Problems And Issues

The first Nicholas van Rijn story in the Technic History is "Margin of Profit" whereas the first story in the first van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars, is "Hiding Place." Both of these stories begin with a Lodgemaster Captain preparing to discuss a problem with his employer, van Rijn. These are sf problem-solving stories. The two aspects of such a story are, first, the identification of a technical or practical problem of some kind and, secondly, the implementation of our hero's solution, preferably preceded by what I call an Andersonian moment of realization when the hero suddenly realizes what the solution has to be but does not articulate it yet. Obviously, such a story need not involve any specifically human problem or issue. However, if it is to address life, then fiction has to address such issues sometime. And, indeed, since the practical problems are life or death matters, they are human issues to that extent - but life involves values and loyalties as well as mere survival.

"Lodestar" was written to be the last van Rijn/trader team/Polesotechnic League story although Mirkheim was added later. "Lodestar" is both a problem-solving story and a human issues story.

Problem: Where does Supermetals get its supermetals? ("Supermetals" is a company whereas "supermetals" are rare valuable elements, in this case sold by Supermetals to industrialists in Technic civilization.)

Van Rijn's solution: He locates an outer orbit planet that had been so massive that its core survived the supernova explosion of its primary and therefore still exists but now coated with supermetals that had been fused inside the massive dying star, then ejected by the explosion.

That problem and its solution would have sufficed for an sf story. However, there is also a human dimension. David Falkayn had had a problem.

Problem: How to locate a source of supermetals and without the clue of a company already selling them.

Falkayn's solution: Get a computer to calculate the probable location of a supernova remnant left by a star that had been orbited by a massive planet, the same solution later implemented by van Rijn.

The human issue: It was Falkayn who had located the supermetals planet, later called Mirkheim, and founded Supermetals. It follows that he had used his discovery not to enrich his employer, van Rijn, but to help the poorer planets in Technic civilization who are the shareholders in Supermetals.

The confrontation between van Rijn and Falkayn is the pivotal conflict of the entire Technic History.