Well of Souls Forums

Arioch DID mention that loroi!Chess would make an appearance soon. I think chess and something like that would be what Beryl herself might suggest. Or Tempo. To gauge his mental capabilities, strategic thinking and his approach to difficult situations. With Talon, she or rather Alex himself would c...

Soldiers are all soldiers, and pilots are all pilots. Talon and Spiral aren't thinking of Alex as a strategic resource or a science project like Tempo and Beryl are. Alex is probably relieved to talk to an alien that isn't trying to bully him, interrogate him or just plain milk him for information ...

hi hi I'm not sure if the Loroi have a policy of disallowing males on ships. If I recall correctly, some of the farseers used by varying strike groups are male. I wonder if someone already discussed it.... Beryl's first assumption about humans (pg. 44) was that their males have some base biological...

Sending Tempo along means Alex and any resulting issues has been made her problem to deal with as well as getting rid of a (sneaky mealy mouthed Mizol) officer that is a thorn in her side for at least a time. Beware. It was Tempo who put this up as a reason to leave with the group and especially Al...

I still find it hilarious that certain words that Talon spoke were bolded and italicized for emphasis :p "...Pilots have a Natural feeling for each other..." "Your hand is really warm ." Beryl needed several trigger warnings walking into the sight of that "handshake" and hearing those words in thos...

Secondly, break in continuity? Tempo sort of handed off Alex to Talon for her to give him access to the starmaps (see pg. 111), and now it requires Beryl to access them? Either it is a plot hole or another sort of a demonstration on Beryl's side giving Talon a signal to back off and not intrude on ...

Mr Bojangles wrote:And, I find myself leaning towards the personal/professional jealousy theory for Beryl. Alex is her alien, dammit!

And another long-standing question had been answered, Loroi (females) don't readily share their toys, too.

hi hi My interpretation is that Beryl is stung because she thinks Alex is still mad at her because of the interrogation. She explained how it wasn't her fault, but it probably seems to her that Alex is holding a grudge, doesn't trust her, and is holding back cooperation and information with her as ...

There's also the fact that the Loroi's telepathy is stronger through physical contact. While it doesn't work on humans, catching two people touching each other socially implies they are exchanging more than simple information. Yep, that situation was quite loaded in both human and Loroi customs. An...

Yep, as I suspected. Beryl is sort of staking her claim. And I think both on professional and personal level. As a scientist she is a bit ticked that someone else got to learn of another interesting tidbit of alien culture beforehand, or poaching on her caste's prerogative, and on a personal level.....

Alex might not be a Captain Kirk, but now there are two Loroi starting out to be rather standoffish, but warming up to him rather quickly. First Beryl, and now Talon. On a professional level, Beryl and Tempo would see Alexander Jardin as a porential asset. Be it for insights into an alien science an...

Another thing - Beryl was fast asleep a moment ago, right? She dozed off as Tempo took over, but didn't take long to be up and about again. I'd peg it on warrior training, to be up and alert if something around oneself changes - like Alex getting up and moving away - but the first thing she did is t...

It could also be that he's a first-contact alien and whoever does the important work of establishing trust/communications/basic knowledge and so forth with him will have earned a lot of brownie-points or prestige in whatever passes the military hierarchy, either for beryl personally or for her cast...

Beryl really seems to have a look of suspicion on her face. And that Loroi very much have a similar custom to human women staking their claim, because she certainly did and that message was well received by Talon... why else would she feel the need to placate Beryl? After all, Beryl did berate Talon...

I think it would very much depend on how close a kinship Loroi see towards humans. And vice versa. Humans may be very much "enlightened" in that age, but Loroi do have some racial superiority complex, muchly based on their belief that they're the "chosen race", and showing traits of racism. Face it,...

I think there are two more mundane means of hiding some ship's presence in space which hadn't been discussed here, meaning directed emissions and destructive interference. Directed Emissions When you imagine a lighthouse, your mind puts in the beam emitted from the lighthouse, preferably with the li...

Population growth can be described with differential equations, AFAIK, meaning the rate in absolute figures is defined by the actual number of people any given point of time. And they do have the tendency to behave quite unpredictable. Set the parameters right and you would have an oscillation in po...

Decoys, set up false signal emitters. Sneak behind a planet/moon and send a decoy to leave on the other side. Or make your engine burn when behind the obscuring object and switch of before emerging into view sending a decoy in another direction. Place minefields of inactive missiles laying in wait ...

I know... any kind of significant energy emission would be noticeable against the background, given good enough sensors. But on the other hand, there might be some kind of "sufficiently low emissions", else Loroi would have been able to tune in to our TV about two hundred years after we blared them ...

(Not that a ship with a terajoule-per-second drive plume is a stealthy creature to begin with...) That could easily define battle doctrine. As in, once a combatant risks to get into the enemy's scanner range, it would be "engines on hot standby", to not to be given away by a terawatts (Joule/second...