>I: The Stone Bridge
>
>Wednesday, June 17, 2336
>Karafuto, Rigel Sector Co-Prosperity Sphere
>
>It was typical of Sir Victor Creed's

Oh. Hrm. We're back to Sabretooth's Home for Wayward Girls. Okay. It's a way to go, I guess. I've never been particular fond of Sir Victor Creed, whom the narrative treats as a kind of more paramilitary style Daddy Warbucks but has always seemed to me like the kind of arrogant bastard who is going to get a bunch of teenagers killed one day, but given the available choices for Azula I suppose it makes the most logical sense.

>Karafuto was one of the Rigel sector's most obscure and remote
>colonies, a "back-to-basics" sort of place, settled by people from
>Japan and her first-wave colonies who sought a simpler sort of life
>than could be found closer to Earth. The Karafuto-jin didn't shun
>modern conveniences like some of the seriously retro societies
>- they had electric lights, computers, the latest medical technology -
>but theirs was a way of life that gave preference to the traditional.
>In dress, in manner, in folklore and custom, the people of Karafuto
>deliberately and for the most part successfully hearkened back to
>pre-spaceflight days.

I'm trying really hard not to go off on a tear here about the sort of privilege that allows people to romanticize pre-modern, supposedly "simpler" societies that give preference to "tradition." I shouldn't judge the people who settled Karafuto, Earth seems like it was kind of a seriously shitty place when they bailed, but... still.

>Laura was the only one of three who spoke Japanese - quietly,
>precisely, with no discernible accent - but Mairwen did most of the
>talking anyway, and if most of the people she was talking to couldn't
>understand a word she was saying, many of them seemed to enjoy the
>cadence of her Snowdonian lilt all the same.

I really like this bit, because I'm given to understand (and this is the sort of thing one learns thirdhand, so I might be dead wrong) both the Japanese and the Chinese consider English to be a particularly sing-song, musical language.

>"A moment later the gods answered," said the innkeeper, more soberly
>now, as she sank back down to resume her seat on the bench. "With a
>terrible roar the ice beneath her feet rose up and engulfed her,
>sealing her up for all time - out of her husband's grasping reach,
>beyond the length of her father's arm, where no man could ever touch
>her again. She is there still, entombed in the branch of the glacier
>that lies within the northern spur of Shikukayama's Western Col. Her
>name is forgotten now - the branch of humanity to which she belongs is
>extinct, but possibly for her - but among us today, she is known by
>many names. The glacier girl... the Witch of Shikuka... the Maiden in
>the Ice."

You know, you could almost have dispensed with Blue Harvest and moved Azula directly here from Diqiu.

I say almost because clearly there are damn good reasons for Azula to have come the long way around. But that legend, heavily bowlderized, of course, has a core narrative that would have perfectly suffices for getting Azula through the Veil and into a place of your choosing in the wider universe. I thought that was very clean, very neat.

(I am a sucker for some good mythology.)

>"They say they're archaeologists from Earth and they just want to
>study her, but I saw some of the stuff they had with them," Toru said.
> "If they're just going to look at her, what do they need those saws
>for? They're going to take her away and put her in a museum or
>something. It's not right!" he protested. "She's not theirs."

For a very brief second, I thought that perhaps Doctor Jones would be guest starring in this story.

Only very briefly, mind you. By the 24th century one imagines that Indy is much less of a cultural looter than his source materiel unfortunately implied at times. (Not his fault, it was the 1940s.) He'd be more likely to descend on Lefty and his idiots guns blazing than to be mounting his own expeditions to cut girls out of glaciers and put them in museums.

>III: Some Quick and Shocking Violence

I can't believe an Irish punk band has never used this as an album name.

>Those are no archaeologists, she remarked grimly to herself as
>she observed them silently from a safe distance. Archaeologists, in
>her admittedly limited experience, did not carry heavy blaster
>pistols, nor wear light body armor.

Someone hasn't met Liara T'Soni. :)

>A non-affiliated utility player in
>the criminal continuum of the Terminus sector,

I... want to say that "Terminus Sector" should be capitalized as a proper noun (like "Marianas Trench" or "Black Forest" or "Great Plains") but my success rate on grammatical corrections in these things is something like 25%, so I only hesitantly put that out there.

>She was just about to start making her way back out of the col, with
>an eye toward returning to town and informing the local constabulary,

There's something to be said for going hiking without the distractions of the modern world, but given the life she leads, not to mention her training, Laura really shouldn't go anywhere without a smartphone if at all possible. She could be informing both Sir Victor and the local PD literally right now, with a nice attached photograph of a known felon riding along with the call, and they could then call in whatever passes for federal authorities on Karafuto.

I'm just saying is all. Communications. It's how you win battles! :)

>"Ah. That changes things." Szoroda hunkered down to regard the
>guard's captive. "That wasn't a very smart move, son," he said
>conversationally. "I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here as
>our guest until we finish our work now, so you don't cause anybody
>else to interrupt us. Don't worry, though. Once we've got what we
>came for, you'll be free to go. It doesn't matter to us if you tell
>everyone what we did once we're done doing it."
>
>"You can't take her away!" Toru protested. "She doesn't belong to
>you!"
>
>"Yeah, well, she doesn't belong to you either, and I'm bigger,"
>Szoroda replied casually.

You know, I kind of like Lefty.

I mean, yes, he's a murdering shitheel. Obviously. But he's clearly no dumb thug. I enjoy a dirtbag who knows how to occasionally use his brain and has a sense of humor.

>He was pretty well-trained, enough that he was able to maintain his
>self-possession despite his surprise and the crippling pain Laura's
>joint lock on his wrist was inflicting. Teeth gritted, he drew a
>vibroknife with his off hand and slashed at her face. She leaned back
>just far enough to clear the arc of the blade, then stepped to her
>left and executed a complicated maneuver, which ended with Szoroda
>face-down on the ground with his gun arm broken and his knife in her
>hand.

Apropos of nothing, this is basically exactly like I see any potential confrontation between Sosuke Sagara and... well, a lot of people who are just way more dangerous than he is going down.

>Victor listened gravely, then nodded and told her to leave it
>to him for the moment, departing the room with a sort of contained
>urgency. He didn't bother chiding the Guides that they should have
>consulted the authorities and handed their unusual find over to them,
>or taken her straight to a medical center. There was no
>medical center in Shikuka, and in a situation like this, he wouldn't
>have gone to the local authorities either.

This right here is why I don't much care for Victor. He's a perfectly fine character. But man, does he rub me the wrong way as a person.

You'd think I'd have more to say about Azula... but man, I really don't. Her dialogue and general reactions are pretty spot-on. She's maybe a bit too eloquent, but I mean, Azula does love the sound of her own voice, even in desperate time.

Will probably have more to say in the next installment, though. Try and contain your enthusiasm for it!

-Merc
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