Francis L. Minamoto

The chronologically earliest Technic History installment, "The Saturn Game," is divided into four numbered sections, section I signed by "Francis L. Minamoto," II-IV just by "Minamoto." Francis Minamoto of Apollo University, Leyburg, Luna, is not Hloch of Stormgate Choth or Donvar Ayeghen of the Galactic Archaeological Society and indeed knows nothing of such later scholars. However, coming to our attention as recently as February, 1981, Minamoto joins Hloch and Ayeghen among the ranks of Technic historiographers.

Page 1 of Volume I of The Technic Civilization Saga consists entirely of a single-paragraph extract from Minamoto's Death Under Saturn: A Dissenting View, published by Apollo University Communications in 2057.

Under Saturn? Under the Saturnian surface? No. It will turn out that this means on a Saturnian moon with Saturn in the sky but we do not know any of that while still reading p. 1. This page informs us only that the Chronos, presumably a spaceship bound for Saturn, has encountered  some kind of tragedy, described mysteriously:

"The Chronos crossed more than an abyss, it crossed a threshold of human experience."

-Poul Anderson, "The Saturn Game" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 1-73 AT I, p. 1.

 

Encountered aliens? No. This experiential threshold will turn out to be psychological. If you have not read "The Saturn Game," then appreciate the mystery. If you have read it, then remember what it was like to read this page for the first time.