I said here that I thought that the Solar Commonwealth covered only the spatial volume of the Solar System but what did I base that on?
"Hostile fleets could pass through [the Commonwealth's] territory unbeknownst; when they did come in detection range, it would be too late for a world that was not heavily defended.
"The Shenn scheme is for a series of massive raids upon the key planets of the Commonwealth... whole civilizations will be wiped out, perhaps whole intelligent species, surely untold billions of sophonts." (XXII, p. 568)
How does van Rijn learn of this scheme? He is on Dathyna but does not understand Dathynan. However, his careful work on Thea Beldaniel has enabled him to order her, in just the right tone of voice, to tell him what is being said. He has been allowed to keep his ship's radio so that he can start to understand the Shenna by listening to their programs. Instead he transmits intelligence about the Shenn scheme on a wavelength that he hopes Falkayn and Chee Lan will detect. Meanwhile, back on Earth, information previously gathered about the Shenn threat "'...will be publicated after a while if I don't come back.'" (XVIII, p. 525)
Van Rijn is a prisoner but powerful.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, well, the Solar Commonwealth WAS larger than I too had thought! Nowhere as large as the Terran Empire would be, but analogous to, say, Bavaria in the Holy Roman Empire, vis a vis the other German states.
The worst mistake made by the Shen was capturing Old Nick and then NOT killing him!
Sean
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