The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge 4 - Chapter 3

[Skyweir]

CHAPTER THREE

Chapter centres on a tense interchange between Morn and Nick in the presence of almost Nicks entire crew. The exchange involved her having to convince Nick, and vicariously his crew that she was not a person of any interest to Comm Mine Security, and that having her onboard would be beneficial to him and his future operations.

She had to convince Nick that she was of value to him, monetarily and tactically. She also had to spin a credible deception that would satisfy Nicks inherent skepticism.

Her lie was, I would have thought in actuality, rather underwhelming. She revealed she was UMCP .. yet she suspected, Nick already knew that. So no great value add there. She repeated the same fabrication that she had already told him about crewing for Angus. Who's name she still cannot utter, as her revulsion towards him is still acutely visceral, as one would expect.

She manages to spin a believable lie to counter Comm Mines allegation that she was in possession of Bright Beauties Data Corp files. Her lie manages to convince Nick, but I suspect deep down he really didnt need a great deal of convincing.

There is some suggestion, that he is working with Data Acquisitions and has already committed to dealing with Morn but we dont know the scope of this agenda or what it involves at this stage. Nevertheless, I doubt he was ever truly prepared to hand her over to Comm Mine Security. She was his, even though arguably no more than a new toy to him, he already possessed her.

The interchange, itself is a relatively uneventful scene, though it is an opportunity for the reader to get a sense of a greater plan at work, though we do not yet know what that is.

Key characters in this chapter are Vector, Mikka, Carmel, and a few non named characters that she hasnt yet met. Mikka and Carmel, two female crew, clearly dislike her and yet .... Morn is not concerned with them at all.

Her complete focus was throughout the interchange focussed solely on Nick. Of course ... as he is the man in charge, of his crew, his ship, of her. And he made the decisions. What they would do would be his call. No one elses. Nevertheless they made their opinions known, that they wanted Nick to jettison her, get rid of her.

Of course Morns big reveal, and what Nick did not know about, was her gap sickness. She reveals this. She has to give them something substantive to explain why Comm Mine Security were interested in her.


ANCILLARY DOCS - DATA CORE
I assume that I also cover off on these as they precede Chapter Four.

These are a rather unsatisfying exploration into the concepts of chaos and order. It breaks down the concepts and makes a number of assumptions about these two states, chaos and order. It might be an opportunity to discuss our various view points about these summations.

The focus of this part is to take a look into the Data Cores, what they are and what they mean. Essentially they are the black boxes of space ships, recording data about where the ships has been and what it had done. Apparently there initial introduction was more of a safety mechanism, for the benefit of pioneer exploration of deep space.

[Cord Hurn]

Chapter centres on a tense interchange between Morn and Nick in the presence of almost Nicks entire crew.

Meeting Vector, who seemed at least personable if not outright friendly, made me want to meet the rest of Captain's Fancy's crew. But the rest of them aren't really as likeable as Vector (not so far), even though their fear and loathing of the police is understandable in their situation.

I like the more realistic perspective (compared to so many other science-fiction efforts) of how artificial gravity environments would work on the bridge of a spaceship.

The perspective would have disoriented her if she hadn't been familiar with it. She stood in a space like the cross-section of a cylinder, with her feet on the inner curve and her head toward the axis. In that respect, the bridge was no different than the rest of Captain's Fancy: it was simply smaller. The floor swept up and arced over her head on both sides. Some of the bridge crew sat at their stations beside her, almost level with her; others appeared to hang upside down above her. But, of course, wherever she or anyone else stood, the floor was "down" and the axis of the cross-section was "up". The big display screens for scan, video, data, and targ were built into the concave wall opposite the aperture. Their status lights winked green, but the screens themselves were blank. In all likelihood, Nick didn't want Morn to have the information she could have gleaned from the displays.

I believe it was Avatar who told me that one of the things he liked about the Gap is that the difficulties of traveling through space aren't as glossed over as they tend to be in other science fiction stories (the fictitious invention of the gap drive concept notwithstanding), and I have to say that I heartily agree with him. The Gap Cycle's depiction of the challenges of space travel adds to the suspense of the story, and thus further adds to the entertainment value.

[Cord Hurn]

She had to convince Nick that she was of value to him, monetarily and tactically. She also had to spin a credible deception that would satisfy Nicks inherent skepticism.

Her lie was, I would have thought in actuality, rather underwhelming. She revealed she was UMCP .. yet she suspected, Nick already knew that. So no great value add there. She repeated the same fabrication that she had already told him about crewing for Angus. Who's name she still cannot utter, as her revulsion towards him is still acutely visceral, as one would expect.

She manages to spin a believable lie to counter Comm Mines allegation that she was in possession of Bright Beauties Data Corp files. Her lie manages to convince Nick, but I suspect deep down he really didnt need a great deal of convincing.

Of course Morns big reveal, and what Nick did not know about, was her gap sickness. She reveals this. She has to give them something substantive to explain why Comm Mine Security were interested in her.

It seems to me that Morn manages to make her lies more powerful by mixing truth in with them, such as in her admitting having gap-sickness, and in saying this: "Starmaster was wrecked. I was going to die out there", and "Starmaster's captain was my father. Half the crew was my family. I didn't want to die in their tomb". Morn's situation in being trapped with a hostile crew is a dismaying one, but she handles it fairly well. Part of this is because she is secretly relieved to discover they don't know about her zone implant, of course, but part of it is that she has escaped a worse trap in being with Angus. But I'll grant that her situation doesn't seem to have improved all that much. And she still has to live with her guilt at destroying Starmaster.

I think Nick likes the idea of his reputation being enhanced by stories that he took her from Angus, and so that's why he doesn't need much convincing from Morn that it's safe to keep her onboard.

[Cord Hurn]

There is some suggestion, that he is working with Data Acquisitions and has already committed to dealing with Morn but we dont know the scope of this agenda or what it involves at this stage. Nevertheless, I doubt he was ever truly prepared to hand her over to Comm Mine Security. She was his, even though arguably no more than a new toy to him, he already possessed her.

"Maybe," she said, "you're a pirate--and maybe you aren't. Maybe your reputation is fake, and piracy is just cover. Maybe you rescued me because you're under orders.

"It's common knowledge that Data Acquisition is a euphemism for sabotage and trickery. I'm Enforcement Division--I don't know anything about DA. But that's Hashi Lebwohl's department. I've heard rumors about him." In fact, in the Academy she'd heard any number of rumors about Hashi Lebwohl. "He likes spies. He likes operatives who have access to bootleg smelters and shipyards and maybe access to forbidden space.

"Maybe you work for him."

A low voice said contemptuously, "Shit." No one else interrupted her.

"That would explain how you were able to get what you wanted from Security--why they trusted you with Station supplies, why they let you go, why they let you have me.

"In that case, maybe you took me so you can turn me over to DA--so they can find out what happened to Starmaster, or what I know about Bright Beauty." She'd accused Com-Mine Station of sabotaging Starmaster. If that report reached UMCPHQ, Min Donner--or possibly Hashi Lebwohl--might not trust Security enough to leave Morn at Com-Mine. "But you had to do it in a way that didn't blow your cover--and wouldn't ruin the case against him. If anyone ever found out he was arrested for a crime fabricated by the UMCP, he would be released, and the UMCP would lose credibility, authority."

Morn herself was dismayed by the concept. Almost from birth, her idea of the UMCP had included incorruptible honesty; integrity instead of treachery. But when she engaged Starmaster's self-destruct, she'd blown herself into a completely different set of presuppositions and exigencies.

Grimly, she concluded, "Your connection in Security is a UMCP agent. You aren't going to send me back to Com-Mine because you don't want me to tell anybody there the truth."

By the time she stopped, Nick was no longer looking at her. He'd fallen into a reverie, gazing at the blank screens as if he didn't see them. The muscles of his face relaxed; they were almost slack, almost vulnerable, as they'd been when he slept. Nobody said anything, and Morn didn't glance around. She kept her attention on Nick.

Nick's reaction makes me think Morn is describing the situation accurately, so of course Nick isn't go to hand her aback to Com-Mine Security.

[Cord Hurn]

The interchange, itself is a relatively uneventful scene, though it is an opportunity for the reader to get a sense of a greater plan at work, though we do not yet know what that is.

Agreed, that seems to be the point, as far as I can tell.

[Cord Hurn]

Then Vector Shaheed broke the silence. "She's got you, Nick," he said calmly. "If you send her back now, she'll be convinced you aren't either a pirate or a cop. Your reputation will be ruined. You'll probably cease to exist. Hell, we'll all probably cease to exist."

Somebody above Morn muttered, "What the fuck's that supposed to mean?"

I take it that Vector means that they all will lose their legendary status among other illegals.

[Cord Hurn]

Key characters in this chapter are Vector, Mikka, Carmel, and a few non named characters that she hasnt yet met. Mikka and Carmel, two female crew, clearly dislike her and yet .... Morn is not concerned with them at all.

Her complete focus was throughout the interchange focussed solely on Nick. Of course ... as he is the man in charge, of his crew, his ship, of her. And he made the decisions. What they would do would be his call. No one elses. Nevertheless they made their opinions known, that they wanted Nick to jettison her, get rid of her.

And Nick's refusal to do so lets the reader know that Vector was basically telling the truth when he informed Morn that all she really needed to worry about was pleasing Nick.

[Cord Hurn]

If Nick feared her gap-sickness, he didn't show it. Instead, he snapped out orders. "Mikka, take her back to her cabin. Lock her in. Be sure she can't get out while we burn. I want her secure until we're out of g-- and she can convine us she's sane." Pivoting his seat, he faced Morn with a feral grin. "Staying alive is her problem."

Here, I think Nick is trying to appease his crew a bit, by acting somewhat uncaring toward Morn, to make up for his refusal to get rid of Morn as the crew wishes. His command over the crew may not be as strong as he and Vector try to make it appear.

[Cord Hurn]

ANCILLARY DOCS - DATA CORE
I assume that I also cover off on these as they precede Chapter Four.

There's no need, Skyweir, as I plan to post a dissection of Ancillary Documentation/Datacores on June 15th, as an entirely separate thread. I will treat ADs as distinct chapters.

[Skyweir]

If Nick feared her gap-sickness, he didn't show it. Instead, he snapped out orders. "Mikka, take her back to her cabin. Lock her in. Be sure she can't get out while we burn. I want her secure until we're out of g-- and she can convine us she's sane." Pivoting his seat, he faced Morn with a feral grin. "Staying alive is her problem."

Here, I think Nick is trying to appease his crew a bit, by acting somewhat uncaring toward Morn, to make up for his refusal to get rid of Morn as the crew wishes. His command over the crew may not be as strong as he and Vector try to make it appear.

Quite possibly ... he is saving face with the crew. And at this point he does weird considerable power over them, and weve already seen that they are unwilling to turn against him, certainly not at this point. But theyre all pirates, all self serving.

.. or simply being himself. I dont think he actually CARES about Morn outside of her value to him via DA. Sure he will take the most he can from her while she lives, but should she die .. I dont think hell be too cut up over it. Hell move on, chalk up the loss, but move on.

[Skyweir]

Plus SRD is not painting Nick as a romantic or a person that possesses any real fealty .. and his hatred for women has already been established as legendary.

[Skyweir]

Which is an intriguing over reaction to what he experienced with one woman, a particularly mercenary one at that.

[Cord Hurn]

If Nick feared her gap-sickness, he didn't show it. Instead, he snapped out orders. "Mikka, take her back to her cabin. Lock her in. Be sure she can't get out while we burn. I want her secure until we're out of g-- and she can convine us she's sane." Pivoting his seat, he faced Morn with a feral grin. "Staying alive is her problem."

Here, I think Nick is trying to appease his crew a bit, by acting somewhat uncaring toward Morn, to make up for his refusal to get rid of Morn as the crew wishes. His command over the crew may not be as strong as he and Vector try to make it appear.

Quite possibly ... he is saving face with the crew. And at this point he does weird considerable power over them, and weve already seen that they are unwilling to turn against him, certainly not at this point. But theyre all pirates, all self serving.

.. or simply being himself. I dont think he actually CARES about Morn outside of her value to him via DA. Sure he will take the most he can from her while she lives, but should she die .. I dont think hell be too cut up over it. Hell move on, chalk up the loss, but move on.

I think you're right about that, Sky...at this point, Nick doesn't seem to be thinking of Morn as much more than a trophy.

[Cord Hurn]

Which is an intriguing over reaction to what he experienced with one woman, a particularly mercenary one at that.

It DOES seem to be an overreaction on Nick's part, and I'm guessing it's because he allowed himself to love the woman who eventually betrayed him and scarred him (in more ways than one), in that he can never trust himself to love again. Despite his swashbuckling reputation, Nick is already showing that he can be a tragic figure, though this is subtly portrayed, here.

[Skyweir]

Indeed .. she must have cut him very deep to have him sooo anti women as he is. But yeah ..