Friday 26 June 2015

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.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree. while it's more PLEASANT to work aboveground, including high towers, I have no doubt at all that Admiralty Center has emergency corridors, tunnels, chambers, bunkers, command posts, archives, etc., to be used if attacked.

Sean