3 ms·

Do they support or tolerate? The ambiguity of "right side" is striking.

LargoLasskhyfv 7d ago
Supporting. To put a stopgap between the interests of the Earth-Company, with its sublight ships, and the the first, now almost all abandoned/mothballed space stations around stars which opened the route to Downbelow, which was the first system with a biosphere and indigenous life. A real outpost being able to sustain itself, instead of having to rely on re-supply from Earth. Breaking the chain of trade and economics, which enabled them in the first place. A sort of 'area-denial', giving them no base of operations out there, and no way into the meanwhile established new 'outer worlds' towards another such world, called 'Cyteen'. Which then invented faster than light flight, and gave it to willing merchant ships for free. But not the Earth-Company, because they considered that mutiny and defection. They were cut off from all that new trade. By themselves. Because of politics, tariffs, customs, embargo, slowness, stupidity. A strand of the plot is sort of an arms race between the Earth-Company trying to build a ship with an FTL-capable engine on one of the last stations remaining in operation, under military junta, and an independent merchant trying to apply new measurements to jump in direct line from Downbelow/Pell or adjacent space to Earth, which would make all the former investments of Earth-Company obsolete for real. Because Cherryh's FTL isn't like Star-Trek/Star Wars. It requires precise gravitational mappings of so called 'jump-points', which can be stars, brown-dwarfs, and such. Meaning there isn't necessarily a direct route between your desired start and end, but instead large detours necessary across a chain of such jump-points, which are near enough to each other. Because the 'jump-drives' have limited range of a handfull to a dozen of light-years only. Depending on mass of the ship. And if that gap on your route is more than that, detours are necessary. And there are many gaps. You actually can look at that in your browser on the many sites offering a 3D-view of that, for our nearer stars, say within a sphere of up to 100 light years, or so :-) Another thread of action would be the efforts of the Earth-Company to go into a wholly another direction in space, because of all of that, and meeting sentient and spacefaring other aliens from outer space, but not in a good way. That is her Chanur epos, written from the POV of such aliens, fighting over one of the earthlings, captured by them on one of Earth-Companies exploratory missions, making the aliens go: WTF?! What is that? Where did it come from? Leading to turmoil, endangering instable balances and treaties between them. Implying they could be suddenly confronted with all of humanity, coming from all of the large Cyteen spaces/territories, via Downbelow/Pell, 'Hinder Star Stations', via Earth, to them.

Supporting. To put a stopgap between the interests of the Earth-Company, with its sublight ships, and the the first, now almost all abandoned/mothballed space stations around stars which opened the route to Downbelow, which was the first system with a biosphere and indigenous life. A real outpost being able to sustain itself, instead of having to rely on re-supply from Earth. Breaking the chain of trade and economics, which enabled them in the first place. A sort of 'area-denial', giving them no base of operations out there, and no way into the meanwhile established new 'outer worlds' towards another such world, called 'Cyteen'. Which then invented faster than light flight, and gave it to willing merchant ships for free. But not the Earth-Company, because they considered that mutiny and defection. They were cut off from all that new trade. By themselves. Because of politics, tariffs, customs, embargo, slowness, stupidity. A strand of the plot is sort of an arms race between the Earth-Company trying to build a ship with an FTL-capable engine on one of the last stations remaining in operation, under military junta, and an independent merchant trying to apply new measurements to jump in direct line from Downbelow/Pell or adjacent space to Earth, which would make all the former investments of Earth-Company obsolete for real. Because Cherryh's FTL isn't like Star-Trek/Star Wars. It requires precise gravitational mappings of so called 'jump-points', which can be stars, brown-dwarfs, and such. Meaning there isn't necessarily a direct route between your desired start and end, but instead large detours necessary across a chain of such jump-points, which are near enough to each other. Because the 'jump-drives' have limited range of a handfull to a dozen of light-years only. Depending on mass of the ship. And if that gap on your route is more than that, detours are necessary. And there are many gaps. You actually can look at that in your browser on the many sites offering a 3D-view of that, for our nearer stars, say within a sphere of up to 100 light years, or so :-) Another thread of action would be the efforts of the Earth-Company to go into a wholly another direction in space, because of all of that, and meeting sentient and spacefaring other aliens from outer space, but not in a good way. That is her Chanur epos, written from the POV of such aliens, fighting over one of the earthlings, captured by them on one of Earth-Companies exploratory missions, making the aliens go: WTF?! What is that? Where did it come from? Leading to turmoil, endangering instable balances and treaties between them. Implying they could be suddenly confronted with all of humanity, coming from all of the large Cyteen spaces/territories, via Downbelow/Pell, 'Hinder Star Stations', via Earth, to them.