(urth) Inhumi in the Whorl

[James Wynn]

>>> Well, we know they travelled between planets somehow, and to the 
>>> Whorl, and perhaps to wherever they live now.  They detected the 
>>> Whorl as it approached their solar system, and visited it, bringing 
>>> with them inhumi. And we know they built great structures on Green.  
>>> Why should we not expect them to have spaceships, or at least to be 
>>> able to make them if needed?
>>
>> Because (unless someone can identity a Neighbor-ship) the only method 
>> of travel native to this system is via inhumi.
>> I mean, if this were a story set in Polynesia in 1550 and some chief 
>> mentioned colonizing a great continent to the East, would we just 
>> ASSUME they must have hidden caravels?
>
> If we believed him, we'd assume they had ships capable of getting 
> there and back.  If it was clear that the canoes we know of couldn't 
> do it, we'd guess that they had bigger ones.

Or, like a good engineer, we would assume that they accomplished the 
task with the methods at hand.
Well, we do know that inhumi-powered dream-travel can get the Neighbors 
between planets or to the Whorl, right?

> We know the Neighbours are not 'space hippies' a la Star Trek.  They 
> do not avoid technology - theit city on Green appears to be composed 
> of steel-framed skyscrapers. 

Dream-travel IS technology. My grandparents grew up in a civilization of 
steel-framed skyscrapers as well. But they had no spaceships, even 
though, unlike the Neighbors, they had no alternate (in some ways, 
superior) method.

u+16b9