3143 (3042) "The Warriors from Nowhere"
3148 (3047) A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows
Unbracketed dates are as given by Sean M. Brooks. See here. Bracketed dates are quoted from Sandra Miesel's "Chronology of Technic Civilization," printed in the back of each volume of Baen Books' Poul Anderson, The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis.
In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Diana Vinogradoff, Right Noble Lady Guardian of the Mare Crisium, welcomes the foolish young Duke of Mars whereas, in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, the old, bald and feeble Duke of Mars greets Sir Dominic Flandry. However, the old Duke inherited the Dukedom from his young nephew.
The nephew died because the magnetohydrodynamic screen field generators on the luxury liner, La Reine Louise, failed, allowing the radiation trapped around Jupiter and between its inner moons to kill everyone on board. Is there such radiation and would astronauts need to be shielded from it? No such disaster had happened for centuries. Did this failure result from sabotage or from cumulative negligence as the court of inquiry concluded? In favor of sabotage: there were powerful people on board and there was a civil war at the time. In favor of negligence: the Empire was in serious decline.
The disaster had happened five years previously when Flandry was outsystem - as recounted in "The Warriors from Nowhere."
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I still have a wishful, lingering hope that Sandra Miesel might come across my revision of her Chronology of Technic Civilization and comment on it. As she is now an elderly lady, I don't think it would be right for me to attempt contacting her.
And I'm still annoyed at how someone described Josip's father as "weak old Emperor Georgios" in Baen Books version of Miesel's Chrnology!
I'm inclined to think the "La Reine Louise" tragedy was indeed sabotage. Yes, a civil war and its bad effects can cause chaos and degrading of the usual maintenance and safety inspection protocols for space liners, but I don't think so. Think of the legal costs and penalties, insurance and liability claims for wrongful deaths, etc. And if powerful and influential persons were using those liners--that would encourage the space cruise to take care to carry out proper maintenance and inspections. So, it was probably sabotage.
I have read somewhere of how there is dangerous radiation around Jupiter and its inner moons, so space ships would need to protect crew and passengers.
Sean
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