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"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Mechanical Marshal | ||
| An automaton that functions like a quick-draw lawman of the Old West. |
Amos Handworthy had never married and had no children, but he enjoyed collecting automata, including the Marshal.
| "The others," said Amos
Handworthy, "are marvelous
antiques that I've collected, but
this fellow was made to my own
specifications in Switzerland.
His clothing is quite authentic
and he really works. Watch
this!" He stepped forward and took a loosely draped gun belt off the hitching post to the right of the Marshal and buckled it about his waist. "The device is electrically operated," he continued. "The instant I draw, the Marshal draws too, and the trick is to hit him somewhere on his target photo cells with a beam of light that flashes out of my gun, before he can get off his shot. I can adjust the speed of his draw within fairly wide limits and I've been moving him up to faster and faster speeds. But I've gotten pretty damn fast."
 ('The Fastest Draw' by Larry Eisenberg) WITH a drawing motion that was almost a blur, he whipped out his gun and pulled the trigger. The Marshal was fast, but apparently not as fast for suddenly a recorded voice bellowed in pain and gasped, "you got me, you dirty varmint." "A little touch of my own," said Amos Handworthy. "That's what happens when I hit him." |
| Technovelgy from The Fastest Draw,
by Larry Eisenberg. Published by Amazing Stories in 1963 Additional resources -
|
Be sure to read the article about Light Vests (Laser Tag) from the same story.
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
