After the Ythrian craft whipped around the globe, into weirdness, Nadi had no way of knowing what she did, how she moved. He could not foretell where she would be when she again became detectable. And thus he could plan no interception pattern.

  He could do nothing but hope she would never reappear. A ship flying so close, not simply orbiting but flying, would be seized, torn apart, and hauled into the star, unless the pilot and his computers knew exactly what they did.

  Or almost exactly. That was a crazily chancy ride. When Coya could glance from her desk, she saw blaze in the screens, Hirharouk clutching his perch with both hands while his wings thundered and he yelled for joy, van Rijn on his knees in prayer. Then they ran into a meteoroid swarm (she supposed) which rebounded off their shield-fields and sent them careening off trajectory; and the man shook his fist, commenced on a mighty oath, glimpsed her and turned it into a Biblical "Damask rose and shittah tree!" Later, when something else went wrong—some interaction with a plasma cloud—he came to her, bent over and kissed her brow.

  They won past reef and riptide, lined out for deep space, switched back into hyperdrive and ran on homeward.

  Coincidences do happen. The life would be freakish which held none of them.

  Muddlin' Through, bound for Eka-World in response to Coya's letter, passed within detection range of Dewfall, made contact, and laid alongside. The pioneers boarded.

  This was less than a day after the brush with oblivion. And under no circumstances do Ythrians go in for tumultuous greetings. Apart from Hirharouk, who felt he must represent his choth, the crew stayed at rest. Coya, roused by van Rijn, swallowed a stimpill, dressed, and hastened to the flying hold—the sole chamber aboard which would comfortably accommodate Adzel. In its echoing dim space she threw her arms partway around him, took Chee Lan into her embrace, kissed David Falkayn and wept and kissed him and kissed him.

  Van Rijn cleared his throat. "A-hem!" he grumbled. "Also bgr-rrm. I been sitting here hours on end, till my end is sore, wondering when everybody else's would come awake and make celebrations by me; and I get word about you three mosquito-ears is coming in, and by my own self I hustle stuff for a party." He waved at the table he had laid, bottles and glasses, platesful of breads, cheeses, sausage, lox, caviar, kanuba, from somewhere a vaseful of flowers. Mozart lilted in the background. "Well, ha, poets tell us love is enduring, but I tell us good food is not, so we take our funs in the right order, nie?"

  Formerly Falkayn would have laughed and tossed off the first icy muglet of akvavit; he would have followed it with a beer chaser and an invitation to Coya that they see what they could dance to this music. Now she felt sinews tighten in the fingers that enclosed hers; across her shoulder he said carefully: "Sir, before we relax, could you let me know what's happened to you?"

  Van Rijn got busy with a cigar. Coya looked a plea at Adzel, stroked Chee's fur where the Cynthian crouched on a chair, and found no voice. Hirharouk told the story in a few sharp words.

  "A-a-ah," Falkayn breathed. "Judas priest. Coya, they ran you that close to that hellkettle—" His right hand let go of hers to clasp her waist. She felt the grip tremble and grew dizzy with joy.

  "Well," van Rijn huffed, "I didn't want she should come, my dear tender little bellybird, ja, tender like tool steel—"

  Coya had a sense of being put behind Falkayn, as a man puts a woman when menace draws near. "Sir," he said most levelly, "I know, or can guess, about that. We can discuss it later if you want. What I'd like to know immediately, please, is what you propose to do about the Supermetals consortium."

  Van Rijn kindled his cigar and twirled a mustache. "You understand," he said, "I am not angry if they keep things under the posies. By damn, though, they tried to make me a prisoner or else shoot me to bits of lard what would go into the next generation of planets. And Coya, too, Davy boy, don't forget Coya, except she would make those planets prettier. For that, they going to pay."

  "What have you in mind?"

  "Oh . . . a cut. Not the most unkindest, neither. Maybe like ten percent of gross."

  The creases deepened which a hundred suns had weathered into Falkayn's countenance. "Sir, you don't need the money. You stopped needing more money a long while back. To you it's nothing but a counter in a game. Maybe, for you, the only game in town. Those beings aft of us, however—they are not playing."

  "What do they do, then?"

  Surprisingly, Hirharouk spoke. "Freeman, you know the answer. They seek to win that which will let their peoples fly free." Standing on his wings, he could not spread gold-bronze plumes; but his head rose high. "In the end, God the Hunter strikes every being and everything which beings have made. Upon your way of life I see His shadow. Let the new come to birth in peace."

  From Falkayn's hands, Coya begged: "Gunung Tuan, all you have to do is do nothing. Say nothing. You've won your victory. Tell them that's enough for you, that you too are their friend."

  She had often watched van Rijn turn red—never before white. His shout came ragged: "Ja! Ja! Friend! So nice, so kind, maybe so far-sighted—Who, what I thought of like a son, broke his oath of fealty to me? Who broke kinship?"

  He suspected, Coya realized sickly, but he wouldn't admit it to himself till this minute, when I let out the truth. She held Falkayn sufficiently hard for everyone to see.

  Chee Lan arched her back. Adzel grew altogether still. Falkayn forgot Coya—she could feel how he did—and looked straight at his chief while he said, word by word like blows of a hammer: "Do you want a response? I deem best we let what is past stay dead."

  Their gazes drew apart. Falkayn's dropped to Coya. The merchant watched them standing together for a soundless minute. And upon him were the eyes of Adzel, Chee, and Hirharouk the sky dweller.

  He shook his head. "Hokay," said Nicholas van Rijn, well-nigh too low to hear. "I keep my mouth shut. Always. Now can we sit down and have our party for making you welcome?" He moved to pour from a bottle; and Coya saw that he was indeed old.

  Afterword

  Nicholas van Rijn first appeared in 1956. He has come back on a number of occasions, among them two full-dress novels, but always in the same magazine, whether it was called Astounding or Analog. Likewise the exploratory team he organized—David Falkayn, Chee Lan, Adzel and Muddlehead, their ship's insufferable computer. They showed up because it wasn't logical that the old man should have all the adventures. But they too felt most at home with John Campbell.

  While some readers cannot abide him, among a large majority Van Rijn seems to be the most popular character I've ever created. In fact, the series became study material for a graduate seminar in management! Campbell enjoyed him hugely. This alone was ample encouragement to write more—not the sales themselves, because after all it was just as easy to do something different, though less fun, but the approval of so genuinely great and greatly genuine a man.

  The aim throughout was to tell colorful, fast-moving stories which would at the same time explore a few of the possible facets of this endlessly marvelous universe—and maybe a bit of philosophy. That last, by the way, was no mere dog-eat-dog anarchism. Campbell and I both knew better. Among the more moving experiences of my life was when an elderly lady, confined for years in a particularly grim hospital, wrote to say that something in one of the tales had given her the will to fight on.

  What virtue they have is largely due to the Campbell influence, both as an electrifying atmosphere and, in a number of cases, as specific suggestions. Only those who wrote for him know what a fountainhead of ideas he was; he never claimed credit afterward. Mind you, though, he made suggestions, not commands. He delighted in seeing a thought of his carried further by someone else, or stood on its head and turned inside out.

  The lodestar of the present yarn is due to him. He proposed it to me back in 1970. I put his letter aside to sparkle in a heap of similar communications from him, until an opportunity should come to use, not just the notion, but the considerable details of physics and chemistry which accompanied it.

  Well, I waited too long. Now I can but hope that he would have liked what I've done, and wish he could know with what love I dedicate to him this ending of a saga on which so long we worked together.

  Goodbye, John.

  —Poul Anderson, 1973

  Chronology Of Techic Civilization

  —COMPILED BY SANDRA MIESEL—

  The Technic Civilization series sweeps across five millennia and hundreds of light-years of space to chronicle three cycles of history shaping both human and non-human life in our corner of the universe. It begins in the twenty-first century, with recovery from a violent period of global unrest known as the Chaos. New space technologies ease Earth's demand for resources and energy permitting exploration of the Solar system.

  ca. 2055

  "The Saturn Game" (Analog Science Fiction, hereafter ASF, February, 1981)

  22nd C

  The discovery of hyperdrive makes interstellar travel feasible early in the twenty-second century. The Breakup sends humans off to colonize the stars, often

  to preserve cultural identity or to try a social experiment. A loose government called the Solar Commonwealth is established. Hermes is colonized.

