And Eve Was
By Rog Philips
()
About this ebook
Excerpt
The giant ship hurtling through the inter-stellar void looked from a distance like a sun. Two thousand miles in diameter, its trans-parent leaded plastigell casing allowed the interior lights to send their rays out into space in all directions. Thus, the sunlike appearance from a distance.
At the moment the ship was spherical in shape. Yet it could change, become long and cigar like, or put out arms like a pseudopod. This was made possible by the properties of the plastigell, and the arrangement of the skeleton girders of the ship.
The girders were fitted together in ball sockets so that they could move in all directions relative to one another. The plastigell had the peculiar property of contracting under electric current, stretching to great lengths under small tensions, and being practically impossible to break.
It made an ideal skin for the giant ship. A chance hit by a fast moving projectile could not pierce it. Instead, the skin would give, absorbing part of the force of the hit. The inner walls and pivoting girders would further absorb more of the energy of the hit, until the missile came to rest. Then the rubberlike ship would return to its normal shape, throwing the bit of debris back into the void the way it had come.
The ten foot thick outer skin and the mile thick honeycomb of girders and plastigell walls on its inner side made the ship impregnable against any form of collision. Within were four billion cubic miles of gravity-free living room! If it were made into rooms with mile-high ceilings it would provide more than twenty times as much living surface as the Earth.
Related to And Eve Was
Related ebooks
The Forgotten Planet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Forgotten Planet: 2 Versions of the Novel in One Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE FORGOTTEN PLANET (Unabridged): Including the Magazine & Novel Versions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe SOL Chronicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChasms: Revival Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Final Sunset Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNightmare Planet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sentinel Awakens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLight In the Cave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Planet Earth Reborn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Unstable Resolution: Four Classic Sci Fi Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHalo: Point of Light Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Child of Stone & Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTitan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sentinel Awakens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSymbiotica - Monsters of Tokyo (Book 6) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife and Her Children: Glimpses of Animal Life From the Amoeba to the Insects Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRescue In Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grand Experiment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevil's Erudition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStar Depth: Rise of the Atlanteans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Go: Ann Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPest Control (A Pair of Classic Science Fiction Short Stories) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEncounters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween the Rocks and the Stars: Narratives in Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStar-Seed Awakening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New Beginnings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFarscape: Dark Side of the Sun Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Science Fiction For You
Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firestarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England: Secret Projects, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rendezvous with Rama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time and Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Hideous Strength: (Space Trilogy, Book Three) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for And Eve Was
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
And Eve Was - Rog Philips
And Eve Was
by Rog Phillips
Copyright © 1947 by Rog Phillips
This edition published in 2011 by eStar Books, LLC.
www.estarbooks.com
ISBN 9781612101699
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Editors note:
The illustrations were originally located at the beginning of the story. However in this edition they have been moved to a spot that better suits the story.
Amelia St. John
Jan 2011
And the sons of God came unto the daughters of men . . . in those days there were giants in the earth!
And Eve Was
by Rog Phillips
The giant ship hurtling through the inter-stellar void looked from a distance like a sun. Two thousand miles in diameter, its trans-parent leaded plastigell casing allowed the interior lights to send their rays out into space in all directions. Thus, the sunlike appearance from a distance.
At the moment the ship was spherical in shape. Yet it could change, become long and cigar like, or put out arms like a pseudopod. This was made possible by the properties of the plastigell, and the arrangement of the skeleton girders of the ship.
The girders were fitted together in ball sockets so that they could move in all directions relative to one another. The plastigell had the peculiar property of contracting under electric current, stretching to great lengths under small tensions, and being practically impossible to break.
It made an ideal skin for the giant ship. A chance hit by a fast moving projectile could not pierce it. Instead, the skin would give, absorbing part of the force of the hit. The inner walls and pivoting girders would further absorb more of the energy of the hit, until the missile came to rest. Then the rubberlike ship would return to its normal shape, throwing the bit of debris back into the void the way it had come.
The ten foot thick outer skin and the mile thick honeycomb of girders and plastigell walls on its inner side made the ship impregnable against any form of collision. Within were four billion cubic miles of gravity-free living room! If it were made into rooms with mile-high ceilings it would provide more than twenty times as much living surface as the Earth.
This, in rough outline, was the excursion boat of Seth, the metamorphosite, and the thirty billion under his command. Built a brief three thousand years before in the huge shops of Hodn, a district of the great Nirvanian Republic of Harmuts, this was its maiden voyage. The materials that had gone into its construction had been gathered from the drifting asteroids of interstellar fields. Asteroids of pure material crystallized out of the ether slowly over millions of years and ready for use.
The metamorphosites are the most ancient of all the races in the universe. Their origin is lost in the dim infinity of the past. Some say they ALWAYS existed, yet how could that be? The most accepted version is that they originated on some planet and attained to civilization many times, sinking back to start over again, traveling from planet to planet, and sun to sun, before they at last gained the experience and know-how to form the first of the giant Nirvanian Republics in interstellar space, away from planets and suns. Thus, their origin was forgotten long before they became a stable civilization.
The individual metamorphosite is an almost unbelievable creature. Today, on Earth, we have the butterfly and the moth that are born as caterpillars or worms to live for a season as crawling things. Then they build a tomb about themselves and give their flesh as food for the winged insect that will grow from the second seed, to fly through the air with wings of flashing colors, and reproduce. The worms cannot reproduce. It is the metamorphosite adult that reproduces.
Yet there is a form of salamander which is born as a tadpole, living in rivers. It undergoes metamorphosis and changes from a tadpole to a salamander, and forsakes the water to live in arid, hot deserts, returning only to lay its eggs in the stream in which it was born.
Experiment has shown that the tadpoles of this race can reproduce if they are prevented from leaving the stream, and that generation after generation of tadpoles can pass without ever becoming the adult salamander; but when once again the barrier is lifted so that the tadpole can climb to dry land it will still be able to shed its tadpole body and become a salamander.
The metamorphosite race is even different than this. Born to one form or shape, it reproduces normally