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Gleanings from
"When in the Course—" by H. Beam Piper
(Elements first published, in substantially different form, as "Gunpowder God" in Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction, November 1964, and as "Down Styphon!" in Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction, November 1965. All citations here are from original publication in the anthology Federation, Ace 1981.)
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Summary
A privately-financed, joint-stock
company, Stellar Explorations, Ltd., in which all fifteen shareholders are also
crew members of the starship Stellex. Julio Almagro is the largest
shareholder with "more money in the Stellex than any three of the
others, except Adriaan de Ruyter" (whose principal contribution was most likely
his hyperdrive yacht Voortrekker). The Stellex crew could only
afford the to buy the ship "because her former owners could no longer get her
insured." They hoped to discover an uninhabited, Terra-type planet for which
they could get an exploitation charter.
The Stellex crew has "spent four years and visited six systems" and "six airless, waterless, poisonous and otherwise abominable planets" before finding the "Terra-type planet . . . Eta Stellex II" (the second planet of the seventh system visited by the Stellex) which they name Freya, after the Norse goddess of love and beauty.
Most of the Federation characters appear to be Americans although none are explicitly identified as such. Barron is a Venusian and de Ruyter is apparently an Afrikaner. Narvaes and Almagro are most likely South Americans. Zahanov has a Russian surname but perhaps a German first name (Karl) and Muramoto has a Japanese surname and an Anglo first name (Arthur), the first suggestions of the "intermingling" of nationalities that we see later in Federation history. These are also all of the "Western" nationalities of the early Terran Federation.
The discovery of Freya is not placed specifically in time. There are several historically relevant events mentioned though. It happens after the discovery of Thor, Loki and Yggdrasil and the establishment of chartered companies for those worlds. The Norse name Freya suggest that all Norse names—the pantheon preferred by the Federation Astrographic Commission—for new worlds had yet to be exhausted by this time, placing the discovery relatively early in the period of interstellar exploration. It occurs sometime after the "Atomic Wars" and at a time when Venus is a "Federation Member Republic." The characters speak Lingua Terra and while the Atomic Era dating system is used on Venus it apparently is not yet used customarily on Terra. (Note that the eventual standardization of Atomic Era dating later in Federation history suggests the important influence of Venus at this point.)
The Stellex crew has "spent four years and visited six systems" and "six airless, waterless, poisonous and otherwise abominable planets" before finding the "Terra-type planet . . . Eta Stellex II" (the second planet of the seventh system visited by the Stellex) which they name Freya, after the Norse goddess of love and beauty.
Most of the Federation characters appear to be Americans although none are explicitly identified as such. Barron is a Venusian and de Ruyter is apparently an Afrikaner. Narvaes and Almagro are most likely South Americans. Zahanov has a Russian surname but perhaps a German first name (Karl) and Muramoto has a Japanese surname and an Anglo first name (Arthur), the first suggestions of the "intermingling" of nationalities that we see later in Federation history. These are also all of the "Western" nationalities of the early Terran Federation.
The discovery of Freya is not placed specifically in time. There are several historically relevant events mentioned though. It happens after the discovery of Thor, Loki and Yggdrasil and the establishment of chartered companies for those worlds. The Norse name Freya suggest that all Norse names—the pantheon preferred by the Federation Astrographic Commission—for new worlds had yet to be exhausted by this time, placing the discovery relatively early in the period of interstellar exploration. It occurs sometime after the "Atomic Wars" and at a time when Venus is a "Federation Member Republic." The characters speak Lingua Terra and while the Atomic Era dating system is used on Venus it apparently is not yet used customarily on Terra. (Note that the eventual standardization of Atomic Era dating later in Federation history suggests the important influence of Venus at this point.)
Specific citations
The intial discussion aboard the Stellex
is characterized by Barron as "a worse gloom session than six months ago, and
with less reason." (p. 206) This suggest a six month travel time from the
expedition’s previous system exploration at what would have been designated
Zeta Stellex. (p. 226)
Freya:
Freya has three continents, but only one is inhabited. (p. 206) Civilization is "confined to one river valley about the same area as the Mississippi-Missouri system in North Terra . . . except a small and apparently unrelated patch at the northern corner of the continent." (p. 206) One of the two uninhabited continents is "even bigger than the Eurasian landmass on Terra." (p. 206) Freyan oukry are "ungainly things, with bovine heads and short, stumpy legs . . . [and] flat, beaverlike tail[s]." (pp. 212, 214, 219)
The location Freya and Yggdrasil:
Freya is twenty light years from Yggdrasil—three months round-trip travel time for the Stellex—and six months one-way travel time for the Stellex from Terra (four months one-way for the Voortrekker). (pp. 267, 283) This suggests that Stellex travel speeds are about thirteen and a third light years per month (just a bit over three light years per week) and therefore that Freya is about eighty light years from Terra. But Freya and Terra are apparently "seven hundred light-years apart"! (p. 276) (This figure suggests a Stellex speed of nearly 120 light years per month—about 27 light years per week, placing Yggdrasil about 175 light years from Freya!) Freya is "closer [to] Terra than Yggdrasil" is to Terra while Yggdrasil is "right next door" to Freya as compared to Terra. (p. 282) Indeed, de Ruyter believes the Voortrekker might beat a Stellex-speed Yggdrasil-Terra freighter even though it won’t leave until after a Yggdrasil-Freya freighter, scheduled to arrive at Freya a week after the returning Stellex, arrives at Freya. (p. 282) Because the Yggdrasil-Terra freighter may have as much as almost a two-month head start on the Voortrekker, Yggdrasil is also about eighty (or seven hundred!) light years from Terra (almost six months travel time at Stellex speeds and yet still farther from Terra than Freya is).
Federation culture, practices and institutions:
"Atomic Era dating [is used] exclusively on Venus" but Christian Era dating is apparently still widely used on Terra. (p. 207)
"The Astrographic Commission won’t accept Helleno-Roman names for anything outside the Sol System. They prefer names from Norse mythology, as long as they last." (p. 226)
The "Pan-Federation freighter Callisto" will arrive at Freya from Yggdrasil bringing "a Terran Federation Army captain and ten enlisted men to represent the Government till something permanent can be set up. . . . The Federation Army was authorized to furnish arms to colonies and exploitation companies, that meant they had at least tentative recognition." (p. 282)
Barron has a "10-mm Colt-Argentine" automatic pistol. (p. 216) Someone else has a "7-mm Sterberg." (p. 217)
"Dillingham hyperdrive" (p. 234)
The Stellex crew speak Lingua Terra. (pp. 228, 231)
"The curse of overpopulation [had] put its mark on the. . . mind . . . [of] the Terran." (p. 276)
Unit of exchange in the Federation is the sol.
Terra:
The aerial photos of Hostigos remind Barron "of pictures he had seen of Switzerland and the Tyrol before the Atomic Wars." (p. 211) Fitzurse campaigned against "mounted warriors" of the "Eurasian barbarians of North Terra, the human debris of the Atomic Wars" to "protect the reclamation projects." (p. 213) Terra imports "huge quantities" of guano from Yggdrasil "for the soil-reclamation projects in the war-ruined Northern Hemisphere." (p. 267) Elsewhere, mention is made of "pacifying the Northern Hemisphere barbarians on Terra." (p. 246) Barron notes that there "was always some half-crazy messiah stirring up the Eurasian barbarians. . . ." (p. 258)
Venus:
A "Federation Member Republic." (p. 209) "If you got voted out of office [on Venus], they indicted you for corrupt practices. There were no other kind in Venusian politics." (p. 209) Barron had been "a teenage illegal voter." (p. 261)
Yggdrasil:
"Yggdrasil is inhabited, and the Terran colonist there still have to eat hydroponic vegetables and carniculture meat" but there’s "some kind of a micro-organism, something like a virus, that gets into the nutrients for both the hydroponics and the carniculture. . . . Contact with Terran organic matter kills it, but it makes the food taste simply foul." (pp. 209, 281) Yggdrasil exports "huge quantities" of guano to Terra "for the soil-reclamation projects in the war-ruined Northern Hemisphere." (p. 267)
Chartered Companies:
De Ruyter notes that if Freya "had been uninhabited, we’d able to get clear title of ownership for the whole planet. But look at the Thor Company, and the Loki Company, and the Yggdrasil Company. They were all chartered for inhabited planets, and they’re all making money." (p. 206)
In order to "float a company on Terra" the Stellex crew need "an exclusive-rights charter to operate on" Freya. (p. 207) Thus, because Freya is inhabited, Stellar Explorations needs "some kind of a treaty with some more or less sovereign power, granting [them] rights of entry and trade" in order to "get a charter" which "the Federation Colonial Office would accept. . . ." (pp. 207-08, 233) De Ruyter is concerned about "stock issues and the Banking Cartel and franchises" when considering making an application for a charter. (p. 282)
Non-human races:
"Humanoid form . . . was to be expected in any sapient race, with variations—the hairy, dog-faced Thorans, the faunlike Lokians, the grotesque but upright and biped natives of Yggdrasil." (pp. 212-13)
Terran characters, in order of appearance:
Roger Barron, (p. 205): former Venusian politician; in accordance with "standard practice" he faces a warrant on Venus for "corrupt practices" after being voted out of office; had been "a teenage illegal voter." (pp. 209, 261)
Adriaan de Ruyter, (p. 205): Voortrekker pilot; second largest Stellex shareholder
Reginald Fitzurse, (p. 205): responsible for landing operations; a retired Terran Federation army officer; campaigned against the "Eurasian barbarians of North Terra" to "protect the reclamation projects." (pp. 254, 213)
Laurenço Narvaes, (p. 205):
Charley Clifford, (p. 206): "the doctor, who doubled as carniculturist."
Karl Zahanov, (p. 206): "the space-captain."
Nancy Patterson, (pp. 206-7): a former secretary in the social science division of the University of Montevideo
Luther Smith, (p. 207): chief engineer
Margaret Hale, (p. 208): hyperdrive engineer
Sylvia Davock, (p. 208): environmental systems?
Julio Almagro, (p. 208): largest Stellex shareholder
Dave MacDonald, (p. 211): scout, hunter, naturalist
Arthur Muramoto, (p. 211):
Katherine Gower, (p. 214):
Lisette Krull, (p. 223): chemist?
Technology:
coffee-concentrate tablet
Dillingham hyperdrives (always mentioned in plural) (pp. 208, 234)
carniculture (p. 208)
automatic pistol
contragravity vehicles
Hyperdrive technology is based on "the Keene-Gonzales-Dillingham Theory of Non-Einsteinian Relativity."
Stellex, a "thousand foot sphere." (p. 205)
Voortrekker, a "two hundred foot hyperyacht . . . [which] is berthed inside the thousand foot sphere of the Stellex." (p. 205). Ship’s vehicles include six seventy foot oval landing craft and various lorries, aircars and airjeeps.
Freya:
Freya has three continents, but only one is inhabited. (p. 206) Civilization is "confined to one river valley about the same area as the Mississippi-Missouri system in North Terra . . . except a small and apparently unrelated patch at the northern corner of the continent." (p. 206) One of the two uninhabited continents is "even bigger than the Eurasian landmass on Terra." (p. 206) Freyan oukry are "ungainly things, with bovine heads and short, stumpy legs . . . [and] flat, beaverlike tail[s]." (pp. 212, 214, 219)
The location Freya and Yggdrasil:
Freya is twenty light years from Yggdrasil—three months round-trip travel time for the Stellex—and six months one-way travel time for the Stellex from Terra (four months one-way for the Voortrekker). (pp. 267, 283) This suggests that Stellex travel speeds are about thirteen and a third light years per month (just a bit over three light years per week) and therefore that Freya is about eighty light years from Terra. But Freya and Terra are apparently "seven hundred light-years apart"! (p. 276) (This figure suggests a Stellex speed of nearly 120 light years per month—about 27 light years per week, placing Yggdrasil about 175 light years from Freya!) Freya is "closer [to] Terra than Yggdrasil" is to Terra while Yggdrasil is "right next door" to Freya as compared to Terra. (p. 282) Indeed, de Ruyter believes the Voortrekker might beat a Stellex-speed Yggdrasil-Terra freighter even though it won’t leave until after a Yggdrasil-Freya freighter, scheduled to arrive at Freya a week after the returning Stellex, arrives at Freya. (p. 282) Because the Yggdrasil-Terra freighter may have as much as almost a two-month head start on the Voortrekker, Yggdrasil is also about eighty (or seven hundred!) light years from Terra (almost six months travel time at Stellex speeds and yet still farther from Terra than Freya is).
Federation culture, practices and institutions:
"Atomic Era dating [is used] exclusively on Venus" but Christian Era dating is apparently still widely used on Terra. (p. 207)
"The Astrographic Commission won’t accept Helleno-Roman names for anything outside the Sol System. They prefer names from Norse mythology, as long as they last." (p. 226)
The "Pan-Federation freighter Callisto" will arrive at Freya from Yggdrasil bringing "a Terran Federation Army captain and ten enlisted men to represent the Government till something permanent can be set up. . . . The Federation Army was authorized to furnish arms to colonies and exploitation companies, that meant they had at least tentative recognition." (p. 282)
Barron has a "10-mm Colt-Argentine" automatic pistol. (p. 216) Someone else has a "7-mm Sterberg." (p. 217)
"Dillingham hyperdrive" (p. 234)
The Stellex crew speak Lingua Terra. (pp. 228, 231)
"The curse of overpopulation [had] put its mark on the. . . mind . . . [of] the Terran." (p. 276)
Unit of exchange in the Federation is the sol.
