Bors Golyev has become Fleet Admiral and now lives in an eight-room apartment at the top of a tower. The fog has risen up the towers. The noise of underground battles can be heard in the upper levels. The slag heaps on the horizon are being converted into tenements. Workers from one conquered planet have been moved to another to cover a labor shortage caused by the suppression of a revolt. Is this what mankind will export to the galaxy? At least it means that human beings are living on those planets and maybe things are better elsewhere. Imagine an indefinite number of colonized planets mostly cut off from each other by interstellar distances. Poul Anderson's idea of an optimal future is human multiplicity and diversity - and preferably also freedom which sometimes has to be fought for.
"'Some Directors did vote to keep hands off Vaynamo.'" (p. 133)
"'...the Directorate makes policy.'" (p. 134)
We are, of course, free to imagine that the Directorate which had ruled Earth in "Home" and "The Alien Enemy" was chased into space and eventually settled on Chertkoi. Some passages by Sandra Miesel could link these stories together.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would not put much if any stress on Chertkoi having "Directors," a la that of the Directorate ruling Earth in "Home" and "The Alien Enemy." After, in THE NIGHT FACE, we see mention of Nuevamerica having a "Policy Board," but that was certainly not the same as the Policy Board of the Terran Empire!
Most nations have similar names and titles for analogous officials in their gov'ts, after all.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Of course not but we are free to make connections nevertheless.
Paul.
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