An Unusual Star

"A Tragedy of Errors."

Like Roan Tom, his chief wife, Dagny, is familiar enough with stellar types to recognize when a newly approached star is unusual. The sun of Nike radiates as much as an early Type F although its colour and spectrum are closer to late G or early K and it flares so much that maybe its chemical composition is anomalous. Dagny also knows that her own knowledge and understanding of astrophysics and planetology are limited because they are unscientific and merely traditional. Her initial conclusions are necessarily provisional and will be shown to be mistaken when Yasmin, with her "classical" education, has had time to make some more precise calculations. But Dagny is able to think about such matters in ways that most of Poul Anderson's readers cannot because she has some practical experience of interstellar travel. Will our descendants have such experience, even if not faster than light?