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fuses the three scientific principles of reaction, relativity, and entropy into one event. A black hole is a region in space where mass has become so concentrated that its gravity will allow nothing, not even light, to escape. In a black hole, time literally stops; space itself collapses; entropy, apparently, is reversed. It is a relativistic anomaly; it also seems to represent everything Broadhead has been seeking in his life. |
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After studying the data obtained from the trip in which Broadhead "killed" his ship, scientists decide to send two heavily armored ships to a single dangerous destination. The bonus offered is gigantic. Broadhead, financially and emotionally destitute, volunteers, as do almost all the people with whom he is emotionally involved. The two ships emerge from tau space within the event horizon of a black hole. They have insufficient power to escape; their only chance is to add an extra kick to the drive. Putting all the people into one ship, they load the other with their gear and fire both drives simultaneously, hoping that the ship with the people will break free with the help of the sacrificial boost from the other one. In the haste and confusion, Broadhead is trapped in the abandoned ship; the ships are launched (did he launch them?), and once again his luck is with him. Although there is no way to predict which, if either, of the ships will escape, it happens that Broadhead's ship breaks free and returns. |
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His life has been saved. By an equal and opposite psychological reaction, it has been destroyed. He loses his love and his past in pain and guilt, and with them his very identity. |
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Martha A. Bartter, "Times and Spaces: Exploring Gateway," Extrapolation 23, No. 2 (Summer 1982): 19495 |
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In Frederik Pohl's Man Plus (1976), we find yet another treatment of Martians. This time the Martians do not contrast with the humans either to warn us about where we are heading or to urge us to return to what once we should have been. This time the Martians don't contrast with us at all. Pohl's main character is an astronaut named Roger Torraway who is told he must migrate to another planet if Earth is to be saved. In order to put Roger on Mars, the scientists must change his physiology, for they do not intend to provide Roger with a space suit. |
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. . . what if one reshapes a human being? |
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