Roan Tom brings his Firedrake down through the turbulent atmosphere of an inhabited terrestroid planet. The outercom buzzes as someone calls. While Tom's second wife, Yasmin, takes the call, the ship wallows, altitude wavers and:
"Wind screamed louder." (p. 470)
In a Poul Anderson text, turbulent elements and, in particular, screaming wind are sufficient warning that the radio communication will be hostile. While Tom converses with a uniformed aircraft pilot, Firedrake bucks and groans and lightning zigzags. When Tom talks about bringing business, the pilot's face grows terrible and, when Tom swears and assures him that they are friends, the pilot shouts and breaks off contact. Neither Tom nor the reader can know this yet but ironic use of the phrase, "friends come to do business," by space raiders had permanently changed the meaning of those words on the planet Nike.
Anderson has paved the way for such a revelation by already showing us that Tom and Yasmin have different meanings for some words and phrases like "rogue planet." The strangest is that Yasmin has studied "the classics," not Greek or Latin but Imperial science.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One thing to remember about "A Tragedy of Errors" is of how rare hyperdrive space craft had become after the Empire fell. The economic base which made the building and maintaining of interstellar space craft practical had collapsed. Surviving star craft which still worked were literally priceless, even if they were ancient hulks like the "Firedrake."
Ad astra! Sean
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