The Stars Are Also Fire, 20.
Edmond Beynac and others explore an asteroid composed of metals that were once fused and therefore were part of a body large enough to melt and form a core. The flat surface on one side is the fracture line where a collision broke this particular asteroid loose from the larger body. The evidence suggests not that the collision shattered that original body but only that several large fragments like the present asteroid were broken from it. The original body, if still in the Solar System, should now be in an eccentric orbit. Beynac's son, Temerir, a Lunarian astronomer, will:
"...search after the great planetoid Father dreamed of..." (p. 275)
This sub-plot has legs.
Beynac's death motivates his sons to:
"'...break the ban of the overlords and set Luna free in space." (p. 273)
Their mother, Dagny, agrees to help politically, another reason to call her "the Mother of the Moon."
Beynac's death:
"What caused the disaster was a shaped minicharge. It should simply have split an anomalous plumbic vein, to produce recoverable specimens. Instead the explosion found a resonance. Weaknesses unstressed for billions of years gave way... A dozen huge, a hundred lesser chunks fell." (p. 270)
Beynac's helmet is smashed open.
That resonance rang a bell:
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Pondering the works of Anderson can make readers find resonances leading from one story to another. And with those of other writers: Clarke, Lewis, Heinlein, Stirling, Wells, Tolkien, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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