A Pale Light In The Black (by KB Wagers) Reread - Chapters 20 and 21

Welcome back to my reread of K.B. Wagers' "A Pale Light in the Black!"  You can find the other posts in this reread here.  For those somehow seeing this post first instead of the others, A Pale Light in the Black is a space opera featuring a SF space version of the Coast Guard in an optimistic future universe. We're just finishing the first half of this book, with the final part of the prelim boarding games and the team's first mission afterwards this week!  So I guess its too late for me to say you can easily catch up, but well, if you want to try it's well worth your time - and these posts aren't exactly going anywhere mind you.

Today's post covers two of my favorite chapters: First: the conclusion of the Prelim Boarding Games and Jenks and Luis come to an emotional accord!  Second, we get a rescue mission in space where something goes disastrously wrong, and Max has to act against orders to save lives!  The rescue mission is a particular highlight of this book, despite being short, and well....okay let me save that for the actual reread.......



Chapter 20: Preliminaries - Day Four

Quick Summary:  Zuma's Ghost completes their run at the big game with style, with Max diving on top of the "captive" Admiral to save her from her "kidnappers'" bullets.  Jenks and Luis match up in the finals of the hand to hand contest, but neither of them are that into it - with Max predicting Jenks is going to run from the relationship.

And at the afterparty, with everyone making it clear that they knew about Jenks/Luis being a thing, Jenks has no choice but to speak with Luis, who refuses to let Jenks run.  Jenks tries to claim she's not worth Luis' love, but Luis refuses to let her get away with that self-doubt and proclaims he'd wait forever for her.

Thoughts:  Again, quickly to get it out of the way, rereading this chapter again brings me back to my bracketing complaint: Dread Treasure takes the second slot for the Boarding Games over Honorable Intent by what seems like a small margin, which might not have happened if the swordfighting was properly bracketed and Stephen didn't have to fight Rosa, who reached the finals, in the second round.  How is this ensuring the NeoG sends the best team to the actual Games?  Cmon guys.

Okay, sorry, bracketing pet peeve out of the way: Max's prediction skills make her a pretty damn useful leader - or 2nd in command at worst - for actual boarding mission like that simulated by the Big Game: can make sure everyone is in the right place for completing the mission with minimal casualties and to save any hostages....and she's got two kidneys, she can spare one for a fake bullet.  But it's less useful on people's emotional states....she can get that Jenks may want to run, but people are convinced not to act on their emotional wants all the time, and Jenks thus surprises her.

I mean let's be clear, Luis is almost too good for anyone, but if anyone deserves him it's Jenks.  Endlessly patient, caring, and lovable and fully willing to push back on Jenks' self-loathing bullshit.  Jenks better not let him get away, not that Luis would ever want to go away.  I love Luis.

Chapter 21: T-Minus Twenty Weeks until the Boarding Games

Quick Summary:  Another practice session for the Boarding Games results in Max successfully predicting D'Arcy's moves, to the team's wonder, but then Sapphi informs Max that the creepy person watching Max during the Prelims was not on record - which raises questions.  And then they get an emergency call.

A rich family - whom Max knows - consisting of parents and an 11 year old girl just had their spaceship die in space, which wouldn't be a problem except that a proton storm - a deadly ejection of solar radiation - is projected to hit them in a few minutes.  Max, Jenks and Tamago head over there to help the family space-"walk" with their jets out of the danger zone and into Zuma, with Max taking the father, Tamago, the mother, and Jenks the little girl.

But something goes wrong with Jenks' jet, sending him and the girl Shala careening out of control in space....and more importantly, preventing them from getting out of the danger zone.  As Max reaches Zuma with his passenger in two, she releases him....and promptly disobeys orders to try and rescue Jenks by bumping them all out of the danger area with a controlled collision - apologizing to Rosa for her actions.  Thankfully, it works saving the day, and resulting in one 11 year old child asking "It was the coolest!  How old do I have to be to join the NeoG?"

Thoughts:  Okay this chapter is much better read than re-described, even if it's relatively simple.  The rescue mission is so cool!  And Max disobeying orders and apologizing for it is the absolute perfect encapsulation of Max as a character - awkward, uncomfortable, and formal.....but also absolutely loyal to her people and the mission of saving lives in the NeoG.  And she pulls it off, flying through space to literally knock people into safety!  And yeah, the whole thing does eliminate the very last bit of tension Max feels with Jenks, but I don't even care about that - I mean ffs, they basically knocked that off chapters ago even if Max has had too much self doubt to recognize that - but the reaction of Shala to it all "it was the coolest!"is amazing.

NeoG should release tape of this rescue and leak it out, it'd improve recruitment ten fold, I swear.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time out: We dive headlong into the conspiracy aspects of the plot, as the team starts to look into more deeply what's going on.