Tom Godwin 31 min read

With a telepathic 'Slug' cruiser circling seven hundred miles out and suspicious, a crew prepares to test an untried space-warp drive.

Tom Godwin's 1956 story readies the Argosy under the Arizona sun for a desperate gamble against alien 'centipedes' who may be reading their minds. Tense, idea-driven hard SF from the author of 'The Cold Equations.' Read it for a taut golden-age puzzle where the enemy's telepathy raises the stakes on every move.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

31 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Paul Orban