Saunders, Hull and MacPherson had sent two small automatic time projectors from 1973 to 2073. (We remember the Time Traveller's model Time Machine and the Time Patrol's message shuttles.) These "automatics" should have returned automatically but didn't. Saunders and Hull travel to 2073 in the big projector. They are now in an open pit instead of the basement of a house. There is no sign of the automatics. Hull thinks that they had started back but blew out on the way. But, if they blew out in, e.g., 2063, then, other things being equal, they should have lain where they were for ten years and still have been there in 2073. But maybe other things were not equal. An animal or a human being could have moved them.
Starting back, Saunders and Hull encounter increasing resistance the further they go. In 2013, they find the automatics:
"...tarnished with some years of weathering." (p. 215)
They had got a little further back, then stopped and lay where they were. Saunders examines them and finds that their batteries are completely drained. Now we know that the automatics were not in 2073 because, in 2013, Saunders took them into the big projector to examine them.
Greater adventures lie ahead. This is just the beginning.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
AD 2073 is "only" 48 years from our 2025. Given my decrepit age I sure as heck don't expect to live that long! (Smiles wryly)
"Flight to Forever" was one of Anderson's earlier stories, first pub. in SUPER SCIENCE STORIES in 1950, before I was born. The year 2073 must have seemed safely distant then.
Truthfully, I think the other stories in PAST TIMES, such as "Welcome" and "The Little Monster," better than "Flight." And I esp. liked Anderson's essay "The Discovery of the Past."
Ad astra! Sean
I find it a little odd that they have a functioning time machine but the math didn't indicate that going in reverse would hit an unclimbable wall.
As if someone was able to travel close to light speed without knowing about the Einstein limitations.
Kaor, to Both!
I would put that down to how, in 1950, Anderson was still a very young and in some ways an inexperienced writer.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that's fair.
Sean: though he had a degree in physics, didn't he?
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
He did, biographical accounts of Anderson says he graduated from his university with a degree in physics. Probably both masters and doctoral degrees.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment