Subject: (whorl) [blue, spoilers] Intelligent inhumi and Neighbors

From: Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 19:55:51 +0000

I was thinking along the same lines as Alex David Grace--that the inhumi
somehow derive their intelligence from their intelligent diet.  We've been
told they risk a lot in traveling between Green and Blue.  An Englishman
might *prefer* poulet de Bresse to domestic English chicken, but how many
would swim the Channel to get it if boats were expensive high technology?

I'm also wondering if the departure of the Neighbors to "a better place"
has anything to do with the inhumi.  Blue seems to be a pretty nice place
except for the Bloodsuckers From The Green Planet (if this were 1953,
that's how the movie would be entitled).

Perhaps it was the departure of the Neighbors that stepped up the pressure
for the inhumi to find another similar race.

It's also interesting that Krait has to ask Horn about Quetzal--the latter
isn't some sort of famous inhumi hero for bringing a whorl-load of fresh
cattle.  Come to think of it, the inhumi could only have known of Quetzal's
attempt to enter the Whorl, not his role in promoting the exodus, unless
there were other spies.

Also come to think of it, why does Krait want to sneak aboard the lander?
He seems to know of the plot, but he is not regarded as an enemy by the
other inhumi on board (which seems to rule out some sort of factional
dispute).  Or maybe we just can't understand inhumi at all (though "Horn"
seems to have made a good start).

  -- Dan Rabin

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---

From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 12:10:10 +0000

I just assumed Krait knew what was going on and was hitching a safe ride back
home with the others--they knew who he was and he knew who they were.  The
trip back and forth is clearly dangerous, and Krait knows there will be blood
aplenty for the lander crew when they get back, so he wants to ride along.

He wasn't planning on betraying the others beforehand, but when it came down to
it his loyalty to Horn did actually mean something (for reasons we can guess at
but that aren't clear yet--it seems the inhumi are both more and less human
than would have appeared from Long Sun).

Also, I see what you mean saying Mucor becomes less creepy throughout Long Sun.
I was just stating she's not much less creepy in On Blue's Waters than she was
at the end of Long Sun.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce