Liner Notes for Platform Conspiracies
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So the narrator, Marten changes name, body, gender, role, everything and is still the same person, or at least as much the same person as I am twenty five years older than younger Neil. (As noted we actually met them back in the story Post Historic Hunters back in the previous set of Deep Patrol stories). This is a possible template for a post-mortal society, living a lifetime in one role, then coming back or going away for another, rather than getting stuck in an eternal rut. The Deep Patrol recognises this, offers patrollers twenty year stints for those who do not intend to commit to an unlimited career. It also lets people move between jobs at regular intervals, making patrollers cross-trained polymaths, creating rounded officers with experience of various functions to allow them to command more effectively.
That’s the theory. And as changing name, body etc is accepted, there’s somewhat less of a taboo on deadnames and so on.
The Deep Patrol might fruitfully be considered a cult. I threw that in as a commentary to the May Day rituals and the secrets that Patrollers keep. The more I think about it the better I think it is. Not that it’s true, or complete, but as a lens to view the Patrol it is… fruitful.
I sort of come back to it later.
Check it out; the Patrol is a crusade, people fanatically convinced to risk their lives – spend their lives – seeking out danger. They have rituals and codewords and secrets. Strange uniforms, weird titles, a mythology linking them back to a legendary past, in this case eighteenth century navies.
But Neil, you say, this is just what military (and quasi- and para-military) organisations do. They parade and salute and follow procedures and perform ceremonies to create a spirit de corps. Would you call them a cult?
Eh.
The pineapple is based on various mess and shipboard traditions; the May Queen of course from British folk events, lightly flavoured with crossing the line, a ceremony for first time sailors crossing the equator, who are brought before King Neptune and dunked.
The tablet screamed like a nuclear violin going super-critical. Bagpipes in space is a step too far, even for me (though while writing this I was reading about the Battle of Normandy in 1944, and how highlanders marched to the attack with bagpipers leading. Also the Cameronians held outdoor worship before hand, a tradition going back to at least the 17th century. And so on.) And a recording of bagpipes would be even worse than actual bagpipes. So instead you get this.
A nuclear violin would be a bad thing, please do not feel inspired by this to make one.
I reference the Cyclopean Gigastructure, a key piece in the lore and backstory of Gunn, when as a young lieutenant he found himself in charge when a dimensional gate to a monstrous far future universe opened and promptly went wrong. He led people into hell, and then led them back out again. That’s MAXIMUM SPACE OPERA baby.
I haven’t written that story because I don’t have the clever twist it deserves. But maybe…
A para-military organisation runs on trust and loyalty. (So does a cult, though that often tips over into abusing those virtues). And that’s the key thing here; who can they trust? Someone is spying on them. Gunn, and also Marten, dismiss the opportunity to treat Choler as a suspect. They give some reasons for it, but leave unspoken the other fork. A traitor will know already, will be able to find out that they are investigating. Meanwhile someone loyal can be inspired and empowered by being offered trust.
Anyway, the point is that Gunn offers trust and loyalty and it turns out that creates the kind of team that will follow you into hell, and back out again. A cult needs a leader, and here he’s making himself one.
It may not be a good thing.
The story runs on two things, the data tap and the pineapple. The data tap has a larger meaning, one that reaches into later stories. It’s a bad clue though, it doesn’t point at any particular dimensional zone or person. The pineapple is just a pineapple, there to offer local flavour.
Well okay then, the pineapple represents traditions, and the nebulous way they accrete legends about themselves. Some of the people on station might have been there when the first pineapple was served, when it was first paraded, when a May Queen was crowned on board a Deep Patrol ship. That’s the thing about being post-mortal. And there might be records, if you knew when to look.
But the truth isn’t important, or at least, it’s less important than the legend. Have a merry pineapple day!
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