A Nasty Shock

The never-ending food thread:

"...the rich taste of the venison roasted with mushrooms..."
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), p. 268.

(Memory, e.g., of food, is stronger and vivider in Homo drakensis, even after several centuries.)

Immediately after reading this by now to-be-expected description of food, I received a nasty shock. I had thought that, after its opening chapter, Drakon was to be entirely set within the comfortingly familiar environment of Earth/2. However, turning to p. 270, we find:

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DOMINATION TIMELINE
EARTH/1
FEBRUARY 20, 445th YEAR OF THE FINAL SOCIETY (2445 A.D.)

The Final Society is still with us. Furthermore, in this chapter, it is seen through the eyes of a willing, competent and well rewarded servus. This servus is female and the feminine form of the Latin noun, "servus," is "serva." However, my impression is that, in the Domination timeline, the phrase "Homo servus," abbreviated to "servus," has, like "Homo sapiens," become the uninflected name of a species. Thus, any member of that species is a "servus."

This servus, Tolya Mkenni, is condescendingly given:

Draka-level Web access;
unlimited mobility;
rejuvenation for a second seventy year span;
the promise of one more rejuvenation but no more;
a favor - she requests, and is granted, a second lifespan for her "lifepartner." (p. 277)

The Archon announces that a fourth lifespan would be hubristic. This from a Draka!

Archona, the capital, now has not six million but a mere half million Draka although with six times as many servus.