Question: What is the relationship between Magnan and Retief, and how does it shift throughout their diplomatic mission involving a fierce alien race?

Answer: Magnan and Retief are the men selected to go to the planet where the Qornt are based in order to investigate. Although Magnan was the first person assigned to the job, he is less comfortable out in the field compared to Retief, who ends up making most of the decisions. There is a tension here as they continue their adventure, with Magnan being scared and Retief encouraging him forward, and Retief saving Magnan when he is pinned by the Verpp. Magnan is the one who is explicitly a diplomat, but Retief takes over most conversations—not only does he push the mission forward and insist on following the Verpp to the Qornt, but he eventually declares himself leader of the Qornt. Even when Ambassador Nitworth demands information from Magnan near the end, it is Retief who responds—he wants the Ambassador to know that he is the one calling the shots, even if it has been behind the scenes. It’s clear that Magnan has either not understood this, as if he were being tricked, or he is just not good at giving credit where credit is due, because he refers to the plan as his own recruiting scheme, correcting himself to say it was a group effort, even though it was all Retief’s idea. At the very end of the story, Retief complies to all of Magnan’s requests in an uncharacteristic way—the interpretation is left open, but there is a possibility Retief is hiding something and intends to return as a military leader with the Qornt and perhaps attack the Terrestrials.

Answer:
	Magnan is a hesitant man, very aware of himself. His anxiety about the situation at hand is in direct relation to his self-preservation instincts. Retief, on the other hand, is far bolder, willing to sacrifice himself and his safety to explore, solve the issue, or reach a solution. At first, Retief makes fun of Magnan and his hesitancy. Often, Retief has to goad or tease Magnan just to make him come along with him.
	After Magnan takes down both the Verpps, Retief’s respect for him grows, if only incrementally. Their sarcastic and snarky manner only grows as the story progresses. As they continue on their mission, Magnan continues to question Retief’s ever-present bravery, but this only propels him forward.
	Once Retief challenges Qorn to a duel, Magnan instantly tries to hold him back and questions his train of thought. After hearing Retief’s plan, Magnan backs off and watches his comrade take down the chief.
	Now that Retief is their new leader, he and Magnan brainstorm with the Qornt about how to solve the issue at hand. Magnan always leads with the idea of peace, while Retief looks for other solutions.
	Although they experience some difficulties in the beginning, Magnan and Retief develop a friendly relationship where they are able to question each other, keep the other one safe, and bounce ideas off of each other.

Answer:
Mangan and Retief begin their adventure on the planet at odds with each other. Mangan is in favor of leaving the planet while Retief proposing investigating further the more they learn. Mangan is diplomatic and risk-averse in his interaction while Retief prefers action.

Retief is the cleverer of the two men and understands that although the Verpp and Qornt look imposing, the lower gravity on the planet renders them ineffectual physically. He uses this knowledge to his advantage to defeat Qorn, the leader of the Qornt and bluff the remainder of the population into establishing himself as their leader. Mangan, originally the leader of the expedition falls into line behind Retief's lead. By the end of the story Retief has accomplished a striking victory and now is beginning to view Mangan as another clueless dignitary like Nitworth and begins to discuss his future plans with the lower-class pilot, Cy.

Answer:
Magnan and Ratief are sent to investigate the Qornt together. Before they leave, Ambassador Nitworth tells Ratief to make sure that Magnan does not do anything foolish or compulsive.

However, as soon as they land on the planet, Magnan accuses Ratief of going against the boss’s policies. Ratief tells Magnan to give him an hour to investigate the Qornts and to leave without him if he’s not back in time. Ratief is clearly the braver of the two men. Yet, Magnan is able to show off his own skills and courage when the Qornts show up unexpectedly and jump out from behind a bush. Magnan knocks the aliens down without much thought.

Magnan tries to convince Ratief to go back to their ship, but Ratief refuses and instead says that it’s their job to go get the Qornts’ attention. Although the two Qornts agree to bring them to their leader, Magnan is concerned that the Qornts are secretly plotting an attack against the diplomats. His doubts about their kindness have merit. The two Qornt escorts end up pulling out weapons and threatening the men. This time, it’s Ratief who uses caution and tells Magnan not to scare the Qornts because they may get nervous and shoot.

Ratief takes charge of the mission and leaves Magnan’s opinions about the situation out when he tells the Qorn that the two earthmen have come with an ultimatum. He completely changes his boss’s message and tries to scare the Qornts into leaving. When the leader refuses, Ratief challenges him to a duel and comes out victorious. Ratief then nominates himself to be the new leader of the group.

Magnan is stunned by Ratief’s cavalier attitude, but he is supportive of his colleague. He trusts Ratief to make good decisions, even when his actions seem outlandish.


Question: Who is Magnan and how does his attitude shift throughout the narrative involving intergalactic tensions and unexpected encounters?

Answer: Second Secretary Magnan was selected by Ambassador Nitworth to travel to Roolit I to investigate the Qornt. Magnan does not have much field experience and is surprised by this assignment, and had been trying to get out of doing anything related to the Qornt issue when it was handed to him. He resigns himself to the task and Retief is assigned to go along with him. When they get to the planet, Magnan is clearly anxious—he remarks on the quality of the view and states his intent to head back to finish the mission, but Retief doesn’t let him give up so early. When the men are spotted by some creatures, and he tries to run for help, he is instead jumped by the creatures and Retief has to tear him free. This gives Magnan some confidence, and has a much more arrogant attitude towards the Verpp. He flaunts his title as diplomat and tries to assert as much dominance as he can. Once he learns that these are Verpp and not Qornt, he is preoccupied by the confusing details of the story: how many Qornt there are, and things like that. Once the group starts towards the Qornt’s village, however, he becomes nervous again, no longer with the upper hand. He is not sure if he is walking into a trap, and becomes more and more nervous until the trap is revealed. Once at gunpoint standing in front of the Qornt, however, he has enough confidence to pry at the division between the Qornt who want war and those who aren’t sold on the idea yet. Once Retief threatens the Qornt and a fight commences, Magnan still tries to talk his way out of Zubb shooting the men, gains confidence again, and insists on taking the guns. Once Qorn has been tied up, Magnan suggests putting the Verpp in charge, and asks the Qornt if there are alternatives to militaristic life that they would consider. Eventually they all make it back to where the story started, and he seems more passive again, until the Ambassador is on board with Retief’s plan, and Magnan starts ordering Retief around again, though Retief’s behavior has shifted in response.

Answer:
	Magnan is one of Ambassador Nitworth’s men, assumedly part of his military brigade. When Nitworth commands him to take Retief on a journey to find the Qornt, he balks and asks not to. He is essentially the literary version of a scaredy-cat.
	Throughout their journey, Retief has to come up with different encouragements or tricks to keep Magnan going, usually involving putting him in harm’s way. At first, Magnan’s self-preservation is what drives him forward. But as the story progresses, he soon grows to care for Retief in a purely platonic way. This development means he also tries to protect Retief in his own way, usually by questioning his choices and insisting safety comes first.
	At the end, Magnan becomes a much braver man and negotiates with the Qornt himself. He constantly pushes for the idea of peace, not only for his own self-preservation but also for those around him. His basic instincts remain, but they expand to include the rest of the Terrestrials as well as the other races.

Answer:
Mangan is the Second Secretary in the Terrestrial Diplomatic Corp. He answers to Ambassador Nitworth. He is chosen to perform reconnaissance on the alien planet along with Retief. Initially, Mangan is a by-the-books officer with something of a cowardly streak not wanting to engage in any risky action. Throughout his time on the planet, Mangan is continually proposing that they retreat before being pushed on by Retief.

Eventually when Mangan is nearly captured by the Verpp, he physically overpowers them. Eventually, Mangan is influenced by Retief's bravado and guile and aids him in deceiving the Qorn into joining the Terrestrial military complex.

Mangan also has a prejudiced view of social class (not unlike the Verpp) disapproving of Retief socializing with a mere pilot. This limitation prevents Mangan from seeing the bigger picture of the situation unlike Retief.

Answer:
At the beginning of the story, Magnan, the diplomat, takes on very little responsibility. He listens to Nitworth’s declarations about an unknown enemy invading their territory, and he is unphased. He tells Nitworth that it seems like everything is under control, so he is just going to head out. Nitworth sends him to check on the Qornt in person, and he is deeply unhappy with the assignment.

Upon arrival, Magnan immediately tries to get out of doing any work by telling Ratief that they can’t locate the group. He doesn’t see it as his responsibility to save the earth men from the invaders.

However, when the Qornts appear in front of him, he wastes no time in defending himself and his colleague and knocks them to the ground. After spending more time with the Qornts and getting to know them and their society better, Magnan becomes more invested in what happens to them and how the earth men handle their invasion. He fully supports Ratief when he asks Qorn to prove that he is in fact the strongest and again when Ratief claims the leadership role for himself. Magnan knows that everything Ratief is doing is against Nitworth’s orders, but he trusts Ratief to make good decisions, and the whole ordeal is very entertaining.


Question: Why are the men so convinced that the Qornt possess an extreme tactical advantage in their current situation? What do we know about the military mindset and tools of this aggressive group?

Answer: Because they Qornt have been underground for two centuries while they molted from the Verpp stage of their life cycle, they have gone undetected by the Terrestrials in this time. This led the Terrestrials to believe that the Qornt possessed superior technology of some kind, as they seemed to have reappeared out of nowhere. However, this is not the case, and it was merely that the group remained dormant for a long time. There are rumors of stealth technology and superior ships, including a superdrive, but not much firsthand information until Magnan and Retief make it to the surface of Roolit I, the planet that the Qornt are currently occupying. It is true that the Verpp and Qornt are physically larger than the Terrestrials, but the systems of gravity on the different planets means that the smaller Terrestrials are actually stronger and have a kind of advantage on Roolit I. The Verpp tell Magnan that the Qornt have huge, powerful warships that have a variety of weapon types. Not only this, but each Qornt has his own ship, which means that there is a large fleet of these. It comes to Magnan as a surprise, then, that the Qornt are not worried about diplomatic negotiation, but instead just seem to have an impulse that drives them to be in battle.

Answer:
	When the Qornt reappears after a 200-year hiatus, Ambassador Nitworth and his men are terrified because their radars are unable to find them. Because of this, and the Qornt’s leader’s claim about their unrivaled weaponry, the men are sure of their demise. They gather their forces to come up with five different relocation plans and decide to execute the best one in 24 short hours.
	With a population of 15 million Terrestrials, relocation is a mighty feat. By choosing relocation, it’s clear that Ambassador Nitworth and his men have no faith in their fleet’s ability against the Qornt’s.
	Later on, when Retief and Magnan are with the Zubb and the Qornt, we discover that each Qornt has his own dreadnought. Zubb talks them up as well, explaining in detail about these fully automated warships. He also mentions their super drive and their unstoppable army. However, Retief is smart enough to figure out that since they’ve been underground for 200 years, they wouldn’t have access to all of this new technology. The Qornt are still a warring species, though, advanced technology or not.
	Since the leader and his men were not in line, their power fell dramatically. Retief was able to become their new leader with relative ease. He also appeases their warlike ways by assigning them to the Peace Enforcement Corps.

Answer:
The men are convinced of Qornt superiority due to the fact that they appeared on the planet undetected by their instruments. Later, Mangan and Retief learn that the Qornt command a massive armada of warships that would be a imposing threat to the Terrestrials.

The military mindset of the Terrestrials is similarly aggressive as the Qornt. They are intent on countering the perceived threat but seeing that they are facing a technologically superior foe, they seek to surrender and save their population.

Answer:
The humans’ tools are unable to detect the Qornts’ invasion at the beginning of the story, so they assume that they have far more advanced equipment. It is obvious that they have never before seen an arrival go completely undetected by their tools. At the end of the story, however, the truth that the Qornts were hibernating underground for 200 years comes to light. Therefore, the earth men did not “miss” their invasion, they just didn’t know that there were dozens of them buried underground.

The Qornts are self-proclaimed lovers of war. The original Qorn says that he has no desire for peace between his people and the earthlings because he much prefers adventure and action, regardless of the potential loss of life. Although some of his subordinates do not agree with his decision to battle the earth men, they do acknowledge that war is an essential part of the Qornts’ society.

The Qornts are not always Qornts. Before they are Qornts, they are Verpp, and before that they are Rheuk, and before that, Boog, etc. No one survives the Qornt stage because the Qornt love military life.


Question: Who are the Qornt, a race with a contentious reputation, and how do they relate to the other groups in the story?

Answer: The Qornt is a race of aliens known for their militaristic tendencies that seemed to disappear two centuries ago. They are of particular issue because they have reappeared and written to the Terrestrials saying they would take over the planet that the Terrestrials are on. We eventually learn that the Qornt are but one stage in a longer life cycle, in which Gwil become Boog, who become Rheuk, who become Verpp, who eventually become Qornt after the two hundred year estivation period. It is only in this stage that they become antagonistic and warlike, but they do not know what happens after this stage because Qornt are expected to die in battle, and none have survived long enough to know what happens. The Qornt themselves are twelve feet tall and troll-like, with very bushy fur, huge eyes, and beaks. They are very comfortable with their militaristic traditions—when we meet them, they are in the midst of a large feast that they partake in before going to war. They boast the spoils of battle on display in their great hall, and wear intricate headdresses to show their power. After a skirmish with the men on Roolit I, in which Qorn (the lead Qornt) is replaced in power by Retief, they eventually make it to the outer planets where they have presumably been recruited into the Peace Enforcement Corps.

Answer:
	The Qornt are a large, bird-like, warring species with scary beaks and large eyes. They are similar in looks to the Verpp but much larger and scarier.
	As it turns out, the Qornt and several other species undergo a sort of metamorphosis, similar to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly in our reality. Just as the caterpillar burrows itself in a cocoon, the Verpp burrow, molt, and then re-emerge as Qornt. However, the Verpp aren’t born. They are initially of the Gwil species. The Gwil transform into the Boog, which then transform into the Rheuk, and then they become the Verpp.
	Sadly, it’s unknown what the Qornt might become during their transformation. No Qornt has ever survived long enough to experience the next metamorphosis if there is one. They always die in battle, supposedly to make room for the Verpp to burrow again.

Answer:
The Qornt are an antagonistic alien race that have been rediscovered on the planet of Roolit I. They are a warlike race and have delivered an ultimatum to the Terrestrial inhabitants of Smorbrod that if they do not evacuate, they will invade. They are physically imposing, standing over 10 feet tall with a birdlike appearance.

In reality the Qornt are related to all of the other alien races on Roolit I. Each seperate race is a developmental stage of a single species. The Gwil become Boog, the Boog become Rheuk, which become Verpp which eventually become Qornt. The Qornt are predisposed to warlike tendencies so that they tend to die off and complete their life cycle in order to make room for new Qornt that develop from the Verpp. If they did not do this overpopulation would become an issue when they need to hibernate underground for 200 years.

Answer:
The Qornt originally lived in the Concordiate times, about 200 years ago. They vanished suddenly, and no historians know where it was that they went. However, Magnan and Ratief learn from the aliens that they were simply hibernating for two centuries. They never actually left the planet.

The Qornt are led by His Supreme Excellency The Qorn, Regent of the Qornt, Over-Lord of the Galactic Destiny. They are about eight feet tall, stand on two green legs, and move like birds. They have bushy green hair and white beaks. They love to attack other species and engage in dangerous action and war.

Qornt is the final stage in a long line of evolution of the being. The two beings that Magnan and Ratief meet are not actually Qornts, but Verpps. They are actually offended that the earth men mistake them for Qornts because they believe the similar but different creatures are argumentative and lowly. They are all “pud’s creatures,” but they view themselves distinctly based on their place in the evolution of the being. No one survives the Qornt stage because they are always  engaging in war.


Question: What is the plot of the story that revolves around three explorers who encounter a mysterious and ominous city on a barren planet?

Answer:
The story opens with Rodney, Martin and Wass landing on a foreign planet and overlooking an abandoned metal city where the inhabitants supposedly died more than a million years ago. They had thirteen hours to explore before they must return to their mother ship.
They notice a metal rim at the perimeter of the city that they must step over to enter, and continue in to explore. Wass must return to their “lifeboat” spaceship to get a camera, but is unable to exit the city as the metal band they noticed coming in has turned into a dome-shaped shield over the entire city. They suspect it may be a radiation shield, and are suspicious that the wind they saw when landing and their inability to contact their home ship may indicate a tragedy took place as they arrived.
They find a control center of sorts with lots of knobs and levers, but do not engage with it for fear of not knowing what might happen. They all find the city somewhat familiar, but have no idea why.
They begin looking for where the water of the city comes from, since they may be able to find a way out of the city through its transport corridors. They all begin to start frightening each other with stories and seeing dust and objects move around in the dark. Rodney and Martin enter an underground tunnel through a hatch in the ground and Wass chooses not to follow them and instead leaves to return to the switchboard.
As Rodney and Martin discover a grate in the tunnel it begins to open for them. Wass delivers the message on the radio that he was able to do that from the control room, and then something attacks and kills him. Rodney and Martin escape to the outside of the dome to where others from their crew have come to their rescue. It is unclear whether Rodney and Martin ultimately live after they exit the tunnel.

Answer:
Martin, Rodney, and Wass are the 11th expedition to arrive on this planet. However, with only 13 hours left before they need to depart, they are the first to discover the city tucked away on an island. They make their way to the malignant-looking, black buildings and step over a metal band to enter. They explore the city briefly, taking turns guessing at who lived here before and what everything meant. Martin asks for pictures, but Wass says he left the camera back in the lifeboat. He leaves to go retrieve it, while Martin and Rodney keep exploring. The buildings are surprisingly small and the doorways only reach their shoulders. Wass radios in to say that their is no exit, because a force field has sprung up around the city. They try and think of ways to escape, but they’re not left with many options. They throw around the idea of an anti-radiation screen to protect the inhabitants. They decide to meet in the center of the city and explore one of the buildings to see if they can find an escape.
As they step in, they are all shocked at the interior architecture, which resembles a beehive. Rodney finds a switchboard, which they all fight over. Rodney and Wass want to try some switches and see if it will aid them in their escape, but Martin doesn’t want to take such a big risk seeing as they still had eleven hours. They all pull their guns on each other, but the situation deescalates and they continue on their way. They travel down a ramp until they reach a flat wall. The dome was a force field on top, and then continued down with a metal surface. They went back up to the switchboard, until Wass stopped them. A glass case filled with seeds was to their left. They looked through it, but Martin stopped the boys from taking any out. Finally, at the switchboard with their weapons out, Martin tries to stop them from making any rash decisions as they still had nine hours. Rodney gets upset and impulsively flicks a switch. Martin tackles him before any more harm can be done. Wass realizes that there are water reservoirs under the city.
They travel down again until they reach a hatch. It lifts up, and a coil slithers out. They quickly shut it, until Martin reasons that it’s just dust. So he opens it again, and dust emerges. They throw down a rope with a flashlight and Martin heads down. Rodney follows after him, landing in the dust. Wass does not, however, and shuts the hatch above them. He thinks he will survive by the switchboard, not in the tunnels. Martin and Rodney travel for a few hours before reaching a closed grate. Wass laughs at them (only two hours left) and starts flicking switches. The grate suddenly opens, and they hear his screams. He is killed, but his sacrifice allowed the others to live.

