Babel-17 Part 1 Chapter 7: Leaving Everything Behind
Part One of Babel-17 ends not with an explosion or a battle, but with a quiet conversation at dawn. And honestly, it is one of the most tender scenes in the book.
The General’s Goodbye
General Forester shows up at Rydra’s ship before launch. He flew across the field on a saucer-sled in the early morning light. He climbed a hundred feet to the freight lock. And by the time he reached the top, he was out of breath.
But here is the thing. It was not just the climb that took his breath away.
He is in love with her. And Rydra knows it. Of course she does. She reads people the way other people read street signs. Clear, obvious, impossible to miss.
But instead of making it awkward, she handles it with grace. She tells him about a poem she once wrote called “Advice to Those Who Would Love Poets.” It starts: “Young man, she will gnaw out your tongue. Lady, he will steal your hands…”
The message is clear. Loving a poet is not easy. Poets consume the people around them. They take your words, your feelings, your private moments and turn them into art. If you are not willing to lose a poet seven times a day, it is “frustrating as hell.”
The General’s response is simple and honest. He tells a story about being a young private. How the soldiers would talk about girls, and someone would say about a particularly beautiful woman: “She was so pretty she didn’t have to give me any, just promise me some.”
That is what he feels. Just being known by Rydra, just having her acknowledge his feelings, is enough.
“Thank you for telling me,” she says. “I like you, General. And I promise I’ll still like you the next time I see you.”
He takes her letter to mail. He holds her hand for the slightest moment. Then he leaves.
And minutes later, she watches his saucer-sled glide across the concrete as dawn breaks.
Why This Scene Works
I have read a lot of science fiction. Thousands of pages of space battles, alien first contacts, technological wonders. But this scene, a man and a woman saying a quiet goodbye on a ship at dawn, is more moving than most of them.
Delany does not write the General as a strong stoic military leader. He writes him as a man who cannot catch his breath. Who says “I have to go now, don’t I?” like a kid who does not want to leave a party. Who smiles in a way that seems unfamiliar to his own face.
And Rydra is not cold about it. She is kind. She does not love him back, not in the way he wants. But she respects his feelings enough to be honest and gentle at the same time. No games. No false hope. Just truth and warmth.
In a book about language and communication, this is a scene about two people communicating perfectly. No misunderstandings. No hidden meanings. Just two adults saying what they feel and hearing each other.
The Ship Takes Off
The chapter ends with dawn. Light blisters the east. The Rimbaud is about to launch.
Rydra has her crew. She has her destination, the Alliance War Yards at Armsedge, where she believes the next Babel-17 attack will happen. She has a language puzzle that scares her and excites her at the same time.
And she has people she can talk to. That matters more to her than anything.
Looking Back at Part One
Part One of Babel-17 covers maybe 24 hours. One night and one dawn. But look at how much ground Delany covers.
We meet Rydra Wong, poet, linguist, starship captain. We learn about Babel-17, a mysterious communication that might be a code, might be a language, and definitely predicts enemy attacks. We see a future where dead people work on ships, where humans modify their bodies into lions and dragons, where three-person relationships are just a normal part of life.
And we watch Rydra build a crew by reading people at a level that borders on supernatural. She does not just hire competent workers. She assembles a group of humans who can communicate with each other, who can grow together, who can handle whatever is coming.
The world Delany built in 1966 is still impressive today. Transport Town with its bars and wrestling matches and cosmetic surgery. The Discorporate Sector with its flickering ghosts. The Morgue with its hundred-foot walls of frozen coffins. None of it feels dated. It just feels like a future that went in a direction nobody expected.
But the real strength of Part One is Rydra herself. She is brilliant but not cold. She is decisive but not reckless. She listens to everyone, from generals to old shuttle-bum pilots to grieving navigators. And she understands them all.
Part Two is called “Ver Dorco” and opens with a quote from one of Rydra’s own poems: “If words are paramount I am afraid that words are all my hands have ever seen.”
The journey into Babel-17 is about to begin for real.
This is post 6 of 19 in the Babel-17 retelling series.
Previous: Part 1, Ch 4-6: Dreams and Departure Next: Part 2, Ch 1: Ver Dorco