Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Sargasso Asteroid | ||
| A planetoid built from natural rock and the salvaged wreckage of space craft. |
In the twenty-fourth century, only one truly primitive society still exists - The Scientific People. They were descendants of a research team of scientists that had been lost and marooned in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter two hundred years previously.
Gulliver Foyle, last man alive aboard the space ship Nomad, was taken alive by The Scientific People, his ship to be added to their little world.
| He awoke once while he was being carried in triumph on a litter through the natural and artificial passages within the scavenger asteroid. They were constructed of meteor metal, stone and hull plates... The passages led to great halls, storerooms, apartments and homes, all built of salvaged ships cemented into the asteroid.
In rapid succession, Foyle was borne through an ancient Ganymede scow, a Lassell ice borer, a captain's barge, a Calisto heavy cruiser, a twenty-second-century fuel transport with glass tanks still filled with smoky rocket fuel... |
| From The Stars My Destination,
by Alfred Bester. Published by Berkley in 1956 Additional resources -
|
The Scientific people practiced a "barbaric travesty of the scientific method they remembered from their forebears." Their leader greets Foyle by saying
"Quant suff.!" the crowd bellowed.
Compare the Sargasso Asteroid with the wreck-pack from Edmond Hamilton's 1931 story The Sargasso of Space.
"You are the first to arrive alive in fifty years. You are a puissant man. Arrival of the fittest is the doctrine of Holy Darwin. Most scientific."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Stars My Destination
More Ideas
and Technology by Alfred Bester
Tech news articles related to The Stars My Destination
Tech news articles related to works by Alfred Bester
| Dream Of Building Your Own Rocket? |
| Used Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Will Fly Again |
| Laser-Powered Spacecraft To Explore The Solar System |
| SKYLON Space Plane Gets Boost |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'... designed for rooting in the metal make-up of the asteroids for vital elements.'
'...in the midst of this fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not go far.'
'This was to be roofed over, sealed, and an atmosphere provided...'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles...'
'It drew its power from... sunpower screens on its low curved roof.'
