Sargasso of Space - looking at Andre Norton through the lens of Traveller

The book that started me on a slippery slope to roleplaying games.

In 1977 we moved house from Liverpool to a small dormitory town in Cheshire called Holmes Chapel, following my dad's job. My parents had moved out from their hometown once before but had been forced to move back when my dad's job disappeared after English Electric's computing division was closed down after GEC bought it out. I really didn't want to move out to Cheshire, despite the fact that I was the only family member who had been born there.

Holmes Chapel had a fantastic public library (indeed, my first Saturday job was working there which was heaven for a geek) and it was a place of discovery for me. I found "The Hobbit" there, and then Andre Norton's "Sargasso of Space", the first Solar Queen book. I was visiting regularly and reading a lot of books; it was a geek's paradise. This was before home personal computers became common and we never had a games console. There were three channels on the TV at the time (Channel 4 wouldn't launch until 1982), and we had one TV. Books, Star Wars toys and imagination were a big part of my life.

Sargasso of Space remains an important book for me. It was the first real SF story that I read, although I soon moved through Azimov and Arthur C Clarke on my dad's shelves. It is one of the three sets of books(*) that defined the feel of the Traveller roleplaying game for me, along with Azimov's "Foundation" trilogy and Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". The book is very much written in a young adult, boy's own adventure style, yet it is borderline hard SF, with very little stretching credulity to the limits. It tells the story of Dane Thorson, a young cargo-master apprentice, as he takes up his first role outside the Training Pool on the Free Trader Solar Queen. You aren't going to see complicated characterisation, but you are going to have an exciting ride.

Originally published in 1955, the book suffers from a lack of female characters. I guess that's to be expected as Andre Norton had to publish it under the pen-name of Andrew North. It probably reflects the merchant and wet navy cultures at the time as well. However, it doesn't jar as much in this as it did in my recent re-read of "Foundation".

Let's dig in a little into the elements of the story that resonate with Traveller. It wouldn't take too much effort to use the setting as an alternative to the Third Imperium, or even to steal elements outright (something that I've done before).

(*)Of course, Star Wars and 2001 were also strong influences in their own ways.

Background

Terra is still the seat of humanity, presently in the second wave of colonisation to the stars. There is ongoing tension between the Martian colony and Terra, most recently seen in the Crater War a decade before the book's events. Space travel was previously achieved several hundred years before, but for some reason, its use fell back and many colonies were lost. There is genuine concern that Terra could be lost (burnt-off) if the ongoing conflicts with colonies continue.

There is an overarching Federation that regulates space; it operates the Patrol (police/military enforcement) and the Survey (the exploration and mapping organisation). It also controls Trade.

The Sol system is heavily developed, as are the Inner Systems. 

Humanity has encountered five non-human races and multiple former Terran colonies. Aliens are referred to as X-Tees. 

It has also discovered alien ruins of a civilisation now known as the Forerunners. These were aliens with extremely advanced technology who perished in a brutal war with whole worlds burnt off with nuclear and energy weapons. The most famous find is known as 'the Twin Towers', a large structure presently being investigated by the Federation. There are famous books about the Forerunners (Haverson's Voyages and Kogbe's Survey) but no one really knows much about them, and the Federation reserves the right to investigate them.

Piracy and smuggling are real issues. The Patrol operates quarantine stations to decontaminate ships that have visited new worlds. If you get 'Patrol Posted' then that means that you're outside the law and a wanted person who others can kill with impunity.

A world of trade

Trade assigns new apprentices to ships based on their skills and psychological profiles (done by a machine referred to as the 'Psycho'). This assessment is coded into the individual's ID strip/wafer/plate. There's no right of appeal evident for the posting. Trade operates at three levels; the Companies, Free Traders and Interplanetary.

The Companies include Inter-Solar, The Combine(**), Deneb-Galactic and Falworth-Ignesti. These have mail routes, multiple ships and the funding to cream off the most profitable trade. Interplanetary traders include Martian-Terran Incorporated; they operate in-system.

Free Traders operate where the companies won't. They have to take bigger risks and are often single ship operations with a tight crew. 

All the spacefaring professions - Patrol, Trade and Survey - have distinct and standard uniforms. It doesn't matter if they work for different companies in Trade. Survey wear blue/green, the Patrol black/silver and Trade brown. Roles on ships in trade are indicated with icons - astrogators have a chart symbol, engineers a cog.

Common roles on ships are Com-Tech's, Astrogators, Stewards, Cargo-masters, and medics. Pilots are referred to as Jetmen. 

(**) I seem to recall that this company becomes big enough to become its own government later in the timeline.

Survey Auctions

Survey will auction off exclusive contracts to worlds that they discover for Trade to exploit. Worlds are classified A, B, C & D. 

A & B are newly contacted with a high degree of civilisation and possibly with interplanetary in-system capability. C classified worlds are backward cultures, and D classifications have primitive or no-life. If you win the Survey auction, you gain exclusive rights to all trade in the system for a decade. You can also obtain a Federation Free Claim (which lasts for a year and a day) and gives you rights to any profits from the planet for that period.

A typical free-trader (such as the Solar Queen in the book) could stretch to win a class D contract at the auction but it would be a risky push. In the book, the Queen's crew vote to add their salaries into the pot to increase their funds.

If you're lucky, you could get exclusive trading rights to exotic items such as Thork Gems or Lamgrim Silk and make your fortune, perhaps becoming a trading prince.

Technology

Starships are tail-sitters in a needle configuration. The text implies they use a form of reaction drive. They have a hyperdrive that snaps between real space and hyperspace. The snap induces a feeling of vertigo into humans. Journeys take at least several days (although this isn't discussed in detail, just in implication) and the bridge of the ship will be continuously manned in case there's an issue. Each ship has a master book of charts which is technically owned by the Federation and must be handed back or destroyed when the ship is decommissioned. Astrogators can get it updated by the Survey when they port on a planet.

Trade ships appear to be larger than the classic Traveller free traders. They have crews of ten to fifteen (or at least the Queen does) and carry crawlers, flitters (air/rafts) and all the cargo-handling equipment that they need. They have hydrogardens for air and food. Survey ships are often smaller. Patrol ships are likely to overwhelm other vessels should they get in a fight, even larger traders.

Designs of equipment such as crawlers and flitters is generally standardised. 

Weapons include blasters, stun-rods and flamers. Later books add tanglers, which restrain people with elastic bonding.

Rumours and myths.

There are many rumours and myths;

The New Hope, a ship that blasted off with many refugees from the Martian Rebellion and was found a century later, with ports sealed and nav-lights glowing a baleful red. Believed to be a plague ship.

Sanford Jones - the first pilot to enter hyperspace. He disappeared for years, eventually emerging in the Sirius system, with his ship - the Comet - bearing his mummified corpse. The stories say that spacers lost in hyperspace or space will end up on the Comet.

Psi powers exist, but aren't really covered in this story.

CONCLUSION

There is a wealth of material that can be mined from Andre Norton's books. I added some elements on Survey Auctions into Milieu Zero in a Signal GK issue and have riffed off plot elements in scenarios that I've written. I recommend reading her Solar Queen books (especially the first four - Sargasso of Space, Plague Ship, Voodoo Planet and Postmarked the Stars) and the others in the Forerunner setting.

Have you read them or used them in Traveller or another game? What do you think of them?

28 December 2021

(Slightly updated the same day to add Psi powers and Patrol Posted references).