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
- 1101 "It's awful fast, Buck.""I just think, and my gun is there in my hand. Some draw, huh!""Sure is.""You're d.a.m.n right it is, Doolin. Faster'n anybody!"I didn't know what his gabbling about "
- 1102 Buck looked at the little guy's fancy clothes and small mustache and grinned. "Come on," he said to me, and picked up his drink and started across the floor. "Find out who the dude is."He pulled out a chair and sat down--and I saw
- 1103 I got up, feeling worse than I'd ever felt in my life. "Come on," I said. "Let's see what happens."As if there was any doubt about what was bound to happen.We stepped out onto the porch and over to the rail. Behind us, I hear
- 1104 Gibson, characteristically, had a refinement to offer."They'll be alerted down there for a reconnaissance sally," he said. "Why not let Xavier take the scouter down for overt diversion, and drop Arthur off in the helihopper for a low-l
- 1105 He had no recognizable modus operandi, changing his methods with each new crime. He never left a clue. But, in bravado, he signed his name to every job: his monicker flattered him, and after each malefaction the victim--usually a government agency, a gian
- 1106 The doctor turned back at last to the attendant. "Too late. The best I can do is ease his pain. The call should have been made half an hour earlier."He had obviously never handled s.p.a.ce-stomach before. He administered a hypo that probably hel
- 1107 "Art Billing's card!" Ben told the other tubemen. "Five trips I made with Art. He was saving his money, going to buy a farm on Mars. Five trips and one more to go before he had enough. Now you show up with his ticket!"The tubemen
- 1108 The concealed door broke open suddenly and a boy thrust his head in. "Doc, there's a man here from Einstein. Says his wife's dying."The man was already coming into the room."She's powerful sick, Doc. Had a bellyache, fever, b
- 1109 Doc got up shakily, not daring to believe fully what he had heard. He started toward Jake, trying to avoid b.u.mping into Chris. But she would not be avoided. She stood in front of him, screaming accusations and threats that reminded him of the only fight
- 1110 The filaments were there, clear and distinct.He turned on the little tape recorder that had been part of Chris' equipment and set the microphone where he could dictate into it without stopping to make clumsy notes. He readjusted the focus carefully,
- 1111 It was Everts' turn to shake his head. "I'm sorry, Dr. Feldman. I have orders to burn out your cabin when you leave. But thank you." He got to his feet and left as quietly and erectly as he had entered.Doc tore up his notes bitterly. H
- 1112 The new laboratory was still being fitted when they arrived. It had been dug into one of the few real cliffs in this section of Mars. The power plant had been installed, complete with a steam plant that would operate off sunlight in the daytime through a
- 1113 He winced as Chris took a tiny bit of flesh from his neck. She went to the other men, and then submitted to his work on herself. Then she began preparing the slides."Feldman," she read the name of the slide as she inserted it into the microscope
- 1114 Doc Feldman nodded slowly as he let her go. He was a fool. He had always been a fool, and always would be. And that was why he could never take over leaders.h.i.+p here. Fools and idealists should never govern a world. It took practical men such as Jake t
- 1115 And then the first claws appeared. And overnight the complexion of the war changed.The claws were awkward, at first. Slow. The Ivans knocked them off almost as fast as they crawled out of their underground tunnels. But then they got better, faster and mor
- 1116 "No.""Why, then?"David did not answer. He plodded carefully along behind, picking his way over the ash. His legs and shoes were gray with dust. His pinched face was streaked, lines of gray ash in riverlets down the pale white of his sk
- 1117 "What?""This, the new types. The new varieties of claws. We're completely at their mercy, aren't we? By now they've probably gotten into the UN lines, too. It makes me wonder if we're not seeing the beginning of a now sp
- 1118 Ta.s.so swept the curtain aside. "Klaus! What did you do?"Klaus turned from the charred form, gradually sinking down the wall onto the floor. "The Second Variety, Ta.s.so. Now we know. We have all three types identified. The danger is less.