Answer: Three men--Martin, Wass, and Rodney--are part of the crew of the eleventh inter-planetary expedition sent to explore a planet close to their own. Previous expeditions had not been able to locate the city said to be on the planet, but this crew has been successful where others have failed. The three men pilot a lifeboat to investigate the empty, metal city and only have thirteen hours to photograph and catalogue what they discover there before it will be too late to safely return to their planet. As they observe the city from a distance, they witness a large, dark cloud of wind and dust approaching the city. Approaching the city's borders, they discuss it is surrounded by a metal band, and in fact the entire city is made entirely of metal. Everything is a bit mysterious and even feels familiar to Martin. Who lived here? How did they see when it was dark outside? Did they crawl or walk? Were they a distant relative of their own species and experienced different evolutions? The men think about these things as they make their way through the city. Wass realizes he has forgotten his camera to take pictures and begins to muse that the city has a mind of its own. When he goes to retrieve his camera, the metal band bordering the town has unleashed a kind of force field, preventing Wass from leaving and effectively imprisoning the team. They wonder about the purpose of the wall--was it a defense mechanism against radiation used during some kind of war? The force field also prevents communication with their main ship, so they decide to make their way down into the city's depths to look for a way to escape. Once inside, they examine their surroundings and notice the architecture is the same smooth metal that formed the surface buildings and are arranged in a series of arches and corridors resembling a beehive. Rodney discovers a switchboard, which leads Martin to believe the whole city is some kind of machine or engine. After struggling to find a way out, Wass discovers a bank of glass cases filled with seeds. They return to the switchboard, and Rodney wants to flip one of the switches, since time is running out, but Martin punches him down to stop him. Then Martin to theorize there must be a water reservoir nearby. They move further into the depths and discover a hatch, inside of which is a sea of dust. Rodney and Martin follow the sea to a metal grate exit, but Wass stays behind. He flips a switch and is killed, but the metal grate opens and Rodney and Martin are freed.

Answer: The story takes place on a planet in the same star system as Earth, where the crew of the thirteenth flight to the planet is exploring. There are three scout ships, and the story focuses on one, with the crew of Rodney, Martin, and Wass. They see what they think is the only city on the planet, never before discussed by other crews, and approach it to investigate. They are struck by its darkness, both in the lack of light as well as the dark metal that makes up most of the structures. They notice a metal band that surrounds the city, and step over it to continue onward. When Wass turns back to find the camera he left behind, he realizes he's trapped, and that the metal band turned into something akin to a glass wall. They can no longer contact their ship and need a way out. They figure their best bet is to go towards the center of the city and make their way down, in case they can dig out. They head down a magnificent ramp, dwarfed by the grand architecture of the city, and come across what looks like a switchboard. Martin threatens Rodney when he tried to reach for the switchboard and forces the group to keep walking, hoping that if the force-field is a dome that covers the top of the city, they might be able to find a way out by going under it. They are baffled by the huge structures in the city that seem to be supporting themselves, unsure of how the city keeps itself up. They eventually find the end of the city where all they see is a blank wall, so they head back towards the switchboard. Through all of this, Martin is seeing glimpses of familiarity in the city that he can't place. They find glass cases of seeds, which Martin warns Wass not to disturb - it's possible that these plants had grown outside the city at one point and they did not know what to expect if they were released. Rodney flips a random switch, which makes Martin tackle him, and they head to look for a water source or reservoir, continuing further downwards. Rodney finds a large metal disk with a wheel next to it, and Martin opens up the hatch. The group sees that whatever was inside is moving, shut the door out of fear, and eventually open it back up to take a closer look. A tentacle made of what looks like sparkling light particles swirls up into the area the men were standing in, and Martin and Rodney climb down the hatch, wading through the deep dust at the bottom, with Wass refusing to follow. Martin and Rodney eventually find an escape hatch, but they have to rely on Wass to open it for them from the switchboard. Wass dies screaming at whatever had broken glass behind him, and Martin and Rodney are rescued by the rest of their crew.


Question: What happens to Wass, a member of a team exploring an alien city, throughout the story?

Answer: Wass is an equal part of the exploration party with Rodney and Martin until he has had enough and parts ways with them when they enter an underground passageway filled with dust. Wass instead returns to the switchboard and pulls a series of levers that allows Rodney and Martin to escape from the city through the underground tunnels - saving their lives. Wass ultimately dies at the switchboard, though it is not clear what kills him.

Answer:
Wass is one of the explorers sent out to further investigate this planet. He is a photographer and is the first to realize that they are trapped within the city’s screen. Wass, Martin, and Rodney all try and figure out a way to get out, who these aliens were, and what they’re going to do, but quickly their relationship begins to deteriorate. Wass and Rodney turn against Martin fairly quickly, as they are so desperate to escape that they aren’t willing to further explore all options.
Wass meets Martin and Rodney in the center of the city before travelling into one of the buildings. They find a switchboard there, which he is in favor of messing with, but Martin persuades him otherwise. Wass continually points his weapon at Martin and forces him to perfom dangerous tasks first. He discovers the seed bank, which Martin cautions the rest of the crew not to touch. When Rodney and Martin land in the tunnels, Wass shuts the hatch above them and runs back to the switchboard. He taunts them with the time and how many hours left. He believes he will escape by flicking switches on the switchboard, and that Rodney and Martin will die in the tunnels. However, his flicking switches actually brought about Rodney and Martin’s rescue, as the grate that they were stuck at opened. Wass dies after flicking three or four of the switches and his screams reverberate throughout their radio.

Answer: Not long after the three men enter the metal city, Wass senses that something is amiss. Something about the city's architecture reminds him of his nightmares and makes him feel uneasy. He worries they are trapped for good and will miss their return flight when a force field surrounding the city prevents him from returning to the lifeboat to fetch his camera. Wass also appears to be very curious about the nature and physical attributes of the species that populated the city prior to their disappearance. He believes they must have been shorter due to the small stature of the buildings. Over time, he begins to show signs that he might believe the city and planet are in some way alive and have a will of their own. Perhaps it is this will that caused Wass to forget his camera. He is also very invested in mysterious geometric patterns they discover during their wanderings through the depths of the city, and he becomes extremely excited when he discovers a bank of glass cases which hold some kind of seeds. Wass wants to open them, but Martin warns him against this. The seeds might be some kind of plant or perhaps the offspring of the species that retired there. Whatever the case, Martin insists they attempt to find a water reservoir because it will likely lead to their escape. Wass refuses to follow them in, and instead stays behind to flip the switch that opens the grate that allows Martin and Rodney to escape. Wass is killed in a mysterious fashion.

Answer: Wass is one of the three men in his scout ship, a subset of the larger crew he is on a mission with. He is a slight blonde man with a large nose, and is in charge of the camera equipment in their group. He wanders into the city with Martin and Rodney, and when he realizes he left the camera behind, he is also faced with a new problem: there seems to be a glass barrier trapping him and his crewmates in the old city. He shouts into his radio to update the others, and they begin to brainstorm. The three of them travel through much of the city and some of the buildings trying to find a way out, and they eventually find a large hatch that Martin and Rodney jump into. Wass refuses to join, staying on top of the hatch, but once Rodney and Martin find a way out they realize the exit is covered in a metal grate. Wass had made it to the switchboard by then, and flips four switches which open the exit for Rodney and Martin to leave, but he screams into the radio after he starts this. Whatever it was with him must have killed him, but thanks to Wass, his crewmates made it out of the city alive to be rescued by the rest of the ship.


Question: Where does the story, which involves three space explorers encountering a mysterious and unsettling city, take place?

Answer:
The story takes place on the surface of a planet that has an abandoned city made of metal. The city is spooky and the inhabitants supposedly died over a million years ago. However, they see things moving strangely while they are in the city suggesting it is inhabited, and something kills Wass within the city during the story.
They explore the metal streets of the city, a room with a large switchboard, and seven levels underground. Rodney and Martin explore an underground tunnel that eventually leads them out of the city and to the safety of their fellow crew.

Answer:
Dust Unto Dust by Lyman D. Hinckley takes place on an island that had been previously explored. The ten previous groups never discovered the dull, black city on the island, but the eleventh did. This is presumably the only city on this planet that had not been inhabited for more than a million years. Only small mosses grew on the planet.
This city is made of insidious, black metal with similar architectural designs to modern earth. However, everything is shorter, presumably to make up for the inhabitant’s shortened size. The character theorize that this city was under attack at one point, which would explain the anti-radiantion screen or force field that surrounds the entire city. Dull black streets twist and turn throughout the city and buildings rise up above them.
One of the buildings was designed almost like a beehive, many openings and arches and ways to escape. There were shetlers built underneath the city, again another sign of war. Beneath the shelters lay a series of tunnels that could have been used to bring water into the city. Now they are simply filled with dust.

Answer: The story takes place on an unnamed planet close to the home planet of the story’s three main characters. Martin, Rodney, and Wass are part of the crew on the eleventh inter-planetary expedition that seeks to discover the mysteries of the unnamed metal city. The planet is covered with mostly barren earth that leads up to the black city. A large cloud of dust blows over the city, which is protected by a kind of force field after the protagonists enter. The city is entirely constructed with smooth, black metal; Wass notes how low the buildings are, which might indicate the size of the species that previously lived there. When the protagonists decide to go underneath the city to find a way to escape, they discover several levels of interlocking arches and corridors that resemble a massive beehive. The men travel between levels using a number of ramps, and when they arrive at the bottommost level, they discover a subterranean level filled with a knee-high, flowing current of sparkling dust. Rodney and Martin follow the current to a metal grate, which leads to the surface outside the city.

