Later In Sector Alpha Crucis

Avalon and Freehold successfully resist the Terran Empire; Ansa and Aeneas do not. Real history is complicated and so are Poul Anderson's fictitious histories. The Terran Empire need not oppress its subject planets but does forcibly annex some, like Ansa and Brae.

The Rebel Worlds and its sequel, The Day Of Their Return, are set in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Terran Empire. Thus, we see important events in the first novel and their aftermath in the second but this sub-series of the Technic History cannot continue indefinitely. However, we are given one more datum about Sector Alpha Crucis. In The Game Of Empire, a Merseian task force sent to Gorrazan passes through Imperial space and, for purposes of psychological warfare, allows itself to be detected just before the Alpha Crucis frontier, leaving Terran units no alternative but to engage it and to take some losses.

That is all. When we see a reference to this Sector, we want to know more about its inhabitants. Did the incorporation of Aeneas into the Empire proceed smoothly? Did Ivar Frederiksen, heir to the Firstmanship of Ilion, accept the difficult role that had been asked of him? Was closer communication established with the tripartite intelligences on the sister planet Dido? Did Llynathawr, the seat of the civil authority, attract more human settlers or instead remain mostly dark and empty?

We do not know. Space is big and the only additional information about Sector Alpha Crucis is that it became the scene of a very minor skirmish that had been carefully planned to have significant propaganda implications elsewhere.