While Roan Tom pilots his spaceship, the Firedrake, down onto the unusual, in Tom's terminology, "rogue," planet, Nike, he converses with Dagny and Yasmin and, by radio, with two Nikeans.
When Tom calls Nike a "rogue planet," Yasmin, puzzled, quotes the meaning of that phrase that we know from several earlier Technic History episodes, a sunless planet, and Tom has to explain his meaning of the phrase. What she calls "rogue planets," he calls "bandit planets." Next, although Yasmin has "'...studied classics...," (p. 468) it turns out that she includes scientific knowledge as a classic art.
This emphasis on changed meanings of words and phrases might alert us to the significance of the story's title. The first Nikean becomes hostile when Tom declares himself a "friend" wanting to do "business." His superior, the "Engineer," orders Tom to land and:
"'Slave yourselves to me.'" (p. 473)
He threatens with "tommics," which Tom interprets as "nukes." The Engineer also uses the word, "fish," very strangely. In this context, it seems to mean "'...somethin' like squadron leader.'" (p. 473)
We had been told that the first Nikean's:
"...Anglic was thickly accented but comprehensible..." (p. 471)
However, because of shifts in the meanings of familiar Anglic words, the two sides are as yet very far from mutual comprehension.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I think the Nikeans erred by assuming too quickly that Roan Tom was a "friend" coming to do "business" with them. That had come to mean "enemy" and "raider." But the Nikeans should have realized that not everyone coming from space was necessarily going to attack them. Some wariness and caution was necessary, yes, but they should have tried to understand what Tom meant as well.
Ad astra! Sean
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