Aleriona, Moties And Draka

One Aleriona who is bred to think like human beings and not allowed to procreate, in order not to disrupt his own society, is lonely and tries to befriend the captured Heim, thus giving the latter an escape opportunity.
-copied from here.

This Aleriona sounds like Niven's and Pournelle's Motie Mediators who can go mad from identifying with human points of view. Mediators must be sterile so that they will not put the interests of their children over those of their Masters, like the idea of a celibate priesthood.

Anderson's Aleriona have a Final Society, like Stirling's Draka.

However, none of this should be interpreted to imply that The Star Fox by Poul Anderson, The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and Drakon by SM Stirling are interchangeable works. On the contrary! Anyone who has not already read these three novels should be encouraged to do so and to appreciate their diversity.

All three works involve interstellar travel but in entirely different ways. Anderson and Niven & Pournelle present ingeniously imaginative aliens whereas Stirling speculates about what humanity might do to itself.

"Hunting The Snark"

Markus Baur's Draka story, "Hunting The Snark," reintroduces Gwendolyn Ingolfsson although she is perceived from a completely different and unexpected angle. However, the story implies that, while Gwen was running IngolfTech, she was accompanied by a male Draka. Surely this is inconsistent with SM Stirling's Drakon?

One possible answer to that question is that, given innumerable (infinite?) timelines, this story is set in a timeline differing in this one respect from the timeline of Drakon. However, I think that this would be an unhelpful answer. Installments of a series should be mutually consistent. Alternative timelines are a valid fictional premise but not an excuse for inconsistencies. As Larry Niven implies in "All The Myriad Ways," if everything happens, then nothing matters. Why should we make the right choice, if all that happens is that we split into two with the other guy making the wrong choice?

Four Senses In The Bahamas

The single Draka and Samothracian on Earth/2 contend not only physically but also electronically. Because of the latter's hacking, the former's Bahamian mansion is inherited by our NYPD detective and the investment banker, now a happy couple.

"They...turned to look at the mansion. The hot Bahamian sun beat down, and the air smelled of sea and pine and sand, huge and clean. The sound of breakers on the reef came faintly over the roof."
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), p. 397.

Does this author consciously and deliberately address four senses or does any skilled writer automatically do so? -

the sight of a large, beautiful home;
the heat that we enjoy on holidays in such locations;
three clean smells;
the sound of the sea, not threateningly loud but safely faint.

"'And now it's all ours...'" (ibid.)

A happy ending, deserved by the characters and the reader, especially after the previous three volumes.

"Hand in hand, they walked under the arched gateway. The ironwork Drakon flared its wings above, its empty eyes staring out into the sun." (p. 398)

The Drakon flares its wings menacingly but its eyes are empty before the sun of a world free from the Domination.

Light In The Darkness

Because of the pessimism of SM Stirling's Draka series, I could not be confident that the fourth novel, Drakon, would have a conventional happy ending. It does, although the Epilogue reveals that the Draka's clone has escaped - potential sequel territory or just a reminder that history continues. Current experience is only the latest installment.

Stirling's premise:

"What...if a fragment of [the South Atlantic system of slaves and plantations] had fallen on fertile ground, and grown?" (Drakas!, p. 3)

- obliged him to show us the Draka conquering the whole Earth and building their Final Society. However, they can be defeated. First, they are prevented from annexing Earth/2. Secondly, the Archon informs Gwen that:

"'The Samothracians attacked, with moleholes in place. We stopped them, but only just." (Drakon, p. 358)

Only just! But the Draka intend to continue conquering indefinitely. That means that it is only a matter of time before they "'...run into more than [they] can handle...'" (p. 276) They have no unrealistic belief in their own undefeatability and their computers must be able to calculate how soon they are likely to experience defeat. Anyone else would ask: how can we start to avoid conflicts in order to increase the probability of our long term survival? But mere survival is of no interest to the Draka.

They will be cautious in paratemporal explorations because they know that there are post-industrial civilizations in nearby timelines. Nevertheless, such civilizations might explore cross-time and find the Draka.

