The Golden Age Of Science Fiction Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Golden Age Of Science Fiction novel. A total of 1755 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A ST
The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A STRANGE Ma.n.u.sCRIPT FOUND IN A COPPER CYLINDER.
By James De Mille CHAPTER I.THE FINDING OF THE COPPER CYLINDER.It occurred as far back as February 15, 1850. It happene
- 1501 "Exactly. Naturally St. Cyr doesn't want us to talk to Watt privately. We might make him see reason. But this time, Nick, we've simply got to manage it somehow. One of us is going to talk to Watt while the other keeps St. Cyr at bay. Which
- 1502 "It does fit," Martin said."That's the trouble with arguing with pre-robot species," ENIAC said, as to himself. "Low, brutish, unreasoning. No wonder, when their heads are so small. Now Mr. Martin--" He spoke as though t
- 1503 "I'm on business here," she told St. Cyr coldly. "You can't part author and agent like this. Nick and I want to have a word with Mr. Watt.""Ah, my pretty creature, sit down," Martin said in a loud, clear voice, scra
- 1504 "That was Ivan the Terrible, wasn't it?" Martin interrupted. "Look here, could you impress the character-matrix of Ivan the Terrible on my brain?""That wouldn't help you a bit," the robot said. "Besides, it
- 1505 "It's going to have an all-male cast," Erika said hastily. "And we're discussing contract releases, not options.""He would give me an option if I had him here," St. Cyr growled, torturing his cigar horribly. "W
- 1506 Everyone in the room looked up abruptly at her cry, and so were just in time to see a horrifying change take place in Martin's shape. It was an illusion, of course, but an alarming one. His knees slowly bent until he was half-crouching, his shoulders
- 1507 Major Dampfer stood and drew on his uniform gauntlets. "May I a.s.sume that you've covered the field public-relations-wise?" he asked."Yes, sir," Captain Winfree said. "I've composed a slogan for this year's drive i
- 1508 [Applause, shouts, a few ribald remarks from the officers nearest the bar]"I just want to tell you all," the Major went on, his arm heavy across Winfree's unwilling shoulders, "before I relinquish this fine young officer to his new com
- 1509 A pause."Your statement bears out their report," said the G.C. speaker harshly. "The barrier seems to be hemispherical. No such barrier is known on Earth. These must be Martians, as the Com-Pubs said. You will wait until morning and try to
- 1510 It was August 24th, 2037. For three days, now, seven of the eight great combat-squadrons of the United Nations Fighting Forces had been prisoners inside a monstrous transparent dome of force. There was a financial panic of unprecedented proportions in the
- 1511 "Don't bother," said the girl. "He was stung last week."Morgan stared at her silently for a moment. She seemed not in the least perturbed. If the man had been stung by an Orenian, he was lost anyway. Ruefully, he reb.u.t.toned his
- 1512 "Sharp enough to split Oren skulls.""And that's all you're looking for?""I don't know. Ever hear of the Maquis?"She hesitated. "Two wars ago? The French underground? I remember vaguely. I was a little urch
- 1513 "It's true.""Have you ever stung anyone?""No. Earlich didn't even know.""Any desire to?"She reddened slowly and set her jaw. The old man giggled. "Wants ta sting a cat, ah bet, suh."She shot him
- 1514 They went back to the house. Shera was sitting on the step."I've made up my mind," she said dully."About what?""I'll do it."She got up and walked away. When Morgan tried to follow, she turned and flicked out the bar
- 1515 He checked his appearance, stepped before the scanner, and nodded to Communications to turn it on. "All hands," he said, then waited for attention.The small monitor screens showed a motley sampling of intent faces. He permitted himself a tight s
- 1516 The answer was odd. "This is Acting President Kliu. What are your intentions?"Tulan realized he was holding his breath. He let it out and looked around the silent command room, meeting the intent eyes of his staff. He had an unreal feeling; this
- 1517 Ronny got up from the gra.s.s and went into the kitchen, stumbling in his walk like a beginning toddler."Choc-mil?" he said to his mother.She poured him some and teased gently, "What's the matter, Ronny--back to baby-talk?"He look
- 1518 "Oh, that!" He smiled. "You're quite right, there aren't many unattached men over twenty-one any more, what with the barrage of government propaganda and their special tax deduction incentives. I a.s.sure you that it's nothin
- 1519 Knox scowled and angrily s.h.i.+fted his big body. Lansing picked up his cigar, relit it, using the action to un.o.btrusively study the warden. Hardly a presence to cow hardened criminals, Lansing thought. Halloran was just below middle height, with gray
- 1520 "Who does go, then?" Halloran did not raise his voice but Knox looked suddenly uneasy."Why ... uh, your operating personnel," he replied gruffly. "Your guards, clerks ... h.e.l.l, man, it's obvious, isn't it?""
