Kheraskov And Flandry

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWO.

Lieutenant Commander Dominic Flandry reports as ordered to Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov who commands perhaps a million Imperial Intelligence agents. When Kheraskov had asked Files who might be available with the right qualifications for a maverick job, a dozen names had come up. Flandry had checked in to Terra the previous week and is owed a lot of leave that will have to be further postponed. He is not the only man being sent to cope with a difficult situation although he is the one that will singlehandedly cut the Gordian knot.

Flandry reports not to his immediate superior but to Kheraskov first because the latter is confident that his office is not bugged and secondly because he is reasonably certain that Flandry will not betray him. Kheraskov must speak frankly about Emperor Josip and his favourite, Aaron Snelund. Flandry would gain and Kheraskov would lose, maybe be shot or enslaved, if Flandry were to repeat what he had said.

Meanwhile, Kheraskov knows what Flandry did on Merseia during the Starkad affair and has learned (at least some of) he did while stationed on Irumclaw. Great Emperor! The Service has to turn a blind eye to some escapades of competent men. There is no blackmail along the lines of "I will expose you if you expose me..." Both men understand that they are working for the good of the Empire, however they have to go about it.

On reflection, we see only two Terran Emperors. In Ensign Flandry, Georgios remains off-stage and Josip is as yet only Crown Prince. In The Rebel Worlds, Josip has become Emperor but remains off-stage. That leaves Hans in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and his third son, Gerhard, in A Stone in Heaven. Otto had died earlier. Dietrich becomes Emperor but between volumes. Gerhart remains off-stage during The Game of Empire. In that concluding volume of the Flandry period, Karl is Crown Prince. In the next Technic History instalment, the Empire is long gone but Flandry's efforts have preserved some planetary civilizations.

Kheraskov

Whereas James Bond has one M, Dominic Flandry has, variously:

Abrams
Yuan-Li
Kheraskov
Fenross
Molitor

In The Rebel Worlds, Flandry's immediate superior, never seen, is Captain Yuan-Li. However, Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov picks Flandry for a delicate mission that could get them both shot or enslaved. To a high echelon of the Intelligence Corps, young Lieutenant Commander Dominic Flandry is not obscure. They know what he did in the Starkad affair, while still an ensign, and even what he covered up but they need men like him so they keep a blind eye when necessary. Kheraskov turns a blind eye to even more when Flandry has completed the mission although he has to work for it.

Over twenty years later, when High Emperor Hans gives Captain Sir Dominic Flandry a roving commission, Flandry advises Hans to "'... tip the word to none less than Kheraskov...'" (Sir Dominic Flandry..., p. 383) Flandry will then contact Kheraskov. He has risen indeed and so far has refused admiral's rank because it is easier to sneak away on a secret mission as a mere captain.

There must be equivalents of Dominic Flandry in the interstellar empires of other future histories.

(Breakfast was scrambled egg, then marmalade, in pitta bread.)

A Rushed Narrative And Kheraskov's Office

Sometimes, for reasons of word limit, a narrative is shorter than we would have liked. In Poul Anderson's A Circus of Hells, we would have liked a chapter on the conversation between Dominic Flandry and the main computer on Wayland.

In The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWO ends as Flandry is about to leave Kheraskov's office and CHAPTER THREE begins with the Asieneuve's tthird stop en route to Llynathawr. That third stop is at Shalmu whereas the first and second had been at humanly colonised planets so would maybe have been less interesting.

However, I feel that the entire narrative is rushed. I would like to have lingered in Kheraskov's office:

on the 90th floor of Intelligence headquarters;

scanner, talkbox and computer for reception;

large;

high-ceilinged;

lushly carpeted;

an infotriever;

an outsize vidphone;

a small refreshment unit;

pictures;

shelves for mementos of victories;

a vivid wall-size animation of Jupiter filmed from an approaching ship;

an expanse of desktop;

Kheraskov in plain uniform without decorations but the jewel of knighthood and the nebula and star of admiralty;

cigar and coffee, tea or jaine offered.

Kheraskov is:

"...the master of perhaps a million agents through the Empire and beyond." (p. 383)

A Palpable Sense Of Troubled Times

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWO. 

Let me back up that sense of troubled times (here).

Unusual circumstances are necessary to explain why a mere Lieutenant is reporting to a Vice Admiral, not to a Captain or to his usual superior.

Kheraskov has to judge that he is talking to someone who will not betray him by reporting him to the Imperial court. (That would result in preferment for Flandry and ruin for Kheraskov.)

Kheraskov and some of his colleagues have learned things that Flandry hushed up about his assignment to surveillance. That can only mean his dealings with the criminal, Leon Ammon. Yet Flandry is brilliant enough that a high echelon in Intelligence can turn a blind eye when they need someone like him.

Kheraskov paces, hammering palm with fist, talking rapidly. What he has to say matches this build-up.

A sense of menace to both men: I trust that "palpable" is an accurate description.

Resonances

An author's use of language resonates between works. Dominic Flandry first appeared in "Tiger by the Tail." (1951) The title means that barbarian imperialists kidnap Flandry and wish they hadn't.

The Young Flandry Trilogy is an extended prologue. In Ensign Flandry, (1966) Flandry, when in the company of a xenosophont called a "Tigery," uses the phrase "'...a Tigery by the tail!'" Here, Anderson clearly deliberately echoes that earlier written title. In A Circus Of Hells, (1970) he "...smiled like a tiger." Probably another deliberate echo. I am currently rereading The Rebel Worlds, (1969) looking out for tiger comparisons.

In The Rebel Worlds, Flandry is summoned before Vice Admiral Kheraskov - like Bond summoned before Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, commonly called M. Kheraskov is:

"...the master of perhaps a million agents through the Empire and beyond." (The Rebel Worlds, London, 1973, p. 17)

Just think of it.

Flandry has changed his face for the first and only time so that, in any screen adaptations, a different actor would have to be used from this installment onwards.

Files had given Kheraskov reels on a dozen agents qualified for this job. We would like to read novels based on the other reels just as we would like to know about 008 or 009.

This next subject is probably of interest to none but me but so be it. Latest thinking on how best to package and present the History of Technic Civilization:

three boxed sets -

LEAGUE AND EMPIRE
The Rise Of The Polesotechnic League
The Decline Of The Polesotechnic League
The Rise Of The Terran Empire

FLANDRY AND EMPIRE
Young Flandry
Outposts Of Empire
Captain Flandry

EMPIRE AND AFTER
Children Of Empire
After The Empire

We wish there were more not only after the AFTER but also before and between.

Corridors Of Power

When Josef Faber reports to Krasna at Service HQ on Randolph, Krasna offers Faber:

"'Smoke? Drink? Rax?'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1983), p. 20.

When Lieutenant Commander Dominic Flandry reports to Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov at Intelligence headquarters on Earth, Kheraskov offers Flandry a cigar, then:

"'Coffee...Or tea or jaine.'"
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 383.

They will have different drugs and beverages in future.

I am having trouble with the word, "...trikon..." on p. 386 of Young Flandry.

I am rereading this account of Flandry's visit to Intelligence headquarters at Admiralty Center because I am fascinated by the phrase "...labyrinthine corridors of power..." in the blurb on the back of Young Flandry and want to learn more about these corridors. The phrase suggests, at least to me, underground corridors which would make sense for defense against the threat of nuclear bombardment. Admiralty Center occupies and lifts above the Rocky Mountains so some of the Center must tunnel into the mountains? Indeed:

"...traffic pulsed among the towers, up and down within them, deep into the tunnels and chambers beneath their foundations." (p. 380)

However, a robot air taxi deposits Flandry "...on the fiftieth-level parking flange." (ibid.) From there, he walks down several bustling halls to a lift shaft and ascends by negagrav field to the hushed, high rank, ninety-seventh level which holds Kheraskov's opulent suite of offices.

No doubt everyone will descend to chambers beneath the foundations if there is an attack.

Secrets

Dominic Flandry guards Imperial secrets, steals enemy secrets and accumulates personal secrets as his career progresses.

Leon Ammon:

"'...I did notice you and had you studied. I learned more than stands on any public record, boy. The whole Starkad business pivoted on you.'
"Shocked, Flandry wondered how deeply the rot had eaten, if the agent of a medium-scale vice boss on a tenth-rate frontier planet could obtain such information."
-A Circus Of Hells, CHAPTER TWO, p. 207.

Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov:

"'...we've taken quite an interest in you since the Starkad affair. That had to be hushed up, of course, but it was not forgotten. Your subsequent assignment to surveillance had intriguing consequences.' Flandry could not totally suppress a twinge of alarm. Kheraskov chuckled again; it sounded like iron chains. 'We've learned things that you hushed up. Don't worry...yet.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT CHAPTER TWO, pp. 383-384.

For at least the third time, Flandry is told that he will either come to grief or go far.

After Flandry has successfully completed the mission assigned to him by Kheraskov, there is considerable suspicion, although no proof, of irregularities, including high treason and murder.

Grand Duke Edwin Cairncross:

"'The business wasn't publicized - would've been awkward for diplomacy, right? - but a man in my kind of position has ways of learning things if he's interested. You pulled the fangs of the Merseians at Chereion, and we no longer have to worry about them.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT III, p. 37.

So Intelligence covers up some of Flandry's assignments and also some of his private escapades because it is in their interests to keep him in their ranks.

How To Film THE REBEL WORLDS

I would prefer an indefinite TV serial leaving nothing out to a single feature film. However, it is interesting to see how a partially authentic film adaptation is put together. Scenes can be conflated, omitted or added. In Stieg Larsson's The Man With The Dragon Tattoo, the villain, Wennerstrom, remains off-stage and Mikael Blomkvist:

receives a phone call in the Millennium office;

visits his ex-wife and their daughter;

visits his sister and her family -

- whereas, in the Swedish film adaptation:

Wennerstrom comes on-stage a couple of times;

Blomkvist has no ex-wife or daughter;

he receives the phone call while visiting his sister.

 

In Poul Anderson's The Rebel Worlds:

 

Dominic Flandry is briefed by Vice Admiral Kheraskov;

Flandry visits Shalmu en route to Llynathawr;

his rescue of Kathryn McCormac happens between chapters -

- whereas a film might:

incorporate information about Shalmu into Kheraskov's briefing;

dramatize the rescue (which maybe was left out of the novel for word count reasons).

Of course, if Kheraskov knew about conditions on Shalmu, then this would raise the question why the Empire had not taken appropriate action but such scene changes often raise such questions. If a script writer changes one plot element, then he might have to change others.

Imperial Officers

Captain Chang commands the Imperial cruiser, HMS Isis, in "Outpost of Empire" and Admiral Thomas Walton's flagship in "Tiger By The Tail." Walton has become a Fleet Admiral in "Hunters of the Sky Cave." This is good future history character continuity.

Lieutenant Dominic Flandry is under Admiral Julius in A Circus Of Hells. Lieutenant Commander Flandry receives his secret orders from Vice Admiral Kheraskov in The Rebel Worlds. Captain Flandry's superior has become Admiral Fenross in "Hunters of the Sky Cave" and "The Warriors from Nowhere." In A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Flandry, still Captain, receives his orders directly from Emperor Hans but suggests that Hans should:

"'...tip the word to - better be none less than Kheraskov - I'll contact him as soon as may be and make arrangements.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT III, p. 383.

Flandry becomes a Vice Admiral in A Stone In Heaven and a Fleet Admiral in The Game Of Empire. We first saw him, in terms of fictional chronology, as Ensign Flandry under Commander Max Abrams and Admiral Enriques in Ensign Flandry.

That is quite a collection of Naval careers:

Chang

Walton

Flandry

Julius

Kheraskov

Fenross

Hans Molitor

Abrams

Enriques

THE IMPERIAL GARDENER, by Sean M. Brooks

This note focuses on one aspect of Poul Anderson's Terran Empire stories usually passed over quite quickly by commentators, Josip III.  The twenty years reign of this Emperor was crucial because this period saw the Empire reaching the end of its Principate phase.

ENSIGN FLANDRY is set three years before Emperor Georgios, the father of then Crown Prince Josip, died.  Chapter 1 of that book, the only time in the Flandry stories that we see him in person, shows Josip as weak, self indulgent, homosexual, and mentioned as having a notoriously short memory. The best summing up we have of Josip's character is from Admiral Kheraskov's briefing of Dominic Flandry in Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS.

