There are no docking facilities;
a descending plasma jet would melt the surface;
Hulda cuts her drive and falls;
the ship, though not the crew, would survive such an impact;
however, Hulda extends her forcefield;
some ships carry no forcefield generators;
their crews land in boats;
the Enterprise uses "transporters" to avoid scenes with boats;
this is a short breakfast post before other activities;
I am finding a lot more than expected in FLAG on rereading it.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't know if you realized it, but that ship's name, "Hulda," is very Biblical! Hulda or Huldah was the name of the prophetess in the days of King Josiah who warned the king and his people of the approaching doom of Jerusalem and Judah (2 Kings 22.13-20).
Sean
Sean,
I did not realize that Hulda was a prophetic name. That might count as another Andersonian Biblical reference.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It does, even if a rather obscure Biblical allusion! But Poul Anderson was fond of slipping in such references, as we both know.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
For the record, Lutheran minister Walter Arthur Maier (1893 – 1950), who was more-or-less a televangelist (by radio) back when that word didn't mean "charlatan," married Hulda Eickhoff in 1924. When he proposed, according to the biography one of their sons published in 1963, she answered, "Amen," rather than "Yes." This delighted Maier, a scholar versed in classical Hebrew. The account also mentioned her Biblical namesake.
(I read that book in my teens -- approximately the same time that I began reading Anderson.)
Hail Hulda.
Kaor, DAVID!
A nice little story! "Amen" can also be used colloquially to mean strong agreement with something. Which means the lady was strongly agreeing to marry Dr. Maier.
And the very first Anderson book I read, also in my teens, was the Chilton Books edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE. Which was enough to hook me on Anderson!
Sean
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