After "Brake"

Poul Anderson's "Brake" seems less barren a story every time I reread and reassess it. The first time, it seemed like just one fight scene after another and it is largely that, of course. 

The Chronology of the Future lists the Second Dark Ages as commencing just thirty years after the events of "Brake." We hope that the characters that we have come to know do not come to grief.

Sandra Miesel's interstitial passage between "Brake" and "Gypsy" informs us that:

"A saner civilization emerged..."

-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), p. 253 -

- from the Second Dark Ages.

It is some time before we see anything much of that civilization. "Gypsy" and "Star Ship" are about spaceship crews who, for different reasons, have been separated from their civilization. And the Stellar Union is not founded until after the events of both those stories. In any case, history happens which is the point of any future history series. Most of the characters appear only in their single short story.