Unicorn Trade by Anderson, Poul. Part six

in a science fiction story.

This is the daughter, lush and young, with golden hair and silver tongue, born to the elder scientist. …

This is the bem of alien race,

with X-ray eyes and scabrous face,

that chased the daughter, lush and young.

This is the ship on a trial run, parsecs from the familiar sun, seized by the bem of alien race.…

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This is the hyperspatial lever used by the hero, bold and clever, to escape the ship on a trial run…

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The Unicorn Trade

This is the mutant with tendril beard who ruled the planet remote and weird at the end of the hyperspatial lever… .

This is the strange psionic force

that stopped the bem-race in its course,

learned from the mutant with tendril beard….

This is the marijuana spree

that made these cosmic concepts be:

to wit, the strange psionic force

that stopped the bem-race in its course,

learned from the mutant with tendril beard

who ruled the planet remote and weird

at the end of the hyperspatial lever

used by the hero, bold and clever,

to escape the ship on a trial run,

parsecs from the familiar sun,

seized by the bem of alien race,

with X-ray eyes and scabrous face,

that chased the daughter, lush and young,

with golden hair and silver tongue,

born to the elder scientist,

every year on the honors list,

who trained the young man full of pride,

whose gadgets work the first time tried

in a science fiction story.

—Poul and Karen Anderson

EXTRACT FROM THE ENGLISH EDITION OF A GUIDE MICHELIN

POICTESME **—Michelin map no. 9913—pop. 12,345

This quiet and thinly peopled backwater is best known through its historical and literary associations, though unfortunately, few relics of its past are left. It is becoming an increasingly popular recreational center, and development is under way to cope with an anticipated large annual influx of foreign tourists as well as French vacationers.

A Former County—The archaeology of Poictesme is obscure. Prehistorians insist that certain finds made in the Morven and Amneran areas must be hoaxes, in very poor taste at that. The Roman occupation is memorialized only by a time-blurred slab inscribed SVFFRAGIMINI

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The Unicom Trade

CLAVDIO CANDIDATO AMICO POPVLI, found in the ruins of the Cistercian abbey near Belle-garde where it had evidently been the top of an altar, and by a brief mention in the Tedium of Ibid. The invasion of the Northmen around 1200 A.D. caused the destruction of most earlier buildings and records, less by the barbarians themselves than by the Poictesmoises, who needed the material for mangonel ammunition and spitballs.

The invaders were cast out by Dom Manuel the Redeemer, who to this day is locally considered a saint not only for his heroism and perspicacity but for his piety, honesty, and chastity. However, the only properly canonized native is St. Holmendis, whose feast is celebrated by peasants in the Forest of Acaire with quaint rites. The regimes of subsequent Counts make a rather complicated chronicle.

The Puysanges—Of obscure origin, this ducal family played an outstanding role in the later history of Poictesme and, eventually, France as a whole. Their policies during the Hundred Years’ War led to widespread devastation, considerable loss of autonomy, and the flight of some members to England. Those who stayed behind had descendants who were often high in the service of the French state and had much to do with bringing on the Revolution.

Napoleonic Era—The reorganizations which followed passed Poictesme by, largely because the Emperor never could quite find it on any of his maps, and just when he thought he had done so,

GUIDE MlCHELIN

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something else would come up. The period is thus notable chiefly because, at this time, the American connections of certain families inspired the beautiful folk song Reportez-moi vers la Vieille Virginee. Under the Third Republic, after incredible efforts, Poictesme was finally brought into the department of Paresseux-et-Boueux.

STORISENDE*

(tour: 1 1/2 hours—excluding a tour of the wineries)

Starting from the Place Jurgen, take the Avenue d’Etalon Argent and then, to the right, the Rue Niafer to the Chateau.

La Gagerie. —This building, which fronts on the municipal parking lot, is said to have been the pawn-shop of the legendary Jurgen, but was actually built in the eighteenth century by Florian, fourth Due de Puysange, when he had nothing better to do. It is worth a visit for its combination’ of Corinthian pillars and gargoyles, and because it houses the Syndicat d’lnitiative.