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"I never saw why I had to give up science in order to write, or the other way around, so I didn't!"
- Gregory Benford
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| Ten Million Mile Searchlight | ||
| You need to see where you're going. |
One of the many precursors to the idea of laser light.
| Even to the last moment when she settled into her dock upon Inferno, the Planetaria was controlled by the force originally set in motion. And, though the dock was still invisible, Inferno, with her lava rocks and salt seas, was unfolding momentarily.
Donald shuddered with horror as he saw that hideous coast, studded with crater-pits, in the light of the ten million mile searchlight at the Planetaria’s nose. That concentration of a searchlight into a single beam that suffered no absorption outside the limits of atmosphere had been one of the innumerable discoveries that had made interplanetary travel possible. |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on Inferno,
by Victor Rousseau. Published by Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
This is also a precursor to the idea of a long-range sensor scan. Fans of Star Trek: TOS have been eagerly awaiting long range sensor scans that can detect the components of an atmosphere without needing to send crew members in red shirts to gather samples.
(Spock long range sensor scan)
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
