(urth) silver glass

[aramini1 at cox.net]

Hmmm - here is my attempt to provide textual evidence. This is chapter 18 of Return to the whorl, the first couple of pages (I have the SFBC edition with me, so the page numbers are off).

They fix Pigs eye.  "The room had darkened as he spoke, the lights on the ceiling fading to mere specks of gold; he looked at the glass and saw the nurse manipulating a control."

After the first break in the chapter:
"When the nurses glass had faded to silver-gray, Pig ventured, "Yer gang ter stay wit'me, bucky?""

And then, later: "Something in Pig's face had changed.  He said, "And in the third, Horn?'
'Patera!' 
Oreb whistled shrilly.
'I would be a positive danger to you,' Pig said. 'Strength and a stout heart are hazardous qualities where they cannot prevail.'
'Yes.' He wiped his eyes.
Naked and subtly altered, the face was still Pig's; Silk's well-remembered voice issued from its lips. 'Still, you would take me if you could.'
'Yes. Yes. I would.  If we reached New Viron, I would not have failed.  Or even if you reached it alone.'
'You do not wish to fail.' Pig's big hand tightened on his.

He said, 'I would give my life not to fail,' and meant it.
'You already have.'"

There is a monitor in the lander that blurs around the mouth, and calls the passenger Silk.

So here is my idea: Silver Silk in Pig, identified as Patera by Silk's Body, speaks to Horn in this passage and calls him Horn.  He then realizes that Horn has given up his corporeal body to salvage Silk, and that Horn wants to take the Silk in Pig back with him.  Would Silver Silk abandon the persona of Horn, or would he go back to Blue with him, after he realizes that "[Horn] would take [Silk] if he could."

Marc Aramini