H. Beam Piper: Stories

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Displaying stories 1 through 10 of 28

1 The Answer

Lee Richardson and Alexis Pitov, two nuclear scientists, are participating in a thermonuclear test involving a rocket and negamatter. The test is decidedly not a test to develop into weapons-grade materials. However, Pitov and Richardson cannot help but consider the fate of Auburn, NY fifteen years ago when the nuclear event shocked the world. It had to be the Soviets. But the Soviets thought it was the Americans. Maybe it was the Australians? This new experimental test provides the answer.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 911 | Votes: 54 | Score: 6.72
Size: 25KB | 4,573 words | Posted:

2 The Cosmic Computer

The colony "world" is a poverty stricken agricultural society with only two exports: the fermented products of their world's unique grapes, and the salvaged war equipment, now selling at about 1% of its true value. The legend of MERLIN, the super-computer said to have planned the grand strategy which successfully concluded the war. "If we could only find Merlin," the inhabitants said to each other, "all our problems would be solved.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 4271 | Votes: 143 | Score: 8.54
Size: 358KB | 65,517 words | Posted:

3 Crossroads of Destiny

No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories!
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 614 | Votes: 43 | Score: 7.72
Size: 24KB | 4,536 words | Posted:

4 Day of the Moron

It's natural to trust the unproven word of the fellow who's "on my side"--but the emotional moron is on no one's side, not even his own. Once, such an emotional moron could, at worst, hurt a few. But with the mighty, leashed forces Man employs now....
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 551 | Votes: 37 | Score: 8.27
Size: 63KB | 11,318 words | Posted:

5 Dearest

I'm convinced that I'm in direct-voice communication with the spirit of a young girl who was killed by Indians in this section about a hundred and seventy-five years ago.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 749 | Votes: 48 | Score: 8.73
Size: 36KB | 6,543 words | Posted:

6 The Edge of the Knife

In the distant future of 1973, Professor Chalmers of Blanley University is having a little trouble with his history class. He knows the subject and all his facts are true, the only problem is none of them have happened yet. After a disastrous lesson where he accidently revealed foreknowledge of an assassination yet to happen, Professor Chalmers has to face down against a dean threatening to fire him in spite of tenure.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 801 | Votes: 52 | Score: 8.27
Size: 90KB | 16,506 words | Posted:

7 Flight From Tomorrow

Hunted and hated in two worlds, Hradzka dreamed of a monomaniac's glory, stranded in the past with his knowledge of the future. But he didn't know the past quite well enough....
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 735 | Votes: 41 | Score: 7.80
Size: 45KB | 8,109 words | Posted:

8 Four-day Planet

Fenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hour days and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killing cold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: tough enough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. When that kind of person discovers he's being cheated of wealth he's risked his life for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 1831 | Votes: 65 | Score: 8.72
Size: 305KB | 58,880 words | Posted:

9 Genesis

Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud, old race--or the beginning of a new one? There are strange gaps in our records of the past. We find traces of man-like things--but, suddenly, man appears, far too much developed to be the "next step" in a well-linked chain of evolutionary evidence. Perhaps something like the events of this story furnishes the answer to the riddle.
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 882 | Votes: 51 | Score: 7.86
Size: 45KB | 8,514 words | Posted:

10 Graveyard of Dreams

Despite Mr. Shakespeare, wealth and name are both dross compared with the theft of hope-- and Maxwell had to rob a whole planet of it!
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Age Rating: Older than 7 | Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: Science Fiction, Novel-Classic
Downloads: 470 | Votes: 18 | Score: 8.28
Size: 43KB | 8,168 words | Posted:
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