Is it really possible to track an animal as small as a cat through a forest and to find it after many false leads? Would a cat bend twigs? And how would a tracker know which twig had been bent by a cat and not by something else? Would the cat leave enough noticeable "pug marks in the duff"? (p. 136) (And what meaning of "duff" are we using here?)
Valdi Ronen claims to have tracked and found a cat lost in a dangerous Aerian forest and the outcome is that a Kith ship adopts him. When the ship has left the system, Valdi can safely admit to his superior that he had abducted the cat and kept it safe. The moral of the story is that someone that determined is considered worthy.
Unlike characters in some other Anderson futures, Valdi uses a "satphone" (ibid) but this is easily explained by the fact this story was published in 1998. Sf writers can at least keep track of current tech!
I heard on the radio that a flying car has been tested but does not have VTOL. The future is now, sort of.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think the earliest I came across the idea of flying cars was at age 14, when I first read the Chilton Books edition of Anderson's AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE. We see air cars in some of the stories in that collection. So I'm pleased to know air cars might be finally becoming a reality.
And I have heard of a company called Moller International experimenting with VTOL technology in flying cars.
It's about time we moved on from such antiquated 19th century tech as horseless carriages!
Ad astra! Sean
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