message 0064

• Speculations on Goldtooth, Jik and Haisi

>From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist: Double-0-mahen
>Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 13:59:56 GMT

> I was thinking about the characters of the various mahen agents in
> the Chanur books recently. Goldtooth and Jik are consistently shown
> as professionals, while Haisi seems -- well, not to have what it takes,
> to be charitable. And yet they all act in much the same way in their
> dealings with hani. Are we to assume some sort of secret agent training
> school at Maing Tol?
	If one assumes there the interstellar machiniscations of the
Compact have not reached the order of complexity leading up to the
creation of Pyanfar as the Mekh-hakit, I wouldn't say it is likely
that a "special forces" insitution existed to create the class of
agents typified by Goldtooth, Jik and Haisi. This would make it likely
that they must come from either a merchant or a military background
(pirate?). My money is on Goldtooth being a prior merchant and Jik
a prior military. Haisi? Maybe he was a customs official on some
border station and his personage thought that would make a good
background. Seems she got it wrong.

Translation:

pyanfar		merchant	goldtooth	jik		haisi
compact		navy		merchant	navy		bureaucrat
new		old		old		old		old
mahen		mahen		mahen		mahen		mahen
agent		agent		agent		agent		agent
new		new		new		new		bad

			Jo

_______________________________________________________________________________
Jo Grant			| Warbot: "I am the very model of a modern
jaymin@maths.tcd.ie		|		major war machine!"
Dublin, IRELAND			| Jakobot: "So what?"	[Extreme Paranoia]