The Stellar Union Coordination Service:
investigates when spaceship Harpsong of Nerthus out of Highsky for David's Landing is overdue and also when Nomad ships disappear;
forecasts the competition with a cybernation venture on Oasis;
responds to reports of bandits;
advises on how to deal with a newly discovered alien race;
preserves for study the remnants of civilization on Good Luck.
Murdoch Juan:
made a fortune from fur and lumber on Vanaheim while disrupting a continental ecology until the Cordies persuaded the local government to change the laws;
worked as a merc, introducing modern weapons to primitives, a universally illegal offense;
plans to move colonists into buildings left empty on Good Luck when the inhabitants were wiped out by supernova radiation.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Murdoch Juan reminds me of Nicholas van Rijn, if the latter had been a less scrupulous sort. And that bit about Murdoch introducing modern weapons to primitives brought to mind the outlaws we see in "A Little Knowledge."
The most defensible of Murdoch's acts was his attempted colonization of Good Luck. I've wondered what might have happened if he had tried to colonize a part of the planet not heavily urbanized by the extinct original inhabitants, leaving the rest of the planet to be studied by the scholars. A compromise, IOW.
Ad astra! Sean
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