First appeared in Super Science Stories. Reprinted by Forrest J. Ackerman, Pat LoBrutto, and Dave Wolverton.Martian colonist rebels are just about wiped out by the evil inhabitants who've adapted to the North Pole (they'd already "destroyed all free governments" on Earth). The last ship, Bellerophon, has to decide whether to surrender. They don't. They want to "crack the wall of light" to go to fifty times the speed of light to reach Alpha Centauri, regroup, and return to destroy the North Pole.
Hubbard taps into the American history--forced to doing what they don't want to, a small group going to colonize far off to defend themselves, a smaller weaker colony is set to defeat the bigger government. What I wonder: Does such tapping move those countrymen whose history does not mirror a historical story?
Spoiler: The above is used ironically. While time slowed for them, time sped on Earth and Alpha Centauri. Their lust for revenge has doomed them to have lost everything--wives, families, enemies. Effective irony.
No comments:
Post a Comment