Warriors And A Knight

(Since one or two correspondents have sometimes contacted me by email, I should mention that my gmail facility is currently having trouble connecting to Google.)

(On the other hand, at least some emails are arriving.)

"The Ambassadors of Flesh" by Poul Anderson was the cover story of Planet Stories, Summer 1954 (see image). It was re-entitled "Warriors from Nowhere" when collected in Agent Of The Terran Empire, companion volume of Flandry Of Terra, and "The Warriors from Nowhere" when collected in Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra, Volume 6 of The Technic Civilization Saga.

Retroactively, the 1954 story, hereinafter "Warriors...," became a prelude to A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows when the latter was published in 1974. The story informs us only that "'...her Highness, Lady Megan of Luna [is] the favorite granddaughter of the Emperor himself!'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 308.

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, hereinafter A Knight..., additionally informs us that this Emperor, Hans, had "'...assumed, which means grabbed, the crown less than two years earlier. Everything was still in upheaval. Three avowed rivals were out to replace him by force of arms...'" (p. 350).

"Warriors..." (1954) refers only to "'...the Emperor himself!'" It gives no hint that he is a recent usurper waging civil war on three fronts. A Knight... makes clear that Megan is "...the new Emperor's favorite granddaughter..." (p. 346) although Sandra Miesel, in her Afterword to A Stone In Heaven, describes her as "...the favorite granddaughter of one elderly interim Emperor..." - Sandra Miesel, "Afterword: The Price of Buying Time" IN Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven (New York, 1979), pp. 237-251 AT p. 247.

Hans, as described in A Knight..., does not sound like the kind of man who would indulge a favorite granddaughter, especially when his urgent priority was to win a civil war. An "elderly" Emperor, as suggested by Miesel, is probably closer to Anderson's original intent when writing "Warriors..." Miesel was probably making sense of the retcon of "Warriors..." into a civil war period. If four claimants were fighting simultaneously, then could there also have been an elderly interim incumbent at around the same time?

"Warriors..." is rewritten for the later edition. Both versions state that Megan "'...has the Emperor around her little finger.'"(p. 312) But the later version adds:

"I suppose even the hardest old bastard must have a sentimental streak...Also, his newly and forcibly acceded Majesty has so much else to worry about..." (ibid.)

So here is an explicit attempt to rationalize this hard guy's indulgence of his granddaughter.

A Knight... refers back to:

Nicholas van Rijn's shipwreck on Diomedes;
the degeneration of the Polesotechnic League into a set of cartels;
Avalon's fight to remain in the Domain of Ythri;
Flandry's affair with Persis d'Io on Starkad;
the planet Talwin;
Flandry's former superiors, Fenross and Kheraskov;
slavery on Shalmu;
the McCormac rebellion;
Chunderban Desai and the potential jihad on Aeneas;
Flandry's defeat of the Scothans;
his rescue of Megan;
the Taurian Sector, its capital now moved from Vor to Dennitza;
the pacifistic planet, Esperance;
Flandry's adversaries, Tachwyr the Dark and Aycharaych -

- and presents for the first and last time Aycharaych's home planet, Chereion, place of mystery and subject of speculation.