  2150

  "Wings of Victory" (ASF, April, 1972)

  The Grand Survey from Earth discovers alien races on Yithri, Merseia, and many other planets.

  23rd C

  The Polesetechnic League is founded as a mutual protection association of space-faring merchants. Colonization of Aeneas and Altai.

  24th C

  "The Problem of Pain" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1973)

  2376

  Nicholas van Rijn born poor on Earth Colonization of Vixen.

  2400

  Council of Hiawatha, a futile attempt to reform the League. Colonization of Dennitza.

  2406

  David Falkayn born noble on Hermes, a breakaway human grand duchy.

  2416

  "Margin of Profit" (ASF, September, 1956) [van Rijn]

  "How to Be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson" (in Future Quest, ed. Roger Elwood, Avon Books, 1974)

  * * *

  2423

  "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (ASF, April, 1966) [Falkayn]

  * * *

  STORIES OVERLAP

  2420s

  "A Sun Invisible" (ASF, April, 1966) [Falkayn]

  "The Season of Forgiveness" (Boy's Life, December, 1973) [set on same planet as "The Three-Cornered Wheel"]

  The Man Who Counts (Ace Books, 1978 as War of the Wing-Men, Ace Books, 1958 from "The Man Who Counts," ASF, February-April,1958) [van Rijn]

  "Esau" (as "Birthright," ASF February, 1970) [van Rijn]

  "Hiding Place" (ASF, March, 1961) [van Rijn]

  * * *

  STORIES OVERLAP

  2430s

  "Territory" (ASF, June, 1963) [van Rijn]

  "The Trouble Twisters" (as "Trader Team," ASF, July-August, 1971) [Falkayn]

  "Day of Burning" (as "Supernova," ASF January, 1967) [Falkayn]

  Falkayn saves civilization on Merseia, mankind's future foe.

  "The Master Key" (ASF August, 1971) [van Rijn]

  Satan's World (Doubleday, 1969 from ASF, May-August, 1968) [van Rijn and Falkayn]

  "A Little Knowledge" (ASF, August, 1971)

  The League has become a set of ruthless cartels.

  * * *

  2446

  "Lodestar" (in Astounding: The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology. ed. Harry Harrison. Random House, 1973) [van Rijn and Falkayn]

  Rivalries and greed are tearing the League apart. Falkayn marries van Rijn's favorite granddaughter.

  2456

  Mirkheim. (Putnam Books, 1977) [van Rijn and Falkayn]

  The Babur War involving Hermes gravely wounds the League. Dark days loom.

  late 25th C

  Falkayn founds a joint human-Ythrian colony on Avalon ruled by the Domain of Ythri. [same planet—renamed—as "The Problem of Pain."]

  26th C

  "Wingless" (as "Wingless on Avalon," Boy's Life, July, 1973) [Falkayn's grandson]

  "Rescue on Avalon" (in Children of Infinity. ed. Roger Elwood. Franklin Watts, 1973)

  Colonization of Nyanza.

  2550

  Dissolution of the Polesotechnic League.

  27th C

  The Time of Troubles brings down the Commonwealth. Earth is sacked twice and left prey to barbarian slave raiders.

  ca. 2700

  "The Star Plunderer" (Planet Stories, hereafter PS, September, 1952)

  Manuel Argos proclaims the Terran Empire with citizenship open to all intelligent species. The Principate phase of the Imperium ultimately brings peace to 100,000 inhabited worlds within a sphere of stars 400 light-years in diameter.

  28th C

  Colonization of Unan Besar.

  "Sargasso of Lost Starships" (PS, January, 1952)

  The Empire annexes old colony on Ansa by force.

  29th C

  The People of the Wind ( New American Library from ASF, February-April, 1973)

  The Empire's war on another civilized imperium starts its slide towards decadence. A descendant of Falkayn and an ancestor of Flandry cross paths.

