Mission of gravity, p.25
Mission of Gravity, page 25
part #1 of Mesklin Series
The rest of the detail work consists of all my remaining moves in the game—finding things that are taken for granted on our own world and would not be true on this one. Such things as the impossibility of throwing, jumping, or flying, at least in the higher latitudes; the tremendously rapid decrease of air density with height in the same regions, producing a mirage effect that makes the horizon seem above an observer all around; the terrific Coriolis force that splits any developing storm into a series of relatively tiny cells—and would make artillery an interesting science if we could have any artillery; the fact that methane vapor is denser than hydrogen, removing a prime Terrestrial cause of thunderstorm and hurricane formation; the rate of pressure increase below the ocean surface, and what that does to the art of navigation; the fact that icebergs won't float, so that much of the ocean bottoms may be covered with frozen methane; the natural preference of methane for dissolving organic materials such as fats rather than mineral salts, and what that will do to ocean composition—maybe icebergs would float after all. You get the idea.
The trouble was, I couldn't possibly think of all these things in advance; time and again a section of the story had to be rewritten because I suddenly realized things couldn't happen that way. I must have missed details, of course; that's where your chance to win the game comes in. I had an advantage; the months during which, in my spare hours, my imagination roamed over Mesklin's vast areas in search of inconsistencies. Now the advantage is yours; I can make no more moves in the game, and you have all the time you want to look for the things I've said which reveal slips on the part of my imagination.
Well, good luck—and a good time, whether you beat me or not.
About the Author
Hal Clement (Harry Clement Stubbs) was born in Massachusetts in 1922. He has been a science lover from early childhood, at least partly as a result of a 1930 Buck Rogers panel in which villains were "headed for Mars, forty-seven million miles away." His father, an accountant, couldn't answer the resulting questions, and led little Hal to the local library. The result was irreversible brain influence.
He majored in astronomy at Harvard, and has since acquired master's degrees in education and in chemistry. He earns his basic living as a teacher of chemistry and astronomy at Milton Academy, in Massachusetts, and regards science-Action writing and painting as hobbies. His first two stories, "Proof" and "Impediment," were sold when he was a junior in college; their impression on Harvard's $400 per year tuition secured family tolerance for that crazy Buck Rogers stuff.
He has since produced half a dozen novels, of which the best known are Needle and Mission of Gravity. His reputation among science-fiction enthusiasts is that of a "hard" writer—one who tries to stick faithfully to the physical sciences as they are currently understood. Like Arthur C. Clarke and the late Willy Ley, Clement would never dream of having a spaceship fall into the sun merely because its engines broke down. He can do his own orbit computing, and does.
He leads a double life, appearing frequently at science-fiction conventions as Hal Clement and spending the rest of his time in Milton as the rather square science teacher with a wife of twenty-five years and three grown children, Harry Stubbs. He does occasional merit badge counseling for the Boy Scouts, has served on his town's finance committee, and is an eleven-gallon Red Cross blood donor.
* * * * * *
Book information
BARLENNAN THOUGHT
HE WOULD GO MAD …
… when the Earthman casually reached down, scooped him up and place him on top of the strange crawling machine. To a Mesklinite, a fall of inches would be fatal … and now he was six feet off the ground.
In a few moments, he had calmed down and was fascinated, almost giddy, at the new experience.
But to the crew of the Bree, seeing their captain brought toward them atop the crawler was pure horror. They could have been no more dismayed if the alien had displayed Barlennan's severed head on a pole.
Flexing their pincers—powerful enough to snip through steel—the sailors flowed in a red and black tide from their ship toward the unsuspecting Earthman …
-
MISSION
OF
GRAVITY
Hal Clement
A Del Ray Book
BALLANTINE BOOKS
NEW YORK
-
All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A Del Rey Book
Published by Ballantine Books
Copyright 1954 by Doubleday and Company, Inc.
Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction, April-July, 1953. Copyright by Street & Smith Pulication, Inc.
"Whirligig World," copyright 1953 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. for Astounding Science Fiction, June 1953.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto, Canada.
This edition is published by arrangement with
Doubleday and Company, Inc.
ISBN 0-345-27092-4
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Ballantine Books Edition: January 1978
Second Printing: May 1979
First Canadian Printing: February 1978
Cover art by H. R. Van Dongen
27092
$1.75
* * * * * *
Back cover
captain courageous
For a profit—and adventure— Barlennan would sail the Bree thousands of miles across uncharted waters, into regions where gravity itself played strange tricks. He would dare the perils of strange tribes and stranger creatures—even dicker with those strange aliens from beyond the skies, though the concept of another world was unknown to the inhabitants of Mesklin.
But in spite of the incredible technology of the strangers and without regard for their enormous size, Barlennan had the notion of turning the deal to an unsuspected advantage for himself ... all in all a considerable enterprise for a being very much resembling a fifteen-inch caterpillar!
Mission of Gravity
The giant disk-shaped planet of Mesklin and its bizarre yet completely believable inhabitants stand as a unique creation possible only in science fiction at its very best. As a bonus, Hal Clement's classic article "Whirligig World"— in which he described the origin and development of this fantastic planet-is included in this special edition.
Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity
