Sunday 21 December 2014

Clues

On Luna, Bayard Story tells Hanny Lennart and Nicholas van Rijn:

"'...I happen to be a former xenologist, who specialized in subjovians. I've studied all records the Seven have of their dealings with [Babur]. I've been there myself...'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim (New York, 2011), p. 72.

On Hermes, Benoni Strang tells Sandra Tamarin:

"'I've been a xenologist, specializing in subjovian planets and Babur in particular.'" (p. 192)

Thus, these two men have the same initials, the same former profession, the same specialism within that profession and close knowledge of the same planet, Babur. We also know that Strang has armed the Baburites and that Story is high in the "Seven in Space" cartel which, alone among human organizations, does not object to the Baburites seizing Mirkheim. Yet I did not draw any conclusions from all these clues on my first reading of Mirkheim.

For more information on Story/Strang, see here and here.

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