“She was probably male, to judge from the angular mazelike patterns quilting her shirt. I wasn’t entirely certain. It wouldn’t have mattered, if I had been in Radch space. Radchaai don’t care much about gender...”
The Radchaai do not recognize or identify through specific genders rather they use female pronouns to acknowledge every person. Breq’s statement alludes to the uncertainty of attempting to identify or distinguish an individual by gender. Leckie writes the whole narrative using one gender-specific pronoun as the Radchaai AI cannot decipher gender. Moreover, the language spoken in Breq’s home, Radch, does not accommodate gender-specific discourse apart from the single-gender they acknowledge, female. Henceforth while Breq is exploring the depths of the universe any encounters that require recognizing gender brings on confusion or incorrect guesswork.
“Ships have feelings.”
This universe is mostly populated by ancillaries, AIs that control human bodies. They are self-aware and conscious and also govern the Radch Empire that dominates the universe. The protagonist, Breq is out to seek justice for the destruction of the troop carrier Justice of Toren. Thus, the main theme is the sentient nature of all entities including the AIs and ancillaries. Breq harbors a part of the ship’s consciousness thus it is a sentient being too. The statement is an acknowledgment of this fact which makes Breq’s mission a more personal endeavor rather than just a pursuit of justice.
“People often think they would have made the noblest choice, but when they find themselves actually in such a situation, they discover matters aren't quite so simple.”
A significant motif in the narrative is the subjective nature of justice, in that it is an abstract concept in certain settings. The war between AI consciousnesses in this setting along with the pursuit of justice by the ancillary protagonist fosters subjective questions that cannot be easily answered. The statement highlights this dynamic which arises following Breq’s quest for justice for the destruction of her vessel. Thus, she uncovers new truths that destabilize her initial perception regarding what she is supposed to do. She encounters complex moral quandaries that make her mission far less black and white or binary for that matter.
