Skip to main content

short stories - Looking for a sci-fi story about a prisoner and a universal solvent


Looking for a short story about a prisoner on a prison planet where prisoners are imprisoned for life with the possibility for release if they can accomplish an assigned "impossible" task.


The task of the protagonist of this story is to invent a universal solvent (there is a conversation when he is given the task between him and the review/parole board about how a universal solvent can't be contained because it would dissolve its own container that I believe ends with the panel indicating that is simply part of the problem to solve).


The story ends with the prisoner requesting (and receiving) a hearing with the review/parole board so he can present the results of his research. (Results of meeting in spoiler below).



After being surprised at his request (because no prisoner ever completes their tasks) the review board agrees to see him and when he arrives they ask him where his universal solvent is and how he managed to solve the "dissolves its own container" problem. He responds by indicating that he manufactured a container which dissolves at a specific rate and he has ingested the container and that the solvent should be breaching the container as they speak. At which point he begins to dissolve and the solvent spreads and dissolves the entire planet.



I would likely have read this somewhere between 1990-2005 though I cannot be certain. It may have been in a short story collection or in an issue of Analog or Asimov's magazines.



Answer



This story is "Varieties of Technological Experience" by Barry N. Malzberg.



Here are excerpts from the final paragraphs when the solvent that the protagonist has consumed starts to dissolve him in front of the review board:



Gently he extracted from his pockets schematics and diagrams to place before them in verification, gently he lay them in front of the gibbering old men and then as the solvent finally reached its critical point he consequently and with the most lingering of sighs, began to break down.


....


Moved out to dissolve the floor, the walls, the Board itself to say nothing of the planet, consuming all of it utterly...so that all that was left...was a planet-sized glob of universal solvent, hanging there in space...



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more