A constellation seen from a colonized extra-solar planet:
"Sedes Regis was an L scrawled across heaven. Tradition claimed Old Sol lay in that direction, a thousand parsecs away. But no one on Chertkoi was certain any longer. Golyev shrugged. Who cared?" (p. 119)
For other extra-solar constellations, see Armies Of Stars and links from it.
One parsec is about 3.26 light-years. People have travelled at sub-light speeds from Earth to Chertkoi and other extra-solar planets where they have built civilizations, which must have taken a long time. However, Golyev's only source for the figure of a thousand parsecs is tradition. A sequel could be written in which that tradition was shown to be inaccurate. Maybe "a thousand parsecs" was just someone's expression for a long distance? How much of the information in a work of fiction is in the minds of the characters and could be overturned in a sequel?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
On this matter, at least, it's hard to disagree with Golyev. Assuming STL interstellar travel I doubt most colonized planets will take any interest in places more than 100 lightyears from their homes. Because they will be too far away in time and space to really care about.
Ad astra! Sean
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