Mnemonic having written:
<Judging by the danger and said low success rate, I think that inhumu must be able to obtain enough blood and be able to breed on both planets.>
I'm sort of with Mnemonic here and offer the following in support from IGJ (212-13). Says Incanto:
"Many people believe that the inhumi may begin to breed on Blue as well as Green. Quite some time ago, I theorized that they could not, that their eggs were hatched by the heat of the short sun, which is not sufficiently intense on Blue. Was I correct?"
Notice how Fava hedges her answer, however, saying not yes, or absolutely, or gosh, you're really smart to have figured this out, Incanto, but instead: "I think so."
Either she has no idea what he's talking about (although she is the smartest "girl" at the schola), or she's having difficulty lying to her pseudo-father. Moreover, given Horn's failure to grasp even the basics of science, I believe his skills as a natural historian are probably just as skewed.
So perhaps the inhumi can breed on Blue (like alligators in sewers, heh heh) and interfering with components of their life cycle is part of the Great Secret. Is it possible that a newly-born inhumu must immediately be exposed to human blood--either directly or via its mother--in order to lay down a general human imprint which becomes the core personality for the rest of its natural life?
Robert Borski
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.