said that, Hala.”
“And I’ve asked you, politely, to call me Major Nejem. Or if that’s difficult, you can try Doctor Nejem. If you intend to keep me as a prisoner, I would ask you do me the courtesy of dropping the familiarity, Princeps Ix.”
Ulala Ix sighed, and ran a hand absently through her mousy brown hair. “You don’t have to be that way, Hal…um, Major Nejem. Really, we intend to treat you well. After all, if not for us, you wouldn’t even be alive.”
“Well! Thank you for that!” Hala tried, and failed, to stand up; she settled for weakly pointing accusatorily. “You saved me so I can be – what, a zoological exhibit? A science experiment? A pet?”
“Well, actually….”
She was interrupted by a chime from the door.
“Honestly, Major, we will take good care of you,” Ulala said, with big, brown eyes that Hala wanted to believe.
Actually, Hala did believe Ulala. She was a smart kid who obviously wasn’t in charge. She didn’t know as Ulala would free her if she were in the shoes of her commanding officer, but she did feel like the xenolinguist at least thought of her as worthy of respect.
“She’s asking for us to use her titles. It’s a sign of respect in their culture, just like ours, sir.”
Princeps Ix, for her part, had spent the last several hours sick to her stomach. This didn’t feel right, not at all. She’d pushed to get Titan Station out of the academy because she had been fascinated by the snippets of Earth culture she’d come across. The books by Nonah Armac – she’d devoured them as a teenager. They were rich and deep as anything in the Empire, and Ulala had decided that while humans may not be quite Titans, intellectually speaking, they were still worthy of study. Perhaps even someday of friendship.
Indeed, she had become quite attached to Maj. Nejem. She didn’t think it was fair she should remain a prisoner, and she worried what would happen if she had to go back to Archavia. She didn’t know that Hala would ever be comfortable with being a pet. Well, maybe, with the right person….
“I understand that, but she’s not a Titan, Ms. Ix.”
Kir Oden, for his part, was just trying to figure out what to do next. He’d forwarded the message from the human commander to Navarchos Bass; Bass listened, laughed, and said, “That’s the politest ‘go fuck yourself’ I’ve heard in a long time.”
Bass had been clear: the orders to enforce the Jupiter sphere came from the Navarchos Imperii himself. For the moment, they were to use non-lethal means. They were to hold off on detaining the humans.
For the moment.
“Sir, she thinks that if we gave her back, and were willing to talk, the humans might be willing to agree to leave the Saturn system.”
“That decision’s been made above my pay grade,” Kir said.
“Then what are we supposed to do with her?”
“I don’t know,” Kir said. “If you’ve got a nephew, I guess you’ve got his next birthday present.”
“I’m serious, sir.”
“So’m I.”
Ulala blinked. “Yes, sir,” she said. “I’m going to keep talking with her, with your permission.”
“Knock yourself out.”
Ulala headed back in to talk with the Major. She thought she’d wait a while before she told her about how humans lived on Archavia. It didn’t seem right to let her know how correct she’d been. Not yet.
* * *
“All right, beginning third polar orbit of Titan, sir.”
“Anything in the second sweep?”
“Perhaps,” Viktor Frieden said, looking carefully at the raw radar imaging. “We need to….”
“We need to find Hala, Viktor!”
“Captain, with all due respect, I can’t make their base appear! If I could, I would.”
Tatenda rubbed his eyes. “I know, Viktor. It’s just….”
“Sir!” Ted called. “Two o’clock!”
Viktor and Tatenda looked fore and starboard, to see an enormous craft – one that dwarfed the shuttle they’d collided with. It had to be hundreds of kilometers distant, but they could still see it with the naked eye.
“It’s going in,” Ted said. “If we can follow it….”
“…it will lead us to the station! Col. Martínez….”
“Aye, sir, following that ship.”
The Sally Ride broke orbit, and dove into the dense atmosphere of Titan.
FROM LEFT FIELD……..
I wonder what Luke and the rest of the gang at the tribe/farm are doing? Luke and Quendra are probably not around if they didn’t get LE..Aisell has her Tol-Bot career whilst Lezah and Aeszhey are doing their farmgirl routine…..Maybe Thrufit hooked up with Aezhey? Hmmmnnm.
Interesting to get their reaction to these events…
I imagine the moment Aisell heard about the life extension treatments (either through Eyrn or Darren), then she would have probably reached out to Pryvanni to try and secure the treatments for those of the tribe who would want it.
If Pryvanni hadn’t reached out to them first.
In all the discussions we had, we always came to the conclusion that Earth couldn’t build a military space force without Titans knowing about it. But given the level of detachment and distance the Empire keeps about surveiling Earth, that might not be true. A high level of secrecy to avoid chatter and shipyards built underground might be enough to build warships secretly.
After all, the Empire seems happy to stay away as long as humans don’t come close to Titan station.
Heh given enough time and resources earth could build an invasion fleet and kick serious Titan hiney out of (at least) Sol Terra system. ……… A pearl harbor style attack. They wouldn’t know what hit them..
We would need help of course perhaps from one of the flying monkey peoples (drazari) or Klingons or …
Pearl Harbour, huh? I seem to recall the Japanese losing the Pacific War that resulted. Is it really a good idea to “awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”?
Any warships Earth can build would be like rowboats against the Imperial battleships for a long time to come. And on the resource side the Empire is populated by many billions of sentients (I estimate somwhere around 50 billion) whose territory encompasses hundreds of star systems. And say humanity does somehow kick the Empire out of Sol Terra with a surprise attack. Would Earth even have the time to celebrate before the insectoids come knocking?
Seriously, any hope of overcoming the Empire through force is just a pipe dream born of frustration. Even if it weren’t it’d probably be a genocide, proving that Tobin Gernhatt was right all along.
Thats because the Japanese rested on their laurels and didn’t press on with their attack. Most of the US fleet was destroyed. Once they had the US on its heels and reeling, it would have been a simple matter of pinning the US in a corner and forcing concessions.
Thats a good line from that movie but there is no concrete evidence the Gen Yamamoto actually made those comments.
And the Titans ARE sleeping. One of the human’s greatest advantage is the current Titan’s assessment of them. Thus making a surprise attack all that more effective. Rowboats? Hmm. So does bigger mean better? You know the old expression; “the bigger they are the harder they fall” …. In Star Wars the Deathstar was destroyed by a single Tie Fighter…The deathstar was the size of a planet (ok moon)
You are also forgetting one of Sun Tsu’s main principles…… (Art of War for the curious)
As for the Insectiods, cans a raid..I mean really BIG cans..Ok probably just keep em’ a way for a bit but that will give the earthers some time to develop biological weapons against them..They do have natural enemies. If it gets really hairy with them, then just use some of that nanobot tech that was outlawed (but some kept for ‘research’ purposes)…Maybe even capture a few, do some DNA rejiggering (I made that word up – cool eh?) and get them to believe that earth is hive prime and not attack…Hey maybe even reprogram them to think that they are just weird looking humans and get them to attack the Titans. It would just be self-defense…..The options are endless…
However if it ever get to this point. Los Titans do have a trump card against the humans..An effective one too……
The second Earth brought a matter/anti matter reactor online that was powerful enough to pose a threat to a titan ship it’d be picked up by titan station and a ship despatched to check out what’s broken the blockade.
I’m sure they could find a way to shield it or somehow explain it.. “hey its just one of those new fangled microwave ovens we have – we’re just cooking chicken”
matter/anti-matter reactor? what is this… science fiction?
“An almost unlimited energy source built in to every device. Every person could wear a power supply in their clothes that could provide a personal shield in an emergency, tiny antimatter energy cells would be in almost every device. It would quite literally change The Empire forever.” The objective isn’t for a Human built ship to replicate Titan tech and slug it out with the Titan fleet. The objective is to posses and demonstrate superior tech that the Titans don’t have and aren’t even looking to see if the humans might have. If in the 140 years since Freeman’s kidnapping the rest of humanity has done what Niall did in two weeks building on Hussel’s work then they have the game changer that forces Titans to negotiate out of self interest.
It’s implied in the Biographies that the first human warp ship is being built right now (as of Contact). Maybe it’s still powered by a fusion reactor but if not, if it’s a prototype for a matter / antimatter reactor, it would have to be smaller than the ones the Empire has – it would have to fit on a human ship.
And Titans are still looking for ways to reduce the size of their M/A reactors.
But more importantly, I doubt Earth would pour together the huge funding for building a space warp ship of the tech hadn’t been fully tested first. Maybe on probes and the likes. If so, Titan station didn’t seem to pick up any of that warp activity. Could be that Earth is too far from Titan station (now that the closer outposts have been evacuated) and/or human warp signature too small to be detected by Titan station.
That… is unlikely. Niall was building on Hussel’s invention of the micro antimatter reactor (or more accurately, reverse engineering the underlying principle), who was in turn building on the knowledge of a civilization that invented nuclear fusion and warp drive eons ago. And Hussel’s invention came sometime after the regular antimatter reactor, which judging from OpenHighHat’s earlier statement humans haven’t invented yet either.
Since I had some trouble distinguishing between the various antimatter reactors I looked up the subject in Titan: Physics. I figure it’s a good idea to sum up my findings (which come from chapters 9, 12 and 20):
– regular antimatter reactor In use before Hussel came along. Could only be used on large starships because of diminishing returns.
– micro antimatter reactor Invented by Hussel Bass. Fits inside smaller craft. Minimum size is slightly smaller than Naskia. Widely used today.
