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. It's not too late to pick up this book yourself and read along, and I highly recommend doing so - we're now in the midst of the Prelim Boarding Games, so we're into the 2nd third of the novel now! But it's not that long a book so catching up won't take that long.....
Sorry for taking a week break, I needed a break from posting these and I was busy on my weekly Saturday scheduling of these. And well, these are some pretty important chapters! Jenks faces emotional turmoil and takes out by one punch KOing an opponent! Max gets KOed off page! We get to see the really cool piloting competition! But really these two chapters are about Jenks romantic turmoil....which she does not take very well.
Chapter 18: Preliminaries - Day Two
Quick Summary: Max shows off her navigational brilliance - turns out seeing how objects are going to move in advance is a good skill for a piloting obstacle course - and she and Ma win a round in the piloting competition. As she heads back to celebrate, she spots a strange man watching her, but shakes it off assuming the guy must be press.
Meanwhile, Jenks and Luis enjoying each other's company at a restaurant when Luis tells Jenks that he not only cares for her, but that he loves her. Jenks....does not take it well emotionally, even though Jenks herself has been making calls to Luis to catch up recently rather than just arrange for more sex. Angry with herself, and feeling undeserving of Luis, Jenks starts off her next cage match by One-Punch KOing Commander Pashol. Uh, Ouch.
Thoughts: Okay least important thing first; the piloting competition is really cool and I really wish we saw more of it - this is the only time we'll see it in the book and as a huge fan of the old star wars space fighter sims (X-Wing, TIE Fighter), it's way too cool for the book to mention once and never again....damnit.
Okay back to important things: Jenks! Jenks is a pretty classic archetype of person - the person who shies away from anything that would require real emotional commitment. The thing is, Jenks doesn't do it as a result of being a selfish jerk - Jenks has issues of her own self worth, stemming from her childhood and has a hard time believing she deserves to be loved back by anyone for more than sex. Jenks has been having emotional turmoil over her own starting to care for Luis in prior chapters, but for Luis to come and out and say straight out that he feels the same way is simply more than she can take right now.
Of course, when most people are in emotional turmoil, they become messes and dangers to themselves. Jenks on the other hand, becomes a danger to poor Commander Pashol, who eats a full force counter to the head immediately. Oof, not cool Jenks.
Chapter 18: Preliminaries - Day Three
Quick Summary: Start of Day 3 sees the team in good shape points wise, to no surprise, with everyone doing well in their competitions. Still some tough matchups loom on the horizon: D'Arcy for Tamago in swordfighting; Commander Vera Till for Max in hand to hand. Rosa contemplates this while talking with Tamago about what could've riled up Jenks yesterday - which they figure has to have something to do with Luis.
Max's fight with Vera winds up with Max unconscious on the floor. As Jenks helps her regain consciousness, Vera flirts with Jenks and Jenks realizes that normally, Jenks would've taken Vera up on that offer of casual sex, but Jenks is too distracted by Luis to do that. And when Luis arrives to try and sort things out and offers to talk things out later, Jenks can't bring herself to say yes....causing Luis more hurt and Jenks pain for herself for doing so.
Thoughts: Another chapter, another character waking up seeing stars, but this time it's poor Max. Commander Till reads very much like Jenks - extremely fun loving above all else, willing to flirt with anyone but still really well meaning, which makes the idea that Jenks would previously have been willing to have a tryst with her right after Vera KOed Jenks' teammate more plausible - they're kind of birds of a feather. It also might explain why Max didn't see the kick coming: against anyone but Jenks, Max usually sees every blow coming, she just can't always do anything to stop them (we'll see this later). But if Till is another loose cannon type - sorta - like Jenks, well....it makes sense, although you'd imagine Vera's team would do better than last every year....
But again, this chapter is again really about Jenks. Poor Jenks who still can't admit to herself she's worth something and that she wants to go further with Luis, and ends up harming Luis in the process- a result that only makes Jenks feel even more like shit. Again, Jenks' backstory is the biggest sign in this future setting that not everything is okay (other than the tying of LifeEx to employment), and you can see why it makes her so resistant to open up fully in more than an arm's length way: i bet it took Nika years before Jenks truly treated him like a brother, and years of being on the same crew to cement that relationship even further.
Get it together Jenks please, it hurts to read you hurt - and Luis, who seems like a good guy, hurt.
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Fortunately, next chapter may give us some hope of that....
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