Answer: This story takes place on a planet that is in the same star system as Earth, where thirteen different exploratory missions have visited. The humans had not realized that there was a city on the planet, from previous missions, but there is a lone city that one of the scout ships encounters on this thirteenth mission. There is a lot of sand and dust with some wind in the planet's terrain in general, and the city sticks out as being constructed of large metal structures. Everything in the city is at a very large scale: the man traverse wide ramps that they find under tall arches, and inside of buildings the halls and rooms seem endless. It is even more frightening in that the city is shrouded in darkness because of the metal streets, and the travelers wonder how much scarier it would be in the wintertime when there wasn't natural light. The city has a large metal ring surrounding it that the men are able to walk over to enter the city, but after they do this a large force-field of sorts is triggered and the ring transforms into the base of this protective barrier. Whatever this barrier's original purpose is, it has the effect of keeping the humans from leaving the city and blocks out the wind. Much of the story happens in the lower levels of the city, passing a switchboard and a seed bank and eventually ending up in a reservoir that held the pipe that the surviving men escaped through.


Question: What is the relationship like between Rodney, Martin, and Wass as they navigate an eerie and mysterious city in an alien environment?

Answer:
They are bound by a sense of duty to the mission. However, when they are put in the predicament of being trapped under the dome, their bond begins to fray and they start fighting with each other about the best means of escape.
Rodney and Martin squabble, but both stick together in exploring an underground tunnel filled with dust while Wass elects to go his own way. Wass ultimately appears to sacrifice his life to save Rodney and Martin by returning to the switchboard and opening a grate that allows them to escape from the city.

Answer:
As colleagues and explorers, at first their relationship is well-balanced and intellectually-stimulating. They bounce ideas off of each other about the city, the force field, and its inhabitants. However, as soon as they realize that they’re stuck, their relationship begins to crumble.
As each man feels their self-preservation instincts rise, their banter becomes more and more tense. After Wass reveals that they are stuck inside of the city due to the dome surrounding it, all three meet back in the center to find another way out. This is where the great source of their conflict begins. They explore one of the buildings and find a switchboard in it relatively quickly. Rodney and Wass want to flick some switches and see what happens, but Martin disagrees. They all pull their guns on each other, until Martin can convince them to only use the switchboard as a last resort. Over the course of the story, Rodney and Wass continually make Martin do things first, whether that be leading them on paths or travelling down the hatch. Wass and Rodney would often pull their guns out on him too, but Martin stayed relatively calm.
After the discovery of the tunnel system, Rodney follows Martin down the hatch, but Wass shuts them in. He makes his way back to the switchboard, certain that his way is right and theirs is wrong. Although their relationship was pretty strong at first, their survival instinct, genuine fear, and malignant nature of the city all played a part to further divide the three.

Answer: Martin seems to be the de facto leader of the group, guiding them through the important decisions that lead them through the city. Rodney and Wass oscillate between being obedient followers and fearful, panicky crewmates who want to think and act independently. Wass has a stronger connection to the metaphysical elements of the metal city and seems to remember the place from his nightmares. He has an intense curiosity about the patterns he discovers in the metal architecture as well as the seeds he discovers in the glass cases. Martin is often impatient with his two crewmembers, particularly Rodney, whom he punches in the face and knocks to the ground to prevent him from flipping switches on the switchboard they discover. He also seems disgusted by Wass when he refuses to follow them into the dust current. Wass sacrifices himself to save his fellow crewmembers, although his death is shrouded in mystery.

Answer: Martin is clearly in charge, though he does not have a gentle hand. He threatens his crewmates frequently, putting them at gunpoint at multiple times throughout the story. Although it was Rodney who found the hatch that would get them out, Martin was the one who did the honors to open it, after shooting down the other ideas that the crew had including using the switchboard. Rodney wants to get things moving quickly, and wants to use the switchboard to try for a way out, but this is when Martin pulls a gun on him. Rodney also flips a random switch which makes Martin tackle him, so it seems that their dynamic is focused on Rodney doing reckless things and Martin wanting to get his way while trying to survive. Wass offers ideas to the other throughout their journey but he does not seem to be taken seriously, asking many general questions as he tries to interpret what is happening to him. However, it is Wass that got Rodney and Martin out in the end.


Question: What was the key to their escape from the mysterious and ominous city they discovered on an alien planet?

Answer:
Choosing to search underground for where water might enter and exit the city was an important step for them to find the tunnel that led to their escape. However, Wass’ pulling levers at the switchboard was critical to opening the grate inside the tunnel that actually allowed them to leave. Otherwise, they did not have tools with them that would have likely allowed them to escape in time.
If Martin had not forced the team to join together when they were fighting over the control panel the first time, they likely may have never escaped as well.

Answer: After Rodney and Martin decided to escape through the tunnels, Wass stayed aboveground, taunting them. He thought his best chances were with the switchboard. While they traversed underground, he made his way back to the switchboard. With only two hours to spare, Rodney and Martin were faced with a closed grate. Wass came on through the radio, making fun of them, and then began to pull switches. Luckily enough, one of the switches he pulled activated the grate and it opened for them. Soon, they hear Wass screaming as he’s dying. Martin and Rodney escape through the grate, which tunnels upward around 200 feet from the edge of the city. Because of Wass, they were able to escape alive.

Answer: The discovery of the seeds leads Martin to assume there must be some kind of water source within the depths of the metal city, so they use the ramps to access the bottommost level. The team discovers a hatch there that opens to a sea of dust. Rodney and Martin lower themselves into the dust current, but Wass refuses to join them, choosing instead to stay in the city to test the switches Rodney had discovered earlier. Martin warns him that this is likely a death sentence, but Wass does not seem to care. Martin and Rodney follow the current to a metal grate, and Wass triggers the switch to open the gate. In doing so, he is killed in a mysterious fashion. Martin and Rodney crawl through a tunnel and surface outside the barrier of the metal city just in time to be picked up by their main ship before its return to their planet.

Answer: In order to escape the city, the men had to travel as far down as they could, looking for a reservoir that might have some kind of exit pathway. They do find a large hatch in the bottom of the building they are in, where Martin and Rodney jump into a deep pile of dust that they essentially wade through in order to make their way towards an exit. However, the pipe that they find to escape through is shut by a metal grate. Wass had never jumped through the hatch, and while standing at the switchboard, flipped four switches that raised the grate for them. Wass died while trying to open the escape route for his crewmates, but if it were not for him they would not have made it out alive.


Question: What is the plot of the story involving a character who faces significant sacrifices and transformation while navigating a dangerous environment for valuable resources?

Answer:
Asa Graybar is a biological engineer who studies keeping Slider eggs alive and he is accused of a crime at the opening of the story. He thinks he was framed by Tom Dorr, Hazeltyne’s general manager.
He was offered one year as a “changeling” on another planet or 5 years in rehabilitation on Earth. He elects to do the one year, and thinks that he will get into smuggling Slider eggs on Jordan’s planet. Being a changeling is not a highly sought after line of work, but it pays well, and the people who do it have organs and body parts regenerated to better suit specialized tasks.
Asa travels to Jordan’s planet on a spaceship with a cellmate, Kershaw, who got caught stealing a Slider egg and is returning to serve more time. When they arrive they are both “converted” into muck men, with the forms of frogs and scaly, pink skin. Their task is to collect Slider eggs and bring them back to the base which is watched over by a warden, Furston.
Asa and Kershaw go out together for the first time into the mud so Kershaw can teach Asa how to find Slider eggs. They find one, and are immediately attacked by a Slider that disables one of Kershaw’s legs. Kershaw calls for helicopters to come get them. Tom Dorr is operating the helicopter that comes to collect Kershaw in the field, and demands that Asa also give him the egg they found. Asa refuses to ensure his own safety that they would come back to get him as soon as they dropped off Kershaw.
Back at the base Tom Dorr refuses to go back into the field to rescue Asa and gets into an argument with Harriet Hazeltyne (taking over charge of all operations for her father), and storms off. Harriet goes into the field to save Asa herself, but accidentally crashes the helicopter because she is not used to the double force of gravity.
Asa is unable to right the helicopter, and they think it is unlikely they will be able to use its machine guns to keep them safe while the Sliders come to feed on the dead Slider they are near to in the night. They must get back to the base somehow, and the story ends with them contemplating how they might do this.

Answer:
Asa Graybar is a biological engineer researching Slider eggs and was set up to be convicted of trying to steal one, most likely by Tom Dorr, the Hazeltyne company’s general manager. Asa can serve five years in a rehabilitation clinic or one year working as a changeling on another planet. Asa chooses to work one year as a muck man on Jordan’s Planet where the Slider eggs are harvested. Medical advancements allow doctors to adapt humans to work in the environments of the other planets, so Asa will have to undergo the change, making him a changeling.
	Asa travels to Jordan on a freighter but is kept locked up as a prisoner. His cellmate is Kershaw, a man who has worked as a muck man in the past. He loved Slider eggs so much that when he returned to Earth, he tried to steal a new one because they flashed so much more than the two-year-old egg that he could afford with his $9000 in earnings. Kershaw tells Asa that he thinks the slider egg flashes are the egg calling their mothers and explains how they handle the Sliders that attack when muck men remove an egg from the mud.
	On Jordan, Asa has second thoughts but realizes that there is no turning back on becoming a changeling. Awakening after his transformation, Asa finds Kershaw waiting for him, and he helps Asa learn to hop rather than walk since they have the physical features of frogs now. Furston, the trusty/warden/parole officer, sends Kershaw to work and Asa for training. He also gives Asa some berries to eat that make him vomit; Furston tells him this is to make the point that everything that grows on the planet is poisonous, and Asa shouldn’t get the idea that he can hide out until his term is up because he would starve to death. As he leaves, Asa sees two humans watching him from an observation tower and hops up to see who they are: Harriet Hazeltyne and Tom Dorr.
	Furston has Kershaw take Asa out to show him the ropes. Kershaw finds an egg, and Asa warns him to jump when he sees a Slider coming. Kershaw breaks a leg, and Asa manages to kill the Slider. When the helicopter arrives, Harriet and Tom Dorr are aboard. Asa refuses to give them the egg until he loads Kershaw. Then Dorr says there isn’t room for Asa, and they will come back for him. Asa keeps the egg as insurance for them to return but later realizes that Dorr can come back later with another mucker.
	Finally, the helicopter returns, but it crashes. Harriet was flying it because Dorr refused to come back for Asa. She tells Asa that a dead Slider attracts other Sliders that will feed on it. Asa tries to upright the helicopter but can’t, so they either have to stay and fight off the Sliders or try to make their way back to the facility.