"Three years, now, since poor old Emperor Georgios died and Josip III succeeded. Everybody knows what Josip is: too weak and stupid for his viciousness to be highly effective.  We all assumed the Dowager Empress will keep him on a reasonably short leash while she lives.  And he won't outlast her by much, the way he treats his organism.  And he won't have children--not him!  And the Policy Board, the General Staff, the civil service, the officers corps, the Solar and extra-Solar aristocracies...they hold more crooks and incompetents than they did in former days, but we have a few good ones left, a few...

"I've told you nothing new, have I?"  Flandry barely had time to shake his head. Kheraskov kept on prowling and talking.  "I'm sure you made the same quiet evaluation as most informed citizens.  The Empire is so huge that no one individual can do critical damage, no matter if he's theoretically all powerful.  Whatever harm came from Josip would almost certainly be confined to a relative handful of courtiers, politicians, plutocrats, and their sort, concentrated on and around Terra--no great loss.  We've survived other bad Emperors."

The plot of THE REBEL WORLDS revolves around how Flandry neutralized a danger to the Empire from a favorite of Josip who was not an ordinary courtier or politician.  And how Flandry then thwarted a fleet admiral deliberately goaded into rebellion by that favorite.

Here I wish to pause and briefly comment on the Dowager Empress and widow of Emperor Georgios mentioned by Admiral Kheraskov in the text I quoted from THE REBEL WORLDS.  Plainly, this lady was a woman of some force and strength of character if she was able to restrain Josip.  And, of course, Josip would at least sometimes heed the wishes and advice of his own mother (who was probably one of the few persons who could talk firmly in a no nonsense way to him).  At least while Aaron Snelund, the chief villain of THE REBEL WORLDS, was not at court to counteract her influence.

Josip III was a bad, weak, and irresponsible Emperor.  One example of that last quality being his refusal to do his dynastic duty of assuring the succession by marrying and begetting children.  As Flandry told Miriam Abrams in Chapter VI of A STONE IN HEAVEN: "Once as a young fellow I found myself supporting the abominable Josip against McCormac--Remember McCormac's Rebellion?  He was infinitely the better man.  Anybody would have been.  But Josip was the legitimate Emperor and legitimacy is the root and branch of government.  How else, in spite of the cruelties and extortions and ghastly mistakes it's bound to perpetrate--how else, by what right, can it command loyalty?  If it is not the servant of Law, then it is nothing but a temporary convenience at best.  At worse, it's raw force."

Josip was thus, despite his vices and flaws, supported by men like Flandry due to the urgent need to uphold Law and legitimacy.  However, in one or two other texts I found hints of something better than degeneracy and incompetence in Josip.

WE CLAIM  THESE STARS! is set late in Josip's reign, during the Syrax crisis.  In this confrontation with Merseia the Empire was forced to concentrate so much of the Navy at the Syrax cluster that Merseia was able to use its Ardazirho clients to attack Terra at another frontier.  E.g., the Ardazirho seized the border colony planet Vixen.  While discussing the Syrax/Vixen crisis with Flandry, Admiral Fenross said of the fleet commander sent to Vixen (in Chapter VI): "The Emperor himself gave Admiral Walton what amounts to carte blanche."  Which made Flandry think: "It must have been one of His Majesty's off days, decided Flandry.  Actually doing the sensible thing."  Meaning there were times when Josip had the wit to make the right decision.

Next, also in Chapter VI of WE CLAIM THESE STARS!, Fenross mentioned how the Vixenite who brought the news of the colony's seizure by Ardazir asked to meet the Emperor.  Flandry sardonically said: "And didn't get it," foretold Flandry.  "His Majesty is much too busy gardening to waste time on a mere commoner representing a mere planet."  Fenross expressed surprise by asking "Gardening?," Flandry replied ironically, "I'm told His Majesty cultivates beautiful pansies."

When I finally paid attention to this bit of dialogue my thought was that if an Emperor as bad as Josip had enough appreciation of beauty to grow his own flowers, then there was some good in him.

However, I then wondered what Flandry had meant by "pansies."  THE RANDOM HOUSE HOUSE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1973) had this as the third definition for the word "pansy": "3. Slang. a. a male homosexual."  If that was what Flandry meant, it explains why Fenross reacted so nervously to Flandry's comment: "Fenross gulped and said in great haste..."  It would also be an example of some slang words retaining their meanings over a millennium from now.

It can thus be seen how "The Imperial Gardener" is an ironic title for this essay.  I admire as well the technical skill shown by Anderson in deftly inserting works set early in Flandry's life (such as THE REBEL WORLDS, 1969) into a series including works placed later in his life (one example being WE CLAIM THESE STARS, 1959).

I absolutely agree with what Flandry said in Chapter VI of A STONE IN HEAVEN about how "legitimacy is the root and branch of government." Lacking that, any government is likely to be nothing but "raw force."  And this applies to all governments, whatever their forms may be.  To preserve and defend legitimacy, it may well be necessary to support rulers a person privately despises.  Many examples from history could be listed here of weak, foolish, and contemptible leaders from Chinese, Roman, Byzantine, French, British, and American history.  Leaders it was better to accept if they held power legitimately.

One Bachelor And Several Admirals

Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 367-520.

"...at the opposite end of Terra's domain, twinned Alpha and bachelor Beta of the Southern Cross." 

-CHAPTER TWO, p. 386.

In what sense is Beta Crucis a bachelor?

The red giant star, Betelgeuse, with its large inhabited planetary system, lies between the Terran Empire and the Merseian Roidhunate. Sector Alpha Crucis is at the opposite end of the Empire. Beyond that Sector, there are only barbarians with spaceships and atomic weapons acquired from civilization.

Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov orders Lieutenant Commander Flandry to report to Rear Admiral Yamaguchi. Later in his career, Flandry will be a Fleet Admiral. What are all these kinds of Admirals? A Wikipedia article explains all, here. Somewhere in there, I found the explanation that a Rear Admiral is indeed to be found at the rear of a fleet.

Kheraskov explains to Flandry that, while the Merseians are pushing at Jihannath, there is repression and potential rebellion in Sector Alpha Crucis. The sense of troubled times is palpable. Flandry's career accelerates.

Satan And Mirkheim

(Warning: in this post, I might discuss some Poul Anderson novels that I have not reread sufficiently closely, sufficiently recently. If I later spot any omissions or errors, I will correct them then but, meanwhile, page viewers are invited to point out any that they notice.)

Satan, in Satan's World, is a rogue planet that becomes industrially valuable when its frozen environment is re-activated by a close swing around Beta Crucis. Mirkheim, in "Lodestar" and Mirkheim, is a former super-Jovian planet whose sun went supernova and is industrially valuable as the only known source of supermetals. These are the sorts of resources that corporations compete to control and that civilized planets wage wars about.

There are two levels of speculative fiction here:

Might such planets exist out there in the galaxy so that they could be, for example, detected by Earth-based astronomers or discovered by a single expedition traveling at sub-light speed?

Might an interstellar civilization with faster than light capability be able to exploit such planets - with what economic, political and military consequences?

Satan's World and Mirkheim are the two trader team novels and both are centered on the discovery of a rare and industrially valuable planet. The non-scientific reader must be careful to remember why each of these planets is valuable and also how they differ.

The Grand Duchy of Hermes gained the stewardship of Mirkheim which, however, was later taken from the Duchy and placed directly under the control of the Empire. What of Satan? Vice Admiral Kheraskov tells Dominic Flandry that, in their time, Satan is "'...an ancient possession of the Duke of Hermes.'" (The Rebel Worlds, London, 1973, p. 21) Why should Hermes have got Satan also? Is it because Nicholas van Rijn controlled Satan and his protege, David Falkayn, was Hermetian?

Satan is in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Terran Empire whereas Hermes and nearby Mirkheim are in Sector Antares. The Rebel Worlds informs us that, during the Troubles, which separated van Rijn's era from the Empire, ownership of Satan "...varied...wildly..." and that "For a while it was abandoned." (p. 87) Eventually, "...an Imperial aristocrat sent down a self-piloting freighter..." (p. 88), but we are not told that that aristocrat was the Duke of Hermes.

"The defense of Satan became a major reason to garrison and colonize Sector Alpha Crucis." (p. 88)

So it does not sound as though Hermes, in Sector Antares, is involved in that defense? I wonder whether, when Anderson had Kheraskov tell Flandry that Satan belonged to Hermes, he was temporarily confusing Satan with Mirkheim?

