Bad Machinery by John Allison for February 14, 2022

  1. Nc201206
    some idiot from R'lyeh Premium Member over 2 years ago

    I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. That has to count for something.

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  2. Ubik
    Pharmakeus Ubik  over 2 years ago

    Crashing does imply a lack of control.

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  3. Selkiedad
    John Campbell  over 2 years ago

    So, you know how in science fiction settings, sometimes they have “heavyworlders” — races or genetic variants who are native to or designed for heavy-gravity worlds, and so are much stronger and tougher than ordinary people?

    Well, in reality, we’re the heavyworlders. Earth is kind of a beast, as terrestrial planets go — it’s bigger than all the other terrestrial planets in Sol System put together. If its gravity were only a bit stronger than it is, we wouldn’t be able to get to space, because rocket fuel wouldn’t provide enough propulsion to lift its own weight to orbit.

    These guys are from a relatively light-gravity world, and a pacifist society, at that. They already lost most of their crew to one human with a shovel. An athletic almost-13-year-old human girl like Shauna is probably stronger than an adult alien — and she’s a lot more aggressive. And she’s not under their control — they have to get her glasses off in order to hypnotise her. Is it any wonder that having her yell threats at them terrifies them? It’s got to be like having an angry wolverine loose in their house.

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  4. 20141112 192913
    Aladar30 Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Wait. Where is now the farmer’s wife?

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  5. Martini glass blue
    RadioDial Premium Member over 2 years ago

    It’s the Wizard of Oz, but with a spaceship instead of a farmhouse and a farmer instead of the Wicked Witch of the East.

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