A Call to... Arms - Page 127

[Vyrnie]

However, a good reason to not send their entire fleet is that the Loroi are still likely to get the word out via couriers that the Umiak have this new advantage. From the Loroi perspective, having lost their farseer advantage, a full-scale all-or-nothing invasion of Umiak territory may now be unavoidable. And if the Loroi are forced into such a strategy, the Umiak can accept the move on their own turf where they have the supply line advantage. All they need to do is sufficiently scare the Loroi into going all in, or damage them enough in the opening move that they don't have the resources and end up getting whittled away.

This is plausible, but I don't like that human contact now becomes just a coincidence. I mean its not impossible, but who just leaves Chekov's gun chilling on the mantle piece?

First, the Terran scouts were out there simultaneously. It would be a remarkable feat for the Umiak to capture a scout, figure out their telepathic resistance, develop a way to copy that resistance, apply it to multiple divisions worth of ships, send those ships on a circuitous route around the front-lines, all before the Bellarmine made first contact.

Of course, but I'm not sure it would take the humans similar times to make contact with both groups. First off the Umiak have a greater industrial capacity (can't remember where I read this but this was the assumption I was working off of) so its more likely they have scouts further out to establish contact at an earlier date and unlike the Loroi they could've potentially avoided wasting any time with armed conflict and instead booked it to Umiak command immediately.

You're right though, it would be a stretch trying to account for telepathy-invisible Umiak being there at the moment of human-Loroi first contact already if this version was true. Probably not likely the Umiak got their stealth from humans directly then.

Second, I can't think of any reason why the Umiak would hide an ability to mask themselves from telepathy, if they had it. If they had such an ability, I would think that the Loroi would have lost the war during the First Siege of Seren.

Not necessarily, the telepathy-invisible Umiak could be expensive or otherwise naturally rare units that need to be used sparingly and with the benefit of surprise for best effect. As for why they would hide it, that's much more simple, same reason the Allies hid they could crack Enigma in WW2; ships/cities would be sacrificed if plausible orders couldn't be conjured up to move them out of harms way so the Germans never even suspected Enigma was broken.

Letting the Loroi think they have perfect "sensor" coverage is a pretty big advantage, even if the Umiak can only slip past with small numbers; production rate-limited by either biology (only 1 in x Umiak gets it) or industrial capacity (1 stealth crew costs ties up as much industrial capacity as y fodder crew.) The only alternate I can see is that the Umiak did just recently learn/acquire this ability, but completely independent of human first contact. And its just a coincidence that the first Umiak stealth force attacked the Loroi group carrying the human delegate, who just happens to represent a race with the same ability.

Leaning towards "they've always had it in small numbers, found humans ahead of Loroi, scrambled the closest commander - Kikitik-27 - to intercept human contact with Loroi so the Loroi continue to believe their sensor coverage is perfect"

[Krulle]

How would the Umiak find out who is in the telepathy-blind-spot, without having telepaths available?

On the other side of their empire there may have been another telepathic race, one they were able to subjugate.
But that would start adding coincidences...

[sunphoenix]

I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.

I'll just leave this here.

oh my!

Hahaha... indeed ~ a 'rare' beauty!

[WalexB]

the Loroi part of the romantic relationship realize early that human males pair bond

As to the monogamous tendencies of hot human males, especially pilots/jocks, I guess you could ask any human female... As to the monogamous tendencies of human females there is the story of an USA nuclear submarine that a couple days after leaving for a 3 month mission had to go back to port and its crew returned to their homes, and 50% of the crew got divorced.

Not only Alex is hot, in his 20s, a pilot/jock, but also he has the difficult diplomatic task of setting up the best possible context between himself as ambassador of humanity and a species of hot young blue elves of which only 90-95% are women.
I guess he would be willing to make the strenuous effort to suppress his natural tendency to monogamy as a big sacrifice .

and are not reasonable when someone tries to take their chosen girl(s) from them.

That's quite different from having a harem (the stunning diplomat, the delightful "savant", the fiery soldier, the wild pilot, the funny copilot, ...) of maniacal blue elves devoted to them.
I guess that Alex could however be concerned that to have children his harem would have to be inseminated by blue elf males, but Alex surely can realize that his duty as ambassador for humanity might require him to be tolerant of the customs of aliens.

BTW there is an interesting detail that might have escaped (or perhaps not) our Arioch: sex with "sanzai" means that Loroi males get to know pretty much all the secrets of all the females they have sex with.
That's "pillow talk" to the Nth power. Which means that Loroi males who "service" powerful Loroi females are most likely the real powers in Loroi society, and that may be why high status Loroi females tend to reserve some males for themselves and I guess their allies. Because the set of Loroi females who share a male not only have their children from the same father, but are related indirectly via "sanzai" with him.

[cacambo43]

I don't care how you spin it, Alex having any relationship with a Loroi (female, presumably) risks way to much in terms of diplomatic relations with him specifically and with humanity in general. It is also massively unprofessional. I can see the *tension* being there, and an expression of feelings, but at this stage, any deeper relationship would risk a tremendous amount. In my opinion.

Also, if Beryl does harbor feelings for him, how likely is it she could or would keep that from others via sanzai? There is (or will be) tension amongst the crew and others around them for sure about what that means and what to do about it, surely?

CJSF

[anticarrot]

I don't care how you spin it, Alex having any relationship with a Loroi (female, presumably) risks way to much in terms of diplomatic relations with him specifically and with humanity in general. It is also massively unprofessional. I can see the *tension* being there, and an expression of feelings, but at this stage, any deeper relationship would risk a tremendous amount. In my opinion.

Also depends on how they view him. Loroi are easy on the eye for humans, but for all we know, humans might sit right in the middle of the uncanny valley for them.

As to the Umiak stealth, where ever it came from it's presumably a recent acquisition. How recent will depends on the size of the jammer (?), how many they need per fleet, and whether it needs novel manufacturing capacity. If it's small, they don't need many, and it is compatible with their existing technology, then they might be able to equip their fleet in days. Their fleets are missile heavy because they supposedly have far more industrial capacity than the Loroi. That could be from a human scout, or several decades of studying Loroi, or alternatively an ancient data cache that tells them exactly how the Loroi's abilities work and how they can be jammed. Not that it really matters in the end.

[entity2636]

Guys! While talking back and forth about umiak stealth, loroi farsensing and the currently observable "Charlie Foxtrot" in and around Leido, I would like to point out that we have forgotten/overlooked something about the bigger picture.

Back on Page 59 Tempo is briefing Alex on what has happened in and around Naam. In universe that's about a week or two ago, give or take. She says that they have far-sensed an umiak force of significant but not insanely large numbers in the Naam system and have sent whole 3 strike groups after it. This was Clickly-click's fleet that consisted of both normal and "stealth" units which have dispersed throughout the system and the gas clouds present there and had laid an ambush for them. The loroi didn't know their intel was faulty at that point, didn't expect to encounter 3 or more umiak divisions and the first two loroi strike groups were ambushed and wiped out completely and now Clicky is playing cat and mouse with Stillstorm of the third group.

Later on Page 66 Tempo confesses to Alex, without the Barsam and Historian representatives listening, that their far-sensing ability has been compromised [now], is providing faulty data and the umiak apparently are well aware of this and are actively exploiting it.

And on Page 86 and bit further, when Clicky comes floating out of the nebula with his 22 squadrons and starts taunting Stillstorm, he says that his objective thus far was to tie up as many loroi strike groups as he could in and around Naam, while their, presumably, stealth forces fly around them unnoticed and unopposed and are already deep inside the Loroi territory and will soon bypass Azimol. He also offers Stillstorm to back away and live out the rest of her natural lifespan on a planet of her choosing

The way I see it, some of Stillstorm's officers, notably Tempo and Beryl, didn't believe him, but Stillstorm did and made full steam towards Azimol. There may have been an argument resulting in Tempo (and probably Beryl too) being confined to quarters and then shipped on the shuttle together with Alex somewhere far away (Seren being sufficiently out of Stillstorm's line of sight). It looks like Stillstorm was right and made it to Leido just in time to intercept at least one such umiak stealth fleet, and it also explains Beryl's shock on Page 125 when she sees the umiak fleet jumping into Leido from where noone was expecting them.

