An Infinite Series?

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York,2004), Interlude, pp. 94-99.

The New Virginians kidnap a physicist, Ralph Barnes, so that he can explain the Gate to them but Barnes refuses to help "'...a fascist bastard like [Rolfe]...'" (p. 96) Rolfe will neither kill Barnes nor return him to FirstSide so the latter winds up running a burger joint in the Commonwealth. An avowed dissident is allowed to reside and earn his living.

Having seen the Gate, Barnes thinks that the Big Bang must have been a quantum fluctuation initiating an infinite series of universes. Thus, apparently, a standing waveform drawing on zero energy would solve the dark matter problem. This sounds like some passages in Poul Anderson's Starfarers. See here and here.

If there is an infinite series of universes, might, e.g., the Commonwealth of New Virginia, the Angrezi Raj and the Domination of the Draka be separated from each other by infinite distances? No. Any two or even three universes can be separated only by finite distances however great even if there is an infinite series of such universes. But they could be so far apart that their cross-time travelers will never encounter each other in the entire histories of any of their universes.

New Virginian Neofeudalism

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Chapter Three.

New Virginian troopers wear gray Commission Militia uniforms but mark their Family affiliation with shoulder flashes. A squad presents arms for the Batyushkov Prime when he has arrived at Colletta Hall in a convoy displaying double-headed eagles and mounted machine guns.Thus easily can ex-KGB men become technologized Cossacks.

The Colletta's Fr Sarducci greets the Batyushkov's Orthodox priest and Giovanni thinks that the two clergymen might argue about filioque. I understand that New Virginian society has lagged behind FirstSide but surely it has not gone that far backwards?

Protocol is all. For the Colletta Prime to greet the Batyushskov at the door would imply equality so the Colletta heir must do it. Batyushkov shows deference by coming to the Hall and to the Prime's office; Giovanni shows respect by meeting him privately and by observing Russian drinking rituals. However, he draws the line at matching his guest drink for drink. A clear head is more important than a minor breach of etiquette and loss of face.

Batyushkov applies the Russian custom of patronymics to his host's Italian name. Thus, he addresses Salvatore's son, Giovanni, as "'...Giovanni Salvatorovich...'" (p. 92)

Behind all this diplomacy and maneuvering is the deadliness of their plan to seize the Gate and rule the Commonwealth.

Some Information About The Thirty Families

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), p. 88.

Americans have a majority among the Thirty. Early land distributions near the Gate went to:

the American majority;
the English;
German-Balts;
Franco-Algerians;
British-Africans.

Granted committee-status only in the 1990s, the Russian Batyukovs got the Pajaro Valley and the Afrikaner Versfelds got Santa Monica.

The Collettas' power is based on:

their share in the oil wells, factories, power stations and gold, silver and mercury mines;
their affiliated Settlers;
their influence on the Central Committee;
their share of the Gate revenues and of the FirstSide corporations.

What's not to like? The Rolfes and their allies, dominating the committee and the Commission, impose policies of caution that are irksome to Giovanni Colletta who sees two worlds to conquer.

The View From Colletta Hall

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), pp. 84-85.

Behind Giovanni Colletta's desk is a portrait of his father flanked by tall glass doors through which Giovanni sees:

a broad, balustraded terrace where malachite and crimson hummingbirds hover around gold, white and purple blossoms tumbling from man-high stone vases. From the balustrade, he can see:

gardens with trees, lawns, pools, fountains and terraced flowers;
the red-roofed town;
Settler farms;
plum, almond and apricot trees, green now, in June, but pink and white in spring;
vineyards;
breeze-blown golden grain with green windbreaks;
tall corn, soon to be harvested;
cattle and sheep in pastures with oak trees;
dark soil behind tractors followed by gulls;
the Santa Clara valley stretching to San Francisco Bay;
behind the Hall, redwood groves on low mountains.

Sounds:

vehicle engines;
wind in trees;
an ax chopping wood;
speech;
song;
hummingbird wings.

Scents:

the flowers on the terrace;
in spring, the fruit trees.

A proud sight but the ambitious Colletta is not content.

A Buffet Lunch

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), p. 90.

The Collettas serve a buffet lunch to the visiting Batyushkovs:

figs and melon wrapped in thin, cured wild-boar ham;
caviar with crisp rye toast;
prawns grilled with garlic and chili;
skewered spring lamb;
colorful salads;
fresh oysters in their shells;
oysters wrapped in bacon;
fried, sliced roast loin of pork stuffed with figs, almonds and olives;
breads;
cheeses;
kiwi pastries with cream;
piles of fruit;
wine in ice;
chilled vodka.

This meal can be eaten without servants present. Crime and treason will be discussed.

Meeting Places

John Rolfe and Manuel Argos (see here) would have much to discuss if they were able to meet between universes, for example in the Old Phoenix. In fact, we can all too readily envisage an endless series of Old Phoenix dialogues between characters from different works and worlds but such dialogues would have to say something worthwhile.

There are other possible meeting places. Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization mentions two hypothetical hereafters:

"[Emperor Hans] either appalled Manuel Argos or won a grudging approval, in whatever hypothetical hell or Valhalla the Founder dwelt."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), p. 380.

Later, imagining a monologue delivered by Roan Tom's ghost, the omniscient narrator continues:

"...he pauses to stuff a pipe with Earthgrown tobacco, which is available in his particular Valhalla..."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), p. 458.

Tom's Valhalla becomes a fiction within a fiction: we are invited to imagine Tom drawling, explaining and smoking - but then the narrative flashes back to when he was alive. Tom belongs with the others. During the Long Night, he makes alliances that build a base for the Allied Planets and their civilizing missions.