Answer: At the start of the story, Asa Graybar has been convicted of a crime he believes he has been framed for: keeping a rare, fresh Slider egg in a lab. His options for punishment are five years in a "social reorientation" program or one year working on a different planet after modifying his body to function in a different environment. Asa's cellmate seems to think this is the much more dangerous option, but it's the one Asa chooses. The technology of the time allows for regeneration of cells, extending people's lives and allowing them to modify their anatomy to fit a different environment. Asa wants to go to Jordan's Planet specifically, and there is always need for workers there because it is dangerous, so he is able to get a post there. Kershaw, another convict, is on the same trip--he has done this work before. The two men are most interested in the eggs of a creature called a Slider. The eggs have beautiful clear shells and seem to discharge lightning, in a way the humans do not yet understand--being muck men on Jordan's Planet means hunting for these eggs. The eggs die over the course of four years, and Asa wants to find a way to preserve them--this would be a hit to the Hazeltyne monopoly, which Asa believes is the source of his being framed. After arriving on Jordan's Planet, Asa and Kershaw head to the conversion tanks and their bodies are modified to suit the planet. The result is frog-like with pinkish scaly skin and a pair of wings. Asa learns he has to hop instead of walk, and Kershaw gives him pointers as they head to meet Furston, the man who would assign them their jobs. Hazeltyne's daughter (Harriet) and general manager (Tom Dorr), who had been present at Asa's trial, watched as Asa trained--it seems Asa's not the only one who dislikes Dorr. Asa is given supplies to go on a muck trip with Kershaw so that he does not go on his first trip solo. Once they find a safe location, they start to dig for eggs, and Kershaw finds one. As it flashes, the mother Slider starts to run towards the men who run for their lives and call the rescue helicopter. Kershaw manages to drop the egg, and the two men fight under attack by the Slider. Asa recovers the egg as the helicopter arrives with Tom Dorr and Harriet inside, and Asa is worried by Dorr's demeanor. There is only space for one of the men in the helicopter but Asa seems to have been abandoned as he waits for the return. It turns out Dorr didn't think it was worth going back for Asa because he talked back to him. Eventually Harriet Hazeltyne makes it to him, but she crashes the helicopter because although she is a great pilot on Earth, she is not used to the gravity on this planet.

Answer:
Asa Graybar is convicted of stealing a slider egg from Hazeltyne Company. He believes he has been framed by Tom Dorr, Hazeltyne’s general manager, who has brought the owner’s daughter Harriet to the courtroom. Asa is given his choice of two sentences; rather than a relatively comfortable five years in a rehab clinic, Asa opts for a year as a changeling so that he can go to Jordan’s Planet and study slider eggs. He believes his work with eggs prompted the Hazeltyne Company to frame him.

Asa chooses to go to Jordan’s Planet, where the eggs come from. On his way there, he meets Kershaw, a repeat muck man infatuated with the eggs.  Both men are turned into muck men: large, mutated creatures with some oddly unsettling human facial features. Humans have discovered how to prolong life and regenerate organs, which has also led to the changeling process, where convicts can be physiologically altered to be suited for life on other planets.

Asa is trained to use his new body and reckon with the double gravity on the planet. The next day, Kershaw shows Asa the ropes until Kershaw finds an egg. His appreciation of it clouds his judgement, and Asa realizes just in time that Kershaw warned him that the sliders typically attack when the eggs are removed. A slider injures Kershaw’s leg, and Asa jumps out of the way and calls for help before killing the slider in the nick of time.

When a helicopter arrives, Tom Dorr and Harriet are in it. Asa insists that they should take the injured Kershaw and he should stay with the egg, since they both won’t fit in the helicopter. Dorr demands that Asa give him the egg, but Asa refuses. The helicopter leaves Asa alone with the egg.

Asa starts to get worried when the helicopter hasn’t returned an hour later, and hopes the sliders don’t attack at night. The helicopter comes back, but it lands clumsily and sticks in the mud. Harriet explains that she is a skilled pilot, but not in this gravity. She also details how she and Dorr argued because he wanted to leave Asa there and let the sliders (who do feed at night, on their own kind like the dead one near Asa) have at him. She told Dorr that she didn’t like how he was running her father’s business, and he told her to run it and stormed off.

As the passage ends, Asa and Harriet are in the midst of a dicey situation. He can’t lift the helicopter up, and he doesn’t think they’d have a chance of fighting off the sliders in the rain - they’ll have to try to make their way back. He asks Harriet where the rest of the muck men are, and she says they were all called back when the first helicopter came out, but that some may not be back yet.


Question: In a story where a man faces challenges on a harsh planet and contemplates his transformation into a different being, what settings does the story take place in?

Answer:
The story opens on Earth and then travels to Jordan’s planet.
Jordan’s planet is the place where Asa goes as a changeling to be a muck man.
There is a base on Jordan's planet which has a laboratory for converting prisoners into muck men, living quarters and kitchen, and a courtyard with high walls to keep the Sliders out. The surface of the planet is mud and the force of gravity is twice that on Earth. Asa's conversion into a frog-like person is necessary to survive there.

Answer:
The story takes place in the future when humans have traveled to the stars, and medical advancements have enabled humans to regenerate damaged or deficient organs, enabling them to live until about two hundred years of age. The events in the story take place in several locations. It all begins on Earth in a courtroom where Asa Graybar has just been found guilty. From there, Asa is taken down a corridor to his jail cell, which is very small because it only takes Asa four steps to reach the other side. Once Asa decides to become a changeling and work as a muck man on Jordan’s Planet, he ships to the planet on a space freighter where he is kept in a cell for the entire trip but can hear voices in the corridor.
	When they reach Jordan’s Planet, Asa experiences the discomfort of the double gravity that makes his heart pound to keep his blood circulating. After his conversion to a changeling, Asa goes outside the company’s dome settlement with Kershaw. There was a constant gray drizzle, and most of the planet’s surface was marsh, mud flats, and ponds. On the roof of the settlement building, there is an observation tower. Muck men eat at tables that are low enough to accommodate their froglike physiology. Out in the mud where the muck men work, there are small, slippery creatures. There were also large, segmented creatures called Sliders who lay the eggs that the muck men harvest and attack them when they take an egg.

Answer: This story takes place on two separate planets, and the ship that the protagonist takes to travel between the two. The first is Earth, where Asa Graybar is convicted of a crime he did not commit. We see small pieces of the courtroom and prison that Asa visits for some time, but the focus is on the second planet. Jordan's Planet, a planet covered in mud and swamp creatures, has gravity twice as strong as that of Earth. Humans have a hard time dealing with the extra gravity and the mud, so those that stay to do work on the planet undergo medical procedures to make them more like giant frogs to allow them to swim through patches of mud that are too big to jump over. Jordan's Planet is significant because of the animals that live there, more specifically the Sliders and the eggs that they lay. These eggs have great value on Earth, so Hazeltyne, a tycoon on Earth, has built a settlement on Jordan's Planet as a place to train convicts working to recover the eggs for his own personal gain.

Answer: The story takes place in a courtroom on Earth, a jail cell, an unspecified room where a medical exam takes place, a transport ship, and several locations on Jordan’s Planet. On Jordan’s Planet, the story moves from the medical office where the changeling conversions happen, a walled and partially covered courtyard where Asa does his training that houses multiple muck man-sized stalls, an office where Dorr and Harriet and the human higher ups work, and the muddy swamps where the muck men search for eggs. Jordan’s Planet is muddy and treacherous, with double gravity. The story is set at an unspecified time in the future, when interplanetary travel and extreme biological mutations are commonplace and human lifespans average two-hundred years.


Question: What happens to Tom Dorr, a character involved in a complex situation with themes of transformation and survival, in the story?

Answer:
Asa thinks Tom framed him for the crime at the opening of the story. Tom is present on Jordan’s planet when Asa arrives to begin his one year term as a muck man.
Tom is providing a tour of Jordan’s planet to Harriet Hazeltyne, who is taking over her father’s operations and wants to investigate how Toms is running things. Tom and Harriet get into an argument on Jordan’s planet and Tom leaves in anger. It is unclear what his final fate is after leaving, though it is likely he will be removed from his post.

Answer: Tom Dorr is the general manager of the Hazeltyne company. He is thought to be responsible for Asa Graybar’s arrest and conviction for theft of a Slider egg by planting an egg in Asa’s lab. Dorr travels to Jordan’s Planet with Harriet Hazeltyne; he thinks she is there for a tour, but she is really there on behalf of her father to see how Dorr is running the company’s settlement on the planet because it seemed that things were not in order. Dorr flies the helicopter to pick up Asa and Kershaw when the Slider attacks them, but Dorr tells Asa there isn’t room for him on that trip. Dorr then refuses to go back to pick up Asa, which leads to an argument with Harriet. When she tells him the real reason she is there, he quits his job, telling her that she can run things to suit herself.

Answer: Tim Dorr is present at Asa's trial at the beginning of the story, and Asa thinks that he is responsible for framing him for a crime he did not commit. We do not see him again until Asa is on Jordan's Planet, performing a number of exercises to acclimate him to the new environment and his new body. He is in the helicopter that arrives to rescue Kershaw and Asa when they are attacked while recovering an egg but makes no effort to help them into the helicopter and demands to take the egg from them, but when Asa refuses, Dorr heads back to the settlement with Kershaw and doesn't come back for Asa as he should; it is up to Harriet to decide Asa was worth retrieving.

