From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: (urth) ship-building timeline for the Whorl
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 08:24:45 -0600

Roy wrote:
Uh, Quetzal was an inhumi. The inhumi have no technology. None at all. They
are not good with their hands--probably because they don't have any in their
natural state.  Not to mention that it was well over 300 years from the
time the _Whorl_ was launched until Q was shot in the tunnels. I don't think
they live that long.


Crush answers
Since I haven't finished the SS yet, I'm sticking my neck out a bit... but
clearly technology is not incomprehensible to inhumi regardless of whether
they *use* it on Green. Quetzal is an engineer, since he "designed himself"
the intricate door latch to his Prolocutor quarters. Just as he also had no
trouble figuring out human political systems sufficiently to manipulate
them, I presume technology of other cultures would be transparent to Q.

I presumed that Q got on the Whorl by way of Urth (which would require -at
least - exposure to technology and that he be very old) based on his
discussion with Remora in LS3:1:
Q ponders the "cyclic nature" of myth - that is, what was applicable before
is now applicable today. In the story of "A-man" and "Wo-man" a "cobra"
entices them to eat his fruit. Why (according to Q)?  Because "he wanted
them to climb his tree." But the story isn't finished yet according to Q:
"they still have not yet climbed down". Perhaps I'm cursed with too much
imagination but this sounds to me like the Plan of Pas. They "climbed the
tree" means they took to the stars. "They haven't climbed down" means they
have disembarked to Green - which apparently was also part of the plan. The
cobra is clearly Q (note his "hooded" glances).

Well if Q enticed A-man and Wo-man to climb his tree, must have been to Urth
to entice them to do it.

Did I cover everything?

Perhaps I need to be more clear. I never presumed Quetzal showed up at
Typhon's door with a bag of trinkets like a serpentine Santa Claus. I only
intended to posit that Typhon's super-technology, and, of course, the Whorl
itself was of Typhon's design.

--Crush




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