Rochefort: "'No keel? What do they do for lateral resistance?'"
Tabitha, pointing at curved boards pivoting in response to vanes: "'Those. The design's Ythrian. They know more about the ways of wind than men and men's computers can imagine.'"
-Poul Anderson, The People of The Wind (Riiverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT XI. p. 567.
Ythrians are less apt in space. They cannot be enclosed in spacesuits or even in spacecraft without large viewports. They need room to spread their wings and their interstellar craft must have a large hold for them to fly about in.
Ythrians are people of the wind, not of the void.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And Ythrians also have trouble colonizing other planets, due to needing planets whose gravity is no heavier than that of Ythri. Evolution gave their bodies the ability to fly, but it came with costs. I have my doubts they could fly on Terra, whose gravity is "only" 25% heavier, and certainly not on Imhotep.
Humans have the advantage of having stronger, less specialized bodies, enabling them to settle on a much wider range of planets. And a greater ability to tolerate and adapt to a wider range of environments. I can't see Ythrians colonizing Altai!
Ad astra! Sean
"due to needing planets whose gravity is no heavier than that of Ythri"
I suspect they would do OK on planets with somewhat greater gravity AND thicker atmosphere.
Kaor, Jim!
Maybe, if the gravity and atmospheric pressure was no more than 10 or 15 percent greater than that of Ythri.
Ad astra! Sean
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