Answer: Tom Dorr is the general manager and right hand man to the leader of the Hazeltyne company. Asa believes that Dorr framed him due to his work with slider egg lifespans. Asa sees him escorting Harriet Hazeltyne at his trial, and then encounters them again on Jordan Planet after he becomes a muck man. Dorr is flying the helicopter that comes to retrieve Asa and Kershaw and the egg, and has brought Harriet along. Dorr asks for the egg but Asa insists on lifting the injured Kershaw into the helicopter first. Realizing that he won’t fit in there with them, Asa says he’ll hold onto the egg. Dorr tells him to do as he’s told, but Asa tells Harriet that he doesn’t trust Dorr to come back for him and suggests she ask him why. They take off, and Dorr tells Harriet that he won’t go back for Asa and will instead let him try his luck with the sliders. He and Harriet argue about this and the fact that he thought Harriet was there to get a grand tour from him while she said that she was there to check up on how he was running things for her father, and that she was unimpressed by what she saw. Dorr tells her she should run it herself, and walks off.


Question: What is the relationship like between Asa and Kershaw, two individuals navigating challenges on a harsh planet?

Answer:
They meet as cellmates on their way to Jordan’s planet to convert to muck men. They convert into frog-like forms together. Kershaw is assigned to pick up where he left off as a return prisoner and Asa is taught how to operate in his new body.
Kershaw teaches Asa the ropes of how to collect slider eggs as a muck man. One muck man is killed for about every 6 Slider eggs that are found, and it is extremely dangerous. During their first time out they have to fight a Slider and Kershaw breaks his leg, relying on Asa to save him. This task bonds them together as they must trust each other with their lives.

Answer: Asa and Kershaw have a friendly relationship. When they are in a cell together on the flight to Jordan’s Planet, Kershaw tells Asa what it is like to work there because he has worked there before. He is going back because he was caught stealing a new Slider egg that he couldn’t resist because it was so beautiful. Kershaw tells Asa his theory that the flashes of the eggs are the eggs calling to their mothers because when muck men take one out of the muck, a Slider always comes right away. Kershaw helps Asa learn how to hop after Kershaw’s transformation, and he gives him helpful advice about doing what Furston says. Kershaw also teaches Asa how to recognize when Sliders have been in an area recently and when an egg has recently been laid. When Kershaw finds the egg, Asa saves him by yelling for him to jump and then shooting the Slider and radioing for the helicopter. When the aircraft arrives, Asa carries Kershaw and puts him on board.

Answer: Asa and Kershaw are both convicted criminals with an interest in Slider eggs, though Asa believes he has been framed. The two of them meet because they are on the same transport to Jordan's Planet, reporting for a year of service as muck men to avoid five years of rehabilitation. Kershaw has been to Jordan's Planet before, so he becomes a mentor to Asa and gives him tips on who the various figureheads are at the settlement, and on how to do the job safely. The two of them go on a mission together once they arrive so that Asa can learn the ropes. Asa supports Kershaw as they are attacked by a Slider after Kershaw is injured. Kershaw believes in the mantra that muck men stick together and look out for each other and this allowed the men to warm up to each other very quickly, and the way the story is set up it seems they will be close friends as their story continues.

Answer: Asa and Kershaw have a friendly relationship. Asa empathizes with Kershaw’s obsession with the eggs, and Kershaw serves as a mentor to Asa since he has already done time as a muck man on Jordan Planet. Kershaw is glad to have not only tips and training from Kershaw, but insight into the eggs themselves, which Kershaw loves and Asa is determined to study and learn more about. Their relationship is relatively jovial, especially considering their circumstances, and they look out for each other. After Kershaw finds the egg and is injured by the slider, he is grateful to Asa for saving his life and Asa is protective of him, insisting that Kershaw get into the helicopter first.


Question: What is the significance of the egg to the narrative involving a man's transformation and struggle for survival on a hostile planet?

Answer:
The Slider egg is a captivating object that has a clear shell, and light of various colors flash inside it. They are laid by Sliders on Jordan’s planet and are collected by prisoners that are stationed there. The eggs only live for about 4 years, which makes them in demand. If they could be stabilized to live longer they would be even more valuable.
Their use is never discussed and the people in the story do not reveal why they are so valuable. Asa is working on a method to keep the eggs alive for longer at the opening of the story, but does not continue in that task during the plot.

Answer: The Slider egg is a thing of such beauty that the Hazeltyne company that harvests and sells it is one of the most valuable franchises of all the planets. The eggs have a crystal clear shell and albumen, and the yolk is a sparkling network of filaments that flash like lightning. The eggs live for about four years, and their rarity and fading value makes them a luxury item.  The supposed theft of one of these eggs led to the arrest and conviction of Asa Graybar, a biological engineer with the company. Kershaw describes them as sparkling like a million diamonds when they are first pulled out of the mud, and even after spending a year as a muck man, he risks arrest again when he steals a new one that he can’t resist. For his sentence, he chooses to become a muck man again, even though the work is extremely dangerous. The eggs are so valuable as to justify the expense of building a settlement on Jordan’s Planet to harvest them.

Answer: The events of the story are centered around Slider eggs. Sliders are creatures that live in the swamps on Jordan's Planet that have eight flippers on each side of their bodies, and are very protective of their eggs. They feed at nighttime, and consume members of their own species. In contrast, the eggs themselves are like magnificent works of art, with crystal clear shells and yolks that seem to emit electricity. These flashes of light start as the eggs are pulled out of the mud by the humans, and some suspect it is a way for the egg to signal to its mother that it is being handled by someone else. It is the flashes that seem to trigger the Slider attacks that often kill muck men working on the surface. Kershaw's time on Jordan's Planet made him obsessed with these eggs, and drove him to come back after he tried to steal one again. They die over the course of four years and Asa's goal is to find a way to preserve them, so he wants to study them at their source. The reason he is headed to Jordan's Planet is because he was accused (and convicted, though he believes he was framed) of hiding an egg in a lab. These eggs are also the key to the monopoly that Hazeltyne has, as a tycoon on Earth.

Answer: The egg is very significant to the story, as Asa was framed and convicted in the first place for his work with the eggs, his decision to undergo changeling conversion is centered around studying the eggs, and his new situation on Jordan Planet is centered around the collecting of slider eggs. Additionally, the eggs are what draw Kershaw into the story, as he was taken in by their allure during his last stint as a muck man, and got arrested again for stealing an egg. The eggs are also the source of wealth for the Hazeltyne Company. The first image the story gives us is a slider egg glittering in Harriet Hazeltyne’s hair.


Question: What is the plot of the story that involves a diplomatic conflict over territory and the complexities of galactic politics?

Answer:
As the story opens, Retief, the Minister to Flamme, is meeting with other members of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, including Under-Secretary Sternwheeler and Deputy Under-Secretary Magnan. The men discuss Retief’s plan to visit Flamme in person to deal with the growing conflict between the Boyars, who have been living on Flamme for sixty years, and the Aga Kagans. The latter recently arrived on Flamme and began taking over land that the Boyars are farming. The Aga Kagans appear to be goat herders, living in tents and allowing their goats to graze on land that the Boyars use for crops, but in reality, the Aga Kagans have weapons, including 40 mm infinite repeaters and rocket launchers. Retief wants to offer the Boyars the support of the Corps, but Sternwheeler will only go so far as to authorize a “stiffly worded Protest Note.” With foresight, Retief has already drafted a note because he anticipated the Corps would respond with paperwork rather than action.
	Retief travels to Flamme and meets with Georges Duror, the Boyar Chef d’Regime. Georges indicates that he has been holding back his men who want to attack the Aga Kagans for taking their land, and Retief reminds Georges that if the Boyars act without backing from the Corps, they are likely to be destroyed. Retief also tells Georges that the goats and tents are just for show; the Aga Kagans have a modern navy and bullet-proof cloaks, and on their home planet, they travel via modern helis and ground cars. Georges seems discouraged by this news, but Retief reminds him he has the Note and asks him to give diplomacy a chance.
	Retief and Georges travel to meet with the head of the Aga Kagans to deliver the Note. On the way, Georges points out the progress that the Boyars have made on Flamme. They stop their air-car when Georges sees a herd of goats in a grain field, and three Aga Kagan horsemen confront them. Retief asks them to take him and Georges to their leader, and they do. Retief introduces Georges as from the Planetary government to the leader, Stanley, and offers to read the Note. He begins with a series of titles until Stanley tells him to skip them. Retief flips two pages and begins a long, legalistic description of relocated people until Stanley cuts him off. Stanley says the Boyars will be accused of imperialism if they attack the Aga Kagans but offers to allow the Boyars to stay until they can make other arrangements. Stanley reveals that the Aga Kagans are slowly creating an empire, and he expects the Corps won’t do anything about it. Georges and Stanley exchange heated insults.

Answer:
Boyars have spent 60 years terraforming the planet of Flamme, and were assured support from the Corps in their endeavors to colonize the planet from the beginning. A second group, called the Aga Kagan, have begun to move into the planet to do what the Boyars have been told is fishing and homesteading. However, they have landed only males on the planet as well as rocket launchers, suggesting they are mounting an armed takeover.

Higher officials in the Corps (the Under-Secretary) are now walking back their support of the Boyar, to the dismay of Retief - a diplomatic Minister to the planet. Retief has a history of working with the Boyar, and is irritated that the Corps are not willing to be any more engaged in helping them than writing a strongly worded note.

Retief and the Chief d’Regime of the Boyar, Georges, travel on a diplomatic mission via a hovercar to deliver the Note to the Aga Kagan. They encounter a party of three Aga Kagan in the foothills as they travel west, and after a very tense and offensive interaction between the parties are escorted to the leader - Exalted Ruler - of the Aga Kagan, Stanley.

