Capture, Escape And Reflection

"Strange Bedfellows."

We see some "strange bedfellows." Sevigny is kidnapped by:

a representative of the Fatimite Brotherhood which holds that terraforming defiles the Moon;

a leading member of the Indian Conservationist Party which wants its country, not the Moon, to be reclaimed;

the chairman of a company that will fertilize Terrestrial deserts if the Moon is abandoned.

We are reminded of the disparate anti-UN alliance in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

Helped by his dirrel, Sevigny grabs the gun that has been held on him and escapes - an Andersonian action scene.

Hurrying through city streets, Sevigny gapes at shop display windows and thinks:

"Was such luxury possible on an Earth that everyone called impoverished? Wait. Remember your history classes. Inordinate wealth for a few has always gone along with inordinate want for the many. Because the many no longer have the economic strength to resist...." (p. 197)

Surely we, living in Terrestrial history, take that for granted. However, for Sevigny, coming from a frontier society, it is a history lesson.

Even Anderson's action scenes are reflective.