You know what I just can’t figure out? We make it all this way, so far out into the darkness. Why couldn’t we have brought more light?
Aziz! Light!
Chance stopped by the crèche to check the vitals of Rahim Aziz, who was destined to become the newest citizen of Nowhere, thus bringing the population back up to the standard 853 . Rahim was to be an elderly man with a crown of snowy white hair surrounding an oval bald spot .
Sorry about your crew, but as we say on Earth: “C’est la vie!”
There was no Kennedy Space Center, in fact: no space program, evidently, save for him. He was stranded on this empty, desolate beach.
As the light leaked out of the sky, an unfamiliar Moon was brightening.
That’s the moon, commissioner: hours of boredom followed by a few seconds of terror.
The moon, by her comparative proximity, and the constantly varying appearances produced by her several phases, has always occupied a considerable share of the attention of the inhabitants of the Earth.
“I never thought before,” said Tirin unruffled, “of the fact that there are people sitting on a hill, up there, on Urras, looking at Anarres, at us, and saying, ‘Look, there’s the Moon.’ Our earth is their Moon; our Moon is their earth.”
Fifty thousand ships, each the size of a moon. That’s what they found. The dolphins had been thrilled by their discovery—the biggest derelict fleet ever encountered, apparently incredibly ancient.
“Commander—Ma’am—this can’t be right!” Hellerstein blurted, and Turner strode quickly towards his station. She’d opened her mouth in another, still sharper reprimand, but Hellerstein’s shocked expression when he turned to look at her stopped it unspoken. She’d never seen the tough, competent noncom look . . . terrified before.
“What can’t be right, Bryant?” she asked, much more gently than she’d intended to speak.
“Ma’am,” Hellerstein said hoarsely, “according to the Alpha Arrays, three hundred-plus unidentified ships just made their alpha translations right on the limit.”
“What’s a lightwave ship?"
“UFO, basically.”
“Cool,” Angela said.
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.
But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer – by demonstration – would take care of that, too.
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”
And there was light----
The light of day showed you the limits of possibility. But walk through the dark, the absolute, total darkness, and the possibilities were limitless.
Sah’ot looked up at the growing light with relief. In spite of the darkness, he had kept his own sonar down to a minimum all night to keep from intimidating the natives. He had felt almost blind, and a little panicky when he almost blundered into something … or “something” almost blundered into him.
Who’s to say my light is better than your darkness?
“That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”
“What’s in there?”
“Only what you take with you.”
Will you come in?.. And, please, leave here some of the happiness that you bring.
Horror is not science fiction.
Which book/movie is that from?
The ancient cadaver grinned back at her through the glass.