Saturday, 22 October 2016

Heaven And Earth And Life

Horatio: This is most strange.
Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
-quoted from memory.

Chee Lan: I didn't expect this.
Van Rijn: To be alive...is that not to be again and again surprised?
-David Falkayn: Star Trader, p. 405.

Van Rijn can respond to any surprise. The stakes have suddenly changed. Serendipity Inc. is not a commercial rival but the agent of a hostile power. The profit may now be:

"'...keeping our lives or our freedom. Right?'" (ibid.)

Right. Different rules apply.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Who knows? If the non human aliens puppet mastering Serendipity, Inc. had not been barbarians they might have developed into enemies as dangerous as the Merseians were to be.

Sean