Can't remember the name or author...

[Missourian]

...of this sci-fi short story.

Google is no help...

Plot:

A rocketship and crew pulls a Buck Rogers and travels forward in time to the distant future. The Earth is tidal locked and frozen. The ships computer is damaged, but before it goes offline it relieves the Captain and puts a scientist in charge.

The rest of the story is about the tension between Captain and the scientist... and whether the computer was malfunctioning.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Try Larry Niven's short story One Face

*****SMILE*****

 

[deannalw]

Sorry- I'm a voracious reader, but not of sci-fi.

Hope that helps...

 

[hjmick]

Try Larry Niven's short story One Face

That's the one...

"One Face"​

First appearance: Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1965.

During a routine hyperspace jump, an accident involving a small meteoroid striking into the machinery causes the ship to be trapped in a stasis until billions of years have passed. They emerge in the Solar System's far future, at which time the sun has become a greenish-white dwarf and Earth has lost its atmosphere and become a tidally locked world; i.e., it only presents one face to the sun. The ship's main computer has also been damaged, so its decision to have the captain replaced by one of the passengers to maximize survival causes disagreement. The damage to the ship prevents it traveling faster than light, and the passengers and crew debate using the ship's remaining sub-light engine to travel relativistically to a neighboring star to look for a more viable planet.

Reluctantly, believing that any other similarly senescent star will offer no better option, the people accede to the new captain's order to land on Earth despite the lack of an atmosphere. However, this is not a haphazard decision by the new captain, who is an astrophysicist. He is convinced that there is a remnant atmosphere frozen on the dark side, and uses the ship's drive to begin to re-spin Earth. (The drive really is powerful enough to achieve this within a reasonable timescale, if only the planet's crust can withstand the seismic stresses without catastrophic earthquakes.) This will, he hopes, convert this frozen gas back to a breathable atmosphere.

Inconstant Moon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[deannalw]

That's the one...

One Face"​

First appearance: Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1965.

How do you know?

 

[Bezukhov]

I have a similar problem. I read a novelette in grade school, title I think was maybe The Road Home, The Long Road Home, The Long Journey Home... No idea who the author was. It had the word Home in it, I think. About a French orphan after WW2 just trying to survive. One thing he was trying to avoid was getting picked up and adopted by someone. Like I said, he was an orphan, but then he heard a rumor that his father might be alive and living in the US. So he let's himself get caught and adopted by an American family, just to come to the States and look for his father. Once here he runs away and starts looking for his dad. He meets up with an aspiring young journalist who sticks around, smelling a good story. Anyways they travel the country together on this quest, having all sorts of adventures.

I really want to read it again.

 

[Missourian]

View attachment 674240

Try Larry Niven's short story One Face

*****SMILE*****

That is definitely it! Thank you!

You are a super genius.

I tried putting it into Duckduckgo after reading your post an it didn't even bring it up putting in "larry Niven" and "one face".

This makes sense... I'm a big Ringworld fan... Probably read it five times and the sequel "Engineers".

I have Lucifer's Hammer...I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

But now I'm off to Amazon!

Thanks again.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

That is definitely it! Thank you!

You are a super genius.

I tried putting it into Duckduckgo after reading your post an it didn't even bring it up putting in "larry Niven" and "one face".

This makes sense... I'm a big Ringworld fan... Probably read it five times and the sequel "Engineers".

I have Lucifer's Hammer...I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

But now I'm off to Amazon!

Thanks again.

The Ringworld series and his short stories are excellent but I really liked his works with Jerry Pournelle.

I think their work Legacy Of Heorot was the best and I really enjoyed The Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.

However I just read Starborn & Godsons and was disappointed.

*****SMILE*****