"But wait!
"Excited, he sprang up." (III, p. 107)
Yet another moment of realization!
Solar Spice & Liquors needs a stable society on Ikrananka. The trade pioneer crew has arrived in the middle of a military stand-off that is a potential civil war. With superior armament, the crew can end the stand-off without killing anyone. Then, with League negotiation skills, they can arrange a truce and amnesty and the beginnings of regular off-planet trade.
The trade pioneer crew is led by a human being, David Falkayn, and the rebels are human beings, the Ershoka, but that does not prevent Falkayn from offering to end the stand-off. He has come for inter-species trade, not for any idea of racial solidarity or superiority, although he must persuade the young woman whom he has rescued of this.
Of course, the plot gets more complicated than that and Falkayn must display a van Rijnian ability to address everyone's interests before there can be a satisfactory resolution.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And one of the complications Falkayn had to wrestle with was persuading some of those Ershoka that it was not really in their to try carving out a kingdom for themselves on Ikrananka.
Ad astra! Sean
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