Inhumi in the Whorl

Gerry Quinn · 09 Feb 2011, 16:40 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 16:40:59 -0000
Subject: (urth) Inhumi in the Whorl
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Message-ID: <A8A3D76B6B634C2C8271A01ED098157E@jill>

From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
>
>>> Is there any reference to the Neighbors having ships?
>>> If they have conventional spaceships, why did they have to wait for the 
>>> Whorl to leave?
>>
>> Well, we know they travelled between planets somehow, and to the Whorl, 
>> and perhaps to wherever they live now.  They detected the Whorl as it 
>> approached their solar system, and visited it, bringing with them inhumi. 
>> And we know they built great structures on Green.  Why should we not 
>> expect them to have spaceships, or at least to be able to make them if 
>> needed?
>
> Because (unless someone can identity a Neighbor-ship) the only method of 
> travel native to this system is via inhumi.
> I mean, if this were a story set in Polynesia in 1550 and some chief 
> mentioned colonizing a great continent to the East, would we just ASSUME 
> they must have hidden caravels?

If we believed him, we'd assume they had ships capable of getting there and 
back.  If it was clear that the canoes we know of couldn't do it, we'd guess 
that they had bigger ones.

We know the Neighbours are not 'space hippies' a la Star Trek.  They do not 
avoid technology - theit city on Green appears to be composed of 
steel-framed skyscrapers.   As Horn observes: "We are ready to believe that 
they are practically minor gods - that they know everything and possess all 
manner of mysterious powers; but they must seem perfectly ordinary to 
themselves."

Just like us, they probably have many ways of doing similar things, and use 
them as appropriate

>> Not sure what you mean about waiting for the Whorl to leave.
>
> Seriously? Their whole civilization on Green was destroyed centuries ago, 
> but the Whorl arrives and they say "Here are the keys, Horn, we found a 
> way off the planet. S'long."

Are you saying that the Whorl was somehow their way off the planet?  It 
seems to me that they were pretty much evacuating it anyway, but then the 
Whorl appeared and they thought the humans might fight the inhumi better. 
So they invited them to stay.

- Gerry Quinn

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