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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.
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| Celestial Armamentarium | ||
| A small crystal planetarium, in which the stars and planets surrounding Aerlith are seen. |
The humans on Aerlith have little technology, having been stranded there and cut off from whatever remains of human civilization in the galaxy. Some artifacts remain, however; is it a crystal ball or a planetarium?
| "I examined this globe, and indeed it seemed to hold all of space; within it floated stars and planets, all the bodies of the cluster. "Look well," said Joaz Banbeck, "you will neer see the like of this anywhere. It was built by the olden men and brought to Aerlith when our people first arrived..." "It is a celestial armamentarium," said Joaz. "It depicts all the nearby stars, and their positions at any time I choose to specify." |
| Technovelgy from The Dragon Masters,
by Jack Vance. Published by Galaxy in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Using this device, Joaz Banbeck (the novel's protagonist) is able to predict that the Basics, a race of aliens with superior technology, might soon be paying them a visit.
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'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
