Age is not wisdom but can be used to become wise. Imagine someone who has been doing that for nearly three millennia. Hugh Valland lives up to our hopes and expectations. When idolized by a mere thirty year old:
"Valland took the situation well, refrained from exploiting or patronizing, and managed to slip him bits of sound advice." (IV, p. 24)
When the Meteor, emerging from a space jump, plunges toward a planet that should not be there but that fills the viewscreen, Captain Argens is paralyzed but Gunner Valland issues the necessary order:
"Then Hugh Valland's tone cut through, sword-like with what I should have cried. 'Pilots! For God's sake, reverse us and blast!'" (V, p. 29)
Argens, jarred from his stupor, scans the meters and takes command. Valland does not mutiny but leads when necessary.
James Blish said in one of his collections of sf criticism - and I am not going to find it at this time of night - that most people, given an indefinitely extended lifespan, would use all that time to become worse specimens than they already were. But some would not. Individuals like Valland would become leaders of mankind, whether formally recognized as such or not.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We see something similar in THE GAME OF EMPIRE, when a stunned Admiral Blenkiron, outmaneuvered by the rebel Olaf Magnusson, was given "advice"/orders by a subordinate officer which saved most of the fleet.
Ad astra! Sean
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