-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Fourteen, p. 142.
These rules evolved and are accepted because they work. However, according to the rules, civilized powers may not:
torture prisoners;
massacre civilians;
use diplomacy as a cover for espionage.
Yet, those same powers:
do not maintain torture chambers;
do not allow their troops to massacre or loot;
assume that their adversaries use diplomacy as a cover for espionage and would regard themselves as criminally negligent if they did not do likewise.
A caught spy takes the consequences but does not believe that he has done anything wrong.
On Merseia, Max Abrams used Dwyr the Hook to spy on Brechdan Ironrede. But Brechdan had used Dwyr to spy on Abrams. Thus, these two "offenses" cancel out. Dwyr's loyalty happened to be to Terra. This did not just "happen" but Abrams can cheerfully lie about it. Both powers can agree to say that Dwyr and Flandry acted impulsively without Abrams' knowledge. Thus, they agree to cover up that Brechdan spied on Abrams and vice versa. Abrams still supports Flandry but cannot help him by acknowledging that Flandry acted on his orders because the Ensign is by now out of communication range and in flight for his life in any case. Abrams invents a formula that at least saves himself by saving face for both empires.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Nice image of Flandry meeting Aycharaych at the Crystal Moon (in WE CLAIM THESE STARS). Tho Flandry should have been shown wearing one of the "brain scramblers" devised to prevent Aycharaych from reading the minds of persons wearing them.
Yes, I thought the dialogue of Abrams with Brechdan Ironrede in Chapter 14 of ENSIGN FLANDRY. Anderson very well might have read the Hague/Geneva Conventions on the laws and customs of war by civilized powers and the Vienna Convention codifying the rules of diplomacy.
Also, Abrams was in a particularly tight spot because he was not DIRECTLY accredited by the Imperium as one having diplomatic status. Rather, the accreditation came from Lord Hauksberg, which if renounced by him, would have left Abrams in a very perilous situation (he would not have been covered by the protections extended by the Covenant of Alfzar).
Sean
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