Travelin' Jahlee

Roy C. Lackey · 15 Aug 2005, 23:28 · from 2005-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon Aug 15 23:28:36 2005
Subject: (urth) Travelin' Jahlee
Message-ID: <001801c5a22b$babeff60$753ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

I want to get back to my original point in this thread. I wrote:

>>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 still think the answer is that she traveled on a lander. But, on
reflection, that 2-3 year window of opportunity has to be even smaller. If
Jahlee was in fact imprinted with the spirit of Chenille, then one of her
parents would first have to have fed on Chenille. Then Jahlee's mother would
have to go through the breeding cycle on Green to produce a sentient Jahlee.
That takes some amount of time. Then Jahlee had to mature enough to be able
to fly up to that room on the cliff, an amount of time she said was "years".
And she still wasn't experienced enough to make the Crossing at that point.

Something's wrong. There isn't enough time. But it makes it pretty clear
that she didn't get to Blue unaided.

The problem is compounded by her own breeding cycle. After feeding on Sinew
she had to get back to Green to give birth to Krait. How did she get back?
Did she learn to fly well enough to make the Return Crossing while on Blue?
If so, did she learn before or after she attacked Sinew? How long after
feeding on a particular human's blood is the potential for imprinting that
person's spirit on any offspring viable? In other words, if Jahlee had fed
on another human after she fed on Sinew, would Krait have been somebody
else?

It matters because it affects how much time Jahlee could have spent on Blue
before she had to get back to Green to become Krait's mother. I don't see
her coming to Blue on a lander, then learning how to fly properly before
attacking Sinew. I think she must have traveled both ways by lander.

The question then becomes, Did she board a lander to come to Blue, at a time
when she knew she was incapable of flying between planets, for her own
reasons? Or did someone(s) *put* her aboard a lander, presumably on Green,
for reasons unknown?

I don't think Jahlee was just 'talking human' when she told Abanja, "I was
just a little girl when they put me on the lander." And if the idea of a
lander going from Green to Blue, as Jahlee implied, was a surprise to
Abanja, she failed to show it.

I'm still missing something here.

-Roy

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