Posted on 04/19/2014 9:48:57 AM PDT by LonePalm
I am trying to find the name of a Science Fiction story I read thirty to forty years ago.
The plot line revolves around a former Mercenary stranded on a newly settled planet. The leaders of the planet have decided that they have about a hundred years to get their population up to a level that will allow them to fend off others. The solution is to pair post pubescent women with slightly older men and breed as rapidly as possible while building the infrastructure necessary for a society.
I seem to remember that the main item of value on the planet was a crab whose carapace was a natural semi-conductor. I want to use the idea in my book and don't wish to tread on anyone else's work without permission.
I already have Larry Niven's very kind permission to use his Kzinti in my story as long as I keep them 'off stage'.
Extensive Google searches have not returned anything useful.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Sounds like an area John Ringo wrote about.
30 years ago?
Keith Laumer, Jerry Pournelle, possibly an episode in the BOLOS series?.
The solution is to pair post pubescent women with slightly older men and breed as rapidly as possible while building the infrastructure necessary for a society.
sounds like Rick Shelly, "Sylph" or "The Sylph", in Analog.
Do I get a piece of the action?
Eventually it got to the point where only the underclasses lived on the bottom of the Earth and they would get stuck doing all the dirty work and whatnot. Meanwhile, hundreds of stories off the ground, the "elite" would live in super-luxury and they would spend their entire lifetimes living in the upper reaches of the skyscrapers - all connected by magnetic trains that would take you from city to city on tracks that were thousands of feet off the ground.
Anyway, the storyline is that some of these privileged people decided to band together and "explore" the lower levels of their skyscraper city. You see, most of these people have never been beneath say the 500th floor level, and they saw themselves as adventurers with a goal to reach the actual ground level of Earth (which existed only in their imaginations). The ordeal these people went through to reach the ground was pretty incredible. They had to evade security patrols and roving gangs of thugs and as they descended to the lower levels, well, things got more and more dangerous for them.
Eventually they made it to the bottom (some of them were killed or were captured along the way) and they had to go through some really bizarre stuff to get to the outside world. But when they finally were able to put their feet on the actual earth and see flowers, trees and bugs for the first time, it was like they journeyed to a totally different planet.
Really cool story. I read it as a library book when I was about 12 and was never able to find that story again. Have no idea who wrote it or even what the title was.
If the right people like Lucasfilms were thinking they would do a mega series of either BOLOS or The Man/Kzin Wars.
What is “offstage”?
I want to say it was Robert Silverberg.
Not sure though.
Hmm... How much older? Would 56 be too old? If not, I am available.
The solution is to pair post pubescent women with slightly older men and breed as rapidly as possible while building the infrastructure necessary for a society.
I wish I could comment, but the First lady reads my posts.
5.56mm
I know this isn't the one but I remember reading a science fiction story that talked about how Earth got overcrowded and the only solution was to keep building taller and taller skyscrapers.
The novel was by Robert Silverberg. I forget the title. People in the arcologies reproduced freely. People in the agricultural lands that fed the arcologies had not-nice ways of limiting population (IRRC, YMMV).
In the play "Waiting for Godot" Godot is talked about but never shows up 'on stage'.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
The story you just described was made into an episode of Star Trek.
There’s some history about the story development at this site -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708456/
The original story was written by KGF Vissers.
The good news is that I probably have that issue of Analog in a box somewhere in the garage.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I know that episode and it is nothing like the story I am looking for.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
That’s because I was responding to someone else.
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