Ship's Notes: Mr. Geslter

Mr. Gestler was introduced to the crew with surprisingly little resistance.  He has proved a quick study, learning our written language in only a few days, and already acquiring verbal language, albeit with the pronunciation expected of someone who pronounces half his words phonetically.  I’m not sure he understands just how quickly he is learning things.  Slower than he would like, no doubt, but faster than I could have expected.

Gestler is also fascinated with the ramifications of our written culture – he is not illiterate in the written language of Arcadia, but the written language is mostly used for interpersonal communication.

This is, I believe, because the only people with the time and resources to become literate are the remains noble castes, who then teach it to people like Mr. Gestler, who will be receiving written orders from them.  At no point do any of the working classes (probably an amalgamation of the engineering and scientists castes of New Montreal) ever learn to write, their time being spent surviving through using their skills.  Thus people with technical knowledge do not write, and those who write do not have technical knowledge.  Thus Mr. Gestler’s amazement that I happen to carry millions of books on every subject known to man – the idea of a technical book is not something he had ever encountered before.  (Or even a book, possibly – if the translation software is correct, the only word used by Mr. Gestler for ‘book’ is literally Old Canadian for ‘letter’.)

Mr. Gestler has also been writing, primarily making his own observations with regard to his (future) role as Security Officer.  He has an alarming tendency to think of everything as a potential weapon, and everyone as a potential hostile or a potential ally.  It’s a bit flattering that he’s drawn up a plan to protect me in the case of a mutiny involving every crewmember other than himself, but… well, I am glad that the other crewmembers do not have access to his writing.

The idea that everything could be a weapon, combined with his understanding that violence is his professional concern, leads him to the conclusion that everything is his professional concern.  He started with physics and biology, but is currently reading about sociology and psychology.  I fully expect him to go into economics next, as to better plan how I can fund any terrestrial, orbital, or interplanetary war I might happen to wage.  The Captain worries about how much use a primitive can be, I worry what I have unleashed.