# Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 7, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417 "2008-09-07T00:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 104
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2061 "2026-07-28T15:03:46Z")
Google does a lot of things… ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2062 "2026-07-28T16:35:02Z")
At this point nothing would surprise me 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2063 "2026-08-04T18:12:06Z")
Today we reached a notable future-history date in the writings of Ray Bradbury: > [@Today is August 4, 2026, in the city of Allendale, California](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-august-4-2026-in-the-city-of-allendale-california/1032132/1): > > If you haven’t read [“There Will Come Soft Rains”](https://users.wpi.edu/~zrbutzke/Docs/BradburyStories(1).pdf) by Ray Bradbury, check it out. But be advised, it’s a downer. It’s also an example of how it’s not so hard to predict how technology will develop (Snow Crash is another good example), but less easy to predict how society will change. In this version of 2026, there’s still only one household earner, people still have fried eggs and bacon for breakfast, coffee is just coffee, and there’s no TV. Also, I spot an error. Dad was apparently mowing the l… ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2064 "2026-09-20T08:14:39Z")
So I thought of this story, which I think was part of a collection of short stories sharing the same fictional universe. Mankind has space travel and also a medical device that allows you to live forever if you get regular injections. Some guy has a mental defect (paranoia?) which is subdued by the device, but because he ignores a broken warning light the paranoia resurfaces. He kills the wife of a friend, then flees in a stolen spaceship which sets course as fast and far away as possible. The (former) friend also follows him with another spaceship. The guy is cured in the spaceship by the device, and tries to contact the other guy by radio, but gets no answer. Many (thousands?) years later they are still following each other, the follower very slowly catching up with the former, and the guy realises that the other guy has died but the ship is following him automatically and will overtake him in the distant future, thereby killing him (as the ships project some kind of nuclear field that is their energy source and propulsion drive, and which would be lethal). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2065 "2026-09-20T10:44:59Z")
Larry Niven’s The Ethics of Madness ---
**Author:** ![Cryptoterestrial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Cryptoterestrial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptoterestrial)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2066 "2026-09-20T20:09:54Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I read a juvenile SF short story back in the 70s about two friends who migrate with their families to an interstellar colony on a planet with two moons. One of the friends turns into a werewolf due to the two moons. Any ideas of the title and author? “The Triple Moons of Deneb II” by Daniel H. Charney from the _Science Fiction Tales_ anthology edited by Roger Ellwood. I wouldn’t know this if I hadn’t read the same short story. you can see illustrations from the story here: > **[Science Fiction Tales (Roger Elwood, Rod Ruth, 1973)](https://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2013/08/science-fiction-tales-roger-elwood-rod.html)** > > And finally here's Science Fiction Tales , the remaining entry in a series of hardcover science fiction/horror anthology books for children ... ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2067 "2026-09-20T20:21:00Z")
Wow. That question has been unanswered for a long time. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2068 "2026-09-21T06:29:16Z")
That’s it, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/2069 "2026-09-21T13:16:19Z")
Short story, probably in _Omni_ magazine. An engineer who’d worked on the Space Shuttle program was guilt-ridden after the _Challenger_ explosion. He gets onto a plane and plants/brings aboard a bomb that will explode when the aircraft reaches an altitude such that it will impact the Earth, in the same amount of time it took _Challenger_ to fall. I think the title was the number of seconds. ETA: Never mind. I copied and pasted my post into the search bar, and AI returned _Two Minutes and Forty-five Seconds_ as the title. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=103)