THE BLACK STAR PASSES

Contents


Introduction 7


BOOK ONE

Piracy Preferred 11


BOOK TWO

Solarite 71


BOOK THREE

The Black Star Passes 145


[Illustration]




INTRODUCTION


These stories were written nearly a quarter of a century ago, for the
old _Amazing Stories_ magazine. The essence of any magazine is
not its name, but its philosophy, its purpose. That old _Amazing
Stories_ is long since gone; the magazine of the same name today is
as different as the times today are different from the world of 1930.

Science-fiction was new, in 1930; atomic energy was a dream we
believed in, and space-travel was something we tried to understand
better. Today, science-fiction has become a broad field, atomic
energy--despite the feelings of many present adults!--is no dream.
(Nor is it a nightmare; it is simply a fact, and calling it a
nightmare is another form of effort to push it out of reality.)

In 1930, the only audience for science-fiction was among those who
were still young enough in spirit to be willing to hope and speculate
on a new and wider future--and in 1930 that meant almost nothing but
teen-agers. It meant the brightest group of teen-agers, youngsters who
were willing to _play_ with ideas and understandings of physics
and chemistry and astronomy that most of their contemporaries
considered "too hard work."

I grew up with that group; the stories I wrote over the years, and,
later, the stories I bought for _Astounding Science Fiction_
changed and grew more mature too. _Astounding Science Fiction_
today has many of the audience that read those early stories; they're
not high school and college students any more, of course, but
professional engineers, technologists and researchers now. Naturally,
for them we need a totally different kind of story. In growing with
them, I and my work had to lose much of the enthusiastic scope that
went with the earlier science fiction.

When a young man goes to college, he is apt to say, "I want to be a
scientist," or "I want to be an engineer," but his concepts are broad
and generalized. Most major technical schools, well knowing this, have
the first year course for _all_ students the same. Only in the
second and subsequent years does specialization start.

By the sophomore year, a student may say, "I want to be a
_chemical_ engineer."

At graduation, he may say, "I'm going into chemical engineering
_construction_."

Ten years later he may explain that he's a chemical engineer
specializing in the construction of corrosion-resistant structures,
such as electroplating baths and pickling tanks for stainless steel.

Year by year, his knowledge has become more specialized, and much
deeper. He's better and better able to do the important work the world
needs done, but in learning to do it, he's necessarily lost some of
the broad and enthusiastic scope he once had.