Name: The Nothing Equation
Author: Tom Godwin

Quotes from The Nothing Equation (Tom Godwin)

“ The cruiser vanished back into hyperspace and he was alone in the observation bubble, ten thousand light-years beyond the galaxy's outermost sun. He looked out the windows at the gigantic sea of emptiness around him and wondered again what the danger had been that had so terrified the men before him.
Of one thing he was already certain; he would find that nothing was waiting outside the bubble to kill him. The first bubble attendant had committed suicide and the second was a mindless maniac on the Earthbound cruiser but it must have been something inside the bubble that had caused it. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ Sometimes he would touch his finger to the wall and think, Death is out there, only one-sixteenth of an inch away. His first fears became a black and terrible conviction: the bubble could not continue to resist the attack for long. It had already lasted longer than it should have. Two million pounds of pressure wanted out and all the sucking Nothing of intergalactic space wanted in. And only a thin skin of metal, rotten with brittle welding spots, stood between them.
It wanted in—the Nothing wanted in. He knew, then, that Horne and Silverman had not been insane. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ Something inside or outside the bubble had driven two men insane with its threat and now that he was irrevocably exiled in the bubble, himself, he could no longer dismiss their fear as products of their imagination. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ The bubble was minutely examined again and the cruiser employed every detector device it possessed to search surrounding space for light-years in all directions. Nothing was found.
When it was time for the new replacement to be transferred to the bubble he reported to Captain McDowell.
"Everything is ready, Green," McDowell said. "You are the next one." His shaggy gray eyebrows met in a scowl. "It would be better if they would let me select the replacement instead of them." ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ It was supposed to be an alloy so extremely strong that it had a high safety factor but he could not believe that any metal so thin could be so strong. It was all right for engineers sitting safely on Earth to speak of high safety factors but his life depended upon the fragile wall not cracking. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ Such welding often created hard, brittle spots that would soon crystallize from continued movement—and there was a slight temperature difference in the bubble between his working and sleeping hours that would daily produce a contraction and expansion of the skin. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Tom Godwin, The Nothing Equation

“ The floor under him was six feet up from the sphere's bottom and the space beneath held the air regenerator and waste converter units, the storage batteries and the food cabinets. The compartment in which he sat contained chair, table, a narrow cot, banks of dials, a remote-control panel for operating the instruments mounted outside the hull, a microfilm projector, and a pair of exerciser springs attached to one wall. ”

Tom Godwin

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Quotes from The Nothing Equation (Tom Godwin)

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Tom Godwin

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Quotes from The Nothing Equation (Tom Godwin)

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Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature