3 ms·

This is how the International Fleet begins. First asteroids, next Buggers.

by JimmaDaRustla 13y ago

tgb 13y ago
I was more thinking about the opening of "Rendezvous with Rama": "Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On 30 June 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometres - a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe. Again, on 12 February 1947, yet another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometres from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivalling that of the newly invented uranium bomb. In those days, there was nothing that men could do to protect themselves against the lst random shots in the cosmic bombardment that had once scarred the face of the Moon. The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twety-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice. The human race had spread from pole to pole and so, inevitably, at 09.46 GMT on the morning of 11 September, in the exceptionally beautiful summer fo the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fireball appear in the eastern sky. Within seconds it was brighter than the sun, and as it moved across the heavens - at first in utter silence - it left behind it a churning column of dust and smoke. Somewhere above Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of concussion so violent that more than a million people had their hearing permanently damaged. They were the lucky ones."
- ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  Rama and "Hammer of the Gods" both were evoked for me during the Chelyabinsk event. Another world-shattering celestial event that could have altered human history if only it's million year journey had been off by just a few seconds.

3 ms·

This is how the International Fleet begins. First asteroids, next Buggers.

by JimmaDaRustla 13y ago

This is how the International Fleet begins. First asteroids, next Buggers.

tgb 13y ago
I was more thinking about the opening of "Rendezvous with Rama": "Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On 30 June 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometres - a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe. Again, on 12 February 1947, yet another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometres from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivalling that of the newly invented uranium bomb. In those days, there was nothing that men could do to protect themselves against the lst random shots in the cosmic bombardment that had once scarred the face of the Moon. The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twety-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice. The human race had spread from pole to pole and so, inevitably, at 09.46 GMT on the morning of 11 September, in the exceptionally beautiful summer fo the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fireball appear in the eastern sky. Within seconds it was brighter than the sun, and as it moved across the heavens - at first in utter silence - it left behind it a churning column of dust and smoke. Somewhere above Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of concussion so violent that more than a million people had their hearing permanently damaged. They were the lucky ones."
- ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  Rama and "Hammer of the Gods" both were evoked for me during the Chelyabinsk event. Another world-shattering celestial event that could have altered human history if only it's million year journey had been off by just a few seconds.