I'm trying to remember a Sci-fi story I read many years ago. A colony ship to a new planet (from Earth) ramps up to .9c, or thereabouts, and runs into some sort of problem, and keeps accelerating. I think it generated power in someway from interstellar dust - the details escape me, but it could only slow down where there was very little matter in the surrounding space (i.e. nowhere in a galaxy).
Because its velocity is so great, the crew think of a wonderful idea - accelerate out of the Milky Way, slow down and fix the craft while not going at relativistic speeds, and then head back (every other human ever, of course, being dead). Except by the time they got out of the Milky Way, they were going too fast to stop...
At that point we moved house, I never saw the book again, and totally forgot about it. But I dozed off on the train this morning, and dreamt that the same thing happened on the London-Cambridge commute (terrifying!).
Can anyone help?
Half-remembered Sci-fi story
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Androsphinx
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Half-remembered Sci-fi story
"what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent? Accursed is the sight, be it in dream or not, that revealed to me the supreme horror - the Unknown God of the Dead, which licks its colossal chops in the unsuspected abyss, fed hideous morsels by soulless absurdities that should not exist" - Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
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Androsphinx
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Thanks a bunch
"what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent? Accursed is the sight, be it in dream or not, that revealed to me the supreme horror - the Unknown God of the Dead, which licks its colossal chops in the unsuspected abyss, fed hideous morsels by soulless absurdities that should not exist" - Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
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Nyrath
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Tau Zero is an absolute classic. If you want to get a real feel for Einstein's relativity, read this book.
The Bussard Ramjet has since been sort of discredited, but it is still a ripping novel.
The Bussard Ramjet has since been sort of discredited, but it is still a ripping novel.
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Shroom Man 777
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Or Red Dwarf?
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
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Funnily enough, I just looked up and saw this book on my shelf! Guess I should read it now.
"I spit on metaphysics, sir."
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
You can't expect sodomy to ruin every conservative politician in this country. -Battlehymn Republic
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Are you suggesting that he might be thinking of Red Dwarf or that the red trashcan had a ramscoop? Because other than the fact that it had a ramscoop, it has nothing in common with what he remembers.Shroom Man 777 wrote:Or Red Dwarf?
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
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Androsphinx
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Red Dwarf did accelerate constantly until it broke the light barrier and experienced backwards time (it was a comedy, science didn't come into it). It also had people surviving the extinction of all humanity by being in space.Cpl Kendall wrote:Are you suggesting that he might be thinking of Red Dwarf or that the red trashcan had a ramscoop? Because other than the fact that it had a ramscoop, it has nothing in common with what he remembers.Shroom Man 777 wrote:Or Red Dwarf?
The two were not, however, connected.
"what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent? Accursed is the sight, be it in dream or not, that revealed to me the supreme horror - the Unknown God of the Dead, which licks its colossal chops in the unsuspected abyss, fed hideous morsels by soulless absurdities that should not exist" - Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"