From: "Tony Ellis" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Prehistoric Starcrossers
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 13:15:21 +0100

Jeff Wilson wrote:
>I'll bite; how did the prehistoric societies travel the stars without
>leaving any hint of their ability to do so in either the story or the
>archaeological record?

They certainly leave a hint in the story. The Old Wise One talks of a
"starcrosser", and later he seems to be remembering the actual splashdown
itself: "'Like a spark from the echoless vault of emptiness,' the Old Wise
One continued, 'the shining shape slipped steaming into the sea.'"

Notice the poetic, alliterative language the Old Wise One uses here, and
nowhere else. It's as if he's quoting some epic oral poem along the lines of
Homer. Another clue, I think, that there's a link between the ancient
civilisations of Earth and the Annese.

As for the archaeological record, who says they didn't leave a trace there?
We're talking about what may be the crushed and rusted remains of only a
single spaceship, trapped between two layers of sedimentary rock somewhere
on a big empty planet. Easy to miss.



--