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"But the problem with reincarnation is that it's hard to imagine what the storage medium for past lives would be. Not to mention the input-output device. I hesitate to rule it out completely, but I'd need pretty definite proof."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Alpha Insert | ||
| A special compound used to seal punctures in space craft. |
Very handy stuff.
| The Arcturus almost collided with us, just skimmed by, slicing a long sliver from our outer skin. You should have heard the air rushing out... I took a gang out to repair her...
We got her sealed up, though, with Alpha Insert, enough to finish the trip.* Her air was gone, and we had to put all the passengers and crew in space suits..." * Alpha Insert is a compound possessing a remarkable affinity for metals of all kinds; its molecules hooked up in close union almost instantaneously, hardening to a toughness comparable with that of beryllium-steel itself. |
| From Exiles of the Moon,
by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat). Published by Wonder Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Here's what it's like to plug a small hole in the hull:
Garry was explaining that a tiny meteor had drilled through the air-lock.
He scooped some Alpha Insert out of its canister, deftly rolled a little pellet, whipped away the coat [which had been stuffed into the hole], clapped the highly agglutinated alloy into the round hole. It spread immediately into a smooth, perfect plug.
Compare to the tagalongs from Gentlemen, Be Seated (1948), by Robert Heinlein.
"Here, Dore, get some Alpha plugging compound..."
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'The planes flew continuously, twenty-four hours a day...'
'It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.'
'...a single perfectly level platform, which rose so high above the water that it was not splashed by the waves.'
'Is an extra-factual memory that convincing?' Quail asked.
Megastructures have repair robots, which have repair robots, ad infinitum.
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Perfect for clot-busting in the human brain. No Raquel Welch and no lasers, though.
