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"The bottom line in the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better to rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| 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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'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
Yes, people of the future, robots will dress you.