– ultramicro antimatter reactor Only theoretical at this point. Requires the formula Hussel originally discovered instead of the one he publicized. Can fit in a human hand.
Dangit. Ninja’d by NightEye, and my attempt to underline the reactor types failed as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrI8RfZNUI
That’s all I got to say.
Actually, there are researchers on Titan Station that specifically monitor Earth (as shown in Physics during Loona’s half of the hearing), it’s just that nobody seems to be paying any attention to their findings.
So when that asker, a very serious fellow, burst in upset about a seemingly inconsequential traffic warning Darren didn’t immediately realize that there must be more to it, and barely avoided dismissing the whole thing out of hand? Brr, I really hate to think about what would have happened then. No telling how much longer it would have been before Pryvani, Loona and the others got wind of what’s going on.
After the appearance of the Ix family in Background Chatter I had hoped that Ulala would share her aunt’s opinion of humans already. Still, she seems to be at least subconsciously aware that something is not right. Between Hala and soon-to-be roommate Tigoni there is a good chance that her eyes will be opened before long.
Two more things. Looks like Pryvani figured out how to block the gates because they are in use now.
And Niall tried changing his baby girl’s diaper, wait “on the floor”, so without an avatar? Mother. Of. God… the horror.
The epilogue for Physics already confirmed the gates being operational, and that Niall and Naskia actually managed to improve on them.
I had to reread that. I only remembered the part about the telecommunications.
I’m glad Tigoni blew up at Navir. Her casual acceptance of his “racist” behavior, despite how much it clashed with her rather passionate viewpoint on the matter, came off as unbelievable in the preceding chapter with them. Hopefully Hala has an ally in her.
I didn’t find Tigoni’s previous behaviour to be out of character. It wasn’t casual acceptance at all, but rather an attempt to change his opinion through debate. Makes sense when your boyfriend seems to have never put any thought into the subject and just apes the common opinion. Also, they were on a mission and couldn’t afford to get too engrossed into the subject.
Of course in this chapter Navir turns out to be worse than just never having really thought about humans before. Not only did he want Tigoni to back him up even though what happened was primarily his fault, he also dismissed the potential loss of a human life in a manner that’s callous even for pets (let alone people). No wonder Tigoni dumped him.
Darren: Secretary of Defense – sure…ok so whos the enemy? Besides Titans…… like Fand….
I do like his kids names 🙂
When he got to Avalon, there were quite a lot of enemies.
This is 140 years in the future. Those people were dealt with a long time ago. I don’t think Avalon is dealing with nation-states such as Russia, China, India etc that one would need a Sec of Defense..Their biggest enemy are still the Titans (figuratively and literally) sans Pryvani of course..
It would be cool if somehow earth found out about Avalon and made contact with them…THAT would be interesting..
——
And Darren got LE treatment as well as did Lysis….
He needs really good Texas chilli to go with that moonshine……(i prefer a hearty lager..)
I expect that in this story or Hybrid, Earth and Avalon will make contact.
I just realized that Avalon knows about Earth, and its not just a long lost myth from strangers. They have tangible evidence. The converse is not true. When they meet it will be quite shocking – for earth. Unless Darren is one the emissaries
“They were rich and deep as anything in the Empire, and Ulala had decided that while humans may not be quite Titans, intellectually speaking, they were still worthy of study. Perhaps even someday of friendship.”
Yes, friendship with your pet(s) thats quite appropriate…. .. “Here hala…go fetch!….now jump… jump higher! ok now can you review my physics term paper for me!”
______
The level of illogic here is giving me a brain strain….everybody is going all dither and dather…yah…….lot of talk..pro and con.. blah blah………. just give me a good ole’ fashioned shootout…..F**k em’ make em’ bleed….(i’m feeling rather violent today oh dear)
Things are progressing as planned. Humans don’t take no guff. You own this system? No we own this system. Thankfully the important people on the other side have been made aware.
I wonder how far into Titan Station a 2 unit long shuttle can maneuver without a dorsal impeller. Are they able to still track the beacon in her suit, or are they going to have to ask directions?
I’m going to take a stab at guessing Nonah’s source story. King Lear? Not to insult her talent, but are most of her stories just lifted from the great works of Earth and just repackaged for an audience that’s not familiar with them?
A lot of her stories are probably the ones the humans tell around the space heater in the breeding farms. They just happen to mostly be from Earth.
Actually, sketch, it’s a retelling of Antigone, the last of the Oedipus trilogy by the Greek playwright Sophocles
Fuck HTML tags, I just want to italicize one thing, one thing!
Okay, the makes more sense. Thanks for the correct story btw.
+1 for getting my Antigone reference. 😀
Oh i just understood Bass’s plan by Kusa, thank pal! I disappointed tht Darren hookup with Lysis instead of Tapp. I love Xú Mùlán go girl !
