Randall Garrett

Name: The Measure of a Man
Author: Randall Garrett

The Measure of a Man

Summary

“The Measure of a Man”, is a work by Randall Garrett. It explores elements such as Rats, lifeboat and Earth.

Quotes from The Measure of a Man (Randall Garrett)

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ Throwing rocks at an army armed with machine guns may seem futile, but if you hit them with an avalanche, they'll go under. The Rats lost three-quarters of their fleet to planet-based guns and had to go home to bandage their wounds.
The only trouble was that Earth couldn't counterattack. Their ships were still out-classed by those of the Rats. And the Rats, their racial pride badly stung, were determined to wipe out Man, to erase the stain on their honor wherever Man could be found. Somehow, some way, they must destroy Earth.
And now, Al Pendray thought bitterly, they would do it. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ In a way, Alfred Pendray was lucky. He'd been in the sick bay with a sprained ankle when the Rats hit, sitting in the X-ray room. The shot that had knocked out the port engine had knocked him unconscious, but the shielded walls of the X-ray room had saved him from the blast of radiation that had cut down the crew in the rear of the ship. He'd come to in time to see the Rat cruisers cut up the lifeboats before they could get well away from the ship. They'd taken a couple of parting shots at the dead hulk, and then left it to drift in space—and leaving one man alive. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ All he could think of was the terrible blaze of heat that would wipe out Earth when the Rats set off the sun. Man might survive. There were colonies that the Rats didn't know about. But they'd find them eventually. Without Earth, the race would be set back five hundred—maybe five thousand—years. The Rats would would have plenty of time to hunt them out and destroy them. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ When, after fifty years of presumably peaceful—but highly limited—contact, the Rats hit Earth, they found out one thing. That the mass and energy of a planet armed with the proper weapons can not be out-classed by any conceivable concentration of spaceships. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ That's why we're going to run if we see anything funny. This ship is already obsolete by our standards; you can imagine what it is by theirs." He paused. "Get that call in to Earth. Tell 'em this ship is using a distress signal that was obsolete six months ago. And tell 'em we're going out."
"Yes, sir," said the signal officer.
It wasn't a trap. As the Muldoon approached the source of the signal, their detectors picked up the ship itself. It was a standard lifeboat from a battleship of the Shannon class.
"You don't suppose that's from the Shane, do you?" ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ Johnston—was convinced that the Rats meant no harm, and agreed to lead a Rat ship back to Earth. If the Rats had struck then, there would never have been a Rat-Human War. It would have been over before it started.
But the Rats were too proud of their superiority. Earth was too far away to bother them for the moment; it wasn't in their line of conquest just yet. In another fifty years, the planet would be ready for picking off.
Earth had no idea that the Rats were so widespread. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ Work 'em in your head. Big ship takes ten months, little one takes ten days. But can't stay in a little ship ten days. No shielding. Be dead before you got here. See?"
"I see," said the captain patiently.
"But—and here's a 'mportant point: If you stay on the big ship for eight an' a half months, then y' only got to be in the little ship for a day an' a half to get here. Man can live that long, even under that radiation. See?" And with that, he closed his eyes.
"Do you mean you exposed yourself to the full leakage radiation from a lifeboat engine for thirty-six hours?" ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ It wasn't just pride that had made the Rats decide to wait before hitting Earth; there was a certain amount of prudence, too. None of the other races they had met had developed space travel; the Earthmen might be a little tougher to beat. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ Rat crewmen were little short of slaves, and the Rats made the mistake of assuming that the Earth crewmen were the same. They hadn't tried to impress the crewmen as they had the officers. When the interrogation officers on Earth questioned the crew of the Earth ship, they, too, became suspicious. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ The Rats had developed a device that could make a star temporarily unstable, and they were ready to use it on Sol.
The Shane had managed to get off-planet with the spy, but they'd been spotted in spite of the detector nullifiers that Earth had developed. They'd been jumped by Rat cruisers and blasted by the superior Rat weapons. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Randall Garrett, The Measure of a Man

“ Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
THE MEASURE OF A MAN By RANDALL GARRETT Illustrated by Martinez
What is desirable is not always necessary, while that which is necessary may be most undesirable. ”

Randall Garrett

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Quotes from The Measure of a Man (Randall Garrett)

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