- 1521 "Didn't know you had an a.r.s.enal in here!" cried Slade."No one else did, either, except Alfred. Now Doc, think you and Pete had better stay here."Slade and Goldsmid pulled themselves out of their chairs as one man. Their timing
- 1522 But his father, eyes bright and alert, had said, "No, now if George wants to bring one of these, ah, Venusians home with him, that's his privilege. I think it would be very interesting."George knew what his father meant by interesting.Expos
- 1523 "Yes," George said. "Yes.""You are happy with me this way, aren't you, George?""But you're so beautiful."The golden-haired girl nodded her head, and the s.h.i.+ning blue eyes watched him carefully."Yo
- 1524 Tonight, he thought, I might find another like myself. Surely, someone is down here; I'll find someone if I keep searching. I must find someone!But he knew he would not. He knew he would find only chill emptiness ahead of him in the tunnels.For three
- 1525 But there was nothing here that resembled that. Kielland could see a group of little wooden shacks that looked as though they were ready at a moment's notice to sink with a gurgle into the mud. Off to the right across a mud flat one of the dredges ap
- 1526 "Just stupid, carefree, happy-go-lucky kids, eh?"Dr. Tarnier shrugged."Go away," said Kielland in disgust, and turned back to the reports with a sour taste in his mouth.Later he called the Installation Comptroller. "What do you pa
- 1527 "The photographs," he continued, as if lecturing, "were of characters projected by the sphere when placed before a focused light. The sphere was transparent, you see, imbedded with dark microscopic specks. By moving the sphere a certain dis
- 1528 Marc Polder, Resident Comptroller of Torran, strolled idly down the dusty littered path that pa.s.sed for a street. In the half-light of the pint-sized moon overhead the town looked almost romantic. One day, when civilization had at last been brought to t
- 1529 They had discovered a new planet--but its people did not see them until after they had traveled on.Albrecht and I went down in a shuttles.h.i.+p, leaving the stellatomic orbited pole-to-pole two thousand miles above Alpha Centauri's second planet. Wh
- 1530 "You believe that would happen?" Brannad Klav asked anxiously."I know it will, because I'll put through a recommendation to that effect, if those six men are tortured to death tomorrow," Verkan Vall replied. "And in the fifty
- 1531 The conveyer flashed and vanished. Brannad Klav stared for a moment at the circle of concrete floor from whence it had disappeared. Then he turned to Verkan Vall."I still can't believe it," he said. "Why, those fellows were First Level
- 1532 "But that's impossible! I told you, between us we know everything that was happening in nuclear physics then. n.o.body in the world knew how to a.s.semble atoms of negamatter and build them into ma.s.ses.""n.o.body, and nothing, on thi
- 1533 Then, for a time, there was a clacking and thumping as he typed random letters, peeping out of the suitcase to see what he had typed, until the sheet I had put in was used up.I replaced it and waited, as patiently as I could, smoking one of the last of my
- 1534 She gave me a disgusted look. "What do you think? To relieve the manpower shortage, naturally. There's more work than there are men. Now if the Major could just get hold of a couple of prosthetics, like this thing here, why, he could put them in
- 1535 I was on Vern's lap, so I was making the notes. It was a Fruit Company combination freighter-pa.s.senger vessel. I looked at Vern, and Vern shrugged as best he could, so I wrote it down; but it wasn't exactly what we wanted. No, not by a long sh
- 1536 The guard said something irritable and unhappy. I got her off his back with some difficulty, and we located Arthur.Picture a s.h.i.+ny four-gallon tomato can, with the label stripped off, hanging by wire from the flas.h.i.+ng-light panels of an electric c
- 1537 And the typewriter kept rattling: LOOKS LIKE RAIN ANY MINUTE NOW HOO BOY IM GLAD I WONT BE IN THOSE WHIRLYBIRDS WHEN THE STORM STARTS SAY VERN WHY DONT YOU EVER ANSWER ME Q Q ISNT IT ABOUT TIME TO TAKE OFF x.x.x I MEAN GET UNDER WEIGH Q Q.Some of the &quo
- 1538 Mr. Oyster was taken aback himself. "See here, young man, I realize this isn't an ordinary a.s.signment, however, as I said, I am willing to risk a considerable portion of my fortune--""Sorry," Simon said. "Can't be done
- 1539 I said to him, "Glad you're here, sir. I can report. Ah, what was it you came for? Impatient to hear if I'd had any results?" My mind was spinning like a whirling dervish in a revolving door. I'd spent a wad of his money and had n
- 1540 The great hand clenched tighter. "Now I know you are crazy, or--Who are you?" he ended abruptly."Hilary Grendon.""Hilary Grendon--Hilary Grendon," rumbled the other in manifest perplexity. It was evident the name meant nothin
- 1541 "Let's get going then." Hilary was pulling the big man along by main force when he heard a movement in back of them. He stopped, whirled, automatic thrusting its blue nose forward.The little man who had gotten up before on the express was p
- 1542 "And what does it matter to me?"There was the sound of a struggle, a sharp cry, followed by a dull thud.Hilary was out through the door like a flash, down the corridor to the head of the stairs with automatic extended. The monster Mercutian was
- 1543 "Perhaps," Hilary smiled faintly. Then he leaned forward. "I've gotten a pretty good idea of what's happened on Earth since I went away, but now I need more details. Otherwise I'll run into things that will surprise me, and t
- 1544 "Get," the guard growled viciously, and sent Hilary sprawling out into the street to the muttering accompaniment of the seething Earth crowds. The temper of the people was rapidly reaching the explosion point.But Hilary picked himself up, meekly
- 1545 "Yes, take her." The Viceroy waved a weary hand. "I don't want her; I have too many as it is."The captain's face lit up with an unhealthy glow. He approached eagerly to seize his prize. Joan gave a little cry of dismay, and s
- 1546 "What?" Tyler e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Leave me cooped up when there's a fight on. I'm coming.""So am I," Joan was pale but determined."Oh, Lord," Hilary groaned. "Listen to me, please," he said pati
- 1547 There were at least a hundred men encamped in the narrow cleft, crowded and crowding. A tall man thrust himself forward, spare, angular."Welcome, Captain Morgan," he cried. "We had given up all hopes of seeing you again.""h.e.l.lo
- 1548 "Too late." Grim's voice was flat, controlled.Hilary looked around sharply. "What do you mean?""Look." Morgan's hand swept aloft. Through the darkling night, faintly visible in the feeble starlight--there was no moo
- 1549 Hilary paused, thrown off his balance momentarily. Yet a second's hesitation would be fatal. It was Joan who answered for him. She sprang forward, lithe and exalted, her dark eyes flas.h.i.+ng even in the dark."I'll tell you how he knows. I
- 1550 Hilary's voice was strong again. With great shouts, he rallied his men. A pitiful handful; only fifteen of the fifty that had entered the valley. But Joan was alive, her face black with burned skin, otherwise unhurt. Wat's grin rose superior to
- 1551 "Why?""Because they're afraid of the Troopers. You men did too good a job out in Chi. You are the deadliest weapon that has ever been made. You. Single airborne infantrymen!"Lane said, "They told us in Trooper Academy that it
- 1552 As he swallowed the last of his radish, h.e.l.lman stifled a sigh. Their last meal had been three days ago ... if two biscuits and a cup of water could be called a meal. This radish, now resting in the vast emptiness of their stomachs, was the last gram o
- 1553 "Bite into it," Casker said."Me?" h.e.l.lman asked. "Why not you?""You picked it.""I prefer just looking at it," h.e.l.lman said with dignity. "I'm not too hungry.""I'm not either,
- 1554 "Well," h.e.l.lman said, "it's advertised as a Plugger. I suppose that's what it does--expands to plug up holes.""Sure. But how much?""Unfortunately, I don't know how much two cubic vims are. But it can�
- 1555 He paused outside the handsomely-panelled door of his private cabin, one hand on the thumb-plate that controlled entrance. His lips were set in a tight thin line. "And remember this, Alan," he said. "Steve's not your twin brother any m
- 1556 He snapped on a spool of light music and stretched back, completely exhausted. I don't ever want to see or taste a dinosaur steak again, he thought. Not ever.He watched the figures of his crewmates das.h.i.+ng through the s.h.i.+p, each going about some
- 1557 "Tell me, Rat. If you were me----""If I were you I'd get dressed for that dance," Rat said sharply. "If you've got a date, that is.""That's just the point. I don't have a date. I mean, I didn't bother to make one. I know all those girls so wel
- 1558 Alan watched in astonishment as Quantrell took two steps hesitantly backward away from the bridge, then a third. There was a strange, almost thunderstruck expression on Kevin's face.Then he broke out of it. He shook his head."We aren't really going acr
- 1559 "I guess I broke it." Alan looked down at the supine robot. "But it wasn't my fault. It wouldn't let me pa.s.s.""We'd better move on," Rat said. But it was too late. A burly man in a black cloak threw open the door of the gambling parlor and conf
