Dredging up the past

Ok, Im not sure if this has been dealt with or not, but referring back to the Jonas, Hethor, Tzadkiel stuff... At several points in UotNS characters note that there is only one ship travelling between the stars, but because it ignores standard temporaral physics it seems like many. So the ship has a linear, internal history which does not obey the laws of normal time (just like Sev). Bearing in mind the high possibility that Jonas had served on this ship (at some point in history), can we assume that the crashlanding he talks about is the end of Tzadkiel's ship? When he then steps into Father Inire's mirrors, claiming that he will return when he is "Sane and whole" isn't he talking about returning to his own past aboard the ship (The asumption being that he will emerge between the sails which pick up the apports that plague the ship). Obviously this poses some (whopping) problems with regards to the Jonas/Miles situation, but I'd appreciate hearing anyone else's thoughts on this. Feel free to shout me down at will. ---------------------- Jim Russell University of Exeter

I think it more likely that Jonas' crashed ship was one of the smaller, intrasystem ships--a ship such as the one that ferries Severian and Burgundofara to Urth, for example, or such as the ship of the Hierodules in "Lictor."

I had that impression, too. Daniel