The Secret Message

How to smuggle a secret message off Altai when all spaceships and their crews are watched?

No Altaian can read the Terran principle language, Anglic. Even the Kha Khan reads only Altaian and Alfzarian. He trades with Betelgeuse but his people have been isolated from Terra for centuries. When the fugitive Flandry, under cover of night and storm, paints an Anglic word on the side of the Prophet's Tower, no Altaian can read it and its meaning is irrelevant because its mere location is interpreted as a wilful provocation and insult.

A Betelgeusean trader can read the word and has no way of knowing that he might harm Flandry, whom he believes to be dead, by explaining the Anglic to the Khan Khan. However, although Zalat can read "Mayday" and can infer that this means the first day of the Terrestrial month of May, he cannot know that the Anglic is derived from the English "Mayday" which is based on the French "M'aidez," pronounced "M'aid-ay," meaning "Aid me."

Betelgeuseans will take this story home, where it will be heard by staff of the Terran Embassy. Some weeks later, a Terran ship arrives at Altai...

Thus, Flandry transmits a message that is regarded as an insult, is illegible to all Altaians and incomprehensible to Zalat but easily remembered and repeated by the Betelgeuseans and understood by Flandry's fellow Terrans. And that is far from elementary, Watson!

For how rats have evolved on Altai, see here.

To Altai And Back

For a summary of information on the native Altaians, see here.

OK. I have reconstructed Flandry's itinerary. For the investigation of Altai:

Intelligence shipped him to Betelgeuse, where the Terran Embassy gave him his orders with a dossier and an expense account;

he engaged passage to Altai on a Betelgeusean trading ship.

To return to Terra:

he engaged passage on a Betelgeusean tramp ship as the quickest way to reach the Imperial port at Spica VI, from where he would return home on a luxury liner, the Empress Maia;

however, the tramp stopped on Orma, where a Betelgeusean trader informed him of another isolated human colony, Unan Besar, and he rented a space flitter to go and investigate that planet;

presumably, having liberated Unan Besar, he returned to Orma, thence to Spica VI and Terra, although we next see him, some time later, on Varrak in the Taurian Sector - if you accept my revision of the Chronology in recent posts.

Projected Dates For The Fall Of Empire

Information about Poul Anderson's fictitious planet, Altai, continues to be posted here,  here, here and here.

The unreliability of projected dates for the Fall of the Terran Empire is also shown by another consideration. At least twice during Dominic Flandry's lifetime, the Empire could have fallen suddenly and unexpectedly - if the Terran fleet had been destroyed at Starkad or if a jihad had been launched from Aeneas.

These possibilities preexisted the computer projection quoted by Aycharaych to Flandry. Nevertheless, they demonstrate the instability and unpredictability of the period. And an even less predictable possibility arose shortly afterwards. If a Merseian sleeper had become Terran Emperor, then the Empire would not have fallen but have been incorporated into the Roidhunate.

Chunderban Desai thinks that what he calls the Empire's anarchic phase will last for another eighty years, although modern technology, nonhuman influences and interstellar distances could change that time scale.This will be followed by a "rise," then the final collapse, but there is no absolute inevitability and the development is often cut short by foreign conquest. By leading an armada to Sector Spica to quell the barbarians, Emperor Hans risks losing the throne to an insurrection at home, especially since Aycharaych knows how to foment civil wars.

Thus, even Desai's predicted dates could easily be overturned.

The Captain Flandry Series II

I have argued that, of the seven works in (what I call) the Captain Flandry Series, four form a tetralogy:

"Tiger by the Tail" (1951)
"Honorable Enemies" (1951)
"The Game of Glory" (1958)
"Hunters of the Sky Cave " (1959)

that two form a diptych:

"A Message in Secret" (1959/1961)
"The Plague of Masters" (1960/1961)

and, further, that the tetralogy precedes the diptych, contrary to the order of the stories in Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization.

The anomaly is "The Warriors from Nowhere" (1954). On the one hand, it contains the Hooligan and Chives. On the other hand, it was written before "The Game of Glory," in which Flandry has not yet acquired either a private spaceship or a personal servant. However, Poul Anderson solves this conundrum. Retroactively, the story becomes a prelude to A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, the opening novel of the Children of Empire Trilogy. In A Knight..., Hans Molitor has become Terran Emperor after a civil war and, we are to understand, the events of "The Warriors..." occurred during that war, when Hans had not yet defeated all of his rivals but was nevertheless already being served as Emperor by Flandry and others.

