From: "Tony Ellis" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: What abos?
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 12:54:54 +0100

Jerry Friedman wrote:
>Unless the starcrossers made one-way
>trips, they would have brought back videotapes or films, remains, and
>whatever else they could get their hands on.

We're not told what sort of communication went on between the first settlers
and Earth. But if we're going to indulge in speculation, we can just as
easily speculate that there was none at all, that the French settlers came
to the system with the precise intention of breaking all ties with Earth.
After all, the texts do tell us that:

1. It takes over 20 years, Earth time, for a starcrosser to get to St Anne.
Another 20-plus to get back.
2. Relations between Earth and the French settlers were sufficiently bad for
a full-scale war to erupt.

Neither of which exactly suggests a lively and co-operative exchange. We are
also told that the Annese were a "thinly-scattered" people, who "died off
before they could be thoroughly studied," which doesn't argue for there
being many photo-opportunities in any case.

>We know that anthropology is going strong enough on Earth to pay
>for Dr. Marsch's expedition

The successful funding of which rather suggests that sufficient evidence
_did_ get back in the end, does it not?


>Also, if you accept Mrs. Blount's statement, there was contact with
>the abos after the war and no reason for any records of that to be
>lost.

If you accept Madame Blount's statement, after the war the abos were (a)
thought of as "animals shaped like people", (b) shot with impunity, and (c)
disposed of after shooting. That's about as far away from making records as
you can get.



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