I have found a Dragon's Head Nebula but it is in the Greater Magellanic Cloud so it is a different one. See here.
"'Kirkasant is an exceedingly old colony...yonder.' Laure pointed toward unseen stars. 'Well out in the Dragon's Head sector, where we're hardly beginning to explore. Somehow, somebody got that far, and in the earliest days of space travel.'" (p. 716)
We inhabit a finite globe but are surrounded by limitless space. When human beings begin to move through that space, there will be a permanent frontier. There will always be sectors that "...we're hardly beginning to explore." There will also be people who meditate on the permanent presence of the unknown.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And that frontier will be good for the human race once we finally get off this rock! It will provide an outlet for the ambitious, restless, bored, frustrated, etc. To say nothing of offering hope of a refuge for the oppressed or discontented political malcontents. And good for Old Earth as well, both directly and indirectly.
Could you check the combox for "Andersonian Chess" when you have time? I left a request there for a correction to be made.
I'm currently reading Sean Carroll's SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN and Stirling/Drake's THE SWORD, the fifth of their THE GENERAL books. And I hope to buy a copy of Stirling's SHADOWS OF ANNIHILATION this week end, at long last!
Ad astra! Sean
I wonder why the McCormac rebels went that far? A couple of hundred light-years would be ample, and more favorable human-habitable worlds seem to be fairly common in the Technic History universe.
Mr Stirling,
Laure speculates: "Maybe pursuit had not been for the whole distance. Maybe the refugees had indeed escaped after a while, but - in blind panic, or rage against the foe, or desire to practice undisturbed a brand of utopianism, or whatever the motive was - they had continued as far as they possibly could, and hidden themselves as thoroughly as nature allowed." (p. 729)
We know that there was no pursuit.
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
We do see mention at the end of THE REBEL WORLDS of the Josipists shadowing McCormac's fleet of defeated rebels for some distance outside the Empire. To make sure they really were fleeing. Also, I recall mention in "Starfog" that the Kirkasanters had a tradition that only one ship had landed on Kirkasant. Which led me to think one of McCormac's ships, either accidentally or deliberately (for whatever reason), left the flotilla and struck out on its own.
But, yes, I'm sure MOST of the McCormac rebels would be satisfied traveling two or three hundred light years before looking for a new planet to settle.
Ad astra! Sean
I’ve idly half-“written” some Technic fanfic with lost colonies stumbled upon by Flandry... 8-).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I hope you will be able to complete some of those Flandry pastiches and get them legally published in a second MULTIVERSE! I greatly liked your Time Patrol story for the first MULTIVERSE.
And Flandry did "stumble" upon the "lost" colony of Unan Besar in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.
Ad astra! Sean
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