Terra:
The aerial photos of Hostigos remind Barron "of pictures he had seen of Switzerland and the Tyrol before the Atomic Wars." (p. 211) Fitzurse campaigned against "mounted warriors" of the "Eurasian barbarians of North Terra, the human debris of the Atomic Wars" to "protect the reclamation projects." (p. 213) Terra imports "huge quantities" of guano from Yggdrasil "for the soil-reclamation projects in the war-ruined Northern Hemisphere." (p. 267) Elsewhere, mention is made of "pacifying the Northern Hemisphere barbarians on Terra." (p. 246) Barron notes that there "was always some half-crazy messiah stirring up the Eurasian barbarians. . . ." (p. 258)
Venus:
A "Federation Member Republic." (p. 209) "If you got voted out of office [on Venus], they indicted you for corrupt practices. There were no other kind in Venusian politics." (p. 209) Barron had been "a teenage illegal voter." (p. 261)
Yggdrasil:
"Yggdrasil is inhabited, and the Terran colonist there still have to eat hydroponic vegetables and carniculture meat" but there’s "some kind of a micro-organism, something like a virus, that gets into the nutrients for both the hydroponics and the carniculture. . . . Contact with Terran organic matter kills it, but it makes the food taste simply foul." (pp. 209, 281) Yggdrasil exports "huge quantities" of guano to Terra "for the soil-reclamation projects in the war-ruined Northern Hemisphere." (p. 267)
Chartered Companies:
De Ruyter notes that if Freya "had been uninhabited, we’d able to get clear title of ownership for the whole planet. But look at the Thor Company, and the Loki Company, and the Yggdrasil Company. They were all chartered for inhabited planets, and they’re all making money." (p. 206)
In order to "float a company on Terra" the Stellex crew need "an exclusive-rights charter to operate on" Freya. (p. 207) Thus, because Freya is inhabited, Stellar Explorations needs "some kind of a treaty with some more or less sovereign power, granting [them] rights of entry and trade" in order to "get a charter" which "the Federation Colonial Office would accept. . . ." (pp. 207-08, 233) De Ruyter is concerned about "stock issues and the Banking Cartel and franchises" when considering making an application for a charter. (p. 282)
Non-human races:
"Humanoid form . . . was to be expected in any sapient race, with variations—the hairy, dog-faced Thorans, the faunlike Lokians, the grotesque but upright and biped natives of Yggdrasil." (pp. 212-13)
Terran characters, in order of appearance:
Roger Barron, (p. 205): former Venusian politician; in accordance with "standard practice" he faces a warrant on Venus for "corrupt practices" after being voted out of office; had been "a teenage illegal voter." (pp. 209, 261)
Adriaan de Ruyter, (p. 205): Voortrekker pilot; second largest Stellex shareholder
Reginald Fitzurse, (p. 205): responsible for landing operations; a retired Terran Federation army officer; campaigned against the "Eurasian barbarians of North Terra" to "protect the reclamation projects." (pp. 254, 213)
Laurenço Narvaes, (p. 205):
Charley Clifford, (p. 206): "the doctor, who doubled as carniculturist."
Karl Zahanov, (p. 206): "the space-captain."
Nancy Patterson, (pp. 206-7): a former secretary in the social science division of the University of Montevideo
Luther Smith, (p. 207): chief engineer
Margaret Hale, (p. 208): hyperdrive engineer
Sylvia Davock, (p. 208): environmental systems?
Julio Almagro, (p. 208): largest Stellex shareholder
Dave MacDonald, (p. 211): scout, hunter, naturalist
Arthur Muramoto, (p. 211):
Katherine Gower, (p. 214):
Lisette Krull, (p. 223): chemist?
Technology:
coffee-concentrate tablet
Dillingham hyperdrives (always mentioned in plural) (pp. 208, 234)
carniculture (p. 208)
automatic pistol
contragravity vehicles
Hyperdrive technology is based on "the Keene-Gonzales-Dillingham Theory of Non-Einsteinian Relativity."
Stellex, a "thousand foot sphere." (p. 205)
Voortrekker, a "two hundred foot hyperyacht . . . [which] is berthed inside the thousand foot sphere of the Stellex." (p. 205). Ship’s vehicles include six seventy foot oval landing craft and various lorries, aircars and airjeeps.