Friday, 10 February 2023

Two Conservative Organizations

The Coordination Service and the Time Patrol are two conservative organizations. The Service conserves the Stellar Union through a finite period in its timeline whereas the Patrol conserves an entire timeline. Although the Union is succeeded by the Third Dark Ages, there is an eventual Galactic civilization. Although the Danellian timeline is altered more than once, the Patrol manages to restore it. Trevelyan Micah becomes dissatisfied by his life on Earth and in the Service and joins the chaotic Nomads. However, the reception of Trevelyan and other Cordies into Nomadic spaceship crews represents a synthesis that carries knowledge through the Third Dark Ages. Everard learns that the Patrol manipulates history but at the end accepts the Patrol's role in counteracting temporal chaos. Everard is not a man who will ever break ranks.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Dominic Flandry and the Naval Intelligence Corps served analogous roles for the Terran Empire in the Technic stories. They too were trying to hold back chaos, at least for a while. And we see more deeply thought out reflections by flandry on the nature, purpose, and value of that service.

Ad astra! Sean