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

[Dave Tallman]

I now think that Norma Peiper was the wife who accompanied Reis to 
Woldercan (p. 301). There's no need to postulate a second wife, because 
the timing can be made to work with one:

   1. There is no mention of a child in that picture (p. 301). Rian was
      probably conceived on Woldercan, or shortly before they arrived.
   2. Their son Rian is sixteen (p. 276),
   3. The marriage only lasted two years(p. 176)
   4. Bill's appointment as ambassador to Woldercan only recently ended,
      during the term of the current President (p. 19).
   5. He has been back at least a year (to see Rian's football games, p.
      277), probably more.
   6. He was appointed ambassador during Instrup's first term and
      continued during his second term (pp. 15-16).
   7. There was at least one other intervening President before the one
      Chase talked to. He says "an earlier president" not "the previous
      president" (p. 18).
   8. So Bill served at least 12 years, before being replaced by the new
      President's "own man" (p. 19).
   9. It would also be difficult to get much medical help for a child
      with a defective heart valve (p. 277) in a place so remote that
      even tampons are hard to get (p. 298).
  10. "Nobody could cure him" (p. 26) implies lots of doctors, so we can
      assume Rian was raised on Earth.
  11. Norma must have taken Rian back to Earth and divorced Bill.
  12. In the picture where he announces he will retire (p. 14), Reis
      seems to be alone.

Sharon was anxious to keep Norma's identity secret ("You won't even try 
to find out. And if you do -- if he tells you, for example -- you won't 
brace them with it" p. 25). Why was this? There may be any number of 
reasons, but if Norma is actually a rich woman who doesn't need acting 
to make a living she may not want her secret exposed since it would make 
people take her acting less seriously.

Sharon may also be privy to secrets because she is working for Reis, and 
doesn't want it to get back to him that she told Cassie anything. If so, 
Reis has almost supernatural foreknowledge, since Cassie had barely been 
recruited at time Sharon talks with her. I prefer the simpler "rich 
woman incognito" theory. The fact that Sharon asks such a clueless 
question to Cassie as whether there is a connection between Rosenquist 
and Reis (p. 237) suggests she is more in the dark than anyone who 
worked for him would be.