Wingless

Winged and feathered Ythrians fly but cannot swim. Their understanding of air movements enables them to construct efficient sailboats. (Self-adjusting curved boards replace keel and centerboard to increase speed but I do not understand the technicalities.) However, when one immaturely handled boat is wrecked on a reef and atlantis weed entangles a sailor's wing, a human being must enter the water to free the wing. Then, that young man on his gravbelt and another Ythrian are able to pull their injured companion free.

The moral of the story:

"'I have learned how good it is that strengths be different, so that they can be shared.'
"'Well, yes, sure. Wasn't that the whole idea behind this colony?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), pp. 295-306 AT p. 306.

Nat Falkayn, the rescuer, is seventeen Avalonian, twelve Terran, years old. We have seen four generations of Falkayns:

Athena
David
Nicholas
Nat

Three centuries (fifteen generations?) later, we see Tabitha, who is a direct descendant of David. Thereafter, the action of the History moves away from Avalon but Dominic Flandry, anticipating the Long Night after the Terran Empire, comments:

"'The sophont races will survive. In due course, they'll build fascinating new civilizations. Cultures of mixed species look especially promising. Consider Avalon already.'"
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 75.

So a colony founded in anticipation of the fall of the Solar Commonwealth still offers hope to someone anticipating the fall of the Empire that had replaced the Commonwealth. Is Falkayn's legacy greater than Flandry's?