Now, as for how the umiak stealth works, my money is either on the system being purely technological, obtained either directly or indirectly from the Historians, or a result of years of research into loroi POWs the umiaks have plenty of after their occupation and retreat from Seren. For now I would like to favor the second option.

BTW there is an interesting detail that might have escaped (or perhaps not) our Arioch: sex with "sanzai" means that Loroi males get to know pretty much all the secrets of all the females they have sex with.
That's "pillow talk" to the Nth power. Which means that Loroi males who "service" powerful Loroi females are most likely the real powers in Loroi society, and that may be why high status Loroi females tend to reserve some males for themselves and I guess their allies. Because the set of Loroi females who share a male not only have their children from the same father, but are related indirectly via "sanzai" with him.

Loroi telepathy is similar to talking, but with a twist. Unless you actively hack into someone's mind (mind probe/mind rape them), you will not find out more than the other person is willing to disclose and the loroi at a very young age learn to block their minds against intrusions. Men in their culture are very important, highly respected, well educated and usually work as psychologists, therapists, counselors, philosophers and in similar disciplines, aside from just the sex part. Plus they are also sort of "civilian farseers" who monitor the general public's opinion. As a loroi woman, the higher your status and grander your achievements, the more encounters with a man, and consequently, a man of higher status/better pedigree you are awarded (by some sort of committee supposedly of your superior officers). Without doubt, if you were to have dangerous or unpopular thoughts and were to loose your mind shield and thus disclose them to the guy you're having sex with, it will be his duty to inform the loroi equivalent of Military Police (Mizol Counterintelligence) and you may suddenly wake up dead. Your average everyday Loroi are very "yes/no, black/white, good/bad, for/against the Empire", etc., unless they are Mizols, who are every shade of gray

[cacambo43]

Not that it really matters in the end.

Well, for how things go for the Loroi (and Alex), perhaps not. But for the story (i.e., us) I expect is quite important.

CJSF

[dragoongfa]

As to the monogamous tendencies of hot human males, especially pilots/jocks, I guess you could ask any human female... As to the monogamous tendencies of human females there is the story of an USA nuclear submarine that a couple days after leaving for a 3 month mission had to go back to port and its crew returned to their homes, and 50% of the crew got divorced.

Not only Alex is hot, in his 20s, a pilot/jock, but also he has the difficult diplomatic task of setting up the best possible context between himself as ambassador of humanity and a species of hot young blue elves of which only 90-95% are women.
I guess he would be willing to make the strenuous effort to suppress his natural tendency to monogamy as a big sacrifice .

One night stands are opportunistic and one time only with partners that no one is expecting to see again, it's vastly different with people one interacts daily with and has shared life and death experiences. Alex apparently also suffers from survivor's guilt if we are to judge from his earlier nightmare; he isn't in a state of mind to have an ONS with anyone. If he is to have a relationship(s) that will have to bloom with time and getting to know each other.

That's quite different from having a harem (the stunning diplomat, the delightful "savant", the fiery soldier, the wild pilot, the funny copilot, ...) of maniacal blue elves devoted to them.
I guess that Alex could however be concerned that to have children his harem would have to be inseminated by blue elf males, but Alex surely can realize that his duty as ambassador for humanity might require him to be tolerant of the customs of aliens.

I was speaking from the emotional attachment angle and having said love interest get hurt or being pulled away for getting too attached to the Human male. Besides I don't think that any of the story's heroines will get the time and access to a male necessary to pursue getting pregnant and all of them bar Fireblade already have descendants so they are not under pressure to have children, yes even Beryl has a child. Although it is amusing imagining Alex's theoretical Loroi girlfriend get Netorared by a cocky Loroi manlet I don't think that Arioch is sadistic enough to his main character to do that to him.

I don't care how you spin it, Alex having any relationship with a Loroi (female, presumably) risks way to much in terms of diplomatic relations with him specifically and with humanity in general. It is also massively unprofessional. I can see the *tension* being there, and an expression of feelings, but at this stage, any deeper relationship would risk a tremendous amount. In my opinion.

