Travelin' Jahlee

Roy C. Lackey · 10 Aug 2005, 14:23 · from 2005-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed Aug 10 14:23:38 2005
Subject: (urth) Travelin' Jahlee
Message-ID: <000a01c59df1$c1b263e0$593dc6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Jahlee came to Blue at least twice. The fact that she fed on infant Sinew
and was mother to Krait is sufficient proof of that. She had to return to
Green to spawn, then came back to Blue, was caught and buried under stones,
then dug up by Silkhorn. That much is certain.

What is less clear is how she got to Blue the first time, when she bit
Sinew.

Sinew was conceived on the _Whorl_, so he could have been no more than 2 or
3 years old when bitten; he was still small enough to be sleeping in a
basket made by Nettle. In the scene where Silkhorn and Jahlee made that
impromptu astral visit to Green, the visit where she got left behind in that
room on the high cliff, she told him about learning to fly. She said that it
had taken her "years" just to be able to fly up to the room (IGJ, 61), and
even after reaching it that she still had to learn more before attempting
the Crossing.

It's also clear from that scene that she already had a human spirit when she
was very young; that is what motivated her to want to make the crossing.
Presumably she was born with it. So, the question is: If Sinew was attacked
by Jahlee during the first 2 or 3 years of colonization, before she was able
to make the Crossing under her own power, how did she get to Blue?

I can think of only one solution -- she came on a lander. Either she boarded
one of those landers that returned to the _Whorl_ automatically (like
Abanja's), then went from the _Whorl_ to Blue on the same or another lander,
or, she went directly from Green to Blue on a lander, like the slave ship
from Pajarocu. Either way, what was Wolfe's point in having her go to Blue
before she could fly properly?

Has anyone a better answer?

-Roy

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