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"[Science fiction is] anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Family Atomics | ||
| Noble houses had their own atomic weapons. |
| Paul was a silhouette against moon-frosted rocks seen through the tent’s transparent end.
“Others among your father’s men will have escaped,” she said. “We must regather them, find—” “We will depend upon ourselves,” he said. “Our immediate concern is our family atomics. We must get them before the Harkonnens can search them out.” “Not likely they’ll be found,” she said, “the way they were hidden.” “It must not be left to chance.” And she thought: Blackmail with the family atomics as a threat to the planet and its spice—that’s what he has in mind. But all he can hope for then is escape into renegade anonymity. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
The first use of "atomics" was probably in Clifford Simak's 1943 short story Hunch:
“This is Moses Allen,” said the voice on the other end. “Reports are just starting to come in. My men are rounding up the Asteroid jewels. Got bushels of them so far. Putting them under locks you’d have to use atomics to get open.”
Worry edged Chambers’ voice. “You made sure there was no slip. No way anyone could get wind of what we’re doing and hide out some of them.”
The phone on Chambers’ desk buzzed softly. He groped for the receiver, finally found it, lifted it. “Hello,” he said.
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'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.'
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...'
