Abrams
Yuan-Li
Kheraskov
Fenross
Molitor
In The Rebel Worlds, Flandry's immediate superior, never seen, is Captain Yuan-Li. However, Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov picks Flandry for a delicate mission that could get them both shot or enslaved. To a high echelon of the Intelligence Corps, young Lieutenant Commander Dominic Flandry is not obscure. They know what he did in the Starkad affair, while still an ensign, and even what he covered up but they need men like him so they keep a blind eye when necessary. Kheraskov turns a blind eye to even more when Flandry has completed the mission although he has to work for it.
There must be equivalents of Dominic Flandry in the interstellar empires of other future histories.
(Breakfast was scrambled egg, then marmalade, in pitta bread.)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Considering how interesting Sir Ilya was in THE REBEL WORLDS, I am sorry we don't see him again in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. Well, we do see Flandry getting a "briefing" from Chunderban Desai later on that night, while he was still at the Coral Palace.
At one time we do see mention of Flandry aspiring to higher rank. At the beginning of "The Game of Glory" we see him "giving up" hope of early promotion to rear admiral. But, yes, for many years Flandry was content with being simply a captain because a fairly modest rank made it easier to move around. But as time passed Flandry really did have to accept higher rank, both because of his abilities and because by THE GAME OF EMPIRE it was implausible for him to still do field work.
Sean
Paul:
H. Beam Piper's Four-Day Planet mentions:
"Everybody knows about Executive Special Agents. There are all kinds of secret agents operating in the Federation—Army and Navy Intelligence, police of different sorts, Colonial Office agents, private detectives, Chartered Company agents. But there are fewer Executive Specials than there are inhabited planets in the Federation. They rank, ex officio, as Army generals and Space Navy admirals; they have the privilege of the floor in Parliament, they take orders from nobody but the President of the Federation."
Kaor, DAVID!
If Special Executive agents had that kind of power, influence, status, etc., I certainly hope they were beneficial to the Federation! It's plain I need to look up the works of H. Beam Piper.
Sean
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