Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I operate by a code that makes me responsible for what I do, makes me definitely, directly, genuinely responsible. I am precisely the kind of person I made myself out to be."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Vibroblade | ||
| A knife-like weapon. |
| A thin pencil of light flashed out and splashed on a figure crouching outside the alcove. I dived and was on him before he could get to his feet. Fast as I had been, Sister Magdalene was just as fast; she landed on his shoulders as he went down. He jerked and was still. Zebadiah came running in, checked himself at our sides. 'John! Maggie!' came his tense whisper. 'What is it?' 'We've caught a spy, Zeb,' I answered hurriedly. 'What'll we do with him?' Zeb flashed his light. 'You've knocked him out?' 'He won't come to,' answered Magdalene's calm voice out of the darkness. 'I slipped a vibroblade in his ribs.' 'Sheol!' 'Zeb, I had to do it. Be glad I didn't use steel and mess up the floor with blood. But what do we do now?' |
| From If This Goes On...,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1940 Additional resources -
|
The same weapon is mentioned - but not actually used in Methuselah's Children, written in the following year.
Vanning stopped. "Very well," he said in annoyed tones, "don't touch that vibroblade. I won't call from here..."
"It ain't a vibroblade. It's steel. Messy."
Appropriately, Lazarus Long, eldest member of the Howard Families, uses the traditional weapon rather than the new-fangled version.
These quotes are taken from the expanded versions of these stories from the collection The Past Through Tomorrow; both of these stories were expanded from their initial publication in 1940 and 1941. I haven't been able to confirm the presence of the word "vibroblade" in the original publications
"Better get away from that phone, Bud." Then, in an aside to Mary, Lazarus added, "I won't touch my gun, Sis. I'll use my knife."
Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from If This Goes On...
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to If This Goes On...
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
| TrackingPoint Smart Rifle |
| Navy Shoots Down Drone, With Help From Dr. Benton Quest |
| DARPA's Upward Falling Payload Like Leinster's Wabbler |
| Arafat Poisoned With Polonium? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
