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"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon
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| Space Tunnel | ||
| An enclosed gang plank extended between space ships. |
| “I’m Hal Bailey, owner of Mars. If that doesn’t convey anything try ‘Excellent Friend.’ ” “You’re — you’re him are you?” He heard her gasp. “Excuse me! I can explain this . . . Come on over.” She opened her ship’s outer lock. Hal lowered his space-tunnel into position, crossed into the girl’s control room.* The place was littered with spectrometers, charts, maps, sextants, and Martian desert drawings... She broke the magnetic contact holding the tunnel to Hal’s ship and it folded back in place. * Space Tunnel — A space “gang plank” entirely inclosed, extending from airlock to airlock of adjoining ships— folding up concertinawise when not in use. — Ed. |
| Technovelgy from The Man Who Bought Mars,
by Polton Cross. Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1941 Additional resources -
|
A similar idea is used in Solar Plexus (1941) by James Blish:
A tube! A flexible, airtight tube. Like those used for freight transfer in space. It connected the airlock of his ship with that of the stranger. Lights at the other end of it, within an open lock, gleamed yellowly. Incandescents! It was an old ship, all right.
Compare to the tubular space-gangway from The Star Roamers (1933) by Edmond Hamilton.
He grabbed for the inner door of the lock to slide it shut. But he stood rigid, still reaching for it vacantly, as he saw to his horror that the outer door was in motion, slowly inching open. He grabbed for a stanchion to brace himself against the rush of air into the vacuum—none came. What—?
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