- 1119 "You couldn't tell it was a machine? It talked like a living person? You never suspected?""It didn't say much. I noticed nothing unusual."It's strange, machines so much like people that you can be fooled. Almost alive. I
- 1120 She threw the bomb. It sailed in an arc, an expert, rolling and bouncing to the entrance of the bunker. Two Wounded Soldiers stood uncertainly by the brick pile. More Davids poured from behind them, out onto the plain. One of the Wounded Soldiers moved to
- 1121 "Is the s.h.i.+p near here?" Ta.s.so slid over beside him, settling down on her haunches. "How far is it? Where is it?""I'm trying to think."Her fingers dug into his arm. "Nearby?" Her voice was like iron. &quo
- 1122 The hatch of the s.h.i.+p clanged shut. The bolts fell into place. Hendricks made his way back. The inner door was being sealed. He raised the pistol unsteadily.There was a shattering roar. The s.h.i.+p burst up from its metal cage, fusing the mesh behind
- 1123 When we were going back to sleep, Nina told me she had wondered why Theodor slept each time near someone else. He had probably thought by taking a little from each one of us, his stealing would not be noticed.Seventeenth Awake, 18 Juli 2207 The awakes and
- 1124 "Stake your mom's Charleston cup on that," I said.She nodded. Her one-sided grin seemed to fade slightly but she hooked it up again fast. A doll--like I said. This was the original model, they've never gone into production on girls lik
- 1125 The Doll's father was there already behind his desk, studying something as I came in. He looked up, smiled, said, "Hi, guy."I flipped a finger at him. I wondered if the Doll had told him about last night."Wife and I were going to sugge
- 1126 This was it. This was where the other four s.h.i.+ps like the XXE-1--the radio controlled models--had disintegrated. This was where it happened, and they didn't come back anymore.I sucked in oxygen and let the accelerator control go over all the way.
- 1127 "Meanwhile, I'm slowly starving," said Barnsley."Just hang on for a couple of days. Now that we know where they are, they're in for a shock. One of these mornings, they're going to hear voices from all over their skies, deman
- 1128 They all crowded around heavy Otto Kramer and his basket--all except Frank Nelsen and Paul Hendricks, and Eileen Sands who made the ancient typewriter click in the little office-enclosure, as she typed up the order list that Nelsen would mail out with a b
- 1129 Most of the guys still figured that Charlie Reynolds would solve their money problem. But in late November he had a bad moment. Out in front of Hendricks', he looked at his trim automobile. "It's a cinch I can't use it Out There,"
- 1130 They all knew then, for sure, what had happened. Right now, Glen Tiflin was wandering alone, somewhere, cursing and suffering. As likely as not, he'd start hitchhiking across the country, to try to get away from himself... Somewhere the test instrume
- 1131 Along the highway there were arrows and signs. When the trucks had labored to the top of a ridge, the s.p.a.ceport installations came into view all at once: Barbed-wire fences, low, olive-drab gate buildings, guidance tower, the magnesium dome of a powerh
- 1132 "So that's the way it goes," Charlie Reynolds commented profoundly. "We reach out for strangeness. Then we try to make it as familiar as home.""Stew, warmed in the cans, too," Ramos declared. "Enough for a light one
- 1133 This theory about the lunar atmosphere had proven to be correct. The tiny density was still sufficient to give the Moon almost as effective an atmospheric meteor screen as the Earth's. The relatively low velocity needed to maintain vehicles in circ.u
- 1134 So here was another force of Frank Nelsen's desperation.He made up his mind--which perhaps just then was a bit mad.With outward calm he returned to camp, slept, worked, slept and worked again. He decided that there was no help to be had from Lester,
- 1135 It hardly mattered what else they said. Maybe it was fifteen hours later that Frank Nelsen found himself walking along a stellene-covered causeway, looking for Left Foot Gimp Hines. He had memories of a tiny room, very neat and compact, with even a single
- 1136 "Okay. Shut up it is!" Ramos answered him.So they stayed silent until they couldn't stand that, either. Everything was getting on their nerves.Their next asteroids were mere chips a foot long--core fragments of the planet, heavy metals that
- 1137 "Settled, then?" Art asked."Here, it is," Ramos answered, and Nelsen nodded.It would have been rough going for them to try to sleep in beds. They had lost the habit. They slept inside their new Archer Fives.Afterwards they painted thei
- 1138 "Two-and-Two's back in Jarviston, then?" Nelsen demanded."No--not anymore--just gimme breath," Hines went on. "He and Charlie had figured another destination of opportunity--Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, everlasting fr
- 1139 Art Kuzak stared at him. "You d.a.m.ned, independent b.u.ms--you, too, Nelsen!" he began to growl. But when he saw Nelsen's jaw harden, he got the point, and grinned, instead. "Okay, Frank. n.o.body's indispensible. I might do the
- 1140 Reclining in another lawn chair beside his was Nance, her eyes closed, her face thin and pale. He was frightened--until he remembered, somehow, that she was nearly as well as he was. Beyond her was a doorway, leading into what seemed a small, modern kitch
- 1141 Nelsen looked at the fifty-odd stellene rings that they had broken out of their containers--the others, still packed, were held in reserve. Those that had been freed glistened translucently in the sunlight. Nelsen had always thought that bubbs were beauti
