"Brake" should be collected at the end of a volume as the seventh and last Solar Union story and the eleventh and last STL (slower than light space travel) story in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. The next volume should begin with "Gypsy" as the first Nomad story. The later section of this future history series is mostly set during the period of the Stellar Union whose Coordination Service has problems with the Nomads although a synthesis is reached in The Peregrine which is the sixth and last Stellar Union story and the second and last Nomads story. (Here I am excluding a couple of titles that are included in The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3.)
"Brake" begins with Captain Peter Banning. (One of my current correspondents, not mentioned here until now, is a certain Peter Bann who in no way resembles Anderson's spaceship captain with a similar name.) This story is set in a "...bleak age.." (p. 217) It locates itself within the Psychotechnic History by referring to clan gatherings on Venus and to a Planetary Engineer. The latter is a Shakespeare freak, quoting Macbeth on the opening page, although we do not yet know that this is because he is a Rostomily Brother.
Since this series began, Venus has been terraformed and the Order of Planetary Engineers has been founded. Nothing stands still. And the next instalment, "Gypsy," will be set over five centuries later.
