Nansen And Dayan

Poul Anderson, Starfarers (New York, 1999).

"Trees - chestnut, cedar, quebracho -" (p. 33).

"...he wore it with an air that she thought might, long ago, have been a gaucho's." (p. 34)

"'...we weren't all estancieros...'" (ibid.)

"'You're not an experienced caballista...'" (p. 40)

Ricardo Nansen has been to Epsilon Eridani and 61 Cygni and will now lead a ten thousand year round trip to the Yonderfolk. His family claims kinship with Fridtjof Nansen (see image). His prospective crew member, Hanny Dayan, is "'...a direct descendant of Moshe Dayan.'" (p. 37)

(Comparably, in Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, Tabitha Falkayn of the early Imperial period is a direct descendant of David Falkayn (and here) of the later League period. A planet is named after Dayan in the Technic History.)

Philo Pryor, prophet of the Order of the Received Cosmosophy, claimed to have found in a cave on Ascraeus Mons a device "...left by the Galactics to await a genius who could endure to use it." (p. 38) In his brain, the quantum mechanical resonances brought manifestations from the Ones as they will again when another genius appears. After covertly examining the revered device with scientific instruments, Hanny published her conclusion that the box never could do anything. There have been several attempts on her life. Was she right to expose the Order in the way that she did?

Addendum: Some links have been added to this post.