Thirty-three light-years from Sol, as his ferry leaves its mother ship and descends from orbit, Yakov Kahn sees:
"...the sprawl of Sagittarius." (p. 233)
- and reflects that the galactic centre lies beyond those dust clouds.
Poul Anderson's readers remember:
"'...the Sagittarian frontier of the Stellar Union...'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, July 1979), CHAPTER IV, p. 23.
- and:
"'Civilization - the civilization of man and his non-human allies - has moved inward, toward the great star-clusters of Galactic center. This part of space means nothing to us any more; it's almost a desert. You haven't seen star-light till you've been by Sagittarius.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Chapter Ends" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, June 1982), pp. 253-281 AT p. 262.
It is all one universe in different works of fiction.
Kahn reflects on his eventual return to Earth:
"Almost seventy years will have passed since we started out. And even then I was an anachronism, too many missions to too many stars..." (p. 234)
This relativistic interstellar travel reminds us of the extra-solar explorer, Joshua Coffin, in the first Rustum story. So far these stories could be set in the same future timeline. But there will be more tomorrow or the day after.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm just glad the Earth of the Directorate timeline managed to found colonies on planets of a few other stars. Also, while not all readers might have noticed, the STL tech of the the Directorate seem to be more advanced that of the Rustum stories.
Ad astra! Sean
The center of galaxies is weirder than we thought at the time Poul wrote that story. Lots of giant black holes and radiation.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I read a bit about that as well. And those black holes and the radiation makes it unlikely organic life, including intelligent races, exist there. Unless, as we see in Anderson's story "Kyrie," strange life forms somehow "evolved" in or near stars.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment