Liner Notes for Confinement Regulations

 

Liner Notes for Confinement Regulations

I do like a story that opens in the prison cell, and then we explain how we got here and how we get out. I think that’s a fun concept. So here’s Gunn, and finally – finally – a member of the Deep Patrol arrives to bail him out.

Larry Niven’s novel A Gift From Earth is set on the planet of Plateau. A recurring theme in his early Known Space stories is that interstellar probes are sent out looking for habitable planets, but what they actually report back on is habitable places. So most of Plateau is covered in hot, dense, poisonous atmosphere. But there’s a huge mountain, forty miles high, a plateau about half the size of California, where the air is breathable and the climate bearable. This is a cool idea, but my Deep Patrol stories aren’t set in a pristine universe*. The Wavefront passed through and made weird artefacts and habitats, designed for MAXIMUM SPACE OPERA.

Hence The Tower and Tower City. The atmosphere at the bottom of the tower is too dense, at the top too rarefied. In between is the Goldilocks Zone where they built a city. Why build a city? I allude to mines at the bottom. Where there’s resources – where there’s profit – you’ll find people trying to take advantage of them. The struggle between economic models continues.

Quintilius is seeking the TetraHedron Entity (see Deep Patrol: TetraHedron) released by Gunn in the climax of God Machine Prison Break. Gunn has suspected that the goddata Naomi found was related to this entity; he’s now confident of this. I’m not sure he has enough evidence, but his instincts are good. And he’s not a member of the Deep Patrol any more, he doesn’t have to justify himself to them.

He does have to justify himself to Quintilius. An old friend, who he’s inconvenienced. Previously it was Gunn who was responsible, and he took all that on himself. Now Quintilius is the one with the responsibility. Gunn has died and been resurrected several times. And each time he made himself a better Patroller, perhaps leaving behind the possibility of being a better, or at least more rounded human. Now he’s no longer a Patroller, he’s trying to do better. Willing to let others help, take their own chances. He’s not entirely succeeding.

Gunn’s caught up with the Patrol, or vice versa. We’re back to offhandedly talking about cultural shifts while making daring escapes. But he’s lost Naomi, and the goddata too. A new objective, and new resources. The serial continues in a familiar fashion.

 

* Technically neither is Niven’s Known Space, both Pak and Thrint have been in the Solar System in prehistoric times