They are fairly sure that there are no technological species nearby in the galaxy but:

they intend to conquer the entire galaxy;
it is possible that there are nearby civilizations whose electromagnetic signals have not yet reached the Solar System.

Thus:

no guarantee of success in any given conflict;
increasing probability of defeat over time;
no possibility that the Draka will reform themselves or pull back.

The Defeat of the Domination seems to be a long term probability and thus a possible sequel. But, in any case, this series could continue indefinitely in both space and time.

Walpurgisnacht

In James Blish's Black Easter, the magicians hope to limit the damage of their supernatural experiment by releasing the major demons on their least auspicious night, hence the title of the book. It would be unwise, for example, to add a real Walpurgisnacht to the symbolic one.

At the climax of SM Stirling's Drakon (New York, 2000), New York is blacked out as the single invading Draka fights about fifty human beings armed with futuristic weapons by her Samothracian opponent. One character rightly compares this event to "'Walpurgisnacht...'" (p. 364) Demons, or the next best thing, are loose and this could be the last night of human civilization or even of human life, the equivalent of the Final War on Earth/1.

The Draka, Gwen, has contacted the Domination timeline and spoken with the Archon who has appointed her Planetary Archon of Earth/2. Her human followers, traitors to their species, look forward to a good life, for them, under her rule. And I have not yet read to the end of the novel so I do not know the outcome.

Clever Uses Of Language

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000).

Our NYPD detective, Henry Carmaggio, refers to his futurian ally's workroom as "'...the Fortress of Solitude...'" (p. 319) and addresses him ironically as "'...Batman...'" (p. 321) These similarities to comic book characters and settings are clearly present. Thus, it is appropriate that they are acknowledged.

When Henry meets the Draka super-villainness, Gwen, her eyes are:

"...full of an ancient, innocent evil." (p. 348)

Ancient, yes. Both she and the Domination are several centuries old. But innocent evil? Literally, a contradiction. However, appropriate. Like a child torturing an animal, Gwen enjoys killing human beings and thinks that she is right to do so. Thus, about as unrepentantly evil as we can possibly imagine.

The Draka In The Galaxy

SM Stirling's Draka begin to sound like Poul Anderson's Merseians. See here.

(i) The Archon anticipates:

"'...the galaxy under the Domination of the Race...'" (Drakon, p. 275)

(ii) - but recognizes that this will take a long time and that:

(iii) "'...interstellar government will never be very tightly centralized.'" (ibid.)

Thus, for the snakes, as for the gatortails, it is the Race, not any particular nation or state, that counts. Each extrasolar colony has its own Archon.

By "the Merseians," in this context, I mean the Wilwidh Roidhunate culture, not every member of that species. This culture envisages a transcendent but nevertheless racially partial deity (!) whereas the Draka eschew all religion, having failed to revive Norse polytheism.

The Merseians face many intelligent species in their version of our galaxy whereas the Draka are reasonably confident that there are no nearby technological civilizations in the galaxy of Earth/1. However, there are such civilizations in parallel timelines. The Director of Technics suggests that there might even be dinosaurs that (a) did not become extinct and that (b) did later become intelligent.

There might be. However, I do not believe that (b) follows from (a). Intelligence is not inevitable. If reptiles, both large and small, had continued to flourish without requiring the advantages of intelligence, then there would not have been any natural selection of intelligence.

But it is to be hoped that the Draka "'...run into more than we can handle...'" (p. 276)

A Nasty Shock

The never-ending food thread:

"...the rich taste of the venison roasted with mushrooms..."
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), p. 268.

(Memory, e.g., of food, is stronger and vivider in Homo drakensis, even after several centuries.)

Immediately after reading this by now to-be-expected description of food, I received a nasty shock. I had thought that, after its opening chapter, Drakon was to be entirely set within the comfortingly familiar environment of Earth/2. However, turning to p. 270, we find:

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DOMINATION TIMELINE
EARTH/1
FEBRUARY 20, 445th YEAR OF THE FINAL SOCIETY (2445 A.D.)

