The narrator's flitter lands on the Winged Cross at the beginning of the third paragraph only two lines above the bottom of the opening page of the text, p. 275.
The opening two paragraphs set the scene. The first paragraph refers to the public discomfiture, by the narrator and his friend, Harry Stenvik, of a local king on an unnamed planet. The second informs us that Nicholas van Rijn has invited these two experienced merchants, the narrator and Stenvik, to dinner in his penthouse on the Winged Cross.
The narrator, on a very brief business trip to Earth, has recently been to a planet with ammonia in the atmosphere; previously, methane. Stenvik, Norse and married to Sigrid:
"...had built a house on the cliffs above the Hardanger Fjord..." (p. 276)
His oldest son, Per, was apprenticed on a Solar Spice & Liquors ship in the Hercules region several years previously and has recently become a Master Merchant.
Per's ensign, Manuel, attends dinner wearing a much-used, holstered blaster. Would you feel safe in the society of the Polesotechnic League? Manuel is from Nuevo Mexico which is beyond Arcturus. Someone with a grasp of astronomy might figure out these different interstellar directions. Per drinks Ansan vermouth: yet another background reference to the colony planet, Ansa.
Although the narrator remains anonymous, van Rijn addresses him as "'...Captain...'" (p. 277) The narrator in turn describes van Rijn as:
"...the single-handed conqueror of Borthu, Diomedes, and t'Kela!" (p. 281)
When we read "The Master Key" in Trader To The Stars, we knew only of t'Kela. Diomedes had been in War Of The Wing Men/The Man Who Counts. The Earth Book of Stormgate includes The Man Who Counts and also "Margin of Profit," about Borthu, amended to fit into the Technic History.
Cain, where Per has been stationed, is a planet of a G-nine dwarf star "'...out Pegasus way.'" (p. 280)
The characters proceed to outline the details of the intelligent life forms on Cain. There is an action-adventure story but also a problem in alien biology and psychology that is solved by van Rijn who remains sunk in his lounger until near the end of the story. They eat dinner after the discussion.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would have used a stronger word than mere "discomfiture" for describing what the unnamed narrator and Harry Stenvik had done to that local king!
I think, in still libertarian minded times as what we see in "The Master Key," it would be considered right for law abiding persons to be publicly armed like Manuel. I'm also remembering what Robert Heinlein reportedly said, that the armed society is a polite society. For obvious reasons!
Ad astra! Sean
Actually, in most 'armed societies', who can carry arms is rather limited. And the armed are polite to the armed.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have remembered that, in many times and places, there were rules, laws, customs, etc., regulating who could bear arms.
Armed people have BETTER be polite to one another! Being rude and offensive could easily be LETHAL.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: in societies without a State structure, violence is usually the single largest cause of death for adults. This is quite consistent, judging from the skeletal remains. They indicate 1/3 of adult males and about half that of adult females died by human-inflicted harms.
NB: bones underestimate violent death. eg., Otzi the Iceman... who turned out to have been shot in the back with an arrow, and to have 'defense cuts' on his forearms. If his soft tissues hadn't been preserved by ice, we wouldn't know.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have heard of the Ice Man and how he had died by human inflicted violence. Much to the discomfiture of our more naive, dreamily Utopian types!
There never was an Arcadian Golden Age where everybody was gooeey gooeey nicey nice to everybody else and matriarchal "free love" was the norm! (Derisive snort!)
BTW, IIRC, analysis of Otzi's remains showed he was 45 years old when he was killed, which was an unusually advanced age for humans to reach in those days.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: high infant mortality tends to give misleading mortality stats of the 'average lifespan of 30' type.
If you made it to 20, then 50-70 was quite likely.
Hence the biblical 'three score and ten'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
At first, this surprised me. I was thinking that disease, accident, purposeful violence, etc., would have killed most people by age 40 in pre-State times. But recollection of what I've read elsewhere makes me agree you are right--a reasonably large number would live longer, even a few to age 70 or 80.
And this is what I read in Psalm 89.10 "The sum our years is 70, and if we are strong, eighty..."
Ad astra! Sean
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