Also, if Beryl does harbor feelings for him, how likely is it she could or would keep that from others via sanzai? There is (or will be) tension amongst the crew and others around them for sure about what that means and what to do about it, surely?

CJSF

Diplomatically there isn't much if any risk at all. The Loroi Union may have recognized Alex as a Plenipotentiary Ambassador but that is not legally binding for the TCA because Alex doesn't have the commission necessary for having such duties, he is a Scout Corp's officer but his rank and length of service is too limited. It would be like having a an army 2nd Lieutenant being a nation's plenipotentiary ambassador to the USA because he got rescued off a sunken boat and they don't have anyone better. Even if Alex does sign an alliance with the Loroi the TCA ambassadors on the relay ship will have to ratify it and send it to Earth for final signing before it becomes legally binding.
Now professionalism, that's a good angle. Alex is the first contact between the Loroi and Humanity so his behavior will shape the very first impressions of the Loroi about Humanity. I doubt that Alex will pursue doing something unprofessional but he is 19 years old, thrown in an extreme situation, in the middle of a war where he will be regularly get shot at and all the while being completely alone in terms of human to human interactions. Feelings and Emotions are bound to form and they will be powerful. Which is great because that's how proper drama is formed.

[icekatze]

hi hi

The way I see it, some of Stillstorm's officers, notably Tempo and Beryl, didn't believe him, but Stillstorm did and made full steam towards Azimol.

I gotta say, I got the opposite impression of Stillstorm. I think she absolutely doesn't believe Clicky-27. On page 100, we learn from Beryl that strike group 51 is being resupplied, then being sent back out as soon as possible. Instead of going to Azimol, Stillstorm's plan seems to be to turn right back around and get to what she believed to be the front.

Diplomatically there isn't much if any risk at all...

Alex seems to be smart enough to realize that he's representing all of humanity right now, and that the first impression he gives could have lasting consequences. Several times in narration, we learn that he considered saying some impertinent things, and decided not to. Also, at least for the moment, Beryl's biological inquiries made him uncomfortable. I'm not going to try to make predictions on the "will they, won't they," angle, but the closest thing Alex has had to a private moment so far was when he and Talon were alone for a couple seconds in the shuttle's bridge/bay airlock.

Whether or not Alex is interested, or will eventually become interested in a one night stand, he is definitely in a position where he's also starved of the kind of companionate intimacy that Loroi sanzai makes easy. The self-proclaimed 'players' that I knew in high school didn't mind picking someone up and then dropping them again in short order, but they always stayed very close to their buddies and best friends, who they spent most of their time hanging out with. The kind of people that Alex does not have for emotional support right now.

I'm honestly more curious to see if Alex will ever get a chance to experience telepathy, or if his mental shields will remain impenetrable throughout the whole story.

[Sartorius]

First time poster and also did not follow most of past discussion during the last years so I do not know whether this already has been discussed...

- How did Umiaks "suddenly" (as far we/Loroi know anyway) become farseer-invisible?

They vivisected the other group of scouts and figured out the mechanism that lets humans be farseer-invisible. Alternatively, they've always had this ability (through convergent evolution, which seems to be a theme in this story... hello sexually compatible space babes light-years away) but up till now they've successfully kept it under wraps.

- Why are the Umiaks attacking now specifically?

Seems too big a coincidence that humans show up with weird interactions with Loroi telepathy and the Umiak suddenly surprise the Loroi with a similar new found ability at the 11th hour after however many years the war has already been playing out. Either they just got it, or they came across a reason to think the Loroi might figure out they've always had it to whatever extent.

