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Anchorite
An Excerpt from the book-
Not dizzily, not even rapidly, but very perceptibly, the great mass of
jagged rock was turning on its axis.
Captain St. Simon scowled at it. "By damn, Jules," he said, "if you can
see 'em spinning, it's too damn fast!" He expected no answer, and got
none.
He tapped the drive pedal gently with his right foot, his gaze shifting
alternately from the instrument board to the looming hulk of stone
before him. As the little spacecraft moved in closer, he tapped the
reverse pedal with his left foot. He was now ten meters from the surface
of the asteroid. It was moving, all right. "Well, Jules," he said in his
most commanding voice, "we'll see just how fast she's moving. Prepare to
fire Torpedo Number One!"
"Yassuh, boss! Yassuh, Cap'n Sain' Simon, suh! All ready on the firin'
line!"
He touched a button with his right thumb. The ship quivered almost
imperceptibly as a jet of liquid leaped from the gun mounted in the nose
of the ship. At the same time, he hit the reverse pedal and backed the
ship away from the asteroid's surface. No point getting any more gunk on
the hull than necessary.
The jet of liquid struck the surface of the rotating mountain and
splashed, leaving a big splotch of silvery glitter. Even in the vacuum
of space, the silicone-based solvents of the paint vehicle took time to
boil off.
"How's that for pinpoint accuracy, Jules?"
"Veddy good, M'lud. Top hole, if I may say so, m'lud."
"You may." He jockeyed the little spacecraft around until he was
reasonably stationary with respect to the great hunk of whirling rock
and had the silver-white blotch centered on the crosshairs of the peeper
in front of him. Then he punched the button that started the timer and
waited for the silver spot to come round again.
The asteroid was roughly spherical--which was unusual, but not
remarkable. The radar gave him the distance from the surface of the
asteroid, and he measured the diameter and punched it through the
calculator. "Observe," he said in a dry, didactic voice. "The diameter
is on the order of five times ten to the fourteenth micromicrons." He
kept punching at the calculator. "If we assume a mean density of two
point six six times ten to the minus thirty-sixth metric tons per cubic
micromicron, we attain a mean mass of some one point seven four times
ten to the eleventh kilograms." More punching, while he kept his eye on
the meteorite, waiting for the spot to show up again. "And that, my dear
Jules, gives us a surface gravity of approximately two times ten to the
minus sixth standard gees."
Not dizzily, not even rapidly, but very perceptibly, the great mass of
jagged rock was turning on its axis.
Captain St. Simon scowled at it. "By damn, Jules," he said, "if you can
see 'em spinning, it's too damn fast!" He expected no answer, and got
none.
He tapped the drive pedal gently with his right foot, his gaze shifting
alternately from the instrument board to the looming hulk of stone
before him. As the little spacecraft moved in closer, he tapped the
reverse pedal with his left foot. He was now ten meters from the surface
of the asteroid. It was moving, all right. "Well, Jules," he said in his
most commanding voice, "we'll see just how fast she's moving. Prepare to
fire Torpedo Number One!"
"Yassuh, boss! Yassuh, Cap'n Sain' Simon, suh! All ready on the firin'
line!"
He touched a button with his right thumb. The ship quivered almost
imperceptibly as a jet of liquid leaped from the gun mounted in the nose
of the ship. At the same time, he hit the reverse pedal and backed the
ship away from the asteroid's surface. No point getting any more gunk on
the hull than necessary.
The jet of liquid struck the surface of the rotating mountain and
splashed, leaving a big splotch of silvery glitter. Even in the vacuum
of space, the silicone-based solvents of the paint vehicle took time to
boil off.
"How's that for pinpoint accuracy, Jules?"
"Veddy good, M'lud. Top hole, if I may say so, m'lud."
"You may." He jockeyed the little spacecraft around until he was
reasonably stationary with respect to the great hunk of whirling rock
and had the silver-white blotch centered on the crosshairs of the peeper
in front of him. Then he punched the button that started the timer and
waited for the silver spot to come round again.
The asteroid was roughly spherical--which was unusual, but not
remarkable. The radar gave him the distance from the surface of the
asteroid, and he measured the diameter and punched it through the
calculator. "Observe," he said in a dry, didactic voice. "The diameter
is on the order of five times ten to the fourteenth micromicrons." He
kept punching at the calculator. "If we assume a mean density of two
point six six times ten to the minus thirty-sixth metric tons per cubic
micromicron, we attain a mean mass of some one point seven four times
ten to the eleventh kilograms." More punching, while he kept his eye on
the meteorite, waiting for the spot to show up again. "And that, my dear
Jules, gives us a surface gravity of approximately two times ten to the
minus sixth standard gees."
- GenresFictionScience Fiction
76 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 21, 2007
3 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Randall Garrett
440 books87 followersRandall Garrett's full name was Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett. For more information about him see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?239
He was married to Vicki Ann Heydron
His pseudonyms include: Gordon Randall Garrett, Gordon Aghill, Grandal Barretton, Alexander Blade, Ralph Burke, Gordon Garrett, David Gordon, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgenson, Darrel T. Langart, Blake MacKenzie, Jonathan Blake MacKenzie, Seaton Mckettrig, Clyde (T.) Mitchell, Mark Phillips (with Laurence Janifer), Robert Randall, Leonard G. Spencer, S.M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance.
He was married to Vicki Ann Heydron
His pseudonyms include: Gordon Randall Garrett, Gordon Aghill, Grandal Barretton, Alexander Blade, Ralph Burke, Gordon Garrett, David Gordon, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgenson, Darrel T. Langart, Blake MacKenzie, Jonathan Blake MacKenzie, Seaton Mckettrig, Clyde (T.) Mitchell, Mark Phillips (with Laurence Janifer), Robert Randall, Leonard G. Spencer, S.M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 9, 2018
I liked this a lot. It started out thoroughly describing how to anchor an asteroid for later towing and processing. It felt like The Martian in that it seems quite likely this is how it would be done.
After reading the first few pages, I got the feeling that The Expanse series was a heavily inspired by this book.
Like many other books from around 1960, the book is more about different societies than awesome high-tech gear. It was a refreshing, but short, read.
After reading the first few pages, I got the feeling that The Expanse series was a heavily inspired by this book.
Like many other books from around 1960, the book is more about different societies than awesome high-tech gear. It was a refreshing, but short, read.
November 5, 2019
I was expecting this to be about some exotic substance called anchorite, but it's actually a frontier-men-are-manlier-style story; not surprising since it was published in Analog.
April 19, 2025
Like spending three hours getting prattled at by eugenicists.
dnf
March 11, 2021Dnf. The Librivox narrator is normally excellent but this time some of the character voicing was annoying. I guess he was just following the text, so maybe I should blame the author rather than the narrator.
October 20, 2010
Routine 1950s science fiction with a heavy libertarian propaganda element. Funnily enough the technique for asteroid mining may well be very accurate.
January 11, 2017
Wasn't sure where this story was going at first, but I liked the socio-political topics discussed throughout.
March 29, 2017
An interesting vision of the future. I liked the way in which society was portrayed and the various philosophies. I did find the writing style extremely dry and boring though. Maybe this is the nature of these types of books as I've found quite a few older dystopian sci-fi novels/stories are simply great swathes of description and explanation of the world. Which is fine if you get super excited about world building, but if you actually want something to happen, then it is tedious.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews