Project Gutenberg's A Matter of Importance, by William Fitzgerald Jenkins
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: A Matter of Importance
Author: William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23636]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE ***
Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Mary Meehan and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE
BY MURRAY LEINSTER
Illustrated by Bernklau
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction September 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
_The importance of a matter is almost entirely a matter of your
attitude. And whether you call something "a riot" or "a war" ...
well, there is a difference, but what is it?_
Nobody ever saw the message-torp. It wasn't to be expected. It came in
on a course that extended backward to somewhere near the Rift--where
there used to be Huks--and for a very, very long way it had traveled as
only message-torps do travel. It hopped half a light-year in overdrive,
and came back to normality long enough for its photocells to inspect the
star-filled universe all about. Then it hopped another half light-year,
and so on. For a long, long time it traveled in this jerky fashion.
Eventually, moving as it did in the straightest of straight lines, its
photocells reported that it neared a star which had achieved
first-magnitude brightness. It paused a little longer than usual while
its action-circuits shifted. Then it swung to aim for the bright star,
which was the sol-type sun Varenga. The torp sped toward it on a new
schedule. Its overdrive hops dropped to light-month length. Its pauses
in normality were longer. They lasted almost the fiftieth of a second.
When Varenga had reached a suitably greater brightness in the
message-torp's estimation, it paused long enough to blast out its
recorded message. It had been designed for this purpose and no other.
Its overdrive hops shorte
|