A Problem of Proportion

[sawyl]

With the addition of Scalzi's A Problem of Perception to the oeuvre of The Human Division and the joining of threads that it embodies, I get the distinct feeling that we've reached the beginning of the end.

Arriving for what is supposed to be a covert meeting with a representative from the Conclave, the Clarke finds itself under fire from an unidentified spaceship. When situation is resolved by a decisive military intervention from the Conclave ship Nuramel, which also been attacked by the intruder, Lieutenant Harry Wilson is assigned to a multi-species mop-up team dispatched to find out just what the hell is going on.

This week's episode manages to cram in lots of crunchy arc elements, albeit ones that seem to raise as many questions as they answer, a nice line in military banter and an act of great humanity (and whatever the alien version of humanity is). Via Hafte Sorvalh, last seen in The Back Channel, the Colonial Union learns what we've known for quite some time: that the Conclave has been losing ships along its border with the CU, much in the same way that the CU has been transport ships along the border, and that it looks like a third party is trying to drum up trouble between the Conclave and the Union.

While Wilson's investigations on the rogue ship bring to light a lot of information about the methods of the mysterious enemy and Sovalh's information reveals something about their aims, neither seems to be able to provide anything about who might be responsible. The best that they can say is that the level of technology employed doesn't seem to rule anyone out: a rogue human faction; a rogue conclave faction; a combination of both; or a mysterious third force we haven't seen so far. Questions, questions, questions...