The Medusa Chronicles (3.22-23)

I had some Kindle issues that forced me to put this project on hold for a little while, but those have been resolved now (hopefully for good) and it's long past time I made some progress.

Where we left off, "The Medusa Chronicles" had finally - twenty chapters in - lived up to its title and shown us a damned medusa. Falcon and this enthusiastic Martian kid named Trayne are flying an airship near Jupiter's red spot, where the medusa matriarch Ceto has been sending out ominous transmissions about her people facing a mass death. This catastrophe may be related to the cloud-mining projects that the Martians/Machine industrial pact has recently developed in the area. The governments involved assure the public that they're being careful not to harm the environment, but there isn't exactly anyone else around to keep them honest except the medusae themselves, and they have trouble communicating the fine details of this type of thing with humans.

Falcon is still trying to piece together Ceto's account after a meeting with her. In the meantime, he and Trayne have to go attend a probe launch; that's their other reason for being on Jupiter, to see them launch this pressure-resistant probe that will hopefully be able to explore the Jovian surface far below.

How and if these plot threads will converge, we may learn in this chapter. Or maybe the next one. Or the one after it. This book has kind of a lot of empty-space chapters, so it's hard to say. Well, let's start.

Chapter 3.22​

Open on Falcon and Trayne having flown back to the moon of Ganymede, which seems to be where most of the (post)humans of the Jovian system live. I thought that Falcon had, like, a VIP invitation to the actual research platform in Jupiter's atmosphere that the probe is going to be launched from, but I guess not. As he scuttles around the fancy hotel lounge the event is happening at, he runs into Dr. Dhoni, still clinging to life like a tick on a sick kitten. She looks about forty at first glance, but closer examination reveals the uncanniness of her new body.

I guess it could also just be her soul finally manifesting itself on her body.

There's a long stretch of admittedly very pretty descriptions of Jupiter filling the sky through the transparent ceiling overhead. Only a relative minimum of Dhoni trying to guilt trip Falcon into undergoing another set of experimental procedures (and also, at least according to her, this next experiment is supposed to open up the possibility of recreating more of his organic body. Granted, that's a football she may have held in front of him before, but if she's genuine then it might actually be nice).

Eventually, the conversation is drawn to a huge steam cloud rising from behind the Ganymede horizon; apparently, EarthGov is building a massive new military base near the Jovian system's regional capital. They do technically still have the legal right to do this, despite Mars and its sphere of influence being increasingly economically and socially separate from Earth and its. The need for the Earth-dominated federal government to upscale its military presence here right when the Mars-Machine Pact is starting to get more wealth out of Jupiter is pretty transparent in its reasoning. EarthGov is not trying to deescalate this.

Dhoni then, suddenly, asks Falcon to ask any diplomats he happens to chat with at this event about "New Nantucket." She doesn't explain what that is, and Falcon doesn't ask. It doesn't sound like a name you'd pick for a military base, though.

Then, we jump to the moon of Amalthea, where the probe launch publicity event is being held.

That whole scene on Ganymede? Apparently, Falcon had absolutely no reason to be there. Dhoni could have met him on Amalthea, or just, like, had a phone conversation with him.

Sometimes this book I swear...

He's meeting with Trayne's non-Martian relative, Colonel Thera Springer of Earthgov's (apparently notorious) Bureau of Interplanetary Relations. I still don't understand why the Springer family is a thing in this book, seriously. And, apparently there's something she wants from him.

Also present at the station is the Machine who's going to be manning the probe into Jupiter's depths. His name is Orpheus, and he's a kawaii black box. But back to Falcon's conversation with Thera. She starts it by staring up at Jupiter, saying "Terrifying, isn't it?" and waiting for Falcon to ask her what the fuck she's on about. Lmao what a drama queen. So, he asks, and she makes sure to tick as many villain boxes as possible with her following words.

Falcon has to expend considerable effort to not put on the Imperial March and slowly ramp up the volume as she speaks.

She also goes on this tangent about how the simps are at risk of losing their intelligence to genetic drift unless they receive renewed gene therapy, and that EarthGov can still threaten to rescind their access to this if need be. Lol why the hell is she telling Falcon this?

...on that note, she also asserts that neither the Martians nor the simps themselves have the technology to solve this problem themselves. Even though it's centuries-old biotech at this point. I'm not sure why this would be the case, or why she would even think it was.

She also mentions that Machines aren't allowed any closer to Earth than the moon, and she seems to think that even that is too close.

Anyway, while Falcon is here participating in the probe festivities and figuring out what's got the medusas panicking, Thera wants him to spy for EarthGov. I'm not sure how she intends for him to do this, since he's not being given access to any military sites or high-level political clearance or the like, but okay. Then she segues into delivering her general view of the day's astropolitics, and it's...something...alright.

"Bad dreams from the sky." Bad dreams like "exocolonies wanting economic independence" and "AI's who are only mostly rather than entirely forgiving of you enslaving them for nearly a century."

