
Part 1
Amid the silent expanse of a command ship orbiting Pluto, the Solar System’s most powerful minds watch a tiny, newly discovered moon become the target of humanity’s latest, terrifying creation. The project, billed as an “irresistible weapon,” is meant to tip a fragile balance with the rival Centaurian colonies and avert a looming war. As the weapon fires, the observers hold their breath, aware that the outcome could reshape the future of both human and alien societies.
Arnold Gibson, the brilliant but cynical engineer behind the weapon, sees the spectacle as a personal triumph and a chance to slip away with the crucial data. He boards a modest but agile ship, evades the watchful eyes of the command, and races toward Alpha Centauri, where he must deliver his findings to the enigmatic Chairman of Nessus. There, amid a labyrinth of political power and guarded secrecy, Gibson discovers that the true danger may lie not in the weapon itself, but in the ambitions of those who now control it.
Language
en
Duration
~15 minutes (14K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-09-15
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1918–1997
A mid-century science fiction writer with a knack for human-alien encounters, he built stories around contact, misunderstanding, and survival in space. His work appeared widely in the pulp and digest magazines of the 1940s and 1950s, and many of his tales later found new readers through reprints and public-domain editions.
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