Spacing to Byzantium: Travels in the Orion Colonies

Spacing to Byzantium: Travels in the Orion Colonies was a book that told of E. D. Fitzgerald's travels through the Orion Colonies, particularly at one unnamed Orion Colony [an extract neglects to say which]. He wrote of scenes of Orion life and expressed his surprise at Orion culture and its hidden depths.

Fitzgerald saw an Orion city; rather than slave hovels around grand mansions, there were tidy, modest communities with plenty of parks and gardens. He met contented Orion slaves who were proud of the families that owned them, such as the Glachies (who had five generations of spacefaring) and the Yungots (builders of ten cities).

Later he was given lunch and a gravcar tour of the estate of an important family by his host, Tahedri Unlot, who said to call him Hugh. Unlot owned a company that made (possibly defective) nose filters. The villa was 200 years old, replacing the 300 year old structure that been destroyed by fire; the later villa was considered 'modern'.

Later he was mugged in the street, and charged a 25 credit fee for the return of his transactor and passport from the guardsmen who apprehended the thief. Expecting to have to haggle, he was informed that this would result in a 100 credit fine from the District Commissioner. He was charged 5 credits for a complementary wine he didn't ask for.

He also witnessed an attempted theft by a Human disguised as a Rigellian, of a cargo ship unloading neoheroin, which legal by local law.

One evening he attended an Orion banquet, saw Orion dancing girls and risked neuro-intoxication. He also observed a subtle competition of banquet etiquette between the Gamashes and the Flugol Corporation.

Spacing to Byzantium: Travels in the Orion Colonies was written by E. D. Fitzgerald, and published in Cleanth, New Paris, by Imprimerie de Sorbonne Neue, on reference stardate 1/8201.