visits a planet inhabited either by human colonists or by humanoid natives;
identifies and solves a problem on that planet.
Problem: the Scothans plan to attack the Terran Empire;
solution: sabotage the Scothanian Empire.
Problem: the Merseian delegation to Alzar includes a telepath;
solution: Flandry deceives the telepath by being deceived.
Problem: imminent insurrection on Nyanza;
solution: turn a prominent rebel by faking his father's assassination.
Problem: how to request help without seeming to;
solution: paint "Mayday!" on the Prophet's Tower.
Problem: a dictatorship is based on a monopoly of an antitoxin pill;
solution: get Imperial entrepreneurs to market the pill.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I'm esp. fond of the solution to the problem found by Flandry in "A Message om Secret."
And I recall how Biocontrol deliberately used obsolete technology for manufacturing the anti toxin needed for survival on Unan Besar precisely to strengthen its grip on power. Up to date Imperial technology, capable of producing the antitoxin far more easily, cheaply, and in far vaster quantity, would have immediately lead to the overthrow of Biocontrol. A copper or two per pill, NOT ten silvers, would have been the market price. Vast sums of money would have been freed for more productive ends than stuffing the coffers of Biocontrol!
In UK terms, an antitoxin pill produced with Imperial technology, would most likely cost only two pence. Not say, a hundred pounds.
Sean
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