According to Daven Laure, a man called Vandange:
"'...really gets indignant. Says the notion of interspace-time transference is mathematically absurd. I don't have quite his faith in mathematics, myself, but I must admit he has one common-sense point. If a ship could somehow flip from one entire cosmos to another...why, in five thousand years of interstellar travel, haven't we gotten some record of it happening?'
"'Perhaps the ships to which it occurs never come back.'
"'Perhaps. Or perhaps the whole argument is due to misunderstanding...'" (p. 717)
In this case, it is indeed a misunderstanding. However, interspace-time transference is possible from the universe of the Technic History because Nicholas van Rijn visits the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. (Any reference to the magical universes also accessible from the Old Phoenix would be a jarring note in the hard sf narrative on "Starfog.")
Jaccavrie mentions "'...the elf castles on Jair...'" (p. 714) This opens the possibility of a story set among those elf castles, revealing only at the end that it is part of the Technic History. And there is always a place for spaceships disappearing into strange realms.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, but what most likely "happened" was the Old Phoenix unexpectedly appearing to Nicholas van Rijn. Being bold and adventurous of course Old Nick went in!
And I like to imagine Dominic Flandry also being a guest there.
Ad astra! Sean
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