We are staying with Guthrie this evening because he is more interesting. We will have to backtrack later to Chapters 4-16. Download Guthrie arrives at Proserpina. He spends two hours flying by jetpack from his interstellar spaceship, Dagny, to the large asteroid where:
"An honor guard awaited him, a dozen tall men in close-fitting black and silver. It was also a real guard." (p. 216)
Lunarians do not carry firearms inside buildings exposed to vacuum but these guards do bear electromagnetic projectors that could disable Guthrie. Lunarians have manpower to spare and seem to revere the number twelve.
A download does not fear for himself but can feel devotion to causes, ideas and living beings.
Lunarians severely restrict the intellects and wills of their few sophotects whereas sophotects rule in the inner Solar System. An Asimov character talks about a society that combines the best of humanity and robotics but that synthesis is not reached in Poul Anderson's works.
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