 Where is the ship sailing?
VOYAGE TO FAR N'JURD I "I don't see why we have to be here," a crewman said. "So he do; an' I'll tell ya, hit shore is time he's a-gittin' hyere. The crewman to his left bent over and whispered, "I'll bet he's gonna tell us it's gonna be another postponement." He came to me, and he said: 'Father, I am weary of sailing.' "Yes, he said, 'I am weary of sailing.' You are thinking: 'What kind of a Festival can we have here on this ship?' "The arena in Koltah is the greatest arena in the whole system. "Well, the point I want to make is this: I just wanted to tell you that I know what a Festival should be, and the captain and I will do everything in our power to make our Casting Off as wonderful as any anywhere. While they were still cheering and stomping and otherwise expressing their enthusiasm and approval, Nestir walked off the speaker's platform and into the officer's corridor. He nodded curtly to the officers when he entered the mess hall, walked directly to his place at the head of the table, sat down and morosely began to work the cork out of his wine bottle with his teeth. "That," he said to Nestir, "my dear Father, is the cardinal point of the whole game, y'know." After all, it's not only a question of how we go, but also a question of leaving only after having done our duty. The captain was not visibly cheered; he was still brooding about the sad absence of a sense of duty on the part of Nestir. "I don't know," the second mate's wife said, "whether you better count on my husband or not. "As I see it," Nestir said, "if the intent was the natural maternal instinct of the mother to release her child from its duty, then...." "Oh, not at all," the third mate's wife said. "She's the oldest child on the ship, and she wants you to sign her adult petition so she can be in the Festival, Father." "There wouldn't be one short if he had brought a wife," the first mate's wife said, looking squarely at the captain.
 Somewhere in deep space.
 In Koltah.  In the province of San Xalthan.  Underwater.  Somewhere in deep space.