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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A>
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<DIV><BR>> > For example, when the Neighbours went to the Whorl and
infected it <BR>> > with Inhumi, we don’t know whether they drilled their
way in, hacked <BR>> > into airlock controls, contacted elements of
Mainframe, or got in some <BR>> > other way. We don’t know the details and
it’s not important. [If it <BR>> > *were* important - if it significantly
impacted the storyline in some <BR>> > way – we *would* have been
told.]<BR><BR>> Perfect. How do we know the Neighbors got into the Whorl?
Were we "told"?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yes, by WindCloud, one of the Neighbours, in the courtroom in Dorp.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>******************</DIV>
<DIV>"I was one of those who boarded your whorl when it neared our sun. </DIV>
<DIV>In the Whorl, I made the acquaintance of many of your race, and I </DIV>
<DIV>have known others since, on both the whorls we once called ours."</DIV>
<DIV>******************</DIV>
<DIV><BR>It is later explained by SilkHorn:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>******************</DIV>
<DIV>"[To the Whorl] the Vanished People went?"</DIV>
<DIV>I nodded.</DIV>
<DIV>"To greet us it was?"</DIV>
<DIV>"You might put it so, though they were sensible enough to find out a</DIV>
<DIV>good deal about us-and infect us with inhumi-"</DIV>
<DIV>"Bad thing!"</DIV>
<DIV>"Before they ventured to greet even a few of us."</DIV>
<DIV>"Bad it was," Vadsig agreed with Oreb.</DIV>
<DIV>"To leave inhumi among us?" I shook my head. "It was a small price to
</DIV>
<DIV>pay for two whorls, and it enabled the Neighbors to gauge much more </DIV>
<DIV>accurately the differences between our race and their own."</DIV>
<DIV>*******************</DIV>
<DIV><BR>> If not, then figuring out "how" is clearly part of figuring out
<BR>> "whether." Once you get down to "drilling" or "blasting" it makes no
<BR>> difference. But astral projection vs spaceships? It matters. Motive,
<BR>> means, and opportunity.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But that’s easy. In the first place we don’t actually know for sure
that the Neighbours are capable of astral projection like SilkHorn and his
inhumi. But even assuming they are, we know they did not bring inhumi to
the Whorl by astral projection anyway, because astrally projected inhumi take on
the form of those they have drained. Astrally transported inhumi would
have been Neighbours on the Whorl, just as Jugano was human on Urth.
[There are other obstacles too – could Quetzal’s body have slept on Blue for
thirty years while he was astrally projected? And what about the business
of having to have previously visited the place you travel to in the
flesh?]</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We also know the Neighbours had space flight: that’s how they got to Green
and discovered the inhumi.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So: means, motive and opportunity, just like you said. One logical
solution, given the setup that Wolfe has created. And we are told
it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>> Dismissing evidence is one way of dismissing theories, and it's
not <BR>> really honest.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>And what evidence do you think I have dismissed? [Of course, Jugano
claimed the inhumi were always on Urth, but I beg leave to doubt him.]</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>