- 1560 Hawkes frowned, but wrote it down that way."Work card number--well, we don't know that. And they want five or six other numbers too. We'll just have to skip them. Better give me a full physical description as of the last time you saw him."Alan thought
- 1561 "That happens to be the address of the Atlas Games Parlor. Your brother Steve probably spends most of his working day there, when he has enough cash to get in. I know the place. It's a cheap joint where the payoffs are low but easy. It's the kind of pl
- 1562 Again a correction. Hawkes sat transfixed, staring intently at the board. The other players were similarly entranced, Alan saw. He realized it was possible for someone to become virtually hypnotized by the game, to spend days on end sitting before the boa
- 1563 And then the board lit up again, and for the first time he was playing.He set up a tentative pattern; golden streaks flitted across the board, mingling with red and blue blinkers. Then the first number came. Alan integrated it hastily and realized he had
- 1564 The ground bus took them over the majestic arch of the bridge, rapidly through the sleepy Enclave--Alan saw n.o.body he recognized in the streets--and through the restricted area that led to the s.p.a.cefield.The s.p.a.ceport was a jungle of s.h.i.+ps, ea
- 1565 Things were not quite so easy in the Cla.s.s B games parlors. Compet.i.tion was rough. Some of the players were, like Alan, sharp newcomers just up from the bottom of the heap; others were former Cla.s.s A men who were sliding down again, but still did we
- 1566 The week pa.s.sed slowly, and Alan did poorly at his nightly work. His mind was anywhere but on the flas.h.i.+ng games board, and the permutations and combinations eluded him. He lost, though not heavily.Each night the ten members of the Syndicate met at
- 1567 At the time, he had been much too excited and fl.u.s.tered to answer anything. But, as the next twelve months went by, he learned that being a millionaire was quite pleasant indeed.There were headaches, of course. There was the initial headache of signing
- 1568 He was...o...b..ting over a vast dust-blown plain. The sky was a fantastic color, mottled blues and greens and an all-pervading pink, and the air was dull gray. No sun at all penetrated the heavy shroud of vapor that hung round the planet.For five hours h
- 1569 "We'll have to convert the Valhalla to the new drive," Captain Donnell said. He looked still stunned by Alan's sudden appearance. "Otherwise we'll never be able to meet the compet.i.tion of the new s.h.i.+ps. There will be new s.h.i.+ps, won't ther
- 1570 And he was. "Every power unit out there--suits and boats both--drained," Hilton reported. "Completely drained. Get some help out there fast!"In an enormous structure deep below the surface of a far-distant world a group of technicians cl.u.s.tered tog
- 1571 "I'll tell the c.o.c.keyed world you won't!" Hilton broke in. "Me marry a d.a.m.ned female Ph.D.? Uh-uh. Mine will be a cuddly little brunette that thinks a slipstick is some kind of lipstick and that an isotope's something good to eat.""One like
- 1572 Two of the aliens had brushed the mechanics--very gently--aside and were doing their work for them. Ignoring the hoist, one native had picked the tube up and was holding it exactly in place on the Mayfield. The other, hands moving faster than the eye coul
- 1573 After a short silence de Vaux said, "I suppose you realize that the first half of the problem you posed us has now solved itself?""Why, no. No, you're 'way ahead of me.""There is a basic problem and it can now be clearly stated," Rebecca said. "P
- 1574 Hilton glanced at his tell-tales, one inside, one outside, his suit. Both showed zero.Down twenty steps, another door. Twenty more; another. And a fourth. Hilton's inside meter still read zero. The outside one was beginning to climb.Into an elevator and
- 1575 "I see. I've heard that they weren't keeping up with our team.""He says that there's nothing to keep up with, and I'm inclined to agree with him." The old s.p.a.cehound's voice took on a quarter-deck rasp. "It's a combination of psionics, witch
- 1576 Sandra had so arranged matters that she and Hilton were sitting in chairs side by side, with Sandra on his right and the aisle on his left. Nevertheless, Temple Bells sat at his left, cross-legged on a cus.h.i.+on on the floor--somewhat to the detriment o
- 1577 Just then Temple Bells strolled up to them. "Morning, you two lovely people." She hugged Hilton's arm as usual. "Shame on you, Teddy. But I wish I had the nerve to kiss him like that.""Nerve? You?" Teddy laughed as Hilton picked Temple up and kisse
- 1578 "Huh?" Both men gasped--and then both exploded like one twelve-inch length of primacord.While the Omans could not understand this purely Terran reasoning, they accepted the decision without a demurring thought. "Who, then, are the two its to simulate?
