Page 106 discussion

[Logannion]

That moment of happiness when you check on the forum and see "Page 106 discussion" on the very top.

So its confirmed that Alex is going on a trip to meet the higher ups. And perhaps Loroi males!

I wonder how Emperor Greywind will react to this.

[Hālian]

Presumably by whipping her hair back and forth.

Alternatively, with lots of paperwork and big archaic Trade words that not even other loroi understand.

[Sweforce]

I notice that Tempo are rather cold to Alex in a matter contrary to their meeting on the bridge. Then she apologised to Alex about the treatment he had received, now when he been locked up in the brig for weeks since then she treat him coldly, insisting on being properly addressed herself. Alex have been treated as a prisoner rather then an ambassador so he have all rights to be a bit miffed. They could have made his stay a bit more bearable even considering the security concerns. There wasn't even furniture in that cell.

[Arioch]

So the Loroi can do jumps to intercept, but cannot go anywhere else without logistic support? Not much range then, those ships...

Ten jumps is a significant distance; it's more than 50 light years, and greater than the width of Human territory. The Charred Steppes is only about 4-6 jumps across in most places, and the distance from Leido to Seren is about 7 jumps, a journey estimated to take 20 days.

Range in Newtonian space travel is not so much about how far you go but about how much fuel and supplies you are expending to get there. A ship like the Bellarmine can easily travel 10 jumps and back if all it is doing is making course corrections during system transits between jump points. For a military fleet to do the same, presumably fighting along the way, is more of a challenge. For SG51 at Naam, after 3 days of fighting and low on fuel, going 10 jumps farther away from base without resupply was simply not an option. Now at Leido, traveling 13 jumps (Naam is 3 jumps from Leido) through enemy-held territory would be a challenge under normal circumstances, but the circumstances are certainly not normal; there is evidently an Umiak offensive underway.

[Siber]

I can easily buy Loroi leadership deciding it's better to miss this contact opportunity but prepare for a future one by learning from a safe Alex, rather than trying to get him to the rendezvous now and getting him and a bunch of ships potentially killed in the process.

[Zakharra]

This is also not a decision that a commander of a raiding group can make. Hence Stillstorm's decision to send Alex (the annoying alien she still thinks might be a Shell trick), Parat Tempo (the very annoying diplomatic/political officer) and Beryl (young and perky!) off to the sector governor and fleet commanders at Seren, the sector capital. That is where the real decision makers will make the decision to help this strange Loroi looking alien or not.

[Krulle]

And where they might have much better tools to check for any traps or trickery than a battle ship in the field...

[CrimsonFALKE]

This is also not a decision that a commander of a raiding group can make. Hence Stillstorm's decision to send Alex (the annoying alien she still thinks might be a Shell trick), Parat Tempo (the very annoying diplomatic/political officer) and Beryl (young and perky!) off to the sector governor and fleet commanders at Seren, the sector capital. That is where the real decision makers will make the decision to help this strange Loroi looking alien or not.

that sounds about right

[Grayhome]

Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

[Sweforce]

Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

Or "promoted" to a deskjob.

[Logannion]

Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

That's very insightful. Though I have a feeling the Grand-niece in question wouldn't support it, wasn't the entire reason for her to join the fleet was to prove that she could stand on her own two legs? She might want the next in seniority to take command instead. That part about Tempo wanting Stillstorm in the doghouse though sounds very possible.

[Arioch]

Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

How would Tempo (or any Loroi) know where the territory of Humanity is at this point?

If Greywind wanted to demote or replace Stillstorm, she could do so with a word, no excuses needed. But why would she wish to replace Stillstorm as a raider commander -- a low-status position considered to be an eventual death sentence -- with her own grand-niece? Stillstorm is exactly where Greywind wants her to be: killing Umiak and out of the way. The only reason that Ashrain is in a raider fleet at all is because she too is being punished -- in a fashion -- for refusing the Imperial Guard post that she was offered.