She then tells Falcon just how horrible an interplanetary war could be. Even without the Martians having a proper military, just using weaponized civilian vessels as RKV's could destroy Earth's biosphere. And, of course, the colonial population centers are even more vulnerable than that. An interplanetary war would be unthinkable. It must be prevented at all costs.

...which is why EarthGov needs to stomp even harder on everyone else's necks and make sure there's not even the slightest possibility for dissent anywhere.

We had a character last arc whose name sounded cardassian. Now, we have a character who just plain sounds like one.

This lady is 10/10. Maybe 11, even.

...

It actually occurs to me that if you want to avoid a planet-scouring RKV exchange at all costs, it might be best to let the Martians and other offworlders develop a proper military.

If they can fight a conventional war that involves exchange of fire between militaries until someone is forced to surrender, then that means they have a recourse other than ecological genocide using suicide barges. Meanwhile, if RKV's are all you let them have, then RKV's is what they will inevitably use.

...

Falcon tries asking Gul Springer about the new military construction on Ganymede, or if the words "New Nantucket" mean anything to her, but she shuts him down. In the end, he just agrees to keep her appraised of anything suspicious he finds on Jupiter, but makes it clear that he doesn't expect to find anything.

Also, the gul's more likeable relative Trayne will continue accompanying Falcon as he looks into the medusa situation.

Also also, there's one little bit of dialogue that suggests that Adam is still alive. Has Falcon seen him since the Machines returned? I feel like he probably should have, but there's no mention of it.


This chapter is a mess. A long, meandering, pagecount-bloating mess. The small amount of actually key exposition that it contained could have been much more elegantly given in five pages than in ten and half.

Falcon's whole Designated Protagonist problem is also starting to rear its head again pretty badly. Is EarthGov really so bad at HUMINT that they can't bribe a few Martians or simps to do this spy work for them?

Next one is shorter. Hopefully better paced and focused too, but we'll see.

Chapter 3.23​

The chapter opens on Falcon and Trayne operating the Ra in the clouds of Jupiter once again.

-____-

How much moon-hopping is Falcon doing, seriously?

Where is the actual probe launch publicity event being held?

Why couldn't all the previous dialogues have been had en route, rather than Falcon flying his airship around Jupiter, then going to two different moons to talk to two different people, and then coming back to Jupiter to fly his airship again?

Well. Anyway. For now, Falcon and Trayne are hovering near a cloud-mining facility in the upper layers. Big array of balloon-mounted gas straining modules, skimming Helium-III out of Jupiter's atmosphere. It's low productivity, low-efficiency work, but Earth wants fusion reactants, and if it doesn't get them then the Martians don't get their complex organics and the Machines don't get access to the heavy metals in the Ceres belt. Each of the balloons has the EarthGov logo stencilled on it, despite the crews being Martian and Machine.

...isn't there enough Helium-III in the inner system? I know the moon has a ton of it. There's got to be other rocks closer than freaking Jupiter that have it as well. Especially if Jupiter's concentration of it is low enough that the air-pumping stations have such dismal efficiency.

...

Also, there's talk of profitability as such, but these industrial projects are all apparently government run.

I guess that answers a question of mine from much earlier in the novel. Soviet-style state capitalism seems to have won out over the alternatives within the EarthGov merger. And seemingly only entrenched itself harder in the two hundred years or so since then.

...

They receive a transmission from the probe launch crew. Which includes the probe itself, since Orpheus is alive and all. Apparently, this cloud-mining facility is going to be used as the launch site. Orpheus will be sent downward in stages, helped along the way by a series of facilitator Machines fittingly named the Charons. Okay.

And, apparently the Ra is meant to follow Orpheus downward for as far as a conventional airship can safely do so and take some dramatic photos.

-____-

Apparently, Gul Springer thinks that this will give Falcon on opportunity to do some spying for her.

I am so fucking lost.

Orpheus says hi to Falcon, and also relays some friendly regards from Adam. Huh, have he and Falcon been keeping in touch at all? I wish it would just say (and also explain why not, if not, because seriously). Anyway, with little more ado, Orpheus and Charon-1 take their swandive into the clouds, and Falcon and Trayne take the Ra after him.


A very bloated and unfocused couple of chapters. The second one wasn't as bad, but it also had enough stuff actually going on in it that the lack of focus might have hurt it more overall.

Also, I feel like every time I get a grip on Howard Falcon's personality it just slips away again like sand between my fingers. To be fair, decades or more are passing between each arc, so him changing a lot between appearances is understandable, but...I don't think that that's the issue. It's more like he spends most of the story being incredibly passive and letting other characters lead him around by the nose, with little to no exploration of his own wants and desires, except every once in a while he WILL do something but then never follow up on it again.

Well, Gul Thera Springer is a fun asshole to hate, at least. And I like the aesthetics for the Jovian industry and exploration AI's. I'm hoping the next few chapters will have more substance and less filler.