In Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER EIGHT, pp. 79-80 -
Ridenour: "You may be out of the matter anyhow, Flandry..."
Ridenour: "You report to Commander Abrams at Highport... Special duty, I don't know what."
Abrams: "Lord Hauksberg is continuing to Merseia in another couple days. I'm going along in an advisory capacity, my orders claim. I rate an aide. Want the job?"
Abrams: "En route, you'll take an electrocram in the Eriau language and as much Merseiology as your brain'll hold without exploding."
Flandry: "Sir...you've got yourself an aide."
They say more than this but I have quoted those lines that specifically show Ensign Flandry, Flight Corps, beginning to become Captain Flandry, Intelligence. Abrams advises Flandry to think about the fact that Merseian interrogation would leave him without a personality. Flandry doesn't.
This stuff is on a par with: how did Thor get his hammer and how did Odin lose an eye?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What struck me here was how CALLOUS methods of interrogation seems to have been. Instead of beginning first with relatively cautious means, as was the standard Imperial practice, the Merseians seemed to have preferred using the hypnoprobe right away, digging hard and deep. Not with tedious preliminaries like questioning, narcoquizzes, or light, cautious scannings with a 'probe. And forget about even more tedious methods like sensory deprivation!
Ad astra! Sean
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