I guess this is no coincidence at all. Maybe Alex's presence in the Loroi fleet and the farseers' blindness are directly related. There is this loss of consciousness of our protagonist with missing hours at the beginning of the story which is rather suspicious from a story teller's point of view. Maybe Alex lost more than a few hours. He might have been planted on the Loroi, his memory might have been tampered or might be even completely artificial. So it is not strictly necessary for the Umiak to have been able to immediately weaponise humans after capture. Maybe much more time has passed. It could be that Alex is a trap by the enemy, a poisoned bait directly causing the blindness of the farseers somehow. Or the Loroi finding Alex has been arranged by a third party as a reaction to finding out about the Umiak planning an offensive with immunity to farseeing. I am thinking of the secretive librarians. Concerned about the balance of power but also unwilling to reveal their intelligence capabilities they let the Loroi find Alex to give them a chance to understand the advantage the Umiak gained.

[CrimsonFALKE]

I'll just leave this here.

[/quote]
oh my![/quote]

Hahaha... indeed ~ a 'rare' beauty! [/quote]
Who says a present needs to be wrapped!

[WalexB]

the loroi at a very young age learn to block their minds against intrusions.

Sure, but I am not sure you are familiar with "pillow talk" and what people dump during sex, even for "binzer" specieses like humans. The "Insider" section on telepathy adds:

Skin-to-skin physical contact between Loroi automatically creates a direct telepathic link that is much stronger and more intimate than normal remote telepathy. Sending between linked individuals is faster and carries more bandwidth, nearly equaling the sharing of thoughts. ... However, the direct physical link involves the lowering of a substantial portion of one’s personal barriers, and so is normally only done between close friends, or as an explicit demonstration of trust. ... Most Loroi can perceive some of the surface thoughts of another Loroi if the two are sharing a direct physical link, but it is much harder to do at range, and especially without the target being aware of the contact. ... very subtly establishing a covert contact without the subject even being aware of it.

I guess sex is 10 times worse, because of the more intimate physical contact and the "distraction" of the moment. Sex between or with a farseer probably is 10 worse again. Perhaps if farseers have sex on a planet, the whole population "feels" it .

[dragoongfa]

I think that it is safe to assume that the surface thoughts when having sex will only revolve around sex so there is little to no chance of a male learning state secrets without actively probing her mind for them; something that she will realize that he is doing and then all bets are off about his safety regardless of male status.

[WalexB]

Alex seems to be smart enough to realize that he's representing all of humanity right now, and that the first impression he gives could have lasting consequences.

He is also representing MALE humanity, and he may be of french origin, and he also represent the human male pilot/jock group .

I'm not going to try to make predictions on the "will they, won't they," angle

Now our good Arioch sets up a story with hugely cute blue elves who stay young and cute for 400 years and are 90% females and 100% so in the military, and has put several panels already where Alex gets checked out/fussed over.

I'm honestly more curious to see if Alex will ever get a chance to experience telepathy, or if his mental shields will remain impenetrable throughout the whole story.

I think that it is very important to the world-building and the plot that humans be complete telepathic blanks.

BTW I just reread the section on Loroi biology and some highlights:

Young Loroi mature rapidly, reaching physical adulthood in 8 years, but age slowly, potentially living for 400 years or more. Loroi do not show significant signs of aging until shortly before they die.

Uhm, women that stay young and cute for 400 years...

the social structure of the Loroi normally puts tight restrictions on the access of females to the males. The Loroi view this as an important adaptation for a warrior species, as they have the flexibility to rapidly increase their population growth (or stagnate it) as the situation demands through social controls.

They may have a "Loroi pill" perhaps and certainly condoms too, or perhaps human males could have a really huge appeal . Perhaps a bit too hot to touch, with a 10C difference, but cosy .

In some cases, a very influential private group or individual may be able to secure long-term access to the rights to a male.

I seem to understand that before the Umiak war almost all Loroi sex with males was non-reproductive, so this might be interesting.

As you might expect, it's difficult for a female to force herself on a male in any meaningful way beyond pure physical abuse. However, such a refusal would be pretty rare; Loroi males are very good sports (and most Loroi warrior females are healthy, fit, good-looking people).

I see already a few billion human males flooding towards Loroi space... BTW there is an interesting possibility here for a merged Loroi/human force: spaceships piloted by human pilots, who are undetectable and mostly immune to telepathic weapons (except telekinesis), and frozen Loroi crews. However humans can be disabled by very intense telepathy (as in the first Fireblade/Alex encounter), but not compromised. The Mannadi have resistance too, but not as good as the humans, and they are still enemies.

