The pioneers of the asteroids became the elder statesmen of the first interstellar spaceship, Astra. Their skin is darkened and made leathery and their hair is whitened by sunlight through space helmets. Because of antisenescence, some of them remember the Asteroid Revolution over a hundred years previously.
Lindgren thinks that it is possible to pin down the root of the revolution which was the moment when the asterites realized that they had become a single nation. It was when the stations armed themselves which:
"'...implied a degree of sovereignty. Over the years, the implication grew.'" (p. 42)
When one Terrestrial nation had armed its space stations, the others demanded the right to be armed also. Missy Blades was present at the incident when the question of arming the stations arose and that is the next story after Interlude 1.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! I immediately thought of that, the question of the asteroid colonies demanding the right to arm themselves as the point when the asterites started to think of themselves as a separate people or nation from those of Earth. Some of the colonial authorities of the other asteroid colonies almost immediately understood the implications and tried to resist such demands.
It was inevitable for such a feeling to eventually arise among the asterites. A whole new society and culture, with laws and customs differing from the mother countries on Earth, was arising. It was inevitable, and right, that the asterites would feel themselves to be different, to more and more chafe at remote and frequently irritating government from the Earth nations. Revolt was almost inevitable and finally came when the American asterites rebelled against the US (or was it the North American Federation?).
Sean
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