This story might add to our galactographical knowledge. The Ythrian spaceship carrying van Rijn and Coya is:
"...bound into a region that nobody is known to have explored." (p. 640)
The two human beings had proceeded to the Quetlan System, 278 light-years from Sol toward Lupus, in van Rijn's yacht, then transferred to the Gaiian which has proceeded toward the Deneb sector and is now 100 parsecs from Earth. They are in a region that other ships have passed through over the centuries but where no planetary systems have been visited or catalogued.
Quetlan is 278 light-years from Sol in the direction of Lupus. The Gaiian has proceeded from Quetlan towards Deneb and is now 100 parsecs from Sol. Maybe someone who knows some astronomy can calculate an approximate position for the Gaiian? - which is about to find Mirkheim.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
If, as I hope becomes possible, FTL becomes a reality, there will be so many many stars and worlds, and how unlikely it will be that they will all be investigated. But the attempt has to be made with some stars and planets!
Ad astra! Sean
One thing Anderson is good at is getting a sense of how -big- the universe is. Even with FTL, it's wildly huge.
You can travel fast in the Technic universe, but -knowing- the planetary systems in detail is an impossibly large task.
From Sean M brooks:
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! More than once I've seen reflections in the Flandry stories about how hard it was for the Empire to exist in a universe full of lethal surprises. And how it was just for its leaders to be properly informed.
Ad astra! Sean
In 1914, the calculations of all the Great Powers were upset because a Serbian nationalist fanatic (Dragutin Dimitrijević, aka "Apis") hatched a plot -- a middling bureaucrat in an out-of-the-way minor power. One little shove sent mountains colliding.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
With catastrophic results for the entire world! Stability, order, peace are all so precarious, so easily disrupted. No wonder I so strongly distrust Utopian poppycock schemes for "ideal" societies!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Anyone would distrust poppycock but there are a lot of people who see that the present state of the world is very wrong and that steps should be taken to change it.
Paul.
I think, if you keep using terms like "poppycock," you are trying to reassure yourself that no alternative ideas should be taken seriously. There is a whole world of people out there who can engage you in serious and informed discussion of the subject.
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree. Because some ideas are absurd and unworkable. If a bad idea has been tried over and over and never succeeds, it is fair to call such ideas "poppycock." I have absurdities like the "transgender" nonsense in mind. And I can easily list many others.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I disagree.
Paul.
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