Personally, I’m not surprised at all that Darren hooked up with the closest thing to a soldier he’s met (that isn’t a Titan).
Right. Looks like the DarrenXTap ship has crashed like a shuttle spiraling into a moon. To be fair, it was clipped why back when she told him she wasn’t interested in a serious relationship.
Part of my was hoping this was just a descendant, but no one else has that many names for Pryvani and others said without a lick of respect or even correct pronunciation. Speaking of, holy presidential naming convention, that wiki list of his kids.
Earning one of Darren’s nicknames is a sign of respect…including the endless playful twists of Pryvani. Lyroo certainly never had the honor. I am surprised though that at least one of his kids didn’t get named for a defender of the Alamo.
That, sounds like a rather dubious claim. But, if true, man…poor Scroof. Darren respected the hell out of that guy and he never knew.
Initially no but in the end Darren may have had just a bit of grudging bit respect for Scroof. Distorted as his world view was, Scroof stuck to his survival strategy of what worked and what didn’t despite all of Darren’s months of efforts to change him. The height of Avery’s deprogramming was to get Scroof to mis-pronounce his own name.
Darren always had the hope of eventual rescue to drive him. Scroof had no such help on the way to make resistance meaningful.
It’s pretty amazing that someone as apparently intelligent as Princeps Ix, given all the evidence in the world and even fawning after Nonah’s writings could still think, ‘well I’m sure she’s be okay with being a pet.’ Really shows the uphill fight for rights here.
At least Bass’ plan worked, word spreading fast to all those looking for said cues. Right now it seems the only way to prevent this from escalating into a full (if short) confrontation is getting the legislature to act. Even if they’re not pro human rights, there’s probably at least enough sentiment to blow them out of the sky…hopefully.
Minor thing, but yep looks like Darren and Lysis hooked up, and he took her name too. Wonder how that went down.
Should be “not” blow them out of the sky.
Oh well, Xu all but sent them an eviction notice anyway so maybe they’d be acting in self defense.
Avalon’s people track the family name by the mother according to JS. Makes sense for a culture built around a goddess. It’s kind of funny how Eyrn went the other way, and also that neither ever really showed interest in cross species dating.
I don’t really find that strange. Taking the mother’s name seems to be something particular to Avalon. It seems Titan’s as a society don’t really have any common practice, so it’s more based on the situation. In Eyrn’s case, we never knew her last name. She took on the name of her adoptive parents, Fitzgerald, when she was found on earth, and then her husband’s name when she married. I’m not really sure what human she would have been interested in anyway, she had no “pet” of her own.
I do wonder if she ever managed to figure out her history. She’s technically more than a millenia old, so I guess that might be a bit difficult.
First off, Fitzgerald is a legit last name.
Secondly, I think it’s funny in the meta sense. In just about every other story, a titan and human spend at most a few weeks together, and the possibility of romance comes out. Luke and Aisell had a small window before Quendra pulled the interception. Even Ammer finally succumbs. But the protags of Exile, with far greater exposure and attitudes on human equality, just noped their way out of that prospect. It’s kind of telling that Dan has only one hybrid to tease out of the entire cast.
Well, Tapp and Darren would have been a relationship of convenience. Really, the only reason they could have fit well together was because their choices were narrow to none.
Also, I don’t like inserting romance for the sake of having romance. Darren and Tapp were never interested in one another, thats perfectly realistic.
Did Eyrn find out her history? You did read Exile right? It is revealed to her near the end, before the Tol Bot Arc begins.
It’s also all over the Wiki.
I did, but that was a paragraph or two back in mid September. And I guess I either hadn’t read Eyrn’s page since then or forgot about it.
Ulala Ix had no actual experience with non-pet humans until now. She’s right on the edge of full understanding. With how much this whole event is bothering her, and with the respect and courtesy she is showing their little guest, it won’t take much longer for her to realize the truth; Humans are people too.
So the crew of the Sally Ride is going on a covert mission, and the important people are starting to hear about the human’s making contact.
I wonder if Naskia will call her brother/ Eyrn for answers, it seems like her to do something rash.
Also, interesting that Darren’s last name was changed from Avery to Xanthopolous. I swear I’ve seen that name before, from somewhere in the story but it escapes me. I’m sure someone smarter than me will point it out
Great Chapter DX, slowly moving the pieces of the story in place as everything gets ready to collide. Can’t wait for more. 🙂
Found it! Captain Lysis Xanthopolous, Avalonian, Captain, (probably?) now wife of Darren
Now that… is awesome
Its in the wiggie, I mean wiki 🙂
Honestly, until now, i thought that it was Lysis who told Ammer about Loona (in Campaign). I just wonder what happened later with her, becouse i hardly see former captain of Avalonian Guard as a housewife…
We did sneak that little easter egg in, nobody noticed.