See Deeper Into The Galactic Sector.
Immediately after the sentence quoted in the previous post (see the second link above), we read:
"The hazards were unpredictable, and an armed guard on every vessel was in itself a good idea... The guard had to be soldiers born and bred. In these days of spreading peace, more and more Lochlanna units found themselves at loose ends and hired out to foreigners." (p. 551)
I was wrong to write, in During The Long Night II, that the mission to Gwydion was a joint Namerican-Lochlanna expedition. It is a Namerican expedition employing a Lochlanna military unit. In the kind of historical irony with which we are all too familiar, the Namericans, having won their independence from Lochlann fifty years previously, now hire Lochlanna guards.
In matters of safety and security, final authority lies not with the engineer who is the chief of the expedition but, in space, with the captain and, after planetfall, with the Lochlanna Commandant. For this reason, among others, there is tension between the Namerican engineer, Miguel Tolteca, and Commandant Raven.
Although Anderson, in his Introduction, describes the editorially imposed Let The Spacemen Beware! as a ridiculous title, it does make sense as a blurb slogan for the novel both because of the unpredictable hazards and because of the specific conditions on Gwydion.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I also remember Tolteca grumbling that the old women in the Nuevamerican Policy Board (we both recall that name!) insisted on Lochlanna mercenaries--because professional soldiers would react better in the kinds of emergencies calling for their skills.
And that mention of "days of spreading peace" indicates the violence and chaos of the Long Night was, possibly, finally subsiding.
Ad astra! Sean
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