Wednesday, 23 June 2021

What Rangers Learn

"Starfog."

Laure:

"'Sir, the League, the troubles, the Empire, the fall, the Long Night...every such thing - behind us. In space and time alike. The people of the Commonalty don't get into wars.'" (p. 722)

Later:

"The sky exploded.

"He was on his belly, faceplate buried in arms against the flash, before his conscious mind knew what had happened. Rangers learned about nuclear weapons. When, after a minute, no shock wave had hit him, no sound other than a rising wind, he dared sit up and look." (p 780)

Why do they learn about nuclear weapons if there are no wars? Historical learning would not give Laure a trained response. Are there local planetary wars or wars outside the Commonalty? And does the wind comment yet again?

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I've said this before, that comment by Daven Laure about the peoples of the Commonalty not getting into or having wars was naively optimistic! What if the Commonalty bumps up against a human or non human society opposed to its ideals? Then you ARE going to get conflicts and wars.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

The thing about getting into wars is that it’s not something that you can decide on your own. The other guy casts a deciding vote.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And here you expressed far more clearly than I what I had been trying to say!

Ad astra! Sean