Weather And The Strange Ship

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XIII.

In James Blish's Earthman, Come Home, when the Okie city of New York has landed on a planet, thunder is heard. Okies must remember that planets have a phenomenon called "weather." Poul Anderson's Nomads have weather inside one of their ships:

"Lightning sheeted through the room and thunder banged in its wake. By its glare Sean saw an uprooted tree falling, and rolled to escape it." (p. 111)

"A lightning ball swooped past, like a small sun." (p. 112)

"Another globe of ball lightning hovered by." (ibid.)

Sean must fight a deranged Nomad who attacks Ilaloa, thinking that she is a witch:

"Sean stabbed him.

"The lightning ball exploded, thunder and fury and a rain of fire. Its glare was livid over the trembling, staggering walls. Sean crouched with Ilaloa, holding her close and waiting." (p. 113)

 

This internal weather furnishes some very dramatic Pathetic fallacies. A stabbing is immediately followed by an explosion, thunder, fury, fire, a vivid glare and staggering walls! - an appropriate setting as Sean awaits further developments.

 

CHAPTER XIV

In a Star Trek episode, the Enterprise encountered spaceships of Klingon design in Romulan space because the Romulans had bought some ships from the Klingons. The strange ship encountered by the Peregrine is of Tiunran design because X has hijacked it. I suppose that starfaring races will interact in such ways.

 

"'...when a technology has advanced to the point of interstellar drive, it doesn't need an empire.'" (p. 124)

 

Tell that to the Terrans and Merseians in the other timeline.