Barbarians

Kheraskov confirms that the barbarians beyond Sector Alpha Crucis have been held in check since a battle forty-three years previously, long before Flandry's birth. However, Flandry remembers that the invading Alarri had been defeated at the Battle of Mirzan when he was a boy. These sound vaguely like the same event except that the dates are different. Flandry does not remember the name of that the earlier battle and Kheraskov does not tell us what it was either. In the Flandry novels, the barbarians seem to be held well in check. McCormac brings in Darthans to patrol the Virgilian System during his Rebellion but that is all. In "Tiger by the Tail," the barbarians, particularly the Schothani, are a major threat and it is stated that the Empire uses nonhuman hirelings to hold its borders. The galaxy seems like a different place. But this is a matter of perspective. Flandry is right in among the Schotani which is why they have "a tiger by the tail."

Back In That Office

Poul Anderson's The Rebel Worlds ends as it begins with an unnumbered and unentitled passage narrated from a Didonian point of view. This time we understand it better. Before that, CHAPTER SIXTEEN ends with two pages set back in Kheraskov's office but unfortunately the only new information is that Saturn has replaced Jupiter in the wall-size animation. I had a confused memory from previous readings of Terra overhead which is impossible since Admiralty Center is in the Rockies, not on Luna. However:

"'...the fleshpots of Terra glowing right overhead...'" (p. 516)

- occur in Kheraskov's dialogue when he apologises to Flandry because the latter has:

"'...been made to spend the whole two weeks in Luna Prime.'" (ibid.)

This time they drink Scotch.

Flandry's superiors know that he has committed treason and murder but turn a blind eye because he has got the job done. In times like those, they need men like him. What times!

Labyrinthine Corridors

Occasionally a back cover blurb captures the essence of a novel.

"On Terra herself, those who occupy the labyrinthine corridors of power busy themselves with trivialities and internal politics, as outside the final darkness gathers."

-back cover blurb on Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010).

As a matter of fact, Flandry is summoned by Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov who busies himself with the fate of the Empire.

Those "labyrinthine corridors" reminded me of the tunnels and chambers which, we are told, go deep beneath the foundations of the towers of Admiralty Center. However, Kheraskov's office is on the ninety-seventh level of one such tower. Flandry, carried up by a negagrav field, walks along a corridor whose silence is deepened by the occasional soft voice or whirring machine. 

Interruption. Maybe more on this later.

The Imperial Gardener by Sean M. Brooks

This note focuses on one aspect of Poul Anderson's Terran Empire stories usually passed over quite quickly by critics, Josip III. The twenty years reign of this Emperor saw the end of its Principate phase for Terra.

ENSIGN FLANDRY is set three years before Emperor Georgios, the father of then Crown Prince Josip, died. Chapter 1 shows Josip as weak, self indulgent, homosexual, and mentioned as having a notoriously short memory. The best summing up we have of Josip's character is from Admiral Kheraskov's briefing of Dominic Flandry in Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS.

"Three years, now, since poor old Emperor Georgios died and Josip III succeeded. Everybody knows what Josip is: too weak and stupid for his viciousness to be highly effective. We all assumed the Dowager Empress will keep him on a reasonably short leash while she lives. And he won't outlast her by much, the way he treats his organism. And he won't have children--not him! And the Policy Board, the General Staff, the civil service, the officers corps, the Solar and extra-Solar aristocracies...they hold more crooks and incompetents than they did in former days, but we have a few good ones left, a few...

"I've told you nothing new, have I?" Flandry barely had time to shake his head. Kheraskov kept on prowling and talking. "I'm sure you made the same quiet evaluation as most informed citizens. The Empire is so huge that no one individual can do critical damage, no matter if he's theoretically all powerful. Whatever harm came from Josip would almost certainly be confined to a relative handful of courtiers, politicians, plutocrats, and their sort, concentrated on and around Terra--no great loss. We've survived other bad Emperors."

The plot of THE REBEL WORLDS revolves around how Flandry neutralized a danger to the Empire from a favorite of Josip who was not an ordinary courtier or politician. And how Flandry thwarted a fleet admiral deliberately goaded into rebellion.

