And the pertinent dictionary and legal dictionary definition: Subsequent: a person who in substance whether in whole or in part may be in tenure of the same rights and legal entity as a named individual. See: Subsequent in Identity; Consequent
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Subsequent in Identity: a subsequent who has the same physical identity as a named individual.
Consequent: an individual who in substance whether in whole or in part is in tenure of legal rights and legal entity as a direct result of contact with or the actions of an individual orgtst subsequent.
, . . If the party receiving the goods be not the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1, and have valid claim as demonstrated in subsection 36 of Section 25, then it shall be the reasonable obligation of the party accepting the contract to ascertain whether the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1 shall exist in Subsequent or in Consequent or in Postconsequent, however this clause shall in no wise be deemed to invalidate the claim of the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1 or 2, or in any clause thereunto appended, except if it shall be determined by the party accepting the contract to pertain to a person or Subsequent or Consequent identified and stipulated to by the provisions of Section 5 …
However the provisions of Section5 may be delegated by the party issuing the contract, following the stipulations of Subsection 12 of Section 5 in regard to the performance of the person accepting the contract, not obviating the requirements of performance of the person accepting the contract …
“We have a problem,” Hilfy said, over gfi, in the Legacy’s galley. She was maintaining, she felt, extraordinary control over her temper. Sober faces were opposite her, the whole crew—since no offloading was going on. Meanwhile gtst honor was lighting up the com board with requests to go out into the station, and whether Haisi had messed them up with station officials or whether Haisi had only fairly warned them what they were facing—customs had a hold on them.
“Have you told gtst honor?” Tiar asked, elbows on the table opposite her.
“Not yet. Haisi could be lying through his teeth.”
“If he isn’t? What about that contract? What’s it say, if we can’t find the bastard we’re supposed to give this to?”
She truly hated to say that. She did hate it. She leaned her own arms against the cold surface and regarded a tableful of more experienced traders—give or take Fala. “There’s a clause in there about Subsequents and Consequents. That we’re still bound to get it to the right party.”
“You mean that son of a stsho has transmogrified? Switched personalities? Disintegrated gtst psyche?”
“We don’t know that exactly.”
“We don’t know it, so we’re not responsible if gtst has gone crazy and shipped out of here.”
“We aren’t responsible if gtst does. But we do have a clause in there about finding out if there’s a Subsequent.”
“Oh, gods,” Tiar said, and her hand slid over her eyes.
“It said Urtur,” Fala Anify protested.
“It also said—find out if there’s a Subsequent. And we— I,I’m not passing the responsibility. I should have considered the possibility of gtst not staying at Urtur.”
“What possibility?” Chihin asked with a rap on the table-top. “Stsho don’t travel once in a—“
“Lifetime,” Hilfy said. “Which only holds true until someone spooks it into a new personality.”
“So what spooked the ambassador? We were through here, we dealt with gtst excellency at least indirectly to get our clearance for Meetpoint, we didn’t see anything wrong, did we?”
“I didn’t,” Hilfy said. “But I’m willing to bet Haisi has some remote thing to do with it. He was at Meet-point when we came in, he was in a position to know what No’shto-shti-stlen knew …” A thought came to her, a summation, a time-table, that sent an outrageous anger rolling through her veins. “That son of an earless mother!”
“Haisi?”
“No! No’shto-shti-stlen!”
“You mean gtst knew we weren’t going to find gtst recipient here?”
“If gtst didn’t know, gtst had a gods-rotted good idea there was trouble here! And wrote that bit into the contract about obligating us to go on a Subsequent-hunt! Gods blast that skinny, painted, conniving—he wants us to go running around the immediate universe looking for this character!”