Friday 23 May 2014

Computer Problem II (And Flandry)

Provisional schedule: acquire new computer on Friday 30 May; then spend time learning to use it, interrupted by a week in Scotland. (Although this blog is an appreciation of Poul Anderson, not a personal journal, I also try to convey something of life going on at the same time, with enjoyment of fiction very much a part of life.) I am currently still using the damaged computer albeit with some difficulty.

In The Rebel Worlds,Terran Imperial Naval Intelligence sends to the troubled Sector Alpha Crucis several undercover agents and some inspectors and Dominic Flandry commanding a warship with special authorization.

Flandry alone:

rescues the rebel leader's wife, Kathryn McCormac, from the abusive Sector Governor;
gets shot down on the planet Dido;
leads his surviving crew across Dido to the vicinity of a rebel-held base while learning a Didonian language;
flies ahead, on spacesuit gravity impeller, to the base, where he persuades the personnel to send their single interstellar craft with a crew of two plus himself to rescue his men, not mentioning that they are loyalists;
hijacks the ship;
shoots out the base radio;
delivers the rebel code to the Imperial fleet;
remains on the ship with, as crew, a single tripartite Didonian who knows nothing of human affairs; 
entices the Governor onto the ship, where Kathryn kills him;
returns Kathryn to her husband with the warning that, since their code has been captured, the rebels cannot win a space battle and must flee known space, never to return;
reports that, while returning to Terra with Kathryn, he was detected and captured by the enemy who disabled his craft, thus wiping its computer.

I had to write down that list of deceptions to keep it straight in my head.

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