Love is permitted and even encouraged, but attachment is not. Loroi females enjoy the mating encounters, and not just the physical aspect of them, and can develop strong affection for the male mating partner and remember the interaction fondly for many years thereafter, during the long periods in which she will be expected to go without having sex. However, because the males must be shared with other females, there are taboos against infatuation and jealousy. ... However, rules are made to be broken

Alex seems devoted to the "rules are made to be broken" line.

and a female with sufficient power and privilege can, if she wishes, see a particular male more than once, or even have him allocated exclusively to herself.

Or shared with a few others

[orion1836]

I don't care how you spin it, Alex having any relationship with a Loroi (female, presumably) risks way to much in terms of diplomatic relations with him specifically and with humanity in general. It is also massively unprofessional. I can see the *tension* being there, and an expression of feelings, but at this stage, any deeper relationship would risk a tremendous amount. In my opinion.

Also, if Beryl does harbor feelings for him, how likely is it she could or would keep that from others via sanzai? There is (or will be) tension amongst the crew and others around them for sure about what that means and what to do about it, surely?

CJSF

That was my line of thinking when it comes to the reason why Alex was kept in a cell (vice quarters) while on the Tempest, even after he was recognized as a representative of Humanity. True, Stillstorm could have simply been trying to be as conservative as possible when it came to securing an unknown entity, but she could have achieved the same effect by confining him to quarters (unless of course there are no spare quarters on a warship like Tempest... this isn't the diplomatic Enterprise-D, after all).

The cell, to my mind, would keep him isolated from the crew. Outside of author reasons (conservation of characters) for the cast to follow him on the shuttle, I don't think it's an accident that all Loroi who were closely involved with him wound up leaving. Stillstorm probably wanted to minimize the sanzai impressions of the Loroi-like male alien that would inevitably bounce around the ship.

Anyhow, I don't think we'll be seeing anything of a romantic nature anytime soon. Since being picked up by the Loroi, Alex has probably interacted more with his guards (presumably Reed and Fireblade) more than he ever has with Beryl, and he just met Talon. This comic may have been going on for years, but in-universe, I think Alex and Beryl have maybe spent 2-3 hours together at most.

I could see a scene where, after all the tension wears off and the group is safe on the Clearbrook or something, Beryl is overcome by the rapid change in the tide of the war. I could see some interesting misunderstandings happen if Alex instinctively tried to comfort her with a hug, especially if she was crying. That could form the basis for something more later on, but nothing much else at the moment.

EDIT - Long term though? Alex never goes home. Beryl asks Tempo to work in a rider in the eventual treaty with Humanity that appoints Alex as a 'long term liaison' permanently assigned to Loroi space.

I hope I'm wrong, but Talon and Spiral seem to be in the perfect spot for a tragic death. The law of conservation of characters I mentioned earlier runs both ways. There's enough to them to make the audience like and care for the characters, but they're not part of the main group. Losing Reed or Shoegirl (Cloud?) wouldn't have much emotional impact if Arioch wanted to punch up the stakes, but the pilots? Yeah... here's hoping they become part of the main group.

[icekatze]

hi hi

(unless of course there are no spare quarters on a warship like Tempest... this isn't the diplomatic Enterprise-D, after all).

I'm pretty sure the standard operating procedure on a contemporary human warship, in this situation, would be to kick someone out of their quarters and double them up elsewhere to give the VIP a room. If they were trying to be hospitable. Although, I imagine they'd have had some spare rooms for past pilots.

Losing Reed or Shoegirl (Cloud?) wouldn't have much emotional impact if Arioch wanted to punch up the stakes...

Nooooo! Not Shoegirl! Soroin Paset Nial has just gotta live.

Also, Reed's pretty cool too. You know what they say, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach so make sure you give him food that burns a hole straight through it."

(I think I must have been a Gamemaster in RPGs too long, I can't help but latch onto background NPCs.)

[entity2636]

The way I see it, some of Stillstorm's officers, notably Tempo and Beryl, didn't believe him, but Stillstorm did and made full steam towards Azimol.

