The planet Talwin is not within but close the border of the Terran Empire. The Merseian base on Talwin serves the purposes of surveillance and of contact with spy rings like the one on the border planet, Irumclaw. Appreciating this, Lieutenant Flandry, who has been taken to Talwin as a prisoner, wonders whether Terran Intelligence has a similar base near the Merseian Roidhunate. He thinks that this is unlikely because the Merseians are too vigilant, because the Terran government is too inert and because its wealthiest citizens oppose increased expenditure.
This changes when Flandry himself has become a Captain in Intelligence. Then, he infiltrates the Roidhunate and locates a terrestroid but uninhabited planet where the Terran Navy subsequently establishes an advanced base.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! People like Flandry were at least sometimes able to overcome that inertness and resistance for paying the costs of things that needed to be done, such as that secret advanced base in the Roidhunate.
Chapter II of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS has Flandry again feeling frustration at how the thumb-witted guardians of Terra were resisting doing, out of lassitude, things that needed to be done.
Ad astra! Sean
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