Subject: (whorl) more questions

From: Greg Neyman <greg.neyman at gte.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 20:06:56 +0000

Thanks for answering Peter.  Anybody have any ideas on Silk tracing circles
on his cheek?

Anyhoop, where did the Whorl get it's energy from?  At first, I thought the
Whorl was an interstellar ramjet, collecting hydrogen with and electro
magnetic funnel, which if fused in its long sun, and expelling the helium
for propulsion.  But ramjets have to be moving to work, and a) something
would have had to accelerate the whorl in the first place, and b) it turns
out that Whorl sat in the blue/green system for several years, which would
have made any ramjet inoperable.
    Which leads to the next question: how did the whorl propel itself?

    Another question ... if chems had personal fusion packs to power
themselves (when General mint charges in Calde, she swings her azoth, and
the book describes how it goes through a soldier's fusion core), why did
things like taluses and floaters still rely on fish oil, presumably for
internal-combustion engines?

    That's it for now ... more as I think of them ... if these answers are
in the archives, and I've overlooked them .. I'm sorry ...
    /\/\     Greg Neyman               Greg.Neyman at gte.net
___/____\___ http://www.trailerpark.com/siesta/thehat/
  |HE  HA|

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From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 10:28:37 +0000

>Thanks for answering Peter.  Anybody have any ideas on Silk tracing circles

Someone suggested that it was to do with his father's razor, which
is mentioned from time to time; he might have a scar there.

>internal-combustion engines?

They're manufactured on board, where the technology is a lot lower
than that of the society that launched the Whorl.

Spectacled Bear.

Peter Westlake, Harlequin Ltd, Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambs CB2 5RG.

---

From: Matthew Malthouse <matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 19:10:06 +0000

> internal-combustion engines?

The chems were created before launch and on board before the human cargo
awoke. Presumably their power source was a product of the culture that built
the Whorl.

There _may_ have been some taluses with similar power that we did not see. The
one's that we did see were presumably built by the people of the Whorl - and
we get to see the foundry - and thus limited to the technologies they posess.

There is a gap however: chems can make children if they have the parts, how
those would be powered is open to question.  Maybe it is not the lack of
knowledge but of working parts that limit the taluses to combustion power.

Matthew