- 1142 She looked at him coolly for almost a minute. "All right, Frank," she said quietly. "Follow your nose. It's just liable to be right on the beam--for you. I might follow mine. I don't know.""Joe and Two-and-Two are around
- 1143 "h.e.l.l yes, he is," the governor said. "Tops. I've seen his record as State Attorney General and as Lieutenant Governor. And when Governor Dinsmore died three years ago, Fisher did a fine job filling out his last year. But--"&qu
- 1144 When the connection was cut, Cannon grinned at Matthew Fisher. "That's it. We've saved a s.h.i.+p. It can be repaired where it is without a fleet of Soviet moon-cats prowling around and interfering. And we've scotched any attempts at p
- 1145 "Sincerity," said Governor Spanding. "That's what's lacking. He hasn't got it, and the voters can feel it.""He managed to be elected President of the United States on it," Senator Cannon said dryly.Spanding did
- 1146 Dr. Frank touched a b.u.t.ton on the bedside panel, and the upper portion of the bed rose smoothly at an angle. "Better?""Fine. Much better.""You were saying--""Yeah. About Matt Fisher. He has to know. He'll guess e
- 1147 "Which just goes to show you," said Harry Morgan, picking up the key.He turned casually, took one or two steps away from the registration desk, then--quite suddenly--did an about-face and snapped: "What happened to Jack Latrobe?""
- 1148 "Oh, I'm a whiz," Morgan agreed. "But I thought the Welfare World took care of its poor, misled criminals better than this."Again the chuckle. "You shoulda robbed a bank or killed somebody. Then theyda given you a nice rehabi
- 1149 Tarnhorst shook his head briskly. "No. We can't execute Fergus. Impossible.""Of course not," Morgan said soothingly. "I don't suggest that you should. But I do suggest that Mr. Fergus be very careful about going through
- 1150 The warning cry came from an outer guard and black shadows were suddenly sweeping out of the dark dawn.They were things that might have been half wolf, half tiger; each of them three hundred pounds of incredible ferocity with eyes blazing like yellow fire
- 1151 Prentiss went on, to make the rounds of the guards. When he returned he saw that his order had been obeyed.The prowlers lay in the snow as before, their savage faces still twisted in their dying snarls, but snug and warm inside them babies slept.The prowl
- 1152 Then the new peril appeared, the one they had not expected: the unicorns.The stockade wall was a blue-black rectangle behind them and the blue star burned with the brilliance of a dozen moons, lighting the woods in blue shadow and azure light. Prentiss an
- 1153 "Have you obeyed Chiara's order?" he asked."Ah--no," Bemmon said. "I felt it best to ignore it.""Why?" Lake asked."It would be a senseless waste of our small supply of fruit and vegetable foods to give the
- 1154 There was the laughter of children at play, a sound that had not been heard for many months, and someone singing the old, old songs. For a few fleeting hours that day, for the first and last time on Ragnarok, there was the magic of an Earth Christmas.That
- 1155 It was not many to be the beginnings of a race that would face an ice age of unknown proportions and have over them, always, the threat of a chance return of the Gerns.The winter of the fifteenth year came and he was truly alone, the last of the Old Ones.
- 1156 He dropped a double handful of rubies, sapphires and diamonds at Barber's feet."Take a look," he said. "On a civilized world what you see there would buy us a s.h.i.+p without our having to lift a finger. Here they're just pretty
- 1157 The children of each generation would be better adapted to Ragnarok and full adaptation would eventually come. But all the generations of the future would be potential slaves of the Gern Empire, free only so long as they remained unnoticed.It was inconcei
- 1158 "It doesn't matter," Lake said. "It's served its purpose. We won't rebuild it."George watched him questioningly."It's served its purpose," he said again. "It didn't let us forget that the Gerns w
- 1159 He climbed to the top of the hill and saw boulders there he could use to build the monument. They were large--he might crush Tip against his chest in picking them up--and he took off his jacket, to wrap it around Tip and leave him lying on the ground.He w
- 1160 "I suppose the score is even now," he said to it, "and we'll never see each other again. So good hunting--and thanks."It made a sound in its throat; a queer sound that was neither bark nor growl, and he had the feeling it was tryi
- 1161 They would have to migrate in one of two different ways: they could go to the south as nomad hunters--or they could go to other, fairer, worlds in s.h.i.+ps they took from the Gerns.The choice was very easy to make and they were almost ready.In the worksh
- 1162 "Where's Freckles?" he asked Jimmy."Here," someone said, and came forward with Tip's mate.He set Freckles on his shoulder and the first searchlight came on, s.h.i.+ning down from high up on the cruiser. It lighted up the area
- 1163 "So you know?" Narth asked. He smiled, an unpleasant twisting of his mouth. "Do you think that knowing will help you any?""We expect it to," he answered."It's a battles.h.i.+p," Narth said. "It's thre
- 1164 He stretched luxuriously. "Let's call it a day and turn in. Tomorrow we'll go about the business at hand with clearer heads.""A good idea," Cleve said, "but first, one little gesture. I think it would be judicious."
