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Who Does What in Semester 5

The investigation of Mrs Bergbauer’s scary visitor has been shelved. Oh well, as long as the troublesome little thing doesn’t come back. Meanwhile, there’s a change of plan for Jool. Instead of sending her on a field assignment to Chica Selva this semester, Professor Keenly wants to send her next semester. Jool agrees, though she still has to clear the change with boyfriend Jelly Stalwart. She sees Vicky, who is unhappy about the way her adventure in the Ultimas turned out – though she says nothing about what really happened. Vicky’s studies are stalled, and she’s being plagued by texts from Utsuku Shii.
    Gafup suffers another graffiti attack. Rinsaid clears it off. Aino’s car, wrecked last time, has been declared a right-off. Employee Chu Nai Zli seems very concerned. But there’s a bigger worry for Manny and Aino – the Association of Private Investigation Services threatens legal action to stop Gafup using its localization facility on behalf of the Transit Authority, fearing it might harm the detective business. They decide to call in Utsuku, part owner and qualified lawyer.
    The Chica Selva change will be fine with Jelly, and will also be okay with Bart Barbot – he’ll keep Jool’s job open for her. If only things would be positive for Vicky. Persuaded by Utsuku, she finally goes to the police and reports the murder of Beamish Baker by Craig Bellman months ago at Stillwater in the Blatant Range. The actual disappearance of Baker is already known to the police – specifically to Thelma-Louise Erinnyes, the commissioner in charge of VIP Management.
    Utsuku gets to work on the Gafup issue and prepares to leave Allimac Biel. Jool selects her course for the semester with Dr Otical, a bot. Vicky is reassured about her studies by Dr Catenary, though she doesn’t tell him what really happened on the dragon hunt. Inspector Calls of the Transit police starts investigating Vicky’s allegation. Far away in Lonesome Pine, officers Amelie Orator, a bot, and Nick Feeder, a man, are sent on the trail of Bellman. It takes a week to find him. They have the awful luck to arrive at the same moment a dragon attacks…

Inspector Calls goes to Lonesome Pine. Amelie Orator has been injured. Craig Bellman dealt with the dragon but has been detained. Calls arrests him and takes him back to Transit City. Not satisfied with Bellman’s interview, he takes advice from the Prosecution Service on the mismatch with Vicky’s allegation.
    In the meantime, Utsuku sorts out Gafup’s problem with the Association of Private Investigation Services, chats career and football with Jool, and acquires quarterback Hale Merry as her new boyfriend. A long overdue meeting of old friends is planned at Bart’s Bar – even Vicky will be there. Matt asks if anyone knows what’s happened to his repto friend, saxophonist Zish Bill, but no one does. And then Vicky phones in a panic. She’s been arrested!
    The police decide that Vicky might be linked to Baker’s disappearance, having been Bellman’s accomplice. Utsuku gets Vicky released on investigative restraint. Vicky’s study plans collapse – she loses her course with Dr Zoid, and Dr Catenary’s attempt to get her dragon hunting report accepted is suspended by the Enree Faculty. Utsuku takes the advice of fellow lawyer Ferus Lowpmore and decides, at her own expense, to hire Rudolf Slink. The detective’s job: find Beamish Baker, or find where he’s buried. Slink is happy with the case as it’s bound to be a big earner. What he doesn’t like is the fact that Gobspeed, the dog, tries to follow him home.
    Work continues smoothly at Gafup. Aino and Manny’s localization system gets the go-ahead from ACESS, the Transit Authority agency in charge of emergencies. Travis, their new Delft driver, settles in and meets Hale Merry, non-recipient of a delivery failure. Jool gets on with her studies of Bot Specifics, and also takes up clogging again at the Clatters class in Tikes. She hears from Chloe that the strange repto translation job is finally done – it was a summons for a repto to be extradited to its home universe. Whether or not extradition is possible in Transit is an open question.
    Another open question is the future demands on VIP Management. Transient manifestations may be increasing in number, so a redeployment of resources is planned. The slight rise in disappearances in the Ultimas is an issue. One of those incidents, Commissioner Erinnyes notices, is linked to a certain Vicky Nwindi, and the interesting thing about her is the link she has to Jool Diamant…

