Weather continues. Wind roars. The hull trembles. Rain smites. Lightning flies. Teeth rattle. Gravity is seven standard. Despite all this, Chives, spacesuited, "...alone among aliens...," (p. 128) flies on impellers to herd the onsars into Hooligan, after advising Flandry what to serve for dinner in the event of an accident.
Flandry reflects that he and Chives:
"...can never really communicate, but this dance we dance between us does say, 'I care for you.'" (ibid.)
They communicate as well as any two beings can across the barriers of species and social status. Not living in a master-servant relationship, I appreciate reading about them in fiction:
Flandry and Chives;
Wooster and Jeeves;
Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth;
Dornford Yates's heroes and their manservants (a team of three automatically becomes a team of six able-bodied men).
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Correct, despite being of different species Flandry and Chives had enough in common that real mutual affection and respect was possible.
Ad astra! Sean
Strong bonds of mutual loyalty, running both horizontally and up and down social scales, have been a survival characteristic for human beings for a very long time. Groups that didn't have them couldn't compete with those that did.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I believe those bonds of mutual loyalty, running both vertically and horizontally, are good for humans and their societies.
Ad astra! Sean
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