Thus, "The Warriors..." becomes the first of four works set during the Molitor dynasty and the entire Flandry series comprises:

the Young Flandry Trilogy;
a tetralogy;
a diptych;
the Molitor period.

The Captain Flandry Series

Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series begins with the Young Flandry Trilogy and ends with (what I call) the Children of Empire Trilogy. Between the two trilogies, there are:

two non-Flandry works, a short story and a novel;
the Captain Flandry series, seven works of different lengths, including two short novels.

I am currently rereading parts of the Captain Flandry series. Since "A Message in Secret" is set on Altai, I have begun adding notes about this fictitious planet to the Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments blog, here.

Posting more on either blog will be delayed by activities in our timeline:

driving to Blackpool tomorrow morning to liaise with delegates to the Pensioners' Parliament;
walking to and from a sports center to use the gym or swimming pool;
preparing for a social gathering here this Friday evening.

Meanwhile, if not on line, I will be rereading Poul Anderson in my spare time. 

A Flandry Diptych

I mentioned that Poul Anderson's "A Handful of Stars" was published in 1959, was lengthened as We Claim These Stars! that year and later was re-entitled "Hunters of the Sky Cave." "A Handful..." was published in June, 1959.

"A Message in Secret" was published in December, 1959, was lengthened as Mayday Orbit in 1961 and later regained its original title. Whereas "Hunters..." completes a tetralogy, "A Message..." initiates a diptych.

"A Message..." begins when a Betelgeusean trading ship, with Dominic Flandry as its sole passenger, approaches the human extrasolar colony, Altai. Ostensibly, Flandry goes to re-establish contact with Altai after centuries of isolation. In reality, he suspects Merseian subversion.

"Officially, his mission was so minor that Terra didn't even give him a ship of his own, but left him to negotiate passage as best he might..."
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 342.

That word, "Officially..." is significant. It does seem strange that an Imperial representative should buy passage on a Betelgeusean tramp. Further, we learned in "Hunters...," and presumably also in the original, shorter version, that Flandry has a private spaceship, the Hooligan, crewed by his servant, Chives. But maybe it was decided that his investigation of possible Merseian influence on Altai should be low-key and therefore should not start with him arriving in his own combat ship?

This makes more sense to me than trying to shoehorn "A Message..." and its sequel between "The Game of Glory"and "A Message..." as in the Chronology of Technic Civilization. "The Plague of Masters" is a direct sequel to "A Message..." because its events occur when Flandry is en route from Altai back to Terra but I need to reread in order to sort out this sequence of events.

A Flandry Tetralogy

Poul Anderson's "A Handful of Stars" (1959) was lengthened as We Claim These Stars! (1959), then re-entitled "Hunters of the Sky Cave." At the beginning of "Hunters...," Flandry, in the Solar System, says that he has returned Home after the Nyanza business, i.e., after the events of "The Game of Glory." (1958) A few pages later, Aycharaych says:

"'Congratulations upon your handling of l'affaire Nyanza... We are going to miss A'u on our side.'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandery: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 160 -

- thus confirming that the events of "...Glory" immediately preceded those of "Hunters..."

Early in "...Glory," Flandry "...discovered how to lie to a telepath." -Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 303. Thus, the entire contents of "Honorable Enemies," (1951) Flandry's first meeting with Aycharaych, occur between the beginning and the end of "...Glory."

In "Honorable Enemies," Flandry is referred to as "'...the single-handed conqueror of Scothania...'" -Captain Flandry, p. 280. This happened in "Tiger by the Tail." (1951)

Thus, these four works:

"Tiger by the Tail" (1951)
"Honorable Enemies" (1951)
"The Game of Glory" (1958)
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" (1959)

- form a continuous tetralogy although they are not presented as such in the Chronology of Technic Civilization. Flandry captures Aycharaych at the end of "Hunters..." but the Merseians insist on a prisoner exchange, so the story of Flandry versus Aycharaych continues.

Dates In The Later Technic History

"Only one is set during the Long Night itself, over half a century after The Game Of Empire: 'A Tragedy of Errors'..."
-Hank Davis, "The Wheel Turns" IN Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), pp. vii-xii AT p. x.

