Friday, 23 February 2018

SF Travelogue

Dominic Flandry has had some action on Starkad, defending first a ship, then a coastal town, of the Terran-backed land-dwellers from attacks by the Merseian-backed sea-dwellers. Now, in true sf travelogue style, he must be given a quick tour of the sea-dwellers' domain before the plot of Ensign Flandry and Commander Max Abrams whisk him away to Merseia.

The xenologist, John Ridenour, leads a team of:

two assistant xenologists;
one engineer ensign;
four Navy men with diving experience;
Dominic Flandry -

- the only Terran who can persuade the land-dwelling Tigeries to attempt peace-talks with the Seatrolls and who must therefore accompany the mission to satisfy the Tigeries although Ridenour warns him to stay out of the way.

Team members wear sea-pressure-bearing armor and talk by radio. In the shallow Starkadian sea, long green, brown and yellow fronds ripple upward and filaments trail from branches in a forest of massive trees. Other information has been summarized in Back To Starkad II and Back To Starkad III.

3 comments:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul!

Now THAT was interesting, underwater TREES. I had completely forgotten that strange detail.

Sean

Jim Baerg said...

The underwater 'trees' sound a lot like kelp.
I suspect Poul was inspired by that plant that lives in some parts of Earth's oceans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelp

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Yes, but from the description, Anderson had something more solid and substantial than kelp in mind.

Merry Christmas! Sean