If the Unan Besarans are isolated from Technic civilization, then how have they acquired a large, modern, luxurious aircar?
"A custom job from Betelgeuse, no doubt." (III, p. 12)
The Betelgeusean system is important as:
a mysterious system cited by van Rijn in "Lodestar";
the buffer state between Terra and Merseia in "Honorable Enemies" and other installments;
trading with the isolated human colony, Altai, in "A Message in Secret";
trading with the isolated human colony, Unan Besar, in "The Plague of Masters";
a possible destination for the fugitive Flandry in Ensign Flandry.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I like this bit about the Alfzarians and Betelgeuse from Anderson's revision of "Honorable Enemies" (page 71 of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, Gregg Press, 1979): "In Flandry's day, their political situation was also one he often wished his own people could occupy. They had not attempted to establish and empire on the scale of Terra or Merseia, but were content to maintain hegemony over such few neighbor stars as were needed for the protection of their home. Generations of wily Sartazes had found it profitable to play potential enemies off against each other; and the great states had, in turn, found it expedient to maintain Betelgeuse as a buffer vis-a-vis their rivals and the peripheral barbarians."
I dunno, if the Empire had not arisen to put an end to the Time of Troubles, and instead many smaller interstellar states had succeeded the Polesotechnic League and Commonwealth, wouuldn't there still be rivalries with each other and attacks from barbarians? To say nothing of how there still might well have been an aggressively expansionist Merseian Roidhunate.
No, here I think Flandry was indulging in some wishful thinking!
Ad astra! Sean
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