After the Planet of Islands
Very shortly after the Sorcerer left the Islands Planet, probably during one of the language lessons with Art (because the subject isn't particularly personal) Jannisett asked about a discrepancy she did not understand.
Jannisett: "Jamie, a while back, when you told us about why you left your family and the Core, you described the society of the Core as 'stagnant.' I looked that up so I know what it means. The Core hasn't done anything new in a long, long time. And that includes doing new technology. If I remember rightly, you also said that that long, long time had been very long -- longer than 800 years. [Sheryl vaguely remembers a number like 1 or 2 thousand years.] Am I remembering that correctly? She waited for Jamie to nod or correct her, then went on.
"That makes me wonder about two things. One. If the Core hasn't made new technology in so long and the Imperial Military is the disciplinarian arm of the Core's government, why is it that the Imperial Military has ships that are so advanced that you and Rocks and Eddie are afraid of them? Why haven't the people outside of the Core's stagnation caught up and surpassed that technology? Surely there's somebody outside the Core in all those hundreds of years who is smarter, luckier, and rich enough to have done such a thing."
"Two. If the Core government has been stagnant for so much longer than 800 years, why and how could they be using a technology that could make the 'artificial matrix' -- as Eddie called it -- of the islands of the Herder's planet? And how could they be still delivering exiles or even supervising them? Stagnant means not doing anything. This was something. Just because I was wrong to be afraid that there would be active reprisals and you and Eddie were right, does not mean we shouldn't wonder what's really going on."
"Related to that, Eddie has explained how expensive it is to make Stargate jumps and I know we're working hard just to keep the Sorcerer fueled enough to find a way to power up and go home." She looked at Art appreciatively, "For which we should really thank you, Art. I thank you for all your efforts." She turned her attention back to Jamie. "But why would a stagnant government -- no matter how bad a Malik your Emperor is -- go to all the effort and expense to send exiles all the way out to this galaxy? Surely there is a better use for that time and money? After all, execution deals effectively with any offender; the Islands planet seems to be an extraordinary effort to punish innocent people who had nothing to do with and no memory of the original 'heinous crime'. It makes no sense to me."
The blue girl asked, "What am I not understanding? Will you please explain more about what the Core is really like?"
"And there's one more question to think about -- that might interest even Eddie and Banker. How did the Core government first get to this galaxy? I know Eddie has said that Imperial Warships can make their own Gates, as the Sorcerer seems to be able to make its own. But, if the Core discovered this galaxy by accident as we did, then they must have found an easy way to power up and get home as well. Or maybe I'm making an unwarranted assumption about the capabilities of an Imperial Warship. If so, that brings 'round my first question again. How can Core have such advanced technology and yet you all think the Core is stagnant?"
Jamie answered, "No one knows enough about the Emperor and the government to even guess its capabilities. There's a man who appears on the vid-screens and is called the Emperor. What he does, what he knows, what he's like - I have no way of knowing. We know the Navy is big, tough and deadly. That's really all we know."
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