The Burning Bridge - Poul Anderson
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- Опубликовано: 31 мар 2013
- The Burning Bridge (novella) by Poul Anderson
Usually there are two "reasons" why something is done; the reason why it needs to be done, and, quite separate, the reason people want to do it. The foul-up starts when the reason for wanting is satisfied... and the need remains.
Excerpt from the introductory:
The message was an electronic shout, the most powerful and tightly-beamed short-wave transmission which men could generate, directed with all the precision which mathematics and engineering could offer. Nevertheless that pencil must scrawl broadly over the sky, and for a long time, merely hoping to write on its target. For when distances are measured in light-weeks, the smallest errors grow monstrous.
As it happened, the attempt was successful. Communications Officer Anastas Mardikian had assembled his receiver after acceleration ceased-a big thing, surrounding the flagship Ranger like a spiderweb trapping a fly-and had kept it hopefully tuned over a wide band. The radio beam swept through, ghostly faint from dispersion, wave length doubled by Doppler effect, ragged with cosmic noise. An elaborate system of filters and amplifiers could make it no more than barely intelligible.
But that was enough.
Mardikian burst onto the bridge. He was young, and the months had not yet devoured the glory of his first deep-space voyage. "Sir!" he yelled. "A message ... I just played back the recorder ... from Earth!"
Fleet Captain Joshua Coffin started. That movement, in weightlessness, spun him off the deck. He stopped himself with a practiced hand, stiffened, and rapped back: "If you haven't yet learned regulations, a week of solitary confinement may give you a chance to study them."
"I ... but, sir-" The other man retreated. His uniform made a loose rainbow splash across metal and plastic. Coffin alone, of all the fleet's company, held to the black garments of a space service long extinct.
Published January 1960 ~ Astounding Science Fiction 
Развлечения
love the old science fiction books from the 50s and 60s.
Having grown up in the 1950's I can tell younger folks we all figured by the year 2000 people would have a base on the moon and mars , after the moon landing we were positive , then 30 years of space shuttle , now nothing , sad when we've had the tech scince the 70's and 80's .
Michael Ledford
We do have bases on the Moon and Mars. And other places. But its secret.
***** we regular folks AKA cattle will never know what's the truth , I'm fairly certain we had GPS capabilities as far back as 1967 ,I remember calling in snake & nape and seeing precision guided munitions used with modern day pin point accuracy,had it not been for the gulf war I don't believe the public would know about GPS now being they kept is secret for decades & only went public with the technology once the US military exposed it .
Michael Ledford and what did you do
Besides bitch?
@@samuelcarstens6152 What would you have me do ? Crash NASA or DARPA with a shotgun and hold a scientist hostage until he fessed up national secrets ? F,-ing Tool !
Seems they should've had this discussion BEFORE they left. :D
Nevil Shute meets George Orwell
It is spooky, PA always had a great vision on socio-politics. I've read his New America stories when I was young.
Thanks for sharing...I will share on my FB page: "Classic Science Fiction Stories"
Pretty sure this is the same guy who narrated for John Carter audiobooks
He is one of the best readers. He has done many books.
Excellent story, author and story teller, thanks again Mark Nelson 😊 You are all right, we are doomed as a race because we stopped manned exploration of our solar system let alone beyond. Interesting that Poul Anderson knew that the K class dwarf star Epsilon Eridani system, about 10 LY from Earth, has planets and at least one Earth like goldilocks zone planet too....50 years before Hubble telescope and the Keplar probe were lauched. Now how is that possible...hmmm?
Redcoat‘s Return There is no $$ for NASA when the USA spends 10x 's more than our closest rivals on defense plus we haven't updated or even maintained our infrastructure, Chinese infrastructure is basically brand new now throughout the entire country... & it's a big country! The Chinese can just drain the USA dry in competitive spending much like the USA did to USSR! That would be the second play the Chinese are using, first being the Fentinyle (50x stronger than herion) they are sending to the US buy the boatload' furthering a huge opioids epedemic, the irony being that was exactly what the British &Americans did 150 yrs earlier... The difference being I don't think all herion users will be executed like they were in China, causing & costing the US billions!
@@nathankox190 There's much more profit in War, and its preparations.
SPEC-U-LA-TION.
Stock in trade for fiction writers.
Anderson is one of the very best!
The narrator sounds like one of the guys who does Modern Marvels
Found him / older now
Bar
Feb 11
e1M
Right Michael Ledford: what we couldn't foresee was that the social upheavals of the 60s would go forward and absorb all the resources.
N01NP if not for the 60s people around the world would still prefer open fires and no plumbing?
Samuel Carstens ... and murdering children in abortuaries ...
You are blaming humanities perpetual waste of the planet's resources on the (very small) social changes witnessed in a very small part of the world in a single decade? That is completely asinine.
@@N01NP ah...so it shows now...you are a religious nut with a single-topic agenda and a mind about a Nano wide. Go away caveman.
@Metalicus Deus Because it was glaringly and ENTIRELY off-topic and out-of-context. Like your zombie post. Sad. Look in the mirror and come to grips what your own hidden agenda and see how it colors everything in your life...AND HOW OTHERS CONTROL YOU WITH IT.