In 13-22-2091, Lieutenant T. L. Matthews at Hercules Station NGC 6341, plots the last point on a dope-runner group's orbit-curve and finds that the curve points to a small unnamed system twenty-five light years from his base. However, scouting shows that the home-planet is twice as heavily fortified as expected so he needs backup from another cruiser.
In Gor 60, 302/July 2, 2973, Thammos NGC 2287 is on a planet where the radiation dosage from a nearby nova is worse than expected but the cub who is supposed to take over is safe under shielding.
Four thousand years after the discovery of the Imaginary Drive, High Earth and the Green Exarchy (as opposed to the Terran Empire and green Merseians) contend for the independent planets.
The difference is that, whereas Dominic Flandry arrives on a planet like Altai or Nyanza without any idea of what will happen there after his arrival, Service agents have already received messages from their future selves or colleagues describing some, although not of course all, future events. This makes for a safer life and career for all concerned. Blish realized that this application of the Dirac transmitter had to be removed from the series in which it was originally conceived and placed in a self-contained utopian narrative. Flandry's only certainty about the Empire's future is that the Long Night approaches.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Your paragraph above had me concluding the Flandry stories were more realistic than Blish's Service pieces. I really can't take the Dirac transmitter very seriously!
Ad astra! Sean
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