Venus Equilateral
Encyclopedia
The Venus Equilateral series is a set of 13 science fiction
short stories
by George O. Smith
, concerning the Venus Equilateral Relay Station, an interplanetary communications hub located at the Lagrangian point
of the Sun-Venus system. Most of the stories were first published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1942 and 1945.
three miles long and one in diameter that serves as a communications relay between Venus
, Earth
, and Mars
whenever interference from the Sun
prevents line-of-sight communication between them. Venus Equilateral was formed out of a nickel-iron asteroid
that was moved into Venus' point. At the time the stories take place, the asteroid has been completely reworked, resulting in a burnished steel cylinder with a large docking port at one end and a bank of communications dishes at the other.
Venus Equilateral spins on its axis to provide its roughly 3000 inhabitants with centrifugal
pseudo-gravity. On the outermost level, with just over one Earth gravity, are living quarters for the station's crew. The next level in consists of offices, recreation centers, stores, churches, the cafeteria, and Joe's: the station's only bar
. The innermost level, surrounding the station's zero-gravity axis, houses automatic machinery, the hydroponic farms
, storerooms, the servogyroscopes
and their beam finders, and the air plant (which consists of genetically engineered Martian sawgrass
that efficiently renews the station's air supply via photosynthesis
).
The Venus Equilateral Relay Station is owned and operated by Venus Equilateral, Inc., a closed corporation. Venus Equilateral, Inc. is licensed by the Interplanetary Communications Commission to maintain interplanetary communications. Under the terms of the license, Venus Equilateral must relay at least one message every twenty-four hours. Venus Equilateral, Inc. also owns and operates an interplanetary spaceship called the Relay Girl that is based at the station.
Wesley Farrell, and neurosurgeon
-turned-evil-genius
Allison "Hellion" Murdoch. A frequent background character is Joe, operator of the "best Bar in Twenty-Seven Million Miles, Minimum!", upon whose tablecloths the engineers do much of their brainstorming.
The typical plot of a Venus Equilateral story consists of the station's engineers inventing new devices that allow them to solve the story problem.
electronic components, all the electronic technology in this 21st century setting is based on vacuum tubes. At the series' opening there is one major addition to mid-20th century technology called the "driver tube". This is a specialized vacuum tube which (through mechanisms not explained) very efficiently converts the matter of its anode to massive amounts of thrust upon excitation by a low-power source. Powered by batteries, the driver tube enables the multi-G constant-boost spaceships seen throughout the series.
At the series opening both Mars and Venus have been colonized. Both are described as having shirt-sleeve environments in at least some regions.
Smith wrote a 12th story, "Mad Holiday", for the first book collection Venus Equilateral
(1947) (which omitted "Lost Art" and "Identity"), and a 13th story, "The External Triangle", for Harry Harrison
's 1973 anthology Astounding. All 13 stories were included in the 1976 Ballantine
collection The Complete Venus Equilateral and the 1980 reprint published by its SF imprint Del Rey Books
. Prevously they had all appeared in the British 1975 Orbit Books
publication in two parts Venus Equilateral: Volume One and Venus Equilateral: Volume Two.
named Francis Burbank who is appointed Director of the station by the Interplanetary Communications Commission. Disaster looms when Burbank disposes of the air plant, thinking that the Martian sawgrass is simply a collection of weeds that sprouted up in an empty compartment. Channing is able to avert disaster, and Burbank is recalled in disgrace and replaced by Channing.
to activate the ship's meteor detector and uses it to send the necessary message in Morse Code
.
Cal Blair hates space travel, and he's not very keen on surgery either, which is why his relationship with Tinker Elliot, a spacefaring surgeon, has never blossomed into marriage. When the long-lost electronic key to Hellion Murdoch's hidden treasure finds its way into Blair's hands, though, he winds up deeply involved in both. Cal, a cryptographer
, uses his skills to decipher the key, build a device that will allow him to use it to find Murdoch's treasure, and travels to Venus to locate it. His nasty brother Benj kidnaps Elliot and follows him, intent on gaining the treasure for himself. Elliot suffers a serious spinal injury when Benj's aircraft crashes in the Venusian swamps, and Cal must defeat his twin in a duel using three-foot soldering irons before he can help her. With Benj disposed of, Cal learns that Murdoch's treasure is actually a database of Murdoch's illegal medical experiments. Overcoming his deep aversion to surgery, Cal uses Murdoch's treasure to repair Elliot's spinal injury and save her life.
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...
short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by George O. Smith
George O. Smith
George Oliver Smith was an American science fiction author. He is not to be confused with George H. Smith, another American science fiction author.-Biography:...
, concerning the Venus Equilateral Relay Station, an interplanetary communications hub located at the Lagrangian point
Lagrangian point
The Lagrangian points are the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be stationary relative to two larger objects...
of the Sun-Venus system. Most of the stories were first published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1942 and 1945.
Venus Equilateral Relay Station
The setting for most of the stories in the series is Venus Equilateral, a space stationSpace station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
three miles long and one in diameter that serves as a communications relay between Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, and 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...
whenever interference from the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
prevents line-of-sight communication between them. Venus Equilateral was formed out of a nickel-iron asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
that was moved into Venus' point. At the time the stories take place, the asteroid has been completely reworked, resulting in a burnished steel cylinder with a large docking port at one end and a bank of communications dishes at the other.