[Grayhome]

Whut a twist!

[rewik]

Hello, It's me again, with yet another complaint about the harness: one of the hip straps visible on page 105 (last panel) seems to have disappeared on page 106 (first panel).

With that out of the way...
Yay! A new page!

[novius]

Well, to clear things up, Beryl is indeed sitting in the seat left of Alex. Mostly off-camera, but in one of the panels one could see part of her face...

I thought about asking this since the last page; Beryl really seems to have little regards for personal space. The seating arrangement when watching the fight against the Umiak, her actually leaning into him on the way to the shuttle, now actually reaching over to help him belted up, where a spoken "this goes there" or "watch how I do it" could suffice... I would have thought that a telepathic species, especially when touch seems to enhance their abilities as suggested early on, may have some sense of propriety in that matter...

... Or could it be that they think his 'Lotai' needs conscious thought and she hopes to catch him off-guard with a seemingly innocent touch?

Once is a fluke. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.

And then there is Tempo. All honeyed words, easy to believe, every one of her explanations rather conclusive. But we've already seen that they carefully guard his access to information.

Yes, she did say that they're very interested to learn about his species. And I wouldn't be too surprised to see that she actually knows how loaded that sentence could be. After all, the Loroi do have an idea how other species tick. They have extensive contact to alien species, where humans only have third hand knowledge via the Orgus.

But... One could easily learn much about a species when there's a specimen on the dissection table in a facility that is designed to conduct extensive xenobiological studies. Even this way, her words may technically be true.

All sweet words and an inarguably pretty, yet (or just because) alien face... All the reasons to be afraid. Very afraid. For life, limb and freedom. She does much to put up an aire of "trust me", without actually giving out much in return, and it stands to reason that this could be for some nefarious purpose.

Yet, Alex seems to catch on. Good for him.

[Krulle]

I think Beryl may unconsciously be flirting, thereis a male, and even a large male, right next to her!
While her conscious thoughts may decline anything, he subconscious may have been tricked....

And the dissection table: right when I read "very interested to learn" I was afraid of their actions possibly going in that direction, or something similar.
You can learn a lot about Humans without killing the only example you have.
Possibly they want to link even more strong telepaths to push through his lotai.
Possibly they just want to put him in their xenobiology exhibition.
Possibly they just want to have high-ranking diplomats talk to him. Possibly purposefully missing the rendezvous to give him a reason to tell where Earth actually is.

So many reasons....

[Sweforce]

I think Beryl may unconsciously be flirting, thereis a male, and even a large male, right next to her!
While her conscious thoughts may decline anything, he subconscious may have been tricked....

And the dissection table: right when I read "very interested to learn" I was afraid of their actions possibly going in that direction, or something similar.
You can learn a lot about Humans without killing the only example you have.
Possibly they want to link even more strong telepaths to push through his lotai.
Possibly they just want to put him in their xenobiology exhibition.
Possibly they just want to have high-ranking diplomats talk to him. Possibly purposefully missing the rendezvous to give him a reason to tell where Earth actually is.

So many reasons....

There is no need to cut up Alex, according to Tempo (page 50) they have at least 57 bodies to work with already. It is also possible the salvage crew brought some extra with them when they retreated from the Bellermine wreck since 57 was a then current number that may have been increased since. Explosive decompression is a myth so the bodies should not have been damaged much by exposure to the vacuum of space.

[Siber]

Well, I'd expect them to be swollen and freeze dried, so not perfect examples of humanity, plus lots of potential for trauma in how they became available too... but if all you've got is one live specimen, I don't think you'd want to turn that into a dead specimen until you learned everything possible. It's not exactly a reversible process!

[Arioch]

Hello, It's me again, with yet another complaint about the harness: one of the hip straps visible on page 105 (last panel) seems to have disappeared on page 106 (first panel).

Thanks for pointing that out. It has been fixed.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

Holy crap that sounds like a bad idea