message 0144

• Comparison between normal and Azi ship crews/abilities of Azi in general
• Acceleration and maneuvering in space

>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Wed, 19 May 93 9:59:43 BST

Jo writes:
> 	I can see a wonderful fleet maneuver when the are zooming across
> the system, dump down to nil, make a right angled turn, and boost back
> up again.  Kind of thing Union would never expect...

	Sounds like the Knnn to me. Doesn't Pyanfar speculate at one point
what that sort of maneuver would do to the average Compact oxy-breather's
body? eeew :-(
 
nancy writes: 
> The azi may make the most effective soldiers and technicians, but who
> makes the most effective commanders and researchers?  The individuals
> in positions of authority in Cherryh's novels are almost always normal
> humans, not azi.  In "Downbelow Station", "Cyteen" and "40,000 in
> Gehenna" it seemed pretty clear that azi upbringing and tape learning
> do not generally produce individuals with the ability to react well to
> chaotic situations.  Azi do what they know spectacularly well --
> hence, they make excellent soldiers, techs, gardeners, security or what
> have you -- but can't always handle the unexpected.  Even Reseune
> hadn't succeeded at mass-producing creativity and higher-level
> thinking; most of the azi with those skills were unstable.

	I think it's more that azi are fantastic at what they do, and can
handle the unexpected, as long as it's still within their field of expertise.
But put them in a different situation, and botht he expected and unexpected
will throw them. The security azi in _Cyteen_ are great about handling
wierd security situations (once they have a bit of experience -- Florian
screws up when he's a kid, but that seems to be because he's young and
inexperienced). In non-security situations, they tend to stand around shyly
wishing they had someone to assassinate. It also specifically states that
an azi soldier is more likely than a born human to refuse to blindly follow
stupid orders, but that the same military azi, given citizenship papers and
kids, tend to revert to classic stereotypical military parents (because they
are trying to make life 'expected' again?). You are certainly right in saying
that chaotic situations are not reacted well to by azi, but I think the
definition of chaotic varies from career to career -- an azi soldier is
probably not thrown by seeming chaos in war, but could well be by something
like a Novgorod transport system.
	Something interesting about the azi we're shown is the huge
over-representation of alphas. In _Cyteen_ especially the alphas are
almost the norm for azi behaviour and mentality, including the perception
of perhaps being potentially unstable. Where are the betas, at least?
Let alone the vast numbers of 'lesser' azi. We are really only shown the
absolute top percentage of azi (just as we're shown the top percentage
of born humans), and have to guess at what 'normal' azi are like.


>I'd imagine that Josh Talley was somewhere in the middle, with more early
> socialization than a regular azi -- allowing him to handle the
> unpredictability of a spy and saboteur's life -- and more
> deep-teach/custom training than someone like Grant.

	Yeah. Maybe the farm and his 'aunt' were in some way real after
all.

				Lesley