Remember how an Anderson character speaks dramatically, then pauses so that the wind can be heard providing appropriate sound effects? That can't happen inside a spaceship, can it? Sure it can:
"'...the law of space is above politics. It has to be. Without it, man doesn't go the stars, he dies. Every one of us has given a solemn oath to uphold it.' After a pause, during which only the ventilator wind had utterance: 'Take your flight stations. We will accelerate in ten minutes.'" (p. 12)
There you are. Dramatic enough for you? We are not quite sure what this "ventilator wind" signifies. It does not sigh, moan, roar, rumble etc but it is said to utter as if it were commenting in some way on the action.
One crew member says that his family will have a great deal to say if the crew is detained but it is pointed out to him that his family would first have to know about the detention. That is a crucial point. An event can have happened without necessarily being known to have happened. Why did someone not respond? Because he did not know about it yet.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, this is another way of restating the old, old principle that the captain of a sea (or space) ship has to be obeyed without argument in emergencies, even when his orders might be wrong.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment