Why did Thorkild Erling like the years of wandering in the Traveler so much that he wants to return to them? First, he was born and raised in the ship and had never known anything else. Secondly, planetary visits were short. Thirdly, most of the planets visited were not terrestroid. However, many others who had been raised in the ship hated it. Erling's fourth reason is that he was an officer with better quarters and more privacy. He looked forward to new discoveries instead of merely disliking the time spent between planets and becomes captain when the Traveler begins its endless voyage.
He tells us that he and his fellow Nomads as they now are will never see Harbor again. That is true if they simply continue to travel in the same direction. However, in the time of Traveler III in The Peregrine, Nomad ships travel back and forth, trading and exploring, through known volumes of space. Indeed, Erling had expected them to become the bloodstream of a new civilization, not to pass endlessly between civilizations.
It is Erling's wife, Alanna, who realizes that he wants to wander, persuades him to go and claims that it is also what she wants but a careful reading of the text suggests that maybe she accepts the idea mainly for his sake.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Correct! Even at the first time I read "Gypsy," I could tell at the very end of the story Alanna accepted this wandering Nomadic life mainly for Erling's sake. It's plain she would far rather have stayed on Harbor.
Ad astra! Sean
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