"'...rock a baby and know that a few years hence he will be a corpse on the shores of some alien planet.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Tiger by the Tail" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 241-276 AT p. 267.
So a faster than light spaceship crosses an interstellar void, regarded as comparable to a large ocean, then reaches shore at journey's end on another planet? Not exactly, but it is a comforting image to reduce an interstellar journey to an oceanic passage and an alien planet to a foreign shore - even if death waits at the other end in both cases.
Poul Anderson links seafarers, spacefarers and timefarers. See:
Sailors On The Seas Of Time
Battle At Sea
- and even describes wars through time.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, it SEEMS natural to compare space to an ocean and for space warships and fleets to be commanded by captains and admirals. Albeit Asimov had GENERALS commanding the war ships of the Galactic Empire.
Sean
Sean,
"Generals" sounds wrong. Some continuity with Air Force terminology would make more sense.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
At least in the US, Air Force ranks are not that different from what the Army uses. Which is no surprise, the Air Force STARTED as a part of the Army. I know the RAF does have some ranks different from both the UK Army and Navy. And I think we both agree that for space navies the ranks used by the old sea navies is most appropriate.
Sean
Sean,
I suppose so, if we call them "navies." We have already started to talk about spaceships.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I think nautical terminology and ranks will be used for both civil and military space ships if/when we ever get off this rock!
Sean
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