Noah Arkwright IV

I should have thought of this before. Is Noah Arkwright's name symbolic? Did he want to fund an expedition outside known space because he had intuited or received a warning about what would soon happen to the Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League?

Look what does happen. In the very next story, the League helps the Merseians to survive radiation from a nearby nova. Terrans will later have reason to regret the existence of Merseia. Two stories later, another race threatens the Commonwealth and the League. Then piracy starts within the League. Then Falkayn's trader team barely escapes from a native uprising against exploitation by a League company. Next, inequalities between planets become so intense that Falkayn breaks his oath of fealty to van Rijn in order to help the poorer species that are being left out by interstellar civilization.

Finally, the Commonwealth is challenged by yet another coming race and the League is split by civil war... Van Rijn and Falkayn know that this is the beginning of the end and start to make other plans for their futures. Is Noah Ark-wright's name a warning of these troubles to come?