(urth) Where was Rian born? (AEG Spoilers)

[Dave Tallman]

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> I see no good reason to suppose Norma was ever married to Reis, but the
> apparition of Vince on that island as some sort of manifistation of a
> volcano gives me enough pause that I can't just dismiss it. Reis said he had
> been married twice. (p.-275)
>   
You are right: there have to be two wives, and the mother of Rian is 
probably not the one who went with Reis to Woldercan. Norma is still an 
excellent candidate for the first wife, the mother of Rian. It had to be 
someone Sharon knew that Cassie knew, since Sharon asked Cassie to 
promise not to "brace them with it" (p. 25). Sharon did a gossip show on 
TV, and she might easily have found out that actress Norma was the 
ex-wife of a rich, former ambassador. Norma might have threatened her to 
prevent her from revealing this.

> No, there was no intervening president, as determined by the order of
> ambassadors:
>
> 1st Ambassador, Bob Chase (296)
> 2nd Harold Klauser (18, 296)
> 3rd William Reis (277)
> 4th unnamed (222), who succeeded Reis and was replaced by
> 5th Gideon Chase (293)
>   
There's no absolute correspondence between the appointments of 
ambassadors and changes of presidential administration. An ambassador 
might be left in by a new president, or changed during his term. We knew 
Reis served 8 years (p. 95, good catch), and that Ingstrup ran for a 
second term after appointing Reis (pp. 15-16). We don't know that 
Ingstrup won re-election, but it may be simpler to assume he did.

> But, we are left with the question of just when Gid cured the kid. If Reis
> actually paid for it, that may have been the occasion, mentioned above, two
> years earlier when he hired Gid for an unspecified consultation. Reis said
> the boy was "very ill as a child." Is 14 too old to call him a child? I
> suppose not.
>   
No, it seems the ex-wife consulted Gideon on her own first. Reis had 
never heard of Chase until then. The consultation by Reis was later, and 
might have been the oil-field deal (p. 26). Reis had all sorts of 
business interests.

> Then there is a problem with Gid's age. Sharon said he looked to be in his
> mid-thirties. (25) Klauser said he had been a "small boy" when he last saw
> him. (297) 5 or 6 years old? But if you add up the elapsed ambassadorial
> terms and add another 7-9 years to that, Gid should be only in his
> mid-twenties. And he's a Ph.D. He seems to be older than the numbers allow.
> And I don't think Wolfe made a mistake here. I think something is going on
> with sequential time, as hinted at by the peculiar nature of ethermail
> between Earth and Woldercan. Maybe travel between them has a warping effect?
>   
Gid may develop faster as an alien half-breed (ala the "Dunwich 
Horror"). We also don't really know how long Klauser's term was.