The Final Society is still with us. Furthermore, in this chapter, it is seen through the eyes of a willing, competent and well rewarded servus. This servus is female and the feminine form of the Latin noun, "servus," is "serva." However, my impression is that, in the Domination timeline, the phrase "Homo servus," abbreviated to "servus," has, like "Homo sapiens," become the uninflected name of a species. Thus, any member of that species is a "servus."

This servus, Tolya Mkenni, is condescendingly given:

Draka-level Web access;
unlimited mobility;
rejuvenation for a second seventy year span;
the promise of one more rejuvenation but no more;
a favor - she requests, and is granted, a second lifespan for her "lifepartner." (p. 277)

The Archon announces that a fourth lifespan would be hubristic. This from a Draka!

Archona, the capital, now has not six million but a mere half million Draka although with six times as many servus.

An SF Villain

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000).

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson, a lone Draka based in the Bahamas in the late twentieth century, plans to enslave humanity or, failing that, exterminate it. So far, this makes her a standard sf villain.

However, Gwen's motivation and abilities are plausible because we have already read three novels about how the Draka grew from a colony of defeated exiles into a

world dictatorship. It is horrible to watch Gwen moving in on the innocent investment banker, Jennifer, who can have little or no resistance to the Draka's powers of personal persuasion and control.

Before the seduction starts, they eat, and we vicariously enjoy, yet another tasty meal:

Jamaican jerk-pork soup;
buffalo hump steak in a brown peppercorn sauce;

a pyramid of tiny pastries of tropical fruits - kiwi, mango, mangosteen and soursop;
Blue Mountain coffee.

We notice the food but know what is coming.

See also the Food Thread.

Classical References

Mainwethering in the London Time Patrol office says:

"'I'd like to engage a private inquiry agent, but the only worthwhile one is entirely too clever. He operates on the principle that when one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. And time trafficking may not be too improbable for him.'"
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2006), pp. 21-22.

FBI agent Finch says:

"'When we've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true.'"
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), p. 235.

Finch adds, "'Classical reference...'" (ibid.) when Henry looks blankly at her. Is there a detective who does not know about the Great Detective? After eliminating aliens, Finch concludes, "'Time traveler...'" (ibid.)

Later, when a time traveler informs Henry about the physical attributes of a future warrior, Henry wants to ask:

"...what about the blue tights and the cape?" (p. 243)

- thus confirming the comparison with superheroes and villains.

Can't Resist It!

SM Stirling describes sex in (excruciating?) detail but that is not what I cannot resist. It's the food. Gwen eats:

johnnycake (I had never heard of it);
fire engine (likewise);
chicken souse;
grits.
fresh avocado. (Drakon, p. 219)

At earlier meals, she had eaten:

conch soup;

grilled marlin steak;
salad. (p. 141)

- and:

soup;
a seventeen-ounce pepper steak with a faint touch of garlic, slightly bloody in the middle (I am mostly vegetarian but get the message that this is tasty food);
pommes frites;
a pastry;
whipped cream on a kiwi tart, a "....smooth-

bland-buttery combination of flavors..." (pp. 155-159)

Another meal:

"...had been long, complex and memorable..." (p. 184)

- and is followed by "...coffee and liqueurs." (p. 185)

I can't help it. This food thing is really getting to me.

Super Powers

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000).

A Draka and a Samothracian agent fight! These guys are superpowered! The Samothracian's powers, e.g., his relative invulnerability to direct hits by guns, derive entirely from his AI suit but that counts as superpowers in the comics: Iron Man; Green Lantern.

Superman is sf: extraterrestrial. He was so successful and inspired so many imitators that he generated a whole new genre but his roots remain in sf:

mentally powerful defenders of Earth in James Blish's "Citadel of Thought";
Poul Anderson's "Un-Men" and "Sensitive Man";
Larry Niven's Gil the Arm and protectors;
Julian May's Jack the Bodiless and Diamond Mask;
these characters created by SM Stirling.

Follow The Arm

On the site of Long Island or Manhattan but on Earth/1:

"The ghouloon reacted...reaching out to grab her..."
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), Chapter One, p. 18.

