Gateway to Strangeness
Encyclopedia
"Gateway to Strangeness", also titled "Dust of Far Suns" and "Sail 25", is a science fiction
novelette
by Jack Vance
. It was first published in the August 1962 edition of Amazing Stories
magazine.
Since they are too many for their ship, Belt first assigns each man to build two devices using identical piles of assorted parts. Two men become utterly frustrated by the nearly impossible tasks and are dropped. The other six board a small spaceship propelled solely by a solar sail
for a flight to Mars
. Belt leaves the navigation entirely in their hands. All the while, he makes careful note of their faults (according to his idiosyncratic standards), recording their demerits in his little black book.
However, a mistake repairing a malfunctioning navigational device causes them to miss their rendezvous, first with Mars, then with any other planet whose gravity could halt their outward flight. (Their solar sail can only propel them away from the Sun.) Their "radio" turns out, when unpacked, to be Belt's bottles of liquor, so they cannot call for rescue. It seems that they are doomed. One man commits suicide, while two others become catatonic. Henry Belt insists that he is fated to die in space and offers no way out of their predicament.
The three remaining men come up with a way to return safely to Earth. Belt tells them that he will recommend them for advancement. As they prepare to debark, one of the trainees presents the other two with replacement parts for the navigational device. They mysteriously appeared at the end of the trip.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novelette
Novelette
A novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms is usually based upon word count, with a novelette being longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella...
by Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
. It was first published in the August 1962 edition of Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
magazine.
Plot
Eight space trainees apprehensively await their new instructor, Henry Belt. Despite the many strange and outrageous stories they have heard about him, including his legendary drunkenness, one of them notes that all of the top men in space seem to have trained under Belt.Since they are too many for their ship, Belt first assigns each man to build two devices using identical piles of assorted parts. Two men become utterly frustrated by the nearly impossible tasks and are dropped. The other six board a small spaceship propelled solely by a solar sail
Solar sail
Solar sails are a form of spacecraft propulsion using the radiation pressure of light from a star or laser to push enormous ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds....
for a flight to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. Belt leaves the navigation entirely in their hands. All the while, he makes careful note of their faults (according to his idiosyncratic standards), recording their demerits in his little black book.
However, a mistake repairing a malfunctioning navigational device causes them to miss their rendezvous, first with Mars, then with any other planet whose gravity could halt their outward flight. (Their solar sail can only propel them away from the Sun.) Their "radio" turns out, when unpacked, to be Belt's bottles of liquor, so they cannot call for rescue. It seems that they are doomed. One man commits suicide, while two others become catatonic. Henry Belt insists that he is fated to die in space and offers no way out of their predicament.
The three remaining men come up with a way to return safely to Earth. Belt tells them that he will recommend them for advancement. As they prepare to debark, one of the trainees presents the other two with replacement parts for the navigational device. They mysteriously appeared at the end of the trip.