Flandry On Alfzar

"Honorable Enemies."

Aline spikes Flandry's drink with sorgan, the drug that will make him believe whatever she tells him. She then lies about an elaborate Terran plot to seize a beachhead on the Betelgeusean capital planet, Alfzar. Aline's plan is that Aycharaych, reading Flandry's mind and therefore believing her lie, will give inappropriate advice to his Merseian superiors. We notice two features of the lie that she tells. First, it is less absurd in Poul Anderson's revised version of the text. In the original version, Flandry says that the Terran action as she describes it will mean war with both Merseia and Betelgeuse and she simply agrees! In the revised version, she tells Flandry that Fenross's best judgement is that the Betelgeusean monarch, the Sartaz, will be furious but will not risk war.

Secondly, Aline's fiction-within-the-fiction establishes yet more character continuity within the Flandry series. The original version refers to both Fenross and Walton. Both allegedly think that Betelgeuse will surrender before Merseia can respond. The revised version emphasises Admiral Fenross's supposed work on the case. Thus, Flandry's future superior officer is introduced in both versions.

Another feature of this story is the genuine friendship that develops in two conversations between Flandry and Aycharaych. Such conversations continue, between conflicts, in "Hunters of the Sky Cave" and A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. However, when, at the end of A Knight..., Aycharych, addressing Flandry as "Dominic," asks him to help save Chereion, Flandry has to refuse. Compliance would have required too many betrayals.