Stanley is in an opulent tent being served by slave women that feed and provide for the men. Retief and Georges deliver the Note from the Corps and speak with Stanley largely in proverbs until Stanley persuades them to speak more directly. Georges is hot tempered, and overcome with irritation through the conversation with Stanley about the Aga Kagan moving onto Flamme - ultimately leaving the tent. Retief remains curious about Stanley’s motivations and discovers that he is intent on continuing to invade, no matter the consequences. The story ends with the temper of Stanley flaring up, potentially starting a war on planet Flamme.

Answer:
Reteif, the Minister to Flamme, approaches an Under-Secretary about the potential invasion that is happening on Flamme. He informs him of the Aga Kagans presence on the planet, and the Boyers very unhappy reaction. He assures the Under-Secretary that he has calmed the Boyers and asked for no action presently, but he wants to know what the Corps will do in response. After delving into the history of the situation--the Corps mainly stays out of the Aga Kagans imperialistic ways--, they reach an agreement to deliver a Protest Note to the Aga Kagans on behalf of the Corps. However, that’s all they will do.
Retief returns to Flamme and visits with Georges, the Chef d’Regime of the Boyers. They sit in the Governor House, drinking barley whiskey, and discussing the Aga Kagan invasion. Georges informs him of the goat-issue, the ruined oyster patch, while Retief reveals that the Aga Kagan came armed and ready to fight. Georges wants to fight back, but Retief cautions him. Citing the Note, Retief believes they can solve this without any violence.
They take off in a car to the Aga Kagans’ territory, past the fertile fields and beautiful lakes. They see goats running through a wheat field, further angering Georges. They are stopped by three Aga Kagans, the leader of which is Blackbeard, and Retief speaks to them in their native language. Using proverbs and confusing language, he gains entry into their camp and the smooth-faced Aga Kagans deliver them to their leader, the Aga Kaga. They are all armed, but Retief advises Georges on how to speak to the leader and reminds him to stick to the plan.
They arrive at a large black tent. The Aga Kaga is lounging with several female slaves surrounding him, doting on his every need. He has blue-black hair and he’s very well-dresseed.  they discuss his plans to invade and how they are up for grabs, at least according to the Aga Kaga. The Aga Kaga claims the Boyars are truly the squatters, not his people. They converse in proverbs and diplomatic terms, until Retief brings out the Protest Note. Then they discuss the historical relevance to his conquering ways, and how the Aga Kaga, or Stanley, believes he will win without any protest from the Corps.
Georges makes fun of the Aga Kaga, and his words become more and more aggressive. Reteif finds it impossible that the Corps will simply sit back and watch him take over this planet. It’s clear that Retief has some sort of ulteriour motive in this argument. The story ends with the argument evolving into yelling and harsh words.

Answer: Two groups, the Boyars and Aga Kagans, are fighting for control of Flamme, a planet the Boyars terraformed. It is up to the humans to act as mediators in this conflict, which they do under the ribbon of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. Retief, a member of the Corps, wants to give the Boyars official Corps support, but the Under-Secretary is hesitant to say anything too definite and offers to write a note. After the meeting, Magnan invites Retief to a reception later that day with a lot of figure-heads, but Retief wants to get back to Flamme, where he will hopefully keep war from breaking out.  On Flamme, Retief talks to Georges, a Boyar leader. Retief tries to convince Georges to give a diplomatic approach a shot, and advises him on how to proceed. The two of them head out of the capitol, discussing the countryside as Georges expresses his frustration about goats. Retief tries to keep Georges calm and takes his time to unwrap a cigar before he greets the Aga Kagans that approach. After some formalities, Retief explains that they have come to talk with the Aga Kagan leaders. They continue speaking in idioms, but Retief seems to have insulted the Aga Kagans. Retief and Georges eventually make it out of the situation, being led to the Aga Kagan headquarters. Once they arrive, the Aga Kagan known as Blackbeard orders Retief and Georges out of their car, and they are introduced to "the Exalted One, the Aga Kaga, ruler of the East and West". Then, the discussion in proverbs continues. Retief introduces his friend as "M. Georges Duror, Chef d'Regime of the Planetary government", referring to him as a planetary leader as a power play. This upsets the Aga Kaga, who doesn't consider Georges important. The three eventually sit to discuss the involvement of the Corps, and Retief pulls out the note from the sector's Under-Secretary. Just the statement of titles took at least two pages of the note, and the rest of the note was just as wordy, which frustrated the Aga Kaga, who smugly admitted he had been expecting this complaint. The Aga Kaga, who says to call him Stanley, is thankful that Retief speaks plainly for a diplomat. It turns out Stanley is trying to put up an image for his fellow people but isn't as dedicated to the plan as the others. His primary goal seems to be to live pleasurably while he is alive, but does admit he is there to take over the planet, although he insists it isn't aggressive of him to do. Aga Kaga tries to distract Georges' complaints by admiring his whiskey glass, but threatens the Boyars in the same breath. Retief and Stanley speak in thinly veiled threats citing various historical events, but eventually Retief says that the Corps will be forced to retaliate. It is with this that Georges stands up to defend himself and the story ends with tensions running high.


Question: Compare and contrast the characters of Georges and Retief within the context of their diplomatic mission amidst a tense territorial conflict.

Answer: The two men have dealt with each other prior to the events in the story; Retief addresses Georges by his first name, so they know each other fairly well. However, Retief’s position is higher than Georges’s position. Retief works for the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne; Georges works for the Planetary government. Retief knows information about the Aga Kagans that Georges doesn’t know, such as the fact that they are armed, have bulletproof cloaks, and have modern technology on their home planet. He has advised Georges about handling the situation with the Aga Kagans, urging him to prevent the Boyars from attacking the Aga Kagans, and Georges trusts Retief to secure assistance for them. Retief is sympathetic to the Boyars and their situation, trying to persuade Under-Secretary Sternwheeler to support them. When Retief tells Georges that he will personally deliver the Note to the Aga Kagans, Georges wants to help Retief and volunteers to go with him; Retief agrees. It is Retief who develops the plan for handling the Aga Kagans. Georges is impulsive, which leads Retief to keep watch on him. When they encounter the goats in the grain field, Retief has to convince Georges not to hurt the animals, and when the horsemen ride through the grain, Retief has to hold him back again. Retief is calmer in stressful situations and reminds Georges of their strategy: to make their flattery sound like insults and their insults sound like flattery. Georges seems unsure of himself and comments that he should have learned more about their habits before accompanying Retief. Retief has to translate what the Aga Kagans say for Georges in order for him to know what is going on. When the two men meet with Stanley, Retief maintains his calm demeanor, while Georges loses his temper.

Answer:
Retief is a diplomatic Minister to Flamme and has strategic plans guiding his desire to see the Boyar continue to inhabit the planet Flamme. Georges is the Chief d’Regime of the Boyar who has an offensive hot temper and hatred of the Aga Kagan that flares routinely while he accompanies Retief to meet with the Aga Kagan. In this way, their contrasting approaches to interacting with the Aga Kagan are a very suspenseful part of the story.

The two of them desire a similar outcome - for the Boyar to continue to inhabit Flamme and for the Aga Kagan to leave. Georges and Retief have had a history of working together that provides a sense of camaraderie between them, and Retief desires to help Georges achieve his goals on the planet.

Answer: Retief is the Minister to Flamme, a very diplomatic position. Georges is the Boyar Chef d’Regime, the Boyers’ leader and governor. Retief is a quirky man. His progressive nature and strong morals force him to attempt to save Flamme from the Aga Kagans invasion. However, his manner of doing so is sneaky and tricky, using proverbs to establish himself and make his way to the Aga. Georges, on the other hand, is a little more hot-headed. Although he has been patient so far in waiting for Retief’s aid, he wishes to destroy the invaders and is struggling to hold back his men. When they confront the Aga Kaga, Retief takes the diplomatic approach, while Georges essentially yells at him. Although Georges may be the leader of the Boyers, Retief is the one who devises the plan and leads them to the Aga Kaga.

Answer: Georges, the Boyar Chef d'Regime, has been on the planet Flamme for sixty years, overseeing its terraforming. He is understandably frustrated with the moves that the Aga Kagans are making on the territory of Boyar, and is upset at the amount of damage that the Aga Kagans are causing, as it took a long time to terraform the planet to make it what it is today. Retief is willing to get involved in the issue and backs Georges up but he goes with the flow, acting as a calm source of energy in the political sphere. It is Retief that works to convince Georges that he should consider a diplomatic approach to handling the situation, and travels to the Corps himself to make sure this is an option. Georges gets frustrated easily, as we see with the goats, and Retief is there to calm him down and remind him of the demeanor that will give him a better chance at the negotiating table. Retief speaks Kagan and is well-versed in their cultural norms, which is very useful for the purposes of negotiation. It also makes him very adept at making the Aga Kagans angry, which he does as soon as they encounter each other. On a more surface level, they are members of different groups of people, but they both hold some kind of political status within their groups respectively.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which revolves around a diplomatic conflict involving territorial claims and cultural tensions between two distinct groups in a richly developed but contested world.

Answer: The story’s beginning takes place at the headquarters for the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne where Retief works, but the rest of the story takes place on the planet Flamme. Sixty years earlier, the Boyars settled on Flamme and set about making it suitable for farming by clearing the jungle, descumming the seas, irrigating the deserts, and setting out forests. For sixty years, the Boyars inhabited the planet by themselves, with only the saurian wildlife presenting a danger to them. Flamme is now a thriving planet. It has a Government House with comfortable lounge furniture, waiters in white jackets, colorful flowers, a lake, a lawn, and colorful flowerbeds. It also has beautiful sunsets. Outside the capital, there are rolling hills of granite. Flamme’s main industry seems to be agriculture; fifty years ago they had bare rock, but they bred special strains of bacteria that broke the rock down to soil where they raised legumes and then grains. The Boyars also have oyster breeding beds. There are roads, although they have pot-holes, and air-cars for transportation. The Aga Kaban headquarters is a large black tent featuring air conditioning and a pennant featuring a lion “couchant in crimson on a field verte.” It has the smell of incense, and someone is playing stringed instruments inside. There are colorful decorations in gold, blue, silver, and green. The Aga Kaba are accustomed to the finer things in life; Stanley even blows his nose on silk cloth. Their foods include grapes, oranges, and bananas, and their beverages include whiskey. Everything about the Aga Kaba’s leader’s tent suggests wealth and luxury.

Answer:
The story is set on the planet of Flamme, which has been terraformed over the last sixty years into a habitable landscape for crop culture and fishing. It opens in the Corps offices where Retief meets with the Under-Secretary.

Retief travels to a fancy government house of the Boyar Chief d’Regime, Georges, that includes a waitstaff and an expansive verandah.

The diplomatic party travels eight miles west of the capital in a black official air-car flying twin flags of Chief of State and Terrestrial Minister. It continues on some unknown distance through granite hills to the opulent tent of the Exalted Ruler of the Aga Kaga. The tent is outfitted with rich rugs, stringed instruments playing and female slaves serving the men. The rest of the story takes place in this tent.

Answer:
Much of The Desert and the Stars by Keither Laumer takes place on a previously barren, uninhabitable planet made fertile by the Boyars. After almost 100 years dedicated to terraforming the planet Flamme, the Boyars finally succeeded in making the planet habitable. With very advanced technology, they made the ground ripe and fertile, wheat stalks and barley floating in the wind. Oysters lie in the pools of water, and the great boulders and rock formations that will soon be eroded by a special bacteria will eventually host more crops. Their sunsets are striking and colorful, with beautiful poplar trees and well-maintained flower beds.
Retief stays at the Government House with Georges, the Boyar Chef d’Regime. The house overlooks a lake and is surrounding by beautiful gardens.
The Aga Kagans have taken over more of the rocky areas, introducing goats into the ecosystem. Their unwanted presence takes away from the belabored beauty that the Boyars created.

Answer: Most of the story takes place on Flamme, a planet occupied by the Boyars, the people who terraformed it, but more recently also occupied by the Aga Kagans. There is also a presence of the people from Earth, who work under the umbrella of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. In the capital city of Flamme, the view from the Government House is gorgeous, with various trees and flowers planted that seem to glow in the purple and red sunset of the planet. Outside of the capital, among the hills, it is less beautified and the streets have potholes. This area used to be covered entirely in rock, but the hills were created by the terraforming and fertilization technology of the Boyars. There are a lot of goats on these hills now, because of the Aga Kagans, and past this area there are stretches of sand and other green areas, which is where the Aga Kagan leaders are.


Question: What is the role of history in the narrative that explores themes of diplomacy, territorial disputes, and the interplay between different cultures?

Answer:
The history of Flamme itself is of great relevance to its value to both the Boyars and the Aga Kagans. When the Boyars settled the planet sixty years ago, it was habitable but unable to support much agriculture. They have spent sixty years terraforming Flamme, clearing jungles, descumming seas, irrigating deserts, and planting forests. Fifty years ago, the Boyars learned how to breed a special strain of bacteria that breaks down the granite that covered much of the surface. The granite breaks down to soil, and the Boyars add broad-spectrum fertilizer to make the land arable. The Boyars now have many fields of crops and are continuing to develop new sections for more. Their many years of intensive work in creating farming land and growing crops gives them a vested interest in their settlement.
The Aga Kagans are involved in empire-building. They have sent what appear to be goat herders and fishermen to Flamme to begin taking over the land. The goat herders are all male and have rocket launchers. They present a false appearance as homesteaders who lack access to modern technology; in reality, their tents are high-polymer plastic, and their robes are bullet-proof. On their home planet, they have helis and ground cars. The homesteaders set up camp in the middle of farm fields, allow their goats to graze on the crops, and cook their sheep’s brains over dung fires. The fishermen are actually the Aga Kagan navy who come equipped with 40 mm infinite repeaters. The CDT knows that the Aga Kagans have been using this same method of invasion for the past five years in six other worlds. The Aga Kagans hide their modern technology in the places they are invading to dupe the people they are intruding on and to please the older conservatives in their government.
The Aga Kagans’ approach to empire-building is based on their knowledge of Earth history. While their society has modern technology, their false appearance of third world trappings can be used to justify their invasions into “more advanced” societies. Stanley admits the Aga Kagans move into an area after others have done the hard work of building the community and civilization so that the Aga Kagans can enjoy the fruits of the others’ labors. By appearing to be a third world civilization, the Aga Kagans can defend their actions and gain empathy with a claim of “legitimate aspirations, for self-determination of formerly exploited peoples.” Stanley also acknowledges his familiarity with empire-builders on Earth and claims he won’t make their mistake of going “too far, too fast.” He couches their approach as “an ancient and honorable custom” and references Mein Kampf, the Communist Manifesto, and Leung’s the Porcelain Wall. Based on the histories of the men behind these works, Stanley knows that the CDT will follow the practice of appeasement and allow the Aga Kagans to make their little land-grabs until they are positioned so that they cannot be stopped.

Answer: Stanley manipulates a historically exploited group, the Aga Kagan, to gain power. Stanley appears to be interested in exploiting whatever means necessary to acquire such power, and has positioned himself as the Exalted Ruler of the Aga Kagan to do so. He speaks negatively about the Aga Kagan and their elders which he pays lip service to, but ultimately executes his own strategies that may or may not be in line with the historical actions of their people. Stanley uses the history of the Aga Kagan as formerly exploited people to place the Corps into a complicated diplomatic situation to get his way that he relishes in and laughs about during the diplomatic visit from Retief and Georges.

Answer:
The leader of the Aga Kagans uses history as a way to justify his actions and prove to himself and others that he will face little to no resistance in the process. He references colonial imperialism, colonization, and some of the most hated figures in history as his predecessors. By relying on the Corps silence, he truly believes that he will be able to conquer Flamme, destroy the Boyars, and do all this without any humanitarian uprising.
By taking it slow and biding their times, the Aga Kagans will acquire their empire slowly but surely. Based on previous knowledge, the Aga truly believes that the Corps will simply accept their invasion, so long as they don’t move too quickly. He cites Hitler, Leung, and Stalin as references: these people moved too far too fast.
History also sets up the present conflict. Sixty years earlier, the Corps encouraged and asked the Boyars to terraform Flamme and transform it into something beautiful. The Boyars did so, believing the Corps wwere on their side. Now, half a century later with the Aga Kagans encroaching on their territory, the Boyars are waiting for their previously promised Corps support and coming up empty. Interestingly enough, the Boyars asked the Aga Kagans to co-settle Flamme with them, but both the Corps and the Aga Kagans refused.

Answer: Flamme had been a wasteland, but was terraformed by the Boyars. The planet itself has a lot of history, which is part of the current conflict. The Aga Kagans had not wanted to help terraform the planet, but now that the hard work was done over many decades, they wanted to move in. History also plays a role in communication more generally. The Aga Kagans communicate in proverbs, which act as idioms referencing specific historical events. The Aga Kagans are also familiar with the history of other cultures, and aim to control the narrative of the history of various planets, deciding who is considered a warmonger versus labeling their own takeovers in a positive light. The Aga Kaga knows a lot about the history of Earth as well, and cites a number of historical events to Reteif during their impassioned discussion, along with names of famous historical manifestos. The Aga Kaga tries to use these historical events as points in an analogy, much like the proverbs his people communicate with regularly.


Question: What is the role of the Aga Kagans in the narrative involving diplomatic tensions and territorial disputes?

Answer: The Aga Kagans are an empire-building society that has been increasing their presence in six other worlds by the time they appear on Flamme. The Aga Kagans send in men disguised as goat herders and fishermen who are actually armed and equipped with modern accessories. The Aga Kagans have a plan to build their empire by invading other worlds following the model of Adolf Hitler, but they plan to avoid his mistake of moving “too far, too fast.” The Aga Kagan leader, Stanley, is well-educated and a manipulator. He plays to the older conservative Aga Kagans by allowing the third-world trappings of goat herders to be used while he actually has disdain for their traditional values, but his charade gives him what he wants. The Aga Kagans wait until an area has done the hard work of building its civilization and becoming sustainable before he moves his men in. Although the CDT is aware of the Aga Kagans’ actions, it wants to avoid warfare and meets the intrusions with diplomacy, but all the while, the Aga Kagans are ensconcing themselves for a permanent takeover of the places where they have intruded.

Answer:
In the story, the Aga Kagan are portrayed as antagonists to the Boyar. They appear to be manipulated by Stanley into actions that may no longer be entirely in line with the beliefs of the Aga Kagan elders.
The Aga Kagans are a group that has been moving onto the planet Flamme for the past five years. They’ve landed military equipment that suggests they are willing to move in violently if necessary, but have not yet been met with resistance from the Boyar who have been living on the planet for sixty years.

Answer:
The Aga Kagans are a conquering people, known for their planet-grabbing tendencies. They have currently set up shop on the Boyer-populated planet, Flamme. After the Boyers spent 60 years redoing the planet and making it fertile and inhabitable, the Aga Kagans swooped in and are plotting an extremely slow invasion. They arrived with long robes and goat-skin tents, as well as lots and lots of goats. However, these robes and tents are actually made out of a special bullet-proof material. The goats were just for show.
With an incredible arsenal, an army of “homesteaders,” and armor to match, the Aga Kagans are fully prepared to invade the Boyers. They are the antagonist of the story, especially their leader, the Aga Kaga or Stanley, as he likes to be called.

Answer: The Aga Kagans seem to be making a move on the territory that the Boyars consider theirs. The Aga Kagans making a claim on this land could be an act of war, and the Corps wants to avoid a war as much as possible. They ruin some of what the Boyars have created, including an oyster breeding bed. They're on at least six planets and have spent at least the past five years trying to expand their territories. In this way, they act as the antagonists of the story, as a group that presents a challenge for the Boyars and the people from Earth to work against.