- 1165 "And that is why you will take us to Earth, Lieutenant," barked the Ihelian warrior. "We do not want your arms or your men. What we must ask for is--ten thousand women."Mason was nervous. It was the nervousness of cold apprehension, no
- 1166 "They proceed toward a planet on the near side of this galaxy called Earth," the second officer said. "Their mission is to replenish their supply of breeders.""You are certain of that?""I admit it is peculiar, for the br
- 1167 "Keep an eye on the scanner for me, will you, beautiful?""Yes sir.""And forget that sir stuff! Look, Judy--""For what do you want me to watch, sir?"Cain grunted, gave a shrug of his powerful shoulders and turned his
- 1168 Cain laughed easily. "Then maybe you better consider it if you want to come out on top! And as to the rest of it, if I was part of some counter-plot against you do you think I'd've gone to the trouble of bringing along some security?"
- 1169 He saw the frown forming on Kriijorl's face."Thrayx, and the Forest of Saarl," he bit from between teeth clenched against the creeping agony in him. "The Book of the Saints, Kriijorl. It is the key, don't you see. Key to all this,
- 1170 "d.a.m.n," thought Bill. "I wish I were a scientist right now instead of a know-nothing artist!"He touched the dog with his toe. It was perfectly preserved, as though it had died just a few hours before. It was rigid, but it had not st
- 1171 Bottles tumbled from the shelves. Furniture was upset. Precious liquids flowed unrestrained and unnoticed. Finally the professor dropped with exhaustion and the rat and Mag Nesia made a dash for freedom.Early in the morning pedestrians on Arlington Avenue
- 1172 "But what will we do?" Kial's mind was reeling again."Since we've already broken the First Law," Broyk said, "we may just as well break the Second: 'No Thek-traveler may enter the body of a native of a foreign s.p.a
- 1173 "Mister," he asked ominously, "what the h.e.l.l happened to that cow?""I don't know," Zack spoke with sarcasm, "jest the way I found her."The important-looking civilian bustled past the patrolman and confronted
- 1174 Margery shook her head, sucking in her breath. "When I think of all those fine young men," she murmured. "Heaven only knows what happened to them!""You," Jonathan accused, "have been reading that columnist--what's-h
- 1175 Jonathan frowned. Did Richie mean the greenhouse down the road? Was there a Mr. Allavarg who worked there? "Whose nursery?""Ours." Richie wrinkled his face thoughtfully. "I think I better go outside and play.""Our nurser
- 1176 "Ah! Thank you," replied the professor. He dropped his instrument into his coat pocket and gazed in the direction of the gla.s.s square whose image had so aroused his ire. "I apologize, B262H72476Male, for my suspicions as to your veracity-
- 1177 Collins left Gordon's office in Administration moving slowly, one arm hanging loosely by his side, the other clutching the book. The corridor stretched ahead into B Wing with its laboratories flooded with the glow of mid-morning suns.h.i.+ne, bright
- 1178 Finally, the big fish stopped directly beneath his eyes. Burl thrust straight down with all his strenth. This time the spear, entering vertically, did not seem to bend. Its point penetrated the scales of the swimmer below, transfixing that lazy fish compl
- 1179 Surely enough he found a thicket of edible fungi just half a mile beyond the spot where he had sat down to think. Burl tugged at one and broke off a piece. Nibbling as he went, he entered a broad plain over a mile across, broken into odd little hillocks b
- 1180 He peered between two cream-colored toadstool stalks and saw the cause of the noise. A wide, funnel-shaped snare of silk was spread before him, 20 yards across and equally deep. Individual threads were plainly visible, but in the ma.s.s it seemed a fabric
- 1181 "I didn't hide it anywhere," said the teller. "It was stolen.""You had better think up a better one," sneered Sturtevant. "If you think that you can make me believe that that money was stolen from you in broad dayli
- 1182 "Maywood airdrome," the doctor told the driver.Two hours later the big Martin bomber which had carried the doctor to Chicago roared away into the night, and Bird turned back, reentered the taxi, and headed for the city alone.When Carnes received
