We can, however, make a guess about Albrecht. Since prolong is relatively recent — less than a century, I believe — Albrecht himself is either not a prolong recipient or he’s less than 150 years old to have been able to get first generation prolong (and probably less than that.) Equally, he’s unlikely to be over 200 because Mesan life extension probably wasn’t that good back then.

I doubt very much that he’s a clone of Leonard Detwiller, because I doubt that Leonard would have been able to keep up with the star lines. If so, he (and his clones) don’t share the Mesan alpha and star line life extension.

IIRC it was mentioned in _Torch Of Freedom_ that one of the Alphas can expect the same lifespan without prolong that a ‘normal’ can expect with prolong.

From the wording, I believe that prolong *will* extend an Alpha’s lifespan as well as a normal’s lifespan.

As for Albrecht Detweiler, there has been no mention of his age nor is there any text evidence that he is a clone of a now deceased Detweiler.

Desested

I do not agree with the rest of your speculations, except that Crandall will get well and truly defeated by Henke at Spindle. Beyond that, I think there will be a peace treaty with Haven, and based on the Two Spies’ information, especially how Haven was manipulated, Prichard will ally with the SEM to face down whatever is coming from the SL (think the mysterious Filaretta). Whether that battle is in this book or not remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen (I suspect over the next umpteen books) what the allies figure out about the MA and its allies, like Mannerheim, what happens with the Torch wormhole, who else besides Grayson joins the new good guys alliance, like Beowulf, Torch, Maya, Erewhon, and ???.

So if you are no longer young (read old), pray for “prolong.” Many years of books to come.
r

As for the League attack on Manticore Eighth fleet will eat it for lunch.

Is the HMS Lodestone, the USS Ward, Private’s Lockhard and Elliott, or Lt. Kermit Tyler?