CHAPTER TEN, pp. 89-100, returns to Brechdan as viewpoint character. He is in Ardaig where the trader team were. Castle Afon has become the official primary residence of the Roidhun whom we never see. A new co-capital, Tridaig, has been founded in the antipodes but the new Admiralty House is in Ardaig. Brechan is not only the Hand of his Vach and the Protector of the Grand Council but also a fleet admiral. His office occupies the top floor of Admiralty House.
"...[Brechdan's] tail ached from the weight on it." (p. 92)
So they do feel the weight when squatting tripodally, which might be why another Merseian, in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, uses a stool.
Brechdan casually and callously remarks that the Merseians might have to exterminate humanity. Apart from what this says about his moral sense, is it even possible to exterminate a rational species that is not only powerful but also dispersed among many planetary systems?
5 comments:
Probably possible if only "mostly exterminate".
Eg., the descendants in "Starfog" would be safe from Meresians if they'd won.
I thought of the Kirkasanters.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
If the Merseians of the Roidhunate actually tried to do something so hideous I think they would most likely use biological (weaponized plagues) or nerve gas weapons to wipe out the populations of human colonized planets. Because then the planets themselves would not be ruined--just wait till the bodies decayed and any poisons that would affect Merseians had become harmless. Which is what we see happening in Stirling's BLACK CHAMBER books.
Ad astra! Sean
Another nasty possibility to help exterminate a population is something like the cobalt bomb.
It was pointed out in the 1950s that putting cobalt as the casing around a nuclear weapon would result in a lot of cobalt-60 being produced. This isotope has a half life of 5.3 years & so would linger in the area for decades. If emits a strong gamma ray as it decays, so enough Co-60 in an area could make entering that area lethal.
That 1950s suggestion was not intended as something to ever be done, but to point out how dangerous nuclear weapons *could* be.
In an SF novel some villains used a sodium compound around the nuclear explosive. This produces Na-24 which also is a strong gamma emitter. The half-life is 15 hours, so in less than a week it has essentially all decayed & the region can be entered safely. This sounds like what someone who wants to kill the existing population & use the region later would do.
Here is an article on the topic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salted_bomb
Kaor, Jim!
Very nasty indeed! And cobalt bombs sure seems like something extermination minded Merseians would use.
Ad astra! Sean
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