A Flandry Diptych

I mentioned that Poul Anderson's "A Handful of Stars" was published in 1959, was lengthened as We Claim These Stars! that year and later was re-entitled "Hunters of the Sky Cave." "A Handful..." was published in June, 1959.

"A Message in Secret" was published in December, 1959, was lengthened as Mayday Orbit in 1961 and later regained its original title. Whereas "Hunters..." completes a tetralogy, "A Message..." initiates a diptych.

"A Message..." begins when a Betelgeusean trading ship, with Dominic Flandry as its sole passenger, approaches the human extrasolar colony, Altai. Ostensibly, Flandry goes to re-establish contact with Altai after centuries of isolation. In reality, he suspects Merseian subversion.

"Officially, his mission was so minor that Terra didn't even give him a ship of his own, but left him to negotiate passage as best he might..."
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 342.

That word, "Officially..." is significant. It does seem strange that an Imperial representative should buy passage on a Betelgeusean tramp. Further, we learned in "Hunters...," and presumably also in the original, shorter version, that Flandry has a private spaceship, the Hooligan, crewed by his servant, Chives. But maybe it was decided that his investigation of possible Merseian influence on Altai should be low-key and therefore should not start with him arriving in his own combat ship?

This makes more sense to me than trying to shoehorn "A Message..." and its sequel between "The Game of Glory"and "A Message..." as in the Chronology of Technic Civilization. "The Plague of Masters" is a direct sequel to "A Message..." because its events occur when Flandry is en route from Altai back to Terra but I need to reread in order to sort out this sequence of events.