Randall Garrett 8 min read

Aboard the first interstellar ship, Commander Benedict and Dr. Leicher watch from ten light-years off as a nearby star goes nova, the foulest coincidence imaginable, or something far worse.

Randall Garrett's 1959 story is a taut, clever hard-SF tale. Sharp, chilling golden-age SF. Read it for a lean, ingenious idea story where the triumph of humanity's first faster-than-light voyage collides with a cosmic catastrophe, building through cold logic to a devastating final realization, in a perfectly turned golden-age gem.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

8 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Paul Orban