  30th C

  The Covenant of Alfazar, an attempt at détente between Terra and Merseia, fails to achieve peace.

  3000

  Dominic Flandry born on Earth, illegitimate son of an opera diva and an aristocratic space captain.

  3019

  Ensign Flandry (Chilton, 1966 from shorter version in Amazing, hereafter AMZ, October, 1966) Flandry's first collision with the Merseians.

  3021

  A Circus of Hells (New American Library, 1970. incorporates "the White King's War," Galaxy, hereafter Gal, October, 1969.

  Flandry is a Lieutenant (j.g.).

  3022

  Degenerate Emperor Josip succeeds weak old Emperor Georgios.

  3025

  The Rebel Worlds (New American Library, 1969)

  A military revolt on the frontier world of Aeneas almost starts an age of Barracks Emperors. Flandry is a Lt. Commander, then promoted to Commander.

  3027

  "Outpost of Empire" (Gal, December, 1967) [not Flandry]

  The misgoverned Empire continues fraying at its borders.

  3028

  The Day of Their Return (New American Library, 1973) [Aycharaych but not Flandry]

  Aftermath of the rebellion on Aeneas.

  3032

  "Tiger by the Tail" (PS, January, 1951) [Flandry]

  Flandry is a Captain and averts a barbarian invasion.

  3033

  "Honorable Enemies" (Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories,

  May, 1951) [Flandry]

  Captain Flandry's first brush with enemy agent Aycharaych

  3035

  "The Game of Glory" (Venture, March, 1958) [Flandry]

  Set on Nyanza, Flandry has been knighted.

  3037

  "A Message in Secret" (as Mayday Orbit, Ace Books, 1961 from shorter version, "A Message in Secret," Fantastic, December, 1959) [Flandry]

  Set on Altai.

  3038

  "The Plague of Masters" (as Earthman, Go Home!, Ace Books, 1961 from "A Plague of Masters," Fantastic, December, 1960- January, 1961.) [Flandry]

  Set on Unan Besar.

  3040

  "Hunters of the Sky Cave" (as We Claim These Stars!, Ace Books, 1959 from shorter version, "A Handful of Stars, Amz, June, 1959) [Flandry and Aycharaych]

  Set on Vixen.

  3041

  Interregnum: Josip dies. After three years of civil war, Hans Molitor will rule as sole emperor.

  3042

  "The Warriors from Nowhere" (as "The Ambassadors of Flesh," PS, Summer, 1954.)

  Snapshot of disorders in the war-torn Empire.

  3047

  A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (New American Library, 1975 from Gal September/October-November/December, 1974) [Flandry]

  Set on Dennitza, Flandry meets his illegitimate son and has a final tragic confrontation with Aycharaych.

  3054

  Emperor Hans dies and is succeeded by his sons, first Dietrich, then Gerhart.

  3061

  A Stone in Heaven (Ace Books, 1979) [Flandry]

  Admiral Flandry pairs off with the daughter of his first mentor from Ensign Flandry.

  3064

  The Game of Empire (Baen Books, 1985) [Flandry]

  Flandry is a Fleet Admiral, meets his illegitimate daughter Diana.

  early 4th millennium

  The Terran Empire becomes more rigid and tyrannical in its Dominate phase. The Empire and Merseia wear each other out.

  mid 4th millennium

  The Long Night follows the Fall of the Terran Empire.War, piracy, economic collapse, and isolation devastate countless worlds.

  3600

  "A Tragedy of Errors" (Gal, February, 1968)

  Further fragmentation among surviving human worlds.

  3900

  "The Night Face" (Ace Books, 1978. as Let the Spacemen Beware!, Ace Books, 1963 from shorter version "A Twelvemonth and a Day," Fantastic Universe, January, 1960)

  Biological and psychological divergence among Surviving humans.

  4000

  "The Sharing of Flesh" (Gal, December, 1968)

  Human explorers heal genetic defects and uplift savagery.

  7100

  "Starfog" (ASF, August. 1967)

  Revived civilization is expanding. A New Vixen man from the libertarian Commonalty meets descendants of the rebels from Aeneas.