Over half a century? Surely it is longer than that? As a matter of fact, the dates as given by Sandra Miesel in "Chronology of Technic Civilization" (pp. 795-804) are:

3064 The Game Of Empire
3600 "A Tragedy of Errors"
3900 "The Night Face"
4000 "The Sharing of Flesh"
7100 "Starfog"

The precise dating in this Chronology has been disputed (see here). However, I am at present focusing attention only on the Chronology as presented in Flandry's Legacy and, furthermore, only on the approximate intervals between the last few installments. The texts present no dates. Sandra Miesel presents only round numbers for the dates of these later works. And she dates Flandry's birth to another round year, 3000.

Once in the series, the projected date of the Fall of the Terran Empire is discussed:

"'If we possessed Syrax,' said Aycharaych, 'it would, with 71 per cent probability, hasten the collapse of the Terran hegemony by a hundred years, plus or minus ten. That is the verdict of our military computers - though I myself feel the faith our High Command has in them is naive and rather touching. However, the predicted date of Terra's fall would still lie 150 years hence. So I wonder why your government cares.'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 163.

What does this tell us? Aycharaych doubts the computers and can be trusted to know what he is talking about although not necessarily to tell the truth about it. This story, "Hunters of the Sky Cave," is set in 3040, according to the Chronology. 150 years later would be 3190. But Merseia does not gain control of Syrax so that puts the estimated date of the Fall back to 3290. However, the Merseians suffer other unexpected reverses during Flandry's lifetime. They lose Chereion in 3047 and suffer a severe blow to their morale in 3064. All of this should delay the fall of Terra even further. In fact, we know that the Roidhunate also collapses and this would not have been predicted by their military computers. Diana, who is eighteen in 3064, should not, even with anti-senescence, live to see the Empire fall.

Back to Aycharaych's last point: 150 years, if that were the right figure, is frighteningly close. Even the complacent Terran Empire might be concerned.

Retro-History

In Ensign Flandry, the Terran Emperor was Georgios. In subsequent volumes, his successors were:

Josip;
unnamed short-live Imperial relative (added, 17 June '14);
Hans;
Dietrich;
Gerhart -

- and Gerhart's heir will be Karl.

In The Game Of Empire, when Olaf Magnusson tries to depose Gerhart, we are given some retroactive history involving four already familiar names:

as Georgios was dying, Josip's favorites gained power;

when Josip succeeded, atrocities became routine in the outer Empire;

Captain Erik Magnusson of Kraken traded with Merseia;

some Merseians sensed Magnusson's disaffection from the Empire and referred his case to Brechdan Ironrede;

Brechdan and human subjects of the Roidhun converted Captain Magnusson;

Magnusson left his son Olaf to be educated on Merseia;

Aycharaych completed Olaf's conditioning.

The Game Of Empire also introduces the Zacharians whose retro-history goes back to the Polesotechnic League period and even further to the earliest interstellar travel of the twenty second century. There is always more to be learned about the past.

Plato's Cave Again

A Zacharian defends his people's support for Merseia:

"'We owe the Terran Empire nothing. It dragooned our forebears into itself. It has spurned our leadership, the vision that animated the Founders. It will only allow us to remain ourselves on this single patch of land, afar in its marches. Here we dwell like Plato's man in chains, seeing only shadows on the wall of our cave, shadows cast by the living universe. The Merseians have no cause to fear or shun us. Rather, they will welcome us as their intermediaries with the human commonality. They will grant us the same boundless freedom they want for themselves.'"
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 423.

Nonsense, man! You are in the living universe. You are free to travel, trade and explore. Do you want a freedom "granted" by Merseia? Your only right to "lead" is the same as anyone else's: give us a moral or social lead or example and find out whether we freely follow your example.

Anderson wrote an Asimov Robots story called "Plato's Cave." Plato stood reality on its head. He thought that ideas were not abstractions from our experience but that they were ultimate realities merely reflected by sensory experience. Thus, his men watching shadows in a cave were (so he thought) seeing objects which were merely copies of ideas whereas, I suggest, it is the ideas that are derived, by abstraction and generalization, from the real objects. The universe contains many real animals from which "animal-hood" is an abstraction, not vice versa.

In any case, the Zacharians on their island cannot claim that they see only shadows.