Venus Equilateral spins on its axis to provide its roughly 3000 inhabitants with centrifugal
Centrifugal force
Centrifugal force can generally be any force directed outward relative to some origin. More particularly, in classical mechanics, the centrifugal force is an outward force which arises when describing the motion of objects in a rotating reference frame...
pseudo-gravity. On the outermost level, with just over one Earth gravity, are living quarters for the station's crew. The next level in consists of offices, recreation centers, stores, churches, the cafeteria, and Joe's: the station's only bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
. The innermost level, surrounding the station's zero-gravity axis, houses automatic machinery, the hydroponic farms
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, or coconut husk.Researchers discovered in the 18th...
, storerooms, the servogyroscopes
Gyroscope
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
and their beam finders, and the air plant (which consists of genetically engineered Martian sawgrass
Cladium
Cladium is a genus of large sedges, with a worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions...
that efficiently renews the station's air supply via photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
).
The Venus Equilateral Relay Station is owned and operated by Venus Equilateral, Inc., a closed corporation. Venus Equilateral, Inc. is licensed by the Interplanetary Communications Commission to maintain interplanetary communications. Under the terms of the license, Venus Equilateral must relay at least one message every twenty-four hours. Venus Equilateral, Inc. also owns and operates an interplanetary spaceship called the Relay Girl that is based at the station.
Characters and plot
Most of the stories feature Dr. Donald A. Channing, Director of Communications at Venus Equilateral; Walter Franks, Beam Control Engineer; and Arden Westland, Channing's secretary turned fiancée turned wife. Other regular characters include heads of development Charles and Freddie Thomas, Master Mechanic Michael Warren, Martian archeologists Barney Carroll and James Baler, Baler's sister Christine, Terran Electric Company lawyer Mark Kingman, Terran Electric physicistPhysicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Wesley Farrell, and neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...
-turned-evil-genius
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
Allison "Hellion" Murdoch. A frequent background character is Joe, operator of the "best Bar in Twenty-Seven Million Miles, Minimum!", upon whose tablecloths the engineers do much of their brainstorming.
The typical plot of a Venus Equilateral story consists of the station's engineers inventing new devices that allow them to solve the story problem.
Technology and cosmology
Since the stories were written before the invention of solid stateSolid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
electronic components, all the electronic technology in this 21st century setting is based on vacuum tubes. At the series' opening there is one major addition to mid-20th century technology called the "driver tube". This is a specialized vacuum tube which (through mechanisms not explained) very efficiently converts the matter of its anode to massive amounts of thrust upon excitation by a low-power source. Powered by batteries, the driver tube enables the multi-G constant-boost spaceships seen throughout the series.
At the series opening both Mars and Venus have been colonized. Both are described as having shirt-sleeve environments in at least some regions.
Stories
Eleven of the thirteen Venus Equilateral stories were published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1942 and 1945. They were:- "QRM—Interplanetary", October, 1942
- "Calling the Empress", June, 1943
- "Recoil", November, 1943
- "Lost Art", December, 1943
- "Off the Beam", February, 1944
- "The Long Way", April, 1944
- "Beam Pirate", October, 1944
- "Firing Line", December, 1944
- "Special Delivery", March, 1945
- "Pandora's Millions", June, 1945
- "Identity", November, 1945
Smith wrote a 12th story, "Mad Holiday", for the first book collection Venus Equilateral
Venus Equilateral (collection)
Venus Equilateral is a collection of science fiction short stories by author George O. Smith. The stories belong to Smith's Venus Equilateral series. The collection was first published in 1947 by Prime Press in an edition of 3,000 copies. "Mad Holiday" was written for this collection...
(1947) (which omitted "Lost Art" and "Identity"), and a 13th story, "The External Triangle", for Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
's 1973 anthology Astounding. All 13 stories were included in the 1976 Ballantine
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
collection The Complete Venus Equilateral and the 1980 reprint published by its SF imprint Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...
. Prevously they had all appeared in the British 1975 Orbit Books
Orbit Books
Orbit Books is an international publisher that specialises in science fiction and fantasy books. It was founded in 1974 as part of the Macdonald Futura publishing company...
publication in two parts Venus Equilateral: Volume One and Venus Equilateral: Volume Two.
QRM—Interplanetary
The staff of Venus Equilateral must cope with a pointy-haired bossPointy-Haired Boss
The pointy-haired boss is Dilbert's boss in the Dilbert comic strip. He is notable for his micromanagement, gross incompetence and unawareness of his surroundings, yet somehow retains power in the workplace...
named Francis Burbank who is appointed Director of the station by the Interplanetary Communications Commission. Disaster looms when Burbank disposes of the air plant, thinking that the Martian sawgrass is simply a collection of weeds that sprouted up in an empty compartment. Channing is able to avert disaster, and Burbank is recalled in disgrace and replaced by Channing.
Calling the Empress
Channing is contracted by Interplanetary Transport to find a way of communicating with a spaceship that must be diverted from Venus to avoid being caught in a quarantine. Channing is able to use an electron gunElectron gun
An electron gun is an electrical component that produces an electron beam that has a precise kinetic energy and is most often used in television sets and computer displays which use cathode ray tube technology, as well as in other instruments, such as electron microscopes and particle...
to activate the ship's meteor detector and uses it to send the necessary message in Morse Code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
.
Recoil
Neurosurgeon-turned-space-pirate Allison "Hellion" Murdoch attacks Venus Equilateral. Channing is able to use a super-electron-gun to short out the attacking ships' electrical systems.Lost Art
Martian archeologists Carroll and Baler discover an ancient Martian electronic device. After getting the device running and experimenting with it, the two are able to