Vicky, released on investigative restraint, is taken for a meal at Chez Lexeme by Jool, Jelly, Matt and Savy. Vicky is still distraught, but apologizes for not telling her friends about what happened at Stillwater. She’s forgiven, of course, but unfortunately that won’t help her studies. She has to abandon her course but Dr Zoid suggests that, given Vicky’s obvious skills in bot engineering, she should fill her time usefully and take a so-called Fade course in bot first aid. It isn’t much consolation. At the moment, Vicky feels she has about as much future as the dying albatross tram she sees with Matt.
    Rudolf Slink starts on the search for Beamish Baker. He visits Beamish’s home in Edinburgh Banks, and then calls at the Bergbauer farm at Branden. Mrs Bergbauer is concerned about Vicky but unable to help. And she is very frosty. Something about Slink – obvious, of course, to Slink himself – is really not to her liking. But she’s polite about it, for which he’s grateful.
    Trying to find a trail, Slink goes to Breeyan, the last inhabited region on the Perflux as it emerges from the higher ranges in the Ultimas. The Lutwidge family at the Prancing Peony are very friendly, but unable to help. They know Bellman’s story that Baker was killed by a dragon and, no, no one has seen or heard any hint that Baker ever came back from the dragon hunting expedition. About the only thing Slink receives is a confirmation of Bellman’s character as a very private and probably lonely man. Which tells him nothing either way about Bellman’s capacity to commit a murder.
    Mrs McGurgle’s cat, Wurrpurr, gets on with persecuting rats. Jool gets on with learning and with enjoying clogging. Jelly Stalwart might not like clogging, but she loves it. Davincia Codex is getting to like it, too. Chloe insists that they go to the big dance parties which will be getting under way as the year moves into the winter season.
    Gafup suffers another attack by vandals. The criminals are obviously motivated by anti-bot sentiment. Probably they’re Transfixers. Gafup is a target because of its nanobot technology, its bot employees Rinsaid and Cashilling, and its bot director Manny. For Manny, it’s very personal. He needs Aino’s awareness and kindness. The two friends also need some sort of solution. Security cameras might be the answer. Gobspeed, with an eye on securing a warm place to live during the coming winter, was hoping  they’d go for a guard dog.
    Rudolf Slink has been trying to trace Beamish Baker’s travels as an apprentice dragon hunter through the Ultimas and the Penultimas. He eventually calls at the Dead Dragon in the White Range. It’s the place where the famous dragon hunter Dead-eyed Delia Bard retired, setting aside her bow and taking up life as a wirtschaft owner instead. If anyone knows about Baker’s past, she will.
    On a bright day at the start of the winter, they talk on the sunny veranda of the Dead Dragon. Not only does she know about Baker, she’s met him – since the Stillwater expedition. Bull’s-eye! It’s a claim that Baker was still alive after the date when Bellman allegedly killed him. Not proof, but very important progress. Slink should be pleased. But Delia Bard, like Mrs Bergbauer, can sense the particular something about him that people – the few who notice it – dislike so much. His investigation is working out. But he isn’t enjoying it.

Professor O’Brane, in the guise of his Homer avatar, meets fellow Heroes Garden member Tisiphone. The two know their real-world identities. Tisiphone is the avatar or Thelma-Louise Erinnyes, long time associate of the professor. O’Brane learns of the impending redeployment at VIP Management, the worry about a slight increase in unexplained deaths in the Ultimas, and the stalled attempt to get Jool Diamant’s boyfriend to spy on her – for her own good, of course. He doesn’t approve.
    Jool herself attends the top clogging event, Bill’s Big Clog-in. Everyone you’d expect is there. Jool has a wonderful time. Festivities are interrupted, though, by a transient manifestation. The tram consists of a flock of fire birds passing slowly across Tikes. The fire birds are beautiful, magical – and dangerous, if they happen to land on your roof. VIP Management is in action. Jelly, together with his pilot Celia Heist, works at shepherding the flock away from built up areas towards empty parkland.
    Jelly Stalwart compiles his report on the operation. It happens to be known that Jool was there, right in the path of the tram. His boss Essie Scorta brings up the issue of keeping tabs on Jool on account of her possible affinity for trams. Jelly is furious. He fights with his boss – in public.
    Vicky, meanwhile, enjoys a rare if minor success. She’s attending a Fade course in bot first aid, is the only wetware on the course, and is by far the best student. Even bot tutor Nurse Skylark is impressed.
    Rudolf Slink has followed the trail to the north, where the Noggins Hills give way to the Blue and Etten Ranges. At the little town of Graculus he finally finds Beamish Baker, alive and well but in hiding, feeling disgraced by his dragon failure and by an alleged encounter with goblins. Case closed. He calls his employer, Utsuku, who informs the police and then proceeds to get Vicky out of trouble. All charges are dropped and Vicky is free from suspicion – as, too, is Craig Bellman. Inspector Calls is furious at the total was of time. Utsuku points out that Vicky still has to resolve her android issue. Vicky, however, is now furious with Utsuku. Gratitude for the help? No way.
    In the middle of the winter weather, Gafup is hit yet again by vandalism. This time the damage is more serious. Utsuku, the company legal adviser, is taken on a tour of the mess by Aino and Manny. Officer Connie Stable, Inspector Calls’ assistant, is in Sharries and attends the case. Stable says the police won’t be able to do anything unless evidence emerges which can identify individual perpetrators. She suggests they try a private investigator to search for the culprits. Utsuku seems to think it might be an idea.
    She also notices something about Gobspeed, who just happens to be there at that moment…

