(Historical Notes: It really caught me off guard how much fun it is to write a character as simultaneously good-hearted and utterly unscrupulous as Eric.  In a way, it kind of perfectly sums up the worldview of the Far Out There universe that one of its most genuinely nice characters is also one of its greediest.  Alas, I must also complain ONCE AGAIN that we have characters standing round talking about Vance even though we aren’t SEEING him.  No, I will not let that go.)