So let's imagine, in the Inn or one of the Valhallas (Halls of the Valorous), SM Stirling's John Rolfe outnumbered by Anderson's Manuel I, Hans I, Flandry and Tom - but then joined by Eric von Shrakenberg, St Disraeli and Emperor John II. I expect that one of the Valiant Halls has a VIP lounge...

A (Short) Literary Detour

I have just been side-tracked onto rereading a work of theology by CS Lewis. However, this is not such a long detour as it may appear.

(i) Letters To Malcolm is a series of fictional letters, thus a work of fiction. Fictional events concerning Malcolm's family occur in the background.

(ii) Lewis discusses philosophical and cosmological issues.

(iii) He speculates about bodily resurrection and Heaven, thus connecting with several works of fantasy by American sf writers. See here and here.

(iv) This is the same CS Lewis who, as first person narrator, is a minor character in the Ransom Trilogy, which is his reply to the major science fiction works of HG Wells and Olaf Stapledon.

(v) Poul Anderson is a Wellsian and Stapledonian sf writer whereas Lewis is both anti-Wellsian and anti-Stapledonian.

(vi) We need to read both sides of the argument, especially since both sides are written well. Lewis and Anderson share the ability to present sympathetic treatments of characters with whom they disagree morally and philosophically.

"Men Make Their Own History..."

"Men make their own history but not in circumstances of their own choosing."

Whereas SM Stirling's John Rolfe accidentally opened a Gate to an alternative Earth where he founded the Commonwealth of New Virginia, Poul Anderson's Manuel Argos led a slave revolt and founded the Terran Empire. The Empire is incomparably vaster than the Commonwealth. However, this is because Rolfe was a World War II veteran whereas Argos was born in a later age of faster than light interstellar travel: "...not in circumstances of their own choosing."

Further, we are shown several centuries of the Empire but only two generations of the Commonwealth. How vast might the latter later become? At the end of Conquistador, the Commonwealth begins to expand not out into space but sideways onto a third alternative Earth. Since at least one of Argos' predecessors has already traveled between universes, there is the possibility, however remote, of a meeting between Commonwealth and Empire, maybe in a second Anderson-themed anthology? But, meanwhile, we have many already written works to read or reread.

Apparently, hypothetical crossovers are a regular fannish debating topic:

Batman and Captain America fight - who wins?;
the Federation of Star Trek and the Empire of Star Wars meet - which wins?;
etc.

(I have the uneasy feeling that this post has descended from the sublime to the center of a black hole.)

Camping In New Virginia In 1946

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Interlude, pp. 25-33.

We have discussed:

(i) descriptive passages that appeal to three or more of the senses;

(ii) vivid descriptions of food.

Of course, (i) and (ii) can be combined. Food is seen, smelled and tasted. It is sometimes heard, bubbling, sizzling, crackling etc, and can even be felt if eaten by hand. Further, it is eaten in settings as diverse as restaurants and campfires that can be described simultaneously with the food.

John Rolfe has taken four other men through the Gate to the Other Side, a North America uninvaded by white men  - until now. Rolfe will call this alternative America the Commonwealth of New Virginia. The men are:

his first cousins, Robert and Alan Fitzmorton;
his former sergeant, Andy O'Brien;
his former radioman, Salvatore Colletta.

Sitting around a campfire, the five men see:

flickering red light;
drifting sparks;
firelight shimmering on the leaves of massive, writhing oak tree branches;
frosty stars.

They hear:

a coffeepot bubbling on stones in the fire;
popping sparks;
a large animal grunting and pushing through a thicket;
their horses snorting, stamping and pulling;
chanting from the nearby Ohlone Indian village.

They smell:

coffee;
burning oak wood;
grilled tule elk stakes;
brine in the nearby bay.

Brine, not a food smell, nevertheless evokes the fish that may be caught in that bay.

Rolfe has two ways of knowing that the Other Side is not their California of long ago:

he carved numbers on rocks on Other Side but has not found them on First Side;
he will photograph the night sky and have it checked by astronomers.

O'Brien is right to ask. He is wrong to think that they could go pop if they changed the past but they do need to know that they can return to their version of the present.

Colletta has a Chicago typewriter. The men found their new Commonwealth:

the other four agree that Rolfe is their boss or padrone;
O'Brien says that they need to include Sol Pearlmutter, another Army acquaintance;
they will exchange gold from Other Side for money on First Side;
the money will be safely banked abroad;
they will buy the house that contains the Gate and the land around it, rezone the land, start a company and colonize the Other Side;
in the first instance, Rolfe and his cousins will return with gold to First Side while Andy and Salvo stay in New Virginia to work on the Indians.

From this small acorn will grow a massive oak.

The Commonwealth Of New Virginia

SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004),Chapter Two.

John Rolfe VI, Chairman Emeritus and Founding Father, resides in Rolfe Manor.

His son, Charles Rolfe, Chairman of the Commission, works at a desk where several hidden screens can rise to show "...crystal clear, almost three-dimensional..." images. (p. 37)

Charles' daughter, Adrienne, works in the uniformed Gate Security Force.

The Commission represents the Thirty Families. The first of the Families were "the Founders" (p. 36) who made their pact at the beginning of New Virginia.

On FirstSide, the Fish and Game Department, investigating rare species smuggling, finds that Bosco Holdings is a subsidiary of Colletta Enterprises which has cross-holdings with Rolfe Mining and Minerals which, in turn, owns a big operation in Oakland. Sure it does. A building in Oakland conceals the Gate.

We recognize Colletta as the name of one of John Rolfe's earliest confidantes. Apparently, the Colletta Prime's office is even bigger than the Chairman's. The Boscos are Colletta collaterals. Settler businesses are affiliated with Families and there is an "Imperialist faction." (p. 40)

Commonwealth neofeudalism is either interesting and colorful or chaotic and dangerous according to point of view.