In New York on Earth/2, when Gwen stops herself from falling:

"Something fell past her." (p. 21)

Later, a detective sees:

"It was an arm, detached at the shoulder. Naked, except for reddish...fur, fur with darker spots. Thick, dense fur running all the way down to the knuckles." (p. 27)

Thus, a ghouloon's severed arm has accompanied Gwen from Earth/1 to Earth/2. If we remember pp. 18 and 21 when reading p. 27, we follow this sequence of events in three stages. We already know what a ghouloon is: a baboon with genetic material from dogs, cats and human beings, with vocal chords, opposable thumbs and enough intelligence to operate simple machines. But its arm provides an intriguing mystery for an NYPD detective.

A Draka Among Us

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000).

When a lone Draka is stranded in New York, 1995, Earth/2, she efficiently kills a few people for immediate survival purposes but does she then become an sf horror villain stalking the subways, hunted by SWAT teams? No.

She uses:

knowledge of the past to acquire a fortune;
knowledge of biotechnology to build a business;
personal skills to acquire a few loyal, well rewarded, slaves.

A covert US government agency prefers to do business with her and to keep her biotech out of hostile hands rather than to treat her as a murder suspect. This causes problems for the NYPD detective investigating the murders and also for the enemy agent sent after her from Earth/1. Thus, we read a different kind of narrative than the one that we might have expected.

In Stirling's Conquistador, an Earth unlike ours is invaded from an Earth like, although not identical with, ours. In Drakon, an Earth like ours is invaded from an Earth unlike ours. Is Earth/2 our Earth? Maybe. But, on the other hand, any fiction differs in close details from reality and is to that extent set on an alternative Earth. There is no IngolfTech on Earth Real - as far as I know.

Wealth And Labor

In several works, Poul Anderson addresses the question: what would be the consequences for mankind if technology were to generate abundant wealth for all but also to eliminate the need for human labor?

In Drakon, SM Stirling has formulated a curious variation on this question: what would the consequences if, despite every technological advance, the dominant culture remained one that was based entirely on the subordination of the social majority by an aggressive, territorial minority? In this scenario, technology is used not to free the majority from the necessity of work but to ensure their permanent subordination.

The Final Society is an ecological paradise enjoyed by all its inhabitants but enjoyed more by its ruling elite who have become a distinct species, free, powerful and with an indefinitely extended lifespan whereas their numerous subordinates live (comfortably) for less than a hundred years and have been made incapable of either resentment or resistance.

Which set of problems would you prefer to have? The Savage in Brave New World thought that a return to the old social conflicts and deprivations was preferable to any continuation of a genetically and chemically engineered contentment.

The Future Of Earth/2?

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), Chapter Seven.

Gwen expects to be put in charge of Earth/2 after the Draka conquest and domestication. Only resisters will be killed. Extreme measures will be unnecessary because homo sapiens cannot harm Homo drakensis. Gwen's administrative Household will be limitlessly rich and life will be a sort of utopia for everyone else with no more:

wars
terrorism
sickness
poverty
famine
environmental problems
cancer
obesity
Alzheimer's disease

Industry will be in space. A tailored paravirus will alter heredity to Homo servus. As such, our descendants will retain personalities and thoughts but without any aggression or rebelliousness. Some will not be personally owned and will "'...even have property, to a certain extent.'" (p. 146)

So can this society evolve towards full equality with technology serving all intelligent species and replacing servus? Social evolution requires periodic revolutions but rebelliousness has been genetically removed from servus. The Final Society has enormous potential but also very great resistance to leveling up.

Wormholes II

OK. I have reread pp. 13-14 of SM Stirling's Drakon (New York, 2000), Chapter One, about moleholes which are called "wormholes" on our Earth.

Physicists:

find a hole in the quantum foam;
pump energy into it;
thus enlarge it;
stretch it.

"Both ends always remain fully congruent in spacetime. It's a closed timelike loop." (p. 14)

"Something sent through one end emerged from the other without subjective duration." (ibid.)

Instantaneous transport? Teleportation?

"...if one end were traveling at relativistic speeds, you got the time dilation effect reversibly." (ibid.)

