Valenderay

Poul Anderson, "Day of Burning" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 318-367.

The purpose of the first Grand Survey:

"...was to get some hint about this spiral arm which we inhabit." (p. 318)

So how much of this spiral arm did the Survey ships explore physically? Long after both the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire have come and gone, human civilizations will spread through several spiral arms but that is millennia in the future. (A millennium is a long time in this context only because of the hyperdrive.)

The Survey ship that noticed the massive star, Valenderay, did not notice that it was older than others of its type in this region and therefore must have wandered in from elsewhere. Thus, as in the concluding Technic History installment, "Starfog," the timescales of stellar movements become relevant to the plot of the story. A Polesotechnic League scout ship happened to pass near Valenderay as it exploded. Because the Technic History version of hyperspace comprises many quantum jumps per second, the crew were not killed outright but were nevertheless touched by a dangerous amount of radiation between jumps and therefore withdrew:

"...to the scientific colony on Catawrayannis..." (p. 319)

- which would be able to send a craft to study the supernova.

For the second time in the Earth Book, Catawrayannis is referred to as if it were a planet, not a city on a planet. See:

On Or In

On Llynathawr 

 

To observe the supernova, scientists need a base on a planet where suitable instruments can be produced to order. Survey records confirm that, two centuries earlier, a nearby planet was inhabited and on the verge of its scientific-industrial revolution. All this information is necessary to introduce Falkayn On Merseia.