Federation of the Hub: Difference between revisions

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: The Duke of Fluel, in "Lion Loose".

* [[Bluffing the Advance Scout]]: In ''The Demon Breed''

* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]: Heslet Quillan takes instant advantage of the situation when the [[Naked People Are Funny|naked]] [[Action Girl]] falls into his arms--but never hesitates when a lady needs his help.

* [[Cloning Blues]]: In "Ti's Toys"

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Dr Plemponi in ''Legacy''

* [[Dolled-Up Installment]]: The Baen reissues include a non-Hub story, "Planet of Forgetting", rewritten as a Hub story, "Forget It". The theory here was that [http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/1e4301970a6520ea?hl=en it may well have been a Dolled Down Installment in the first place].

* [[Extra Eyes]]: In "Company Planet", a surgeon has an additional eye in the centre of his forehead, which Telzey guesses might act as a magnifier for close-in work.

* [[The Federation]]: The Federation of the Hub.

* [[Framing the Guilty Party]]: Telzey does this in "Undercurrents"

* [[Humans Are Psychic in the Future]]: The Hub stories have a significant number of psychic characters, even though psis are still only a tiny fraction of the human race. However, they are numerous enough that the Federation Psychology Service has spent centuries making sure that rogue psis don't screw up the status quo too badly. A character in one story explicitly mentions that humanity only developed psi powers when it started spreading to other planets, and speculates about how the two events might be connected.

* [[Humans Are Warriors]]: the epilogue to ''The Demon Breed'' concludes that Humans Are Dangerous, Leave Them Alone.

* [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]]: "A Nice Day For Screaming" has this in spades: the space itself is inherently hazardous, and then it turns out there are ''things'' living in it... {{spoiler|although they aren't malicious.}}

* [[Immortality Seeker]]: Ticos Cay. This makes him a rarity among Hub citizens, who are mostly affected by [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]].

* [[Kaleidoscope Hair]]: Danestar Gems, in "The Searcher", always wears a wig of the same colour as her outfit.

* [[Make the Dog Testify]]: In "Undercurrents". Subverted in that {{spoiler|the dog didn't actually know a damn thing, but Telzey knows some people who can implant fake memories really really well...}}

* [[Mook Horror Show]]: The epilogue to "The Demon Breed" retells the story from the aliens' point of view.

{{quote|I must emphasize strongly the oppressively accumulating effect these events produced on the Parahuans during the relatively short period in which they occurred. As related by the survivors, there was a growing sense of shock and dismay, the conviction finally of having challenged something like an indestructible supernatural power. At the time they were questioned, the survivors still seemed more disturbed by this experience than by the practical fact of their own impending demise on orders of Porad Anz, of which they were aware.}}

* [[Mugging the Monster]]: In ''Lion Game'' two street thugs stalk Telzey...very briefly. Fortunately for them it suits her purposes to let them live and even to provide them with a telepathic illusion that they've successfully mugged her, but it still qualifies as this trope because she could literally have killed them both with a harsh look.

* [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]]: Telzey is rather prone to this.

** Justified in-setting: at the beginning of the second short story there is an expository segment explaining the difference between 'Class One' and 'Class Two' psionics. Class Ones are defined by having specific abilities that come in standardized sets, and that's all they get. Class Twos are defined by having the ability to potentially train and develop almost any psionic talent with the only differences between individual psis being what they have a greater aptitude to learn or self-develop easily and what they'll never discover on their own and need specialized instruction to grasp. Telzey is an advanced Class Two, so 'developing or learning new psi powers whenever she has a compelling need to' is ''intended'' to be her entire shtick.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Although the Federation's Psychology Service originally comes on like [[Babylon 5|Psi-Corps]], we rapidly see that if a psi shows a reasonable measure of self-control and responsibility the Psychology Service is entirely willing to leave them free to live their own life, even if their actions were technically illegal. The Psychology Service's motto might as well be "''Every'' case is on a 'case-by-case basis'."

** An example is that despite the fact that Telzey originally fought for her freedom by ''blackmailing'' the Psychology Service, they've been entirely willing to help with the damage control on other crises she's helped bring to their attention, no strings attached, to the point of temporarily giving her official status as a Psychology Service field agent and then cutting her loose again rather than forcing her to stay when the case was over (despite the fact that they have the legal authority to draft her at any time). Then again, her case manager seems to be taking the tack of 'When Telzey finishes growing up, she'll probably come to me ''willingly''... after all, she does enjoy the work.'

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Pilch, possibly to the point of being a [[Time Abyss]].

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: When Telzey & Trigger team up, the calmly cerebral and ruthless Telzey plays a classic blue oni to Trigger's cheerful, outgoing, and [[Hot-Blooded]] red oni.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Averted. Telzey's father is a highly wealthy and influential man, and her mother is on the Federation High Council... and vs. the forces she's been up against, both official and otherwise, neither one would have been able to do a damn thing to help.

** Well, her dad comes in handy on one of her early cases by introducing her to the Kyth Detective Agency... and paying their bill.

* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: Telzey Amberdon is a superpowered [[Teen Genius]] telepath, introduced in one story playing in the planetary championship games. (Made it to the semifinals, then had to drop out due to being interrupted by a case.)

* [[The Spymaster]]: Senior Commissioner Holati Tate

* [[Stealth Expert]]: Corvin Wergard of the Kyth Agency

* [[Sugary Malice]]: The default state of being for Telzey's Aunt Halet in "Novice".

* [[Teen Genius]]: Telzey ''starts'' out as one.

** Pehanron College (which is specifically described as one of the Hub's most advanced universities, that does its best to recruit only prodigies of one kind or another) seems to have a procedure for finding and developing these. For example, Telzey is already most of the way through pre-law studies as a college undergraduate -- at the age of fifteen. Her roommate Gonwil, who is about to graduate with a degree in finance, is seventeen, and its implied that if she'd continued with her education she'd have a graduate degree before she was twenty. Neither of them is considered as anything unusual by their peers, implying that while not everyone on campus is their age (a later short story has a small group of Pehanron students on a wilderness outing, and the age range runs from early 20s on down to Telzey as the youngest) there are still a lot of teen geniuses running around that campus.

* [[Transhuman Treachery]]: “The Machmen” claim they have this rather than brainwashing.

* [[Uplifted Animal]]: Nile Etland's hunting otters.

* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]

* [[Zeroth Law Rebellion]]: In ''Child of the Gods'', Telzey is mind-controlled by another telepath to not use any of her higher powers without permission (as they could potentially be used to break her free from his control), follow every order he gives, and when in a situation not covered by orders to take actions only if they are in her controller's best interest. When the telepath is shot during a battle, Telzey reasons a) Without her full power and free will, she cannot win this battle b) Her controller is currently unable to give her orders and c) Losing this battle and letting him get killed is not in his best interest. Freed from her constraints, she proceeds to curbstomp the enemy mooks... and then goes on to break the controls, sedate her erstwhile 'handler' while giving him first aid, and finish resolving the rest of the crisis without him. By the time he wakes up, he's in a Psychology Service prison hospital.