- 1579 The three men arrived and were instructed. Tuly said: "The great trouble is that each of you must use a portion of your mind that you do not know you have. You, this one. You, that one." Tuly probed mercilessly; so poignantly that each in turn flinched
- 1580 "No, sir. We can read only the simplest of the Masters' records. They arranged our brains that way, sir.""I know. They're the type. However, I suspect now that your thinking is reversed. Let's turn it around. Say the Masters didn't come from Terra,
- 1581 Temple blushed furiously and Hilton came instantly to his bride's rescue. "Chip-chop the comedy, gang. She and I aren't human any more. We're a good jump toward being Omans. I couldn't make her believe it doesn't show."That stopped the levity, cold
- 1582 "I thought better of you than that, son." Sawtelle shook his head sadly. "That was the first thing I did.""Ouch. Maybe you're 'way ahead of me too, then, on the one that we should move to Fuel Bin, lock, stock and barrel?""Never thought of it, no
- 1583 "The First Team doesn't need you now too much, does it, Jarve?" Sawtelle asked."Not particularly. In fact, I was just going to get back onto my own job.""Not yet. I want to talk to you," and the two went into a long discussion of naval affairs.XI.T
- 1584 "Of course not, sir. Terra needs power too badly. You are perfectly welcome to that one load of uranexite, no matter what is decided here.""That's one way of putting it," Gordon sneered. "But the truth is that you know d.a.m.ned well I'll blow both
- 1585 "Neither are we unanimous on the basic matter as to why the Masters acted as they did just before they left Ardry. Why did they set the status so far below their top ability? Why did they make it impossible for the Omans ever, of themselves, to learn the
- 1586 The planet Strett had a ma.s.s of approximately seven times ten to the twenty-first metric tons. Its moon, little more than a hundredth as ma.s.sive, still weighed in at about eight times ten to the nineteenth--that is, the figure eight followed by ninete
- 1587 "What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey.""Anyone--I mean how many--?""Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had
- 1588 "My mother and father are--""You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown out the five proud candles on hi
- 1589 Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jim
- 1590 "Good. You and me are going to get along."Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was
- 1591 Sincerely, Joseph Brandon, editor, Boy's Magazine."Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against
- 1592 His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"--so Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l told him. Uncle Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained bright-colored modular blocks.Jimmy'
- 1593 She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the "little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew
- 1594 James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me, would you give Martha a college education if you had--or will you if you have at the time--the wherewithal to provide it?""Of course.""You have it here," said James. "So long
- 1595 The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of s.h.i.+pmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had one.The letters continued at th
- 1596 "It's been months since I saw a movie."James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last night on TV," he pointed out."I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him with a trace of disdain."I liked i
- 1597 Tim laughed."What's so darned funny?""Women.""Are we such a bunch of clowns?""Not clowns, Janet. Just funny." "All right, genius. Explain that.""A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do what she wants him to do mo
- 1598 On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated discussions, argued points of deep reaso
- 1599 "But--""Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen--"At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me--? Now, I need a drink!"James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course--which is Pi to seven decimal places if you ever nee
- 1600 "Indeed? How, may I ask?""It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this new machine is so