Three of the Olga's crew descend to the surface of Ythri: a Star Trek scenario except, of course, that they use a landing craft instead of a "transporter"/teleporter.
Although the story tells us neither the name nor even the gender of the first person narrator, it is logical that she is the planetologist because it is she that describes the Ythrian environment. In an extended passage at the end, she also fills in for the presumably incapacitated xenologist, Webner, by outlining Ythrian biology which provides the solution to the problem posed by the story.
There has been a lot of interstellar travel even before the first Grand Survey because Hermes has been settled, Cynthia and Woden have been studied and Turekian tells tales of his exploits on exotic planets. Scope for yet another sub-series. The Technic History could have been continued indefinitely.
The very first human-Ythrian communication is nonverbal:
"Two big golden eyes stabbed at [Turekian], burned at him." (p. 89)
"For an instant, Turekian looked squarely into the golden eyes, knew a brave male defending his home, and also shot to miss." (p. 100)
After a lot more history, human beings and Ythrians together will resist the Terran Empire.
2 comments:
Note that social carnivores tend to be more territorial than solitary ones -- witness humans.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Not quite sure I understand. I thought humans are territorial in a "group" way. That is, families, clans, tribes, nations, empires, etc., unite to defend each other and their territories.
Ad astra! Sean
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