Josip III was a bad, weak, and irresponsible Emperor. One example of that last quality being his refusal to do his dynastic duty of assuring the succession by siring children. As Flandry told Miriam Abrams in Chapter VI of A STONE IN HEAVEN: "Once as a young fellow I found myself supporting the abominable Josip against McCormac--Remember McCormac's Rebellion? He was infinitely the better man. Anybody would have been. But Josip was the legitimate Emperor and legitimacy is the root and branch of government. How else, in spite of the cruelties and extortions and ghastly mistakes it's bound to perpetrate--how else, by what right, can it command loyalty? If it is not the servant of Law, then it is nothing but a temporary convenience at best. At worse, it's raw force."

Josip was thus, despite his vices and flaws, supported by men like Flandry due to the urgent need to uphold Law and legitimacy. However, in one or two other texts I found hints of something better than degeneracy and incompetence in Josip.

WE CLAIM THESE STARS! is set late in Josip's reign, during the Syrax crisis. In this confrontation with Merseia the Empire was forced to concentrate so much of the Navy at the Syrax cluster that Merseia was able to use the Ardazirho to attack Terra at another frontier. E.g., the Ardazirho seized the border colony planet Vixen. While discussing the Syrax/Vixen crisis with Flandry, Admiral Fenross said of the fleet commander sent to Vixen (in Chapter VI): "The Emperor himself gave Admiral Walton what amounts to carte blanche." Which made Flandry think: "It must have been one of His Majesty's off days, decided Flandry.Actually doing the sensible thing." Meaning there were times when Josip did the right thing.

Next, also in Chapter VI of WE CLAIM THESE STARS!, Fenross mentioned how the Vixenite who brought the news of the colony's seizure by Ardazir asked to meet the Emperor. Flandry sardonically said: "And didn't get it," foretold Flandry. "His Majesty is much too busy gardening to waste time on a mere commoner representing a mere planet." Fenross expressed surprise by asking "Gardening?," Flandry replied ironically, "I'm told His Majesty cultivates beautiful pansies."

When I finally paid attention to this bit of dialogue my thought was that if an Emperor as bad as Josip had enough appreciation of beauty to grow his own flowers, then there was some good in him.

However, another thought was to wonder what Flandry had meant by "pansies." THE RANDOM HOUSE HOUSE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1973) had this as the third definition for the word "pansy": "3. Slang. a. a male homosexual." If that was what Flandry meant, it explains why Fenross reacted so nervously to Flandry's comment: "Fenross gulped and said in great haste..." It would also be an example of some slang words retaining their meanings over a millennium from now.

It can thus be seen how "The Imperial Gardener" is an ironic title for this essay. I admire as well the technical skill shown by how deftly Anderson inserted works set early in Flandry's life (such as THE REBEL WORLDS, 1969) after he wrote stories set later in Flandry's life (WE CLAIM THESE STARS, 1959).

I fully agree with what Flandry said in Chapter VI of A STONE IN HEAVEN about how "legitimacy is the root and branch of government." Lacking that, any government is likely to be nothing but "raw force." And this applies to all governments, whatever may be their forms. To preserve and defend legitimacy, it may well be necessary to support rulers a person privately despises. Many examples from history could be listed here of weak, foolish, and contemptible leaders from Chinese, Roman, Byzantine, French, British, and American history. Leaders it was better to accept if they held power legitimately.

Faking It

I mentioned Dominic Flandry claiming that he had been working with Commander Abrams before he did in fact work with him. See here. A similar situation occurs, although with a superior's approval, later. When Admiral Kheraskov gives Flandry his first command, he concludes:

"'Your ship is in Mars orbit. Departure will be immediate. I hope you can fake the knowledge of her you don't have, until you've gathered it...'"
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 389.

Kheraskov has already said that the ship has an able executive officer and that this should free Flandry's attention for his real job, which is Intelligence, not Captaincy. "Faking it" it is part of the job but it is coping and learning rather than fakery.

When I was a newly qualified Careers Adviser, the receptionist took a call from a woman asking about a career of which I had no knowledge as yet. My first responsibility was to my internal client, the receptionist. I had to say, "Put her through," not "I don't know about that!" Meanwhile, I was starting to find the named career in the index of my Occupations reference book. When speaking to the enquirer, I made written notes of exactly what she needed to know. First step: identify client needs; do not worry at this stage about whether you know the answers. Then I could maybe tell her something over the phone but could also note her name and address and promise to post her printed careers information. Second stage: address needs. Third stage: positive outcome.

