Recent content by CordwainerFish

Not if you cut through the Islands Cluster.

Which comes to about 1/6 g.

On a course to Constellation Urion.

India has entered the chat

Wonder if laser weapons have tunable wavelengths. Remember the scene in Ringworld wheee Louis Wu tried to shoot a dude whose shirt was the same color as his laser?

I'd expect an outer gas giant or fueling station if there isn't one, follow all instructions immediately and completely, under no circumstances engage radar or other active sensors. Maybe even be given a code to squawk at the starport you're departing, code changes on a regular basis. (I...

I used to drive almost that far to get away from light pollution for an evening. (Not sure that's enough drive to get away from Vegas' light dome. Or even just the Luxor all by itself.)

If I recall Heppenheimer's Colonies in Space, that's what was claimed there. (Anyone else remember that book?)

Made me look, and it turns out at least half of the Depots are the only way for a jump 1 ship to get from one arm of a main - sometimes a sizable main - to the other. So (my) logic demands there must be some approved arrangement for civilian traffic to refuel in them. (I dislike fuel bladders...

If the operating mechanism permits that and I'm not sure it can please stop making me think about laser physics it'll make me want to watch Real Genius again arrrrgh.

I really think I'd rather have a reflex sight. Doesn't give away that my target is being targeted, and I don't end up wondering which dot is mine and which is my buddy's.

I always thought they might be a homage to the space city in Niven's essay "Bigger Than Worlds".

Trivia: Larry Niven's first fiction sale was set on Mercury, and its plot relied on Mercury being tide locked. After it was bought but before it saw print, Mercury's 3:2 resonance was discovered. He wrote Frederik Pohl, the editor who'd bought it, if he wanted the money back; Pohl wrote back...

Include it in the Instructions to Traffic squawked by the starports in the adjacent hexes. "Civilian traffic to Depot shall jump directly to the gas giant at insert orbital elements here and comply exactly with all instructions from insystem authority."