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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Sub-C | ||
| Of ships, older models that travel at speeds below that of light. |
| Irma Gordon was one of the original settlers of the Riga system. Origin unknown. Probably born out in space — in one of the old sub-C ships. A strange feeling drifted through him. The little old creature. The centuries she had seen! The changes. |
| From The Impossible Planet,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Not Known in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Stanley Schmidt used the same expression in War of Independence (1982):
"At that time our ancestors didn’t even know the Redskins existed, and the incident scared them silly. They stopped trying for the stars for about a third of a century. Things didn’t get going again until Kokes stumbled onto c-barrier tunneling and people met the Redskins. They found out in a general way what happened to the Columbus, but they still didn’t know where it wound up. Well, it wound up on Midnnoa.”
Murray nodded. So the wreck on Midnnoa was the Columbusl The Chercqs, then, were not just any shipwreck survivor descendants. 'They were one of the two oldest human colonies outside the Solar System — and still one of the most remote.
Compare to ftl from The Enchanted Forest (1950) by Fritz Leiber, which is as far as I know the first use of this abbreviation for faster-than-light from Islands of Space (1931) by John W. Campbell, which is as far as I know, the first use of that phrase in science fiction.
"Okay, brace yourself. You may remember there was a false start before interstellar expansion from Sol really got going. A pair of sub-c ships called the Mayflower and the Columbus set out together for Alpha Centauri. The Mayflower made it. The Columbus hit the wake of a Redskin warpship bound for Alpha Persei and disappeared.
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| Space Weather Forecasters Surprised By Strong Solar Storm |
| JWST Finds New World Of Turbulent Silicate Clouds |
| Spectroscopic Analysis Of DART Impact Debris Cloud (SF Prediction) |
| M-Dwarf Stars May Not Have Habitable Planets |
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'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
