What's So Great About Ushas?

Roy C. Lackey · 10 Jun 2008, 08:52 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:52:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
Message-ID: <000a01c8cad7$5e6c62c0$bed04a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Andrew wrote:
>I don't think it's a point that can be definitively settled either
>way. But given the lack of any other explanation in the narrative,
>it just feels right to me that the reason the Ship was close enough
>to the sun to cause an eclipse in Apu Panchau's time was because
>the Hiero-dudes were inserting a black sun. What else was it doing
>there? And to me it's just neat to have the dying of the old sun
>commence with the first appearance of the New.

I have always thought that the Ship really was there to stage the eclipse
that saved Sev's bacon. The eclipse was not a coincidence. Obviously, it is
a physical impossibility for any vessel to transport or even come near a
black hole, so if the Hierogrammates are the ones who put it in the sun, and
regardless of when it happened, how was the deed done?

And that brings up the complementary question: If they could put a black
hole directly in the sun (obviously no black hole traveled through the solar
system wrecking havoc like the white hole later would), then they could have
put the white hole directly in the sun, too. But they didn't. Why? Because
they couldn't, or because they didn't want to? If they could not, that may
put the blame for the black hole back on Typhon. But if they *chose* to send
the white fountain by the scenic route (as they chose to send Sev back to
Typhon's time instead of his own), why?

One answer may be to stretch the range of Sev's time-walking ability from
the era of the Stone Town all the way to Ushas, said range delineated by
light from the white fountain reaching Urth, all in furtherance of the
Conciliator legend. Another answer is that they needed Urth destroyed to
bring about Ushas.

-Roy

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