Flandry's job is much more difficult than careers guidance but his abilities to cope and to improvise are also immeasurably greater.

Flandry's Mission

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWO.

Investigating accusations against Governor Snelund of Sector Alpha Crucis, Kheraskov sends in both undercover agents and inspectors but also sends Dominic Flandry commanding an escort destroyer posted as a reinforcement to Llynathawr but with secret orders to investigate further. In this role, Flandry is not as conspicuous as the captain of a capital ship but nevertheless Snelund will have to receive him. Commanding a ship would in any case have been a normal part of Flandry's training because field operatives need:

"'...a broad background.'" (p. 388)

The Young Flandry Trilogy gives us the whole gamut.

This explains why Flandry, alone among Kheraskov's agents, is in a position to take highly unorthodox action that ends the extortion and cruelty in Sector Alpha Crucis and that also has major consequences several millennia later although we do not know that yet.

Flandry And Bond

Is Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry a science fictional equivalent of Ian Fleming's James Bond? There are obvious parallels. However, having just reread the opening chapters of Casino Royale, I am more aware of several differences.

By contrast with Bond, Flandry functions almost as a private operator. After his induction into Intelligence by Max Abrams, he is shown as receiving orders from a superior on only four occasions:

from Kheraskov, once;
from Fenross, twice;
from Molitor, once.

Moreover, Molitor is the Emperor and gives Flandry a free hand. Flandry progresses from Ensign to Fleet Admiral whereas Bond remains a Commander.

Fleming presents a lot of details of the Intelligence network of which Bond is just one part:

M's Chief of Staff and private secretary share a room;

M receives a memorandum from Station S, with Appendix A on Le Chiffre from the Archivist and Appendix B on SMERSH, unsigned;

Section Q runs the Morgue, travel and equipment;

 

the head of Bond's department is called Clements;

 

Leningrad Section III gave Le Chiffre funds to finance a French trade union that will be a fifth column in the event of war (as a former trade unionist, I question whether any trade union would be able to receive and conceal Russian funds or to control its members as a fifth column but I do not know about circumstances in France in the early '50s);

 

Le Chiffre embezzled the funds to buy brothels, lost this investment because of changed laws and police raids and hopes to recoup the money through gambling (thus he combines every possible kind of evil!);

 

Bond bought his Bentley in 1933 and gained his 00 number by killing a Japanese cypher expert in New York and a Norwegian double agent in Stockholm;

 

while in France, he is controlled obliquely through Jamaica and we are told how this works;

 

he is helped by Mathis of the Deuxieme Bureau, Vesper Lynd of Station S and Leiter of the CIA;

there is probably another Secret Service agent reporting independently from Royale-les-Eaux.

All this sounds complicated, sordid and very different from the universe inhabited by Dominic Flandry.

The Sense Of Living In Troubled Times

A conflict is expected. Then it is known that it has begun. There is excitement and apprehension. Robert Heinlein conveys this sense in Between Planets but I do not have a copy to hand to quote from. It happens at least four times in Poul Anderson's Technic History.

Expectation

Nicholas van Rijn:

"'Story,' he said, 'it will not be announced right away, but I bet you rubies to rhubarb the Commonwealth government has already dispatched a task force to Mirkheim. And I am not the least bit sure Babur will take that meekly-weakly.' He turned to a little Martian sandroot statuette of St. Dismas that stood on the bar, his traveling companion of a lifetime. 'Better get busy and pray for us,' he told it."

-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 1-291 AT III, p. 73.

Daniel Holm:

"'You can't leave now,' Daniel Holm told his son. 'Any day we may be at war. We may already be.'"

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Rise of the Terran Empire, pp. 437-662 AT I, p. 437.

Ilya Kheraskov to Dominic Flandry:

"'And meanwhile something else has arisen, on the opposite side of our suzerainty. Something potentially worse than any clash with Merseia.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 367-520 AT CHAPTER TWO, p. 384.

"'Here,' he said, 'is where war could really erupt.'"

-ibid., p. 386.

Diana Crowfeather to Fr. Axor:

"'Since, I've kept hearin' rumors  - ask your God to make them only rumors, will you? - Sir, we may be on the edge of a real war.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Game of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 215.