I gotta say, I got the opposite impression of Stillstorm. I think she absolutely doesn't believe Clicky-27. On page 100, we learn from Beryl that strike group 51 is being resupplied, then being sent back out as soon as possible. Instead of going to Azimol, Stillstorm's plan seems to be to turn right back around and get to what she believed to be the front.

True, and I'm not saying you are wrong or I'm 100% right. It could very well be the other way around or somewhere in between - Stillstorm being sure Clicky is bluffing, but Tempo not being so sure about it. Although she openly tells Alex to not take everything the Umiaks say at face value, it's better to be safe than sorry, because every lie has a bit of truth in it. Tempo pressures Stillstorm to fly back towards Azimol (the supply depot at Leido being just one jump away and they need to resupply anyway) and they have their argument resulting in, as Beryl nicely put it, the Commander getting tired of seeing ~certain people~ around her.

However, the 6 Umiak divisions encountered it Sala-128 (already inside Loroi space) seem to prove Clicky was telling the truth, and note how on Page 122 Stillstorm is absolutely not impressed with the news and pretty much tells Ashrain to "cool it" and wait for everyone else to resupply. Then on Page 127 she, rather matter-of-factly, as if expecting it, states that Leido is contested now and goes on setting up their lines of battle.

That being said, we don't see much of Stillstorm during all of this and it may very well be that she was indeed caught off guard with the sudden reports about umiak activity pouring in. I can kind of imagine Stillstorm choking on her cup of tea in her ready room when the first reports come in, but she doesn't strike me as a very emotional person, someone who's easily shaken, rather as someone who's usually calm as a rock, even in stressful situations, but once she's angry, she'll turn into the personification of rage itself.

[entity2636]

Sure, but I am not sure you are familiar with "pillow talk" and what people dump during sex, even for "binzer" specieses like humans.

As a matter of fact, no, I'm not familiar with this concept I also do not have sex with random people, my colleagues or business associates, and at home we have established a "rule" that work stays at work. I'd dare to say that if, during/after sex, you're thinking or talking about work, you're not focusing enough on the sex or doing it mechanically

I guess sex is 10 times worse, because of the more intimate physical contact and the "distraction" of the moment. Sex between or with a farseer probably is 10 worse again. Perhaps if farseers have sex on a planet, the whole population "feels" it .

Have to agree with Dragoongfa here - one's thoughts during sex should be revolving around sex, especially since the loroi women have so little of it. For some it may even be a once in a lifetime experience and I can't imagine a loroi woman just laying there like a log, pondering about corporate takeovers or intelligence reports while the guy is busy doing his thing

Regarding the female farseers, I'm actually not sure they are even allowed to mate since their telepathy is said to be powerful enough that even being in the same room with her can be dangerous and she could accidentally fry someone's brain just by talking telepathically to them. If two farseers were at it and were to drop their mental barriers, the whole sector would probably feel that S-bomb

They may have a "Loroi pill" perhaps and certainly condoms too, or perhaps human males could have a really huge appeal . Perhaps a bit too hot to touch, with a 10C difference, but cosy .

Loroi have the means to reversibly sterilize their women, particularly the ones who look after the men or live/work close to them, but a condom would likely be something unthinkable for them since they apparently do not engage in recreational sex and men are few and far between. Also, as far as I've seen in the background information, Loroi don't have any STDs to protect against, at least no incurable ones.

I seem to understand that before the Umiak war almost all Loroi sex with males was non-reproductive, so this might be interesting.

Actually no, there was very little sex at all for the Loroi because access to men was restricted by the government to keep the population growth in check. During the war, when the loroi started loosing and taking heavy casualties, the mating restrictions were relaxed and for certain castes (aka service branches), like the soroin and tenoin redshirts, lifted in certain regions but not everywhere.

[Voitan]

The thirst for blue space elf romcom is strong.

Any chance of just going the Light Novel route Arioch? Then use the sales money for an artist to do the comic, or rely on the LN sales to concentrate fully on a comic version. Interest in an animated series could spring from the LN alone.