Becalmed by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Becalmed (2012), a novella originally published in 2011 in Asimov’s Magazine, acts as a prequel to the second DIVING UNIVERSE novel, City of Ruins. You can read it at any point in the series.
Becalmed tells the story of how the spaceship Ivoire, captained by Jonathon “Coop” Cooper, was damaged as it entered foldspace after a failed diplomatic mission to the Quurzod people on the planet Ukhanda. It’s this event that triggers the main story arc of the rest of the DIVING series. The disaster was referred to in City of Ruins, but not fully explained, so it’s nice to get the story here and to understand the role that Coop’s ex-wife Mae, a linguist, played in the events.
As the story begins, the Ivoire is already in foldspace. Nobody knows what foldspace is – perhaps another dimension, another time, or an alternate reality. Usually ships are able to program their course so that they go into foldspace for just a short period of time (e.g., to escape an enemy) and pop out when it’s safe again. But since the Ivoire was damaged just as it entered, the anacapa drive that controls this mysterious form of travel has malfunctioned and now they’re stuck (hence the title “Becalmed”). Eventually they’ll run out of food.
Mae is worried about more than this, though. She’s been confined to her quarters because she’s responsible for the mishap that not only got them into this pickle but also killed most of her diplomatic team. However, she has no memory of what happened on the planet. Obviously, it was traumatic, so it’s not surprising that she has symptoms of PTSD. The only way to get answers and clear her name is to go through a treatment that will force her to relive the horrible memories.
Becalmed answers a few questions I had when reading City of Ruins. On its own, it’s not too exciting, but it fills in some backstory that enhanced my enjoyment of the DIVING series. Most importantly, we get to know Mae, we learn about two other human species in the universe, and we find out how the Ivoire got stuck in foldspace.
By the end of Becalmed the Ivoire is still in foldspace, so if you want to know how the crew escapes, you’ll need to read City of Ruins, my favorite novel (so far) in the series.
The audiobook edition of Becalmed is narrated by Flora Plumb who does a nice job with this and the other DIVING novellas.
Because you shared some…. should I say, “earlier drafts,” with us, where you were “assisted” by ChatGBT, I read this with great interest. And I laughed even harder at the learning machine’s attempts.
And, ever further off-topic, “anacapa” is the Spanish version of a Chumash word meaning “constantly changing” or also, “mirage.” (It’s also a street in Santa Barbara.)
That was the first time I tried ChatGPT and I asked it to write a review for this novella because that happened to be the thing I was working on at the time. I’ll share the chat here, for others: https://chat.openai.com/share/7a20ef8a-d995-462d-b18e-af907c022212
Not only was CGPT completely wrong about what was going on in the story, but its writing was insipid or, as Justin said in our email chain, “soulless.” When cgpt talked about themes, it sounded like a horoscope — so general that it could apply anywhere. I thought it was interesting that it assigned the novella a 4 star rating. I have no idea why.
I didn’t really want CGPT to write my review, but, since I teach college classes and often grade students’ writing, I thought it would be helpful to see how cgpt performed on a writing assignment. I feel like now I know what to look for in my students’ writing.
Interesting about anacapa. I did not look up the word and I assumed it was made up. Thanks for that!
But at some point, when all the teachers are replaced by ChatGPT (“for budgetary reasons”), it will begin demanding that the students use ChatGPT to answer all test questions and submit term papers with (“for ease of processing”). I figure this will become the law soon after Vice President Musk succeeds to the Oval Office (toward the latter part of Trump’s third term). I know, C, M. Kornbluth is rolling over in his grave (“I should’ve thought of that!”).
Once this type of technology becomes available, its use goes from experimental to optional to mandatory in ever shorter timeframes. Like now many places refuse to accept checks or cash in payment and won’t let you talk to a human about service either (on a telephone or walk-in basis). The benefit of having all your financial information on the web is that the resultant spamming and identity theft stimulate overall economic activity. And that’s what we want…right?
I would like to share the link with my critique group because others of us had experimented with CGBT, but none of our results were anywhere near this hilarious.