Munteanu and Ozumi appear on just over one page of Poul Anderson's The People Of The Wind, on pp. 627-628 of Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011). Munteanu's sole literary role is to explain something to Ozumi and thus to the reader.
Captain Ion Munteanu, commanding fire control on HMS Phobos, while attacking Avalon, briefs his officers, including Ensign Ozumi. To paraphrase dramatically:
Munteanu: Our mission is to attack a city.
Ozumi: When we bombard a military target with enough torpedoes, a few bypass the negafields but surely cities are better protected?
Munteanu: Yes, cities have powerful, complicated defense systems, including surface-to-space launchers. We will fire our largest missiles, programmed to detonate at substratospheric altitude. At least one should reach that altitude before interception but, if not, we will try again.
Ozumi: Not a continent buster?
Munteanu: No. Heavy missiles, clean, discharging output, mainly radiation, directly ahead. Blast would not penetrate negafields. We will hit the town center and its fringes are flammable.
Ozumi: Why do it?
Munteanu: Centauri, their chief seaport and industrial capital, would be able to attack our landing force.
Ozumi: "'Women and children -'" (p. 628)
Munteanu: The enemy should have evacuated nonessential personnel. I lost a brother here last time.
The Avalonians killed Munteanu's brother because he was attacking them. A pacifist, when asked, "What would you do if you saw an enemy soldier raping your sister?," replied, "Whatever else I did, I would not send my son to kill his cousin." Munteanu sounds as if he would send his son to kill someone's cousin - an attitude that would prolong war indefinitely.
Anderson has already shown us the vigorous life of Centauri. Now, because of the Terran attack, we see the Ythrian Quenna, with burning feathers, melting eyeballs, ruptured eardrums and smashed capillaries, falling into a blazing house beside a boiling canal.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I too remember what happened to Quenna, and it was certainly tragic. BUT, it was also needless. That is, the Imperials had flatly announced that they considered Centauri a legitimate target of war. And I then read of how practically everyone, human and Ythrian, almost immediately fled. Quenna, unfortunately, did not HEED the warnings of both the Imperial and Avalonian authorities.
Sean
Sean,
Quenna, although an adult, probably counts as one of the "...children..." She probably needed someone telling her to leave, then forcibly removing her if she refused.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Interesting suggestion, and one I'm inclined to at least partially agree with. Because Quenna did not, I think, fully understand what was going on. If my memory is correct, she was addicted to drugs, perhaps including alcohol abuse, which reduced her ability to understand how dangerous Centauri was becoming.
Another problem for Quenna was that she was basically an outcast from the Ythrian half of Avalonian society. Even becoming a prostitute. Which means, alas, there were no Ythrians who would explain to her how dangerous Centauri had become.
Sean
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