Lochlann, Nuevamerica And Gwydion

The Night Face, I.

I started to lose track of the complicated political relationships in this chapter:

the United Republics of Nuevamerica recently won their independence from the aristocratic regime on Lochlann;

the Argo Astrographical Company is Nuevamerican whereas the Oakenshaw Ethnos is Lochlanna;

Nuevamerican interstellar exploration and treaty-making are a private and commercial enterprise (so presumably interstellar treaties, when made, are with the Company, not with any of the Republics);

the Nuevamerican Policy Board (of the United Republics or of the Company?) decided that each exploratory vessel should carry an armed guard of "...soldiers born and bred..." (p. 551);

Lochlanna units, with little to do in days of peace, hire out to foreigners, including Nuevamericans;

thus, Raven, a Commandant of the Oakenshaw Ethnos, commands the Lochlanna unit in the Quetzal, a ship of the Company.

Probably interstellar explorers will have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Raven is not reassured to learn that the Gwydiona have no armed forces, police or crime yet are not primitives. This makes their response to outcomers unpredictable. They have been isolated for twelve hundred years:

"'Genetic and cultural evolution have done strange work in shorter periods.'" (p. 549)

Raven's misgivings turn out to be justified.