taxes increase;
venal appointments are made;
the developed planets learn of oppression in more vulnerable societies;
petitions are shunted aside;
arrests and confiscations for treason begin;
secret police become omnipresent;
officials and mercenaries mistreat individuals;
it is realized that Snelund is not merely corrupt but also an Imperial favorite with greater ambitions;
the Admiral, Hugh McCormac, and his wife, Kathryn, are arrested;
Snelund abuses Kathryn;
the Admiral is rescued and leads the mutiny;
Snelund wants a mutiny so that he can gain glory by defeating it.
Some of this reminds me of what Dominic Flandry later does to subvert the Schotani - but Flandry does not abuse individuals. Poul Anderson sure knew how to wreck a society - while arguing for the preservation of everything that is good in existing societies.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In some ways Hugh McCormac was a fool--he fell into Snelund's trap by starting a mutiny and civil war. Which was exactly what the vile governor wanted. As Flandry was later to tell him, McCormac should have simply, at most, lead a raid on the governor's palace to rescue Kathry and kill Snelund. True, by refusing to unlawfully proclaim himself Emperor, he would have been compelled to flee the Empire. But that was much better than starting a civil war.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Also, of course, as we know, the Scothanians were planning to attack and invade the Empire, so it's my view Flandry was RIGHT to subvert them.
Sean
There's a bit in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, which covers Flandry's exploits among the Scothiani: "If a man come up against thee, to slay thee, slay him first."
(Note, this isn't permissive, it's an injunction -- a moral obligation.)
Dear Mr. Stirling,
And an injunction I agree with. It's simply another way of saying we all have a right to defend ourselves when unjustly attacked, up to and including lethal force.
Sean
And Snelund isn't -just- corrupt. As Flandry points out, the alarming thing is not that he's skimming; a little diversion of funds would make him fantastically wealthy as an individual.
He's stealing on a scale that requires real effort and danger, and that means his aims must be political.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Exactly! The Empire could tolerate a little of this illicit diversion of taxes if all Aaron Snelund wanted was to quietly "retire" as a rich man in five or six years. But he had far bigger ambitions, to become the power behind the throne, manipulating a weak and stupid Emperor. For that, he would need far vaster sums of money, plus some glory from putting down McCormac's revolt.
Fortunately, Dominic Flandry managed to do in, in different ways, both Snelund and McCormac.
Sean
If every Terran agent were as omnicompetent as Flandry, what would happen? They would get in each others' way trying singlehandedly to defeat McCormac and neutralize Snelund?
Paul.
Flandry is what's known as a "loose canon", always violating procedure. He's great as a roving troubleshooter, but he'd make a terrible battalion officer; he just doesn't play well with others.
His patron Abrams probably saved him from a short career and getting killed or cashiered by taking him out of the flying corps and into Intelligence.
His saving grace is that he's an extremely competent loose canon.(*)
(*) the phrase comes from the age of sailing warships, when a cannon fired broadside and was restrained by a set of ropes. If it broke loose, it careened about the gun-deck with catastrophic results. "Bull in a china shop" is a somewhat similar reference.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Exactly! Flandry was an EXTREMELY competent loose cannon. And most Intelligence officers, including even the able ones, simply would not be like that. A good intelligence officer is like a competent detective, patiently ferreting out and putting together many bits of information, trying to find the "big picture." Flandry's special talent was being able to jump over many of the intermediate steps to intuitively arrive at the Big Picture.
While I agree Flandry was not naturally a Fleet officer of the kind found on Imperial Navy ships, he did respect them and proved he COULD be a competent ship commander in THE REBEL WORLDS, during the time he commanded HMS Asieneuve. And he certainly had nothing but the deepest respect for Fleet commanders like Sir Thomas Walton.
Sean
Sean
Anyone would swear we were discussing real people!
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