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"I think we could solve our problems more easily through strength of character; but that's always been a commodity in extremely short supply."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Battleroom | ||
| A large, null-gravity space used for battle tactics training. |
| They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side. Null gravity was frightening, disorienting; they soon found that things went better if they didn't use their feet at all. |
| Technovelgy from Ender's Game,
by Orson Scott Card. Published by Tor in 1985 Additional resources -
|
A much earlier description of interpersonal fighting in zero-gravity is given by Arthur C. Clarke in Islands in the Sky (1952):
The first problem, of course, is to catch your opponent, which isn't easy, because if he refuses to cooperate, he can shoot off in so many directions. But
even if he decides to play, there are further difficulties.
Any kind of boxing is almost impossible, since the first
blow would send you flying apart. So the only practicable form of combat is wrestling. It usually starts
with the two fighters floating in mid-air, as far as possible from any solid object. They grasp wrists, with
their arms fully extended; after that it's difficult to see
exactly what happens. The air is full of flying limbs
and slowly rotating bodies. By the rules of the game,
you've won if you can keep your opponent pinned
against any wall for a count of five. This is much more
difficult than it sounds, for he only has to give a good
heave to send both of you flying out into the room
again. Remember that, since there's no gravity, you
can't just sit on your victim until your weight tires
him out.
Compare to the observation room recreation space from The Power Planet (1930) by Murray Leinster and rocket polo from Ra for the Rajah (1938) by John Victor Peterson.
...he was always getting into
good-humored fights with the other boys, and a fight
under free-fall conditions is fascinating to watch,
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
