Hloch's INTRODUCTION ends at the bottom of p. 294. Judith Lundgren's text begins at the top of p. 295. However, her dialogue begins near the bottom of p. 296 with:
"'Hyaa-aah!'" (p. 296)
- as a young Ythrian takes to flight. On pp. 295-296, Lundgren introduces her story by summarizing some fictional history and biography:
Avalon is the only known planet jointly colonized by two intelligent species;
initially, human beings and Ythrians settled in different territories among the Hesperian Islands;
three generations of Falkayns, David, Nicholas and Nat, live in Chartertown;
Nat learns Anglic at home and Planha in school;
the Falkyans sometimes have Ythrian dinner guests;
Nicholas, an engineer, and other human beings travel to Trauvay/Wingland to join a research and development team to plan continental colonization;
Nicholas's family accompanies him;
on Trauvay, Nat has no human companions his own age but there are many young Ythrians.
16 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, not quite. Dennitza was mostly human colonized, but it did come to have a substantial non human Merseian population. And the Empire later selected Imhotep for resettling the surviving Tigeries and Sea People of Starkad. But these, and probably others, were largely accidental exceptions. Avalon was DELIBERATELY founded as a joint human/Ythrian colony.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That's the point.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Granted!
Sean
I'm reminded of one of Dave Drake's HAMMER'S SLAMMERS stories. It's set on a planet colonized by something on the order of a "Pan-Asian Brotherhood" society.
In the story, the Hindus have hired Hammer's Slammers to give them the edge in a slaughterous civil war with the Han...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I've read some of Drake's Hammer's Slammers stories, but I don't recall that one. Grim and grisly stories!
Ad astra! Seanb
Well, they're war stories told by someone who actually experienced it, and was also very widely read.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But I liked better the stories you and Drake co-authored in THE GENERAL series. The wars we see in those books were being guided by "Center" towards a goal, to have a POINT.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: one of the things about HAMMER'S SLAMMERS was that the Slammers were mercenaries who didn't have any personal stake in what they were fighting for, and that the end of one contract was the beginning of the next.
War without any higher purpose, and without end (except death).
Rather like the Foreign Legion, only more so. And the Legion gets a very particular type of recruit.
Pournelle came up with a marching song that's a (slight) modification of an actual Legion one:
We've left blood in the sands of 25 lands;
Built roads through a dozen more
And all we have left at the end of our hitch
Buys one night with a second-rate whore.
The lands that we take
Others will get
Rather more often than not;
Well, the more that are killed
The less share the loot
And -we- won't be back to this spot.
We'll break the hearts of your women and girls;
We may break your arse as well
And the Legionnaires with their banners unfurled
Will follow those banners to Hell!
We know the Devil
His pomps and his works;
Ah yes! We know them well!
When you've served your full hitch with the Legionnaires
You can bugger the Senate of Hell.
Then we'll drink with our comrades
And throw down our packs
And rest ten years on the flat of our backs
Till it's "On full kits" and "Out of your racks!"
You must build a new road through Hell!
They pay us in gin
Then curse when we sin
There's not one who can stand us
Unless we're down-wind;
We're shot when we lose -- turned off when we win..
But we bury our comrades wherever they fall --
And there's none who can face us
Though we've nothing at all!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I forgot about that, Hammer's Slammers being mercenaries, and thus necessarily having a somewhat different POV from a national army. Good mercenaries are loyal to their contract, but won't object to fighting against former employers if a later contract has them doing that.
And that French Foreign Legion song you quoted is a lot like the song chanted by Co-Dominium Marines during a changing of the guard of the meeting hall of the Grand Senate of the Co-Dominium, not long before it collapsed in one of Pournelle's Co-Do books.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Jerry got the song from the Foreign Legion one.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I thought so! And as the Co-Dominium began to disintegrate in Pournelle's Co-Do series, we see demobilized Co-Dominium Marines forming mercenary outfits and hiring out to many of the newly independent worlds. What made Falkenberg's Legion different, as time passed, was its commander, Col. Falkenberg trying to hire out to planets the strengthening of which would help civilization to survive after the fall of the Co-Dominium. And Falkenberg also wanted to find a home for his Legion, a decent planet they could settle on after leaving the Legion. And for the Legion to become the core of the military forces of that planet.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: it’s a common pattern. The Romans settled colonies of veterans together for centuries; ‘twas a multipurpose problem-solving process. Everything from economic development to Romanization to local defense and order to saving money on cash pensions to providing the next generation of recruits and many, many more. And you started out with a community with strong internal bonds and experience at multiple skills, since Roman soldiers were not only farmers sons to start with, but also experienced builders and craftsmen too by the time they retired.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have read about that Roman pattern, and it sure sounds like a good idea to me. Modern armies, including those of the US and UK, might try something similar. Well, maybe not the settling of ex soldiers on vacant lands.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the soldiers rendered the land vacant…
As one of my characters muses in the book I’m working on, “All clans, tribes, nations and empires are houses built on the bones of the defeated, and all title-deeds are written in blood, if you go back far enough.”
A preview!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But I was thinking about NOW. I don't expect UK or US soldiers to drive out Americans and Britons from their lands. Which means their gov'ts will have use cash pensions, not land grants, for ex-soldiers.
Ad astra! Sean
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