In-Reply-To: <199707120102.SAA20769 at lists1.best.com>
Mantis: many thanks for posting Our Gene's responses.
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24. "Why does the monitor . . . overrule their . . . choice of Green?" Because the choice had been Quetzal's and the monitor, seeing his body, realized that he had not been a human being. (You already knew the answer, and gave it yourself. Why ask me?)
I too was puzzled by various people's past confusion about this one (in the archive). Wolfe/Horn went out of his way to insert what would otherwise be a nonfunctional sentence: "As it chanced, there was a glass in this sickbay ..." So -- after initially accepting Quetzal's choice -- the monitor has access to the same visual information which causes the women laying out the body to scream. And changes its mind.
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25. "Does Green/Blue have anything to do with THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS?" No.
Told you so!
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27. "Is Pike's ghost really Quetzal?" No.
[FX: sound of gnashing teeth]
Dave
David Langford
ansible at cix.co.uk * http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/