Jansky, Valduma And Morzach

In a story originally published in Planet Stories, Poul Anderson describes characters who belong on the cover of that magazine. Commander Helena Jansky is young and tall in blue uniform and red cloak with shoulder-length black hair and one hand near her sidearm.

"She swept on, her cloak a scarlet wing flapping behind her."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 390.

Because she serves the Solar Empire, her family has recently been ennobled so that she is the Lady Jansky of Torgandale on Valor. When an Ansan earl taunts her that her grandfather was a dirt farmer, she replies proudly that he was an atomjack. Aristocracy is a social symbol but it is technology that counts.

Valduma the alien is tall with long red hair, black cape, ivory-white skin and oblique green eyes. Her male companion, Morzach, is tall, gaunt, black-caped, classically beautiful and armed with a sword. Does the sword make sense on a spaceship? Yes, since he is using psychic powers to intimidate the crew, an archaic weapon is an important part of his image.

(There was a Star Trek like this. The Enterprise crew found a Halloween castle on a planet just outside the galaxy?)

When Poul Anderson wrote for pulp magazines, he carefully created appropriate prose.

Addendum, 5 Nov 2014: For a discussion of "Anderson's PLANET STORIES Tales by Sean M Brooks," see here.