Supernova

After eight introductory short stories, Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization divides into:

a van Rijn series of five installments;
a trader team series of five installments;
one other short story set in the same period.

I argued earlier that "Lodestar" concludes the trader team series and that Mirkheim is a sequel but obviously there are two ways to look at it.

Van Rijn:

cameos in the first trader team story, where he explains the trade pioneer crew idea to team leader Falkayn;
is absent from the second story, "Supernova"/"Day of Burning;"
thereafter, shares the spotlight with the team in each succeeding story because of the gravity of the situations that they face - which will eventually lead to the dissolution of the Polesotechnic League.

When I have completed other tasks today, I will reread "Day of Burning."