Winter arrives in the City. Jool has a meeting with Mr Projano at VIPERA, where they discuss the work awaiting her in Chica Selva next semester. While there she meets the bot Mr Wolram, a member of the Phileas Society and also interested in possible door activity in Chica Selva. Mr Wolram is a Hammerite, which is yet another of Transit’s weird religions.
    Jelly, increasingly upset by the requests that he spy on Jool, has a confrontation with the head of VIP Management, Commissioner Erinnyes. The commissioner hands it smoothly but mercilessly, and concludes she will have to make a decision about her officer in line with the upcoming changes in the Department. Meanwhile, far away in Lonesome Pine, another change is on the way. Bot Amelie Orator, fully reconditioned after her near-fatal encounter with a dragon while apprehending Craig Bellman, has decided that life in the sleepy town is no longer interesting. Now that she’s met her own transient manifestation she’s going to apply for a transfer to VIP Management.
    Vicky joins Matt on a mission to find out about missing repto saxophonist Zish Bh’vill. The repto has moved out of its flat and left no contact address. Friends, such as butcher Valerie or repto drummer Esh Kh’assan, are unable to help. Reptos, who are refugees, tend to be very discreet with respect to personal information. Bh’vill will be in touch when, and only when, Bh’vill wants to. One find Matt and Vicky make while walking through Sans Souris is the winter whereabouts of Old Muffin and, at times, Gobspeed. It’s an alley, of course. But in the French Quarter it’s a very cultured alley.
    Utsuku is settling in well at her work with the charity legal firm Probe Ono. Her boss Bee Spoke is still suspicious of her new and very rich employee, but acknowledges Utsuku’s effectiveness. Jool nears the end of her semester with a final topic on Bot Specifics – the Bot Charter of Rights, which marked the acceptance of bots as fully enfranchised entities. Mr Projano, also concerned with the rights or otherwise of entities, has a talk with his VIPERA co-director, the invisible Mrs Entriegeler. Among matters of current concern are sparse reports of so-called goblins in the Ultima Mountains. They have learned that the police were recently investigating a case which involved the claim of a very persuasive sighting near Stillwater on the Perflux. Could the goblins actually be real?
    Sam Mullog, disgraced drains maintenance operative and sex shop employee, has renounced his Infernalism religion and seen the light – literally – of the Revelations of the Aspects. He’s moved to Helicopteris on the edge of the Kalorific Desert, a town entirely devoted to the Aspects religion. He now works as a tourism and accommodation officer in town, as he tells the bot Grumlit, a fellow Aspects adherent and briefly his employer at Citrus Volley while he was working his way south. Sam recently advised a repto – a saxophonist, no less – and its child who were taking a break before moving on to the Singe Hills. Well, fancy that.
    Rudolf Slink finds himself, together with colleague Glissanda Smooth, at Gafup to discuss possible action to counter the damage by Transfixer vandals. There isn’t much they can do unless there’s a new incident. Gobspeed, who’s hanging around, makes one of his passing remarks, knowing that humans never register a talking dog. But Rudolf and Glissanda hear exactly what he said…
    Jool learns that Jelly Stalwart is being redeployed, as of next semester, to Constant at Lake Utopia. So, while she’s in Chica Selva he’ll be out of the City and even further away, and is likely to have to stay there. It’s going to put an extra strain on their relationship…
    And Vicky, newly escaped from her legal mess, suddenly receives a lawsuit against her from Beamish Baker and another lawsuit against her from wrongly accused Craig Bellman. The shit, once again, has hit the fan…