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"Science fiction is the very literature of change. In fact, it is the only such literature we have."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Gauzy | ||
| A feather-light tent, made of a fabric just one molecule thick. |
Hasan is an exemplary assassin. Some people have a talent for music - they can pick up an instrument and play it within a few hours. Others have a talent for weapons.
| Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough. He never slept in it, though. He just used it to stash his junk.
I seated myself on a log before the fire and Hasan ducked inside his Gauzy. He emerged a moment later with his pipe and a block of hardened, resinous-looking stuff, which he proceeded to scale and grind. He mixed it with a bit of burley and then filled the pipe. After he got it going with a stick from the fire, he sat smoking it beside me. "I do not want to kill you, Karagee," he said. |
| From This Immortal,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Ace Science Fiction in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Up to the 1960's, tents were mostly made from canvas or similar materials, and used steel supports. A tent big enough for four people was not something you wanted to carry around if you could avoid it. However, tents made of more modern materials, like nylon, and the supports were made from aluminum. The Gauzy takes this process a step further, with the lightest possible material used - just one molecule thick.
For another example of an extremely thin material, see the entry for light sail.
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Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to 'help them out.'
'... you had your trademark Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column outside.'
'It's an Indian Air Force drone; its solar cells could power an entire farm.'
'... we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first."
'We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up...'
'Light from the sun hit those little spheres and bounced.'
'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