How so? The text goes on to say that the mobile end would take 4.2 years to reach Alpha Centauri as observed from outside but only a few weeks as observed from the fixed end. I do not follow this.

Passing through the hole, you would move 4.2 light years and 4.2 years without subjective duration. Thus, intense time dilation. Returning through the hole, you would return 4.2 light years and 4.2 years. Thus, time travel. Also, FTL, if you can return from Alpha Centauri simultaneously with your departure. If the mobile end returns, then you have two time gates separated by 8.4 years.

Have the Samothracians got FTL? If they have a decisive military advantage over the Domination, then they should use it without delay. Surely this lesson has been learned from the Final War and earlier?

Racial Superiority

Information about Homo drakensis' physical superiority is probably distributed throughout SM Stirling's Drakon (New York, 2000) but let's begin a list now.

Gwen has:

an implanted link to the Web;
an animal power of scent;
a feline ability to see in the dark;
the ability to see infrared;
superhuman strength and speed;
combat biomods;
periodic DNA updates;
the ability to digest anything organic;
conscious control of pheromones;
an unshockable physiology;
an immune system and panspecifics that eliminate unfamiliar bacteria and viruses;
the ability to will away pain;
ability to seal wounds by clotting;
an indefinitely prolonged lifespan since the last retrofit;
denser, stronger bones;
hemoglobin with a higher oxygen-transport capacity;
an auxiliary heart;
the ability to regenerate limbs, organs, nerve and bone unless killed instantly, e.g., by destruction of the brain or detachment of the head;
internal organo-metallic armor (one of the biomods) grown by a synthetic virus.

Wormholes

SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), Chapter One.

The Draka experiment with "moleholes" (wormholes) while the Samothracians (free archaic human beings at Alpha Centauri) already use them for interstellar travel! Stirling's Draka series could be continued indefinitely in two directions:

into the further future of the Domination timeline;

between timelines.

Will the Draka, the Lords of Creation, the New Virginians and the Angrezi Raj ever meet? Most of these groups travel between alternative Earths but such Earths are unlimited in number. Might any of them visit the Old Phoenix or some other inter-universal rendezvous point - although hopefully not just for a cosmic crowd scene?

"FTL was always considered equivalent to time-travel, Gwen mused. The surprising thing was that both seemed to be possible." (p. 14)

The Wiki article confirms that wormholes might be used for FTL although I do not think that the Samothracians are doing that yet? Stirling presents on p. 14 a condensed summary of wormhole effects that I need to reread. New scientific rationales for faster than light interstellar travel are very much in the sf tradition of Poul Anderson.

Freedom

SM Stirling contributed to Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series and it is unfortunate that Anderson did not likewise contribute to Stirling's Draka series. Both series share the premise that history might have diverged at an earlier stage with momentous consequences. Human sexual behavior varies enormously within a single timeline. How might it vary even more between timelines?

I am all for sexual freedom but between equals, not between masters and slaves. In Stirling's Drakon (New York, 2000), Chapter One, when the Draka Gwen visits a research station staffed entirely by homo servus, she is given flowers by an attractive adolescent boy and girl, the son and daughter of the Administrator and the head of research.

Later, Gwen's guardbeast scents and/or hears that someone is approaching her door. By sound and scent, she discerns who it is and answers the door naked. The boy and girl, naked except for flowers in their hair, present themselves with food and wine, apprehensive but excited. Gwen thinks that this is "'A charming gesture...'" (p. 13) The pleasure will be as intense as they can bear and enjoyable for her. As some of my countrymen would exclaim in disgust, "Charming!"

If drakensis and servus are on such trusting and intimate terms, can they not be equalized? After all, servus do scientific research with military applications:

"Back in the times of the Old Domination, when the Draka and their subjects had both been archaic-human, it had been impossible to entrust work like this to the underclasses. [Gwen] had seen the last of that herself, being the first generation of the New Race." (p. 16)

In a merely human society, there would certainly be a campaign to extend equal rights to subordinates who were both capable of and entrusted with advanced scientific research. However, the Draka have erected the barrier of species between themselves and their subordinates. The author is determined to pursue his dystopian premise all the way to its ghastly conclusion.