- 1183 The banker, who was new to the movie-making branch of his business, spoke first. "I presume," he said finally, "that you're aware of the current feeling in our New York office?"The movie magnate gestured carelessly with a Saxony g
- 1184 There was a door, the lintel and posts of which had more carving, but this time Terran, Hume thought--old, very old. Perhaps rumor was right, Milfors Wa.s.s might be truly native Terran and not second, third, nor fourth generation star stock as most of th
- 1185 "Forty names of Dugor!" he spat.Lansor waited, breathing in the air of early morning. The confidence of the drug still held. At the moment he was certain nothing could be as bad as the life behind him, he was willing to face what this strange pa
- 1186 "Just what did you sight, Gentleh.o.m.o Starns? There is no large game in the woodlands.""This was not an animal, Hunter. Rather a flash of light, just about there." Again he pointed.Sun, Hume thought, could have been reflected from so
- 1187 Rynch watched dispa.s.sionately before he caught the needler, jerking it away from the prisoner. The man eyed him steadily, and his expression did not alter even when Rynch swung the off-world weapon to center its sights on the late owner."Suppose,&q
- 1188 "What did you expect?" Rynch snapped. He was hungry, but not hungry enough to abandon the islet.Hume laughed shortly. "I don't know. Only I'm sure they are heading us in that direction.""Look here," Rynch rounded on
- 1189 A sound, slight, but easily heard in the silent vacuum of the storage cabin, alerted him. The crack of the sliding panel door opened and Vye crouched, his hand cupping the only possible weapon, the ration container. Hume edged through, shut the door behin
- 1190 There was a heavy thicket there, too stoutly grown for anything to be within its shadow. Whatever moved must be behind it.Vye looked about him frantically for anything he could use as a weapon. Then he grabbed at the long bush knife in Hume's belt sh
- 1191 Vye flushed. He was not going to try to explain that. Instead he said: "If it went away once, it can again."Hume did not press the subject of his return. Rather he fastened upon the end of that action with the wounded beast, made Vye go through
- 1192 12."There is only one way they could be moving--toward the mountains." Hume stood in the open s.p.a.ce among the bubble tents, facing him the four men of the camp, the three civs and Rovald. "You say it's been seven days, planet time,
- 1193 The tablets worked. But he did not slide back into unconsciousness again as the throbbing torture became something remote and untroubling. With his good arm he braced himself against the cliff, managed to sit up.Sun flashed on the metal barrel of a needle
- 1194 "No--" The Red Doctor hesitated. "Not really.""Ah." The Black Doctor closed his eyes wearily and flipped an activator switch. The scanner on the far wall buzzed into activity. It focussed on the rear storage hold of the Mercy
- 1195 "Okay. Next we try combinations. There's got to be something the wretched beast can't tolerate--"There was, of course.Green Doctor Stone brought it to Jenkins as he was getting ready to turn in for a sleep period. Jenkins had checked t
- 1196 The big man's fists were clenched until the knuckles were white. "You don't know what's over there!" he burst out. "We could be slaughtered."The captain's smile was unpleasant. "That would be such a pity,"
- 1197 Practically everybody would agree that this is Utopia....Ernie turned the dial on his television. The station he had selected brightened and the face of the set turned from dark to blue. Ernie sipped his can of beer. He was alone in the room, and it was n
- 1198 Did Jory know about the beef he had this morning with Rogers? Come to think of it, Ernie didn't know there was going to be a layoff. Was Jory just needling him?He looked around the cafeteria again. The tables on the edges of the floor were deserted a
- 1199 It didn't take long. Without taking her eyes from him, she moved like an animal to the food and stooped slowly, keeping alert for any sudden move on his part, and picked up the food. She stood up, and stepped back a couple of steps.She ate with her f
- 1200 "I'm glad I found you. I lost my wife to the patrol some time back.""I've never been anyone's wife before. There was Frank, but I was never really what you could call his wife, exactly.""Many people ever stay with y