tochee
Names: tocheebig fat wormthe alien
First appears in Book 1: Pandora's Star, chapter 17 (SIXTEEN)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Pandora's Star
- Ch 17The tochee is an alien Ozzie once mistook for a young Raiel; it is an egg-shaped, wrinkled creature with caramel bristly fur.
- Ch 17The tochee moves on rippling ridges along its underbelly, which are badly frostbitten from the icy ground and have not healed in over two years.
- Ch 17It has manipulator flesh that can shape itself into tendrils or jaws to grip and lift objects, and it carries a few high-technology artifacts on a utility belt.
- Ch 17The tochee communicates by projecting complex, shifting patterns of ultraviolet light from its front eye, not by sound; it appears to be deaf.
- Ch 17The tochee understands technology, such as pressing buttons, and asked Ozzie whether he could get it out of the place.
- Ch 17Tochee's flesh is not protected by cladding, so it would freeze outside, which complicates taking it along on an escape.
- Ch 17Residents of the Ice Citadel carry out menial work with it, such as carrying water buckets from the fountain to the kitchen.
- Ch 18Tochee is a heavy alien that communicates through flashing patterns and by writing charcoal messages on parchment with its manipulator flesh.
- Ch 18Tochee rides an icewhale-bone sledge and propels it with four spiked poles, mastering them after a few minutes.
- Ch 18Tochee asks Ozzie not to leave it behind, and Ozzie promises they won't.
- Ch 18Tochee must stay sealed inside the fur-covered sledge until they reach a warmer world.
- Ch 18Tochee is an alien carried in a sledge with a protective cylinder and crystal windscreen, kept warm overnight by a heatbrick and candles.
- Ch 18Tochee's front eye displays ultraviolet patterns that Ozzie reads as language, such as 'DON'T FORGET ME TOMORROW'.
- Ch 18Tochee, an alien riding a sledge, communicates by patterns on its eye segment and by written parchment, and has survived the cold nights thanks to heatbricks and a fur cover.
- Ch 18Tochee pulls the sledge and is uncertain in endurance, but pledges to continue as long as it lives.
- Ch 21The alien recovered from frostbite after the Ice Citadel planet, and its fronds have grown into colorful feathery plumage.
- Ch 21Tochee is a colourful alien who communicates through patterns in its eye segment, has locomotion ridges and manipulator arms, and is agile on rough ground.
- Ch 21Tochee spotted that the carved cliff was not natural and links hands with Ozzie and Orion to push through the ghostly gale.
- Ch 22Tochee speaks through the translating array for the first time and thanks Ozzie and Orion for their companionship.
- Ch 23Tochee is an alien who is a custodian of its culture's history, teaching stories to youngsters; Orion calls it a librarian.
- Ch 23Tochee wandered into a legendary inner forest on its homeworld and ended up on another planet, having sought verification of its dying elder parent's story.
- Ch 23Tochee's people do not have space travel, because they have no need and do not build beyond what they can sustain.
- Ch 23Tochee can swim to another island and says Ozzie and Orion must build a boat to go with it.
- Ch 26Tochee is an alien that does not sleep, swims gracefully with fins and catches fish for the group.
- Ch 26Tochee asserts the gas halo is artificial and that its builders included the water spheres deliberately.
- Ch 26Tochee is a large alien who communicates through a translation array and could swim ashore but chooses to stay with Ozzie and Orion.
- Ch 26Tochee can catch fish indefinitely for the group and still struggles to understand the concept of noise.
Book 2: Judas Unchained
- Ch 2Tochee is a large alien who reshapes its locomotion ridges into fins, swimming through the air to pull the raft away from the worldlet.
- Ch 6Tochee suffers badly in freefall, clinging to the decking, vomiting food and drinking little; its color is fading and its health is poor.
- Ch 6Tochee's species has no separation mechanism for waste, and it asks whether Ozzie's filter could work for it.
- Ch 6Tochee notices the flying flock and suggests the winged form may be a natural phase, like metamorphosis creatures on its home world.
- Ch 6Tochee, a large alien, saved Ozzie by catching his ankle with its manipulator flesh, and was lacerated by splinters in the crash.
- Ch 9Tochee is an alien who speaks through a handheld array. It scouts the reef with sensors and detects no power activity.
- Ch 9Tochee says he sometimes feels an inner certainty about paths, which he finds difficult because it has no logic. He detects no electrical or magnetic activity in the clearing.
- Ch 9Tochee scouted for electrical activity and suggests finding an access tunnel to the machinery at the reef's core.
- Ch 12Tochee is a large alien companion who speaks via a handheld array and pulls a hidden humanoid down from the trees.
- Ch 12An alien who communicates by projected speech images and an array voice; converses with Clouddancer in ultraviolet.
- Ch 15Tochee is a large alien with colorful fronds who travelled with Ozzie and is to become ambassador for its whole race; it communicates via a translation routine.
- Ch 15Tochee is curious about human civilization, eats vegetables and lettuce, and enjoys ice cream and grooming at the hotel.
- Ch 15Tochee is an alien who communicates via ultraviolet photoluminescent signals, and travels with Ozzie and Orion; it is a new discovery to the xenobiologists.
- Ch 16Tochee enjoys the house arrest because he has continued access to human databases to broaden his education.
- Ch 16Tochee is an alien who can change its locomotion ridges into fins and swims like a dolphin; it has little knowledge of physics.
- Ch 20Tochee is an alien who designed its own tent and is traveling home with Orion and Mellanie, communicating via an ultraviolet array.
Connections
- ally ofOzzie Fernandez Isaacproposes teaming up to escape
- related toKorrok-hinamed it 'tochee'
- related toSarafound it near the crystal tree forest
- inCitadel
- ally ofOrion
- friend ofOzzie Fernandez Isaac
- friend ofOrion
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 17Ozzie decodes Tochee's language
Testing the tochee, Ozzie realizes it communicates through ultraviolet light patterns from its eye. He sees them with his retinal inserts and starts matching symbols to objects.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Orion learns of the breakthrough
Orion finds Ozzie surrounded by sketches of symbols. Ozzie explains the discovery and that Tochee asked to be taken out. Tochee then requests a communications device, and Orion stays to watch.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Preparing to leave
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee pack and sort gear, leaving surplus items behind, and agree to follow the Silfen off the world. Tochee asks not to be abandoned.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The hunt departs
At dawn the Silfen ride out chanting, and the covered sleds follow into the crystal tree forest. Tochee's sledge is towed behind Bill's sled.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Journey to the hunting ground
The sleds cross the crystal forest, descend the massif and travel across the crater plain, camping on an escarpment near the Silfen. Ozzie shelters Tochee with furs and a heatbrick.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Following the Silfen across the ice forest
The group skis after the departing Silfen for hours; Orion tires and they camp. Next day wind and snow erase the Silfen tracks, leaving Ozzie to rely on the pendant.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Escape from the frozen world
After hours of skiing through snow, Ozzie's group notices the snow melting and finds real trees. They conclude they have left the Ice Citadel world and emerge into a green mountain valley at dawn.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Descent into the canyon
The trio follow the river down a series of steep falls into a vast red canyon, finding an ancient fire circle and a bleached soda can that raises false hope about being in the Commonwealth.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Ghost voices and a distant light
A golden light shines downstream, apparently from seven travellers walking the avenue ahead. At night Ozzie hears frightened alien voices on the wind, which he and Orion take for ghosts.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Vision of the canyon's past
Ozzie steps out of the tent into daylight and sees a living past of jellyfish aliens with carts. Back in night, Orion thinks it is a time machine, and Ozzie insists it is only an image. Another apparition, a steam car, appears.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Discovery of the ruined palace city
Walking beside the avenue, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee see a huge cliff carved with jelly alien profiles and a ruined palace city between them.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Ozzie decides to leave
After recovering, Ozzie concludes the memory is the Silfen's grief and holds no answer for them, and decides to leave.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Electronics return on the ringed world
On a new world, Ozzie's devices work again. With the handheld array, Tochee and Orion converse for the first time, and Ozzie spots a gas halo around the star, recognizing the place from Bradley Johansson's tale.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Island circled
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee complete a circuit of their island after two days, find Ozzie's marker frond, and realize they are stranded; Tochee proposes building a boat.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Launch of the Pathfinder
After preparations, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee launch their raft Pathfinder, row out, raise the sail and head toward a nearby island.
- Book 1 · Ch 26The raft goes over the edge of the world
After missing several islands in a swift current, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee on the Pathfinder realise the roar ahead is a waterfall. The sea pours over a cliff, and the raft falls off the edge of the world.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Escape from the waterfall
After the Pathfinder plunges over the worldlet's edge, Ozzie realises they are in freefall and has Tochee fly them out of the weak underside gravity.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Ozzie drinks recycled urine
With water nearly gone, Ozzie filters his urine into drinkable water over Orion's disgust and orders everyone to save theirs.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Flock of flying Silfen ignores the raft
The party sights a flock of winged Silfen. Orion shouts and Ozzie fires two flares, but the flock keeps going without responding.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Ozzie plans to reach a sponge tree
Ten hours later, Ozzie decides to steer toward a sponge tree for water and food, planning to use the sail as a rudder, and reassures Orion.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Crash onto Island Two
The Pathfinder drifts into the artificial gravity of Island Two, accelerates and smashes through the treetops. Ozzie is hurt, Tochee saves him, and Orion survives by jumping.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Morning on Island Two
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee start a day on the reef. They debate whether anything lives inside it, and Tochee reports no power or life nearby.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Ozzie explores the reef and finds the pillar
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee search the reef's center for the gravity generator, find a clearing with a diamond-inscribed pillar, and Ozzie rages at it, deciding it is only the reef's serial number.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Ozzie's missing day
Ozzie finds that Orion and Tochee remember nothing of yesterday's serial number pillar, and records and the clearing itself are absent.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Ozzie's party ambushes a figure on the reef
On the reef of Island Two, Orion spots a dark shape; Tochee pulls a humanoid down from the canopy and Ozzie tackles it as it struggles.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Ozzie is named a Silfen friend
Clouddancer gives Ozzie a pendant; wearing it, Ozzie senses the Silfen Motherholme. Clouddancer departs and Ozzie decides they leave next day.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Ozzie's party returns to the Commonwealth
After walking the Silfen paths, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee emerge on Bilma, Ozzie reconnects to the unisphere, learns three years have passed, and hires a Land Rover to Eansor.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Stay at the Ledbetter Hotel
Ozzie secures the penthouse and discreetly smuggles Tochee in. They eat, bathe and get new clothes, then he leaves Orion and Tochee with the unisphere while catching up.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Ozzie taken to Nigel
Drunk after reviewing events, Ozzie is seized by Nelson's security team, sobered up, and taken with Orion and Tochee by hypersonic and maglev to Nigel's mansion on Cresset.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Orion meets Jasmine
Jasmine Sheldon arrives at the mansion, bullying the security staff. Orion sees her and is smitten. Ozzie tells him to go and talk to her.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Orion and Jasmine in the pool
Orion talks with Jasmine for hours, then they dive into the pool after Tochee; she kisses him and they play together.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Ozzie parts from Orion, Mellanie and Tochee
Ozzie says goodbye to his friends, who go on to Tochee's world. Ozzie and the Bose motile take a Silfen path to MorningLightMountain's home.