The Van Rijn Method

by Poul Anderson

  "Maybe you'd like to change clothes?" hinted Torrance.

  "Ooh!" squeaked Jeri, and ran off to the cabin she sometimes occupied. Van Rijn leaned back against the wall, hitched up his sarong and crossed his shaggy legs as he said: "If that captain comes to meet the Eksers, so let him meet the Eksers. I stay comfortable like I am. And I will not entertain him with how I figured out who they were. That I keep exclusive, for sale to what news syndicate bids highest. Understand?"

  His eyes grew unsettlingly sharp. Torrance gulped. "Yes, sir."

  "Good. Now do sit down, boy. Help me put my story in order. I have not your fine education, I was a poor lonely hardworking old man from I was twelve, so I would need some help making my words as elegant as my logic."

  "Logic?" echoed Torrance, puzzled. He tilted the bottle, chiefly because the tobacco haze in here made his eyes smart. "I thought you guessed—"

  "What? You know me so little as that? No, no, by damn. Nicholas van Rijn never guesses. I knew." He reached for the bottle, took a hefty swig, and added magnanimously, "That is, after Yamamura found the gorilloids alone could not be the peoples we wanted. Then I sat down and uncluttered my brains and thought it all over.

  "See, it was simple eliminations. The elephantoid was out right away. Only one of him. Maybe, in emergency, one could pilot this ship through space—but not land it, and pick up wild animals, and care for them, and all else. Also, if somethings go wrong, he is helpless."

  Torrance nodded. "I did consider it from the spaceman's angle," he said. "I was inclined to rule out the elephantoid on that ground. But I admit I didn't see the animal-collecting aspect made it altogether impossible that this could be a one-being expedition."

  "He was pretty too big anyhow," said Van Rijn. "As for the tiger apes, like you, I never took them serious. Maybe their ancestors was smaller and more biped, but this species is reverting to quadruped again. Animals do not specialize in being everything. Not brains and size and carnivore teeth and cat claws, all to once.

  "The caterpiggles looked hokay till I remembered that time you accidental turned on the bestonkered emergency acceleration switch. Unless hooked in place, what such a switch would not be except in special cases, it fell rather easy. So easy that its own weight would make it drop open under three Earth gravities. Or at least there would always be serious danger of this. Also, that shelf you bumped into, they wouldn't build shelves so light on high-gravity planets."

  He puffed his cigar back to furnace heat. "Well, so might be the tentacle centaurs," he continued. "Which was bad for us, because hydrogen and oxygen explode. I checked hard through the reports on the ship, hoping I could find something that would eliminate them. And by damn, I did. For this I will give St. Dismas an altar cloth, not too expensive. You see, the Eksers is kind enough to use copper oxide rectifiers, exposed to the air. Copper oxide and hydrogen, at a not very high temperature such as would soon develop from strong electricking, they make water and pure copper. Poof, no more rectifier. So therefore ergo, this ship was not designed for hydrogen breathers." He grinned. "You has had so much high scientific education you forgot your freshlyman chemistry."

  Torrance snapped his fingers and swore at himself.

  "By eliminating, we had the helmet beasts," said Van Rijn. "Only they could not possible be the builders. True, they could handle certain tools and controls, like that buried key; but never all of it. And they are so slow and small. How could they ever stayed alive long enough to invent spaceships? Also, animals that little don't got room for real brains. And neither armored animals nor parasites ever get much. Nor do they get good eyes. And yet the helmet beasts seemed to have very good eyes, as near as we could tell. They looked like human eyes, anyhows.

  "I remembered there was both big and little cubbyholes in these cabins. Maybe bunks for two kinds of sleeper? And I thought, is the human brain a turtle just because it is armored in bone? A parasite just because it lives off blood from other places? Well, maybe some people I could name but won't, like Juan Harleman of the Venusian Tea & Coffee Growers, Inc., has parasite turtles for brains. But not me. So there I was. Q.," said Van Rijn smugly, "E.D."

  Hoarse from talking, he picked up the bottle. Torrance sat a few minutes more, but as the other seemed disinclined to conversation, he got up to go.

  Jeri met him in the doorway. In a slit and topless blue gown which fitted like a coat of lacquer, she was a fourth-order stun-blast. Torrance stopped in his tracks. Her gaze slid slowly across him, as if reluctant to depart.

  "Mutant sea-otter coats," murmured Van Rijn dreamily. "Martian firegems. An apartment in the Stellar Towers."

  She scampered to him and ran her fingers through his hair. "Are you comfortable, Nicky, darling?" she purred. "Can't I do something for you?"

  Van Rijn winked at Torrance. "Your technique, that time on the bridge, I watched and it was lousy," he said to the captain. "Also, you are not old and fat and lonesome; you have a happy family for yourself."

  "Uh—yes," said Torrance. "I do." He let the curtain drop and returned to the bridge.

  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.

  Although Technic Civilization is extinct, another—and perhaps better—turn on the Wheel of Time has begun for our galaxy. The Commonalty must inevitably decline just as the League and Empire did before it. But the Wheel will go on turning as long as there are thinking minds to wonder at the stars.

  * * *

  Poul Anderson was consulted about this chart but any errors are my own.

  APPENDIX I:

  The Original Version of

  "Margin of Profit"

  INTRODUCTORY NOTE

  Poul Anderson's "Margin of Profit" first appeared in the September 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and introduced Nicholas van Rijn to the science fiction world. Anderson later included it in Un-Man and Other Novellas, a 1962 three-novella collection that made up half of an Ace Double-Novel. For the benefit of collectors, I'll note that the Ace book was number F-139, and had Anderson's The Makeshift Rocket on the flip side, a novel featuring what may be the only spaceship in all of sf to be powered by beer, which is why it originally had the title A Bicycle Built for Brew when it was serialized in Astounding. But I digress . . . .

  In 1978, Berkley Putnam published a hefty Anderson volume of Technic Civilization stories titled The Earth Book of Stormgate, and "Margin of Profit" was again included, but this was a revised version. This was unusual for Poul Anderson, who sometimes included one of his early stories (earlier, usually, than 1956) in a collection with the comment that, though he would not write the story the same way nowadays and had considered revising it, he suspected that such revision might spoil what was good in the story which a younger Poul Anderson had created. I
don't know why he made an exception in this case, though one possibility is that the early story needed some fine-tuning to match the Technic Civilization universe as it later developed. Another is that van Rijn in his debut was not as van Rijnesque as he later became.

  One change is understandable, since by 1978 Mars was, alas, looking unlikely to even harbor lichens, let alone intelligent life, so the "small image of St. Dismas, carved from sandroot in the Martian style" in the original version has become "a small image of St. Dismas, carved from Martian sandroot," the carving presumably not done by Martians. A few pages later in the original, van Rijn hosts a meeting of Polesotechnic League leaders, including Kraaknach, one of the "Martians of the Sirruch Horde." In the revised version, he is still a Martian, but not a native of the red planet, being one of "the latest wave of immigrants to Earth's once desolate neighbor." (At least he keeps his feathers.) Such immigration was still going on a few hundred years later in the Technic Civilization timeline, since Jupiter has by then been colonized by the Ymirites, extra-Solar beings for whom the fierce conditions on a gas giant are home, sweet home.