The coldest Place - Larry Niven

 This story first appeared in the December 1964 issue of If magazine.

 

It is Larry Niven's first published work.

The "coldest Place" refers to the far side on Mercury. ... the side that faces away from the Sun.

Back then, it was thought that Mercury was "tidal locked" in a 1:1 orbit, it's "day" equal to its "year" and that it's dark side would be colder even than the outer planets as it never rotated.

 

Then in 1965, the astronomer Giuseppe Colombo,  discovered that it did in fact rotate with a 3:2 spin orbit resonance.

 

The story revolves around a manned mission to Mercury to search for life which was detected 2 years earlier by the Messenger VI  probe.

There are two crew on this mission : Howie & Eric.

Eric appears to be some form of AI or a live brain hooked up to the ship.

 

 

 

"Eric looked much like an electrical network, 

    except for the grey mass at the top which was his brain."

"In all directions from his spinal cord and his brain....

Eric's nerves reached out to master the ship"

...... "If Eric dies, I die, because Eric is the ship"

If I die, Eric dies .... Insane".

 

They catch what appears to be an amoeba shaped blob of Helium II. Is this life ???

"It's only helium!"

"I get it now Howie"
"Helium II. That's all our monsters are."

"Nuts"

"Helium II, the superfluid that flows uphill"
"Check them for contaminants."
"For what?"
"Contaminants. My body is hydrogen oxide with contaminants. If the contaminants in the helium are complex enough, it might be alive."
"There are plenty of other substances".

 

 

 

The interesting bit about this story isn't the discovery of life. Rather I think it's Eric.

This idea of a "sentient ship" predates Arthur C Clarke's depiction of HAL in the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was published in 1968. 

Eric appears to be emotionally sensitive,.....  maybe even a tad unstable.

Today, the concept of a sentient spaceship is quite common. "Ancilliary Justice" by Ann Leckie freatures a ship's AI that is reduced to a single soldier. The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey is another great example as are many of the novels of Ian M. Banks.

 

"The ship who sang" is particularly interesting.

Anne wrote these stories in the 1960's

They feature one person, Helva, who becomes brainship XH-834.  

The Ship Who Sang novel was published in 1969, however the first five chapters incorporate

early magazine Novelettes.

• "The Ship Who Sang", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1961
• "The Ship Who Mourned", Analog, March 1966
• "The Ship Who Killed", Galaxy Magazine, Oct 1966
• "Dramatic Mission", Analog, Jun 1969
• "The Ship Who Dissembled" (chapter title), published as "The Ship Who Disappeared", If, March 1969

So maybe Anne McCaffrey can claim the title as the first to write about a sentient ship.

In any case, The Coldest Place is really short ... just 3 pages , but Larry Niven manages to pack in quite a lot.

Well worth a read.

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