The Dronning Margret:
too big to land on a planet;
carries several auxiliary spaceships;
belongs to Ny (New) Kalmar;
a yacht for the current viscount;
sometimes travels in Imperial service;
vastly more comfortable than a Navy ship;
as fast as a Planet class warship;
transported Viscount Hauksberg and Persis from Terra to Starkad;
transports them plus Abrams and Flandry from Starkad to Merseia;
the officers' lounge has a veranda with a wall-size viewport.
Imagine a luxury Enterprise. Hauksberg and Abrams have dinner in the Viscount's private suite while Flandry and Persis converse in the officers' lounge, then elsewhere.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have wondered what the "Dronning" in the ship's name meant. Danish word for "queen"? I recall Sandra Miesel suggesting the name referred to Queen Margret I of Denmark's ill fated Union of Kalmar, an attempt at uniting Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
I only wish we had such FTL spaceships in reality! And that they were cheap enough they could be used as yachts.
Ad astra! Sean
It's "Queen."
On this yacht, the Viscount has both a chef and a butler.
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks, I wondered! So it seems Lord Hauksberg was of Danish ancestry.
I remember that chef and butler, and of how, one night watch on the "Dronning Margret," after serving dinner to the viscount and Commander Abrams, the butler could go to bed after leaving an extra bottle of cognac on the table.
Ad astra! Sean
"Ny Kalmar" is indicative. The Union of Kalmar was a union of thrones between Sweden and Denmark, and Margrethe was a queen during that period.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, and the union of Denmark and Norway succeeded, lasting for centuries until the Swedish annexation of the latter in 1814. Sweden kept dropping in and out of the union, sometimes forcibly, till it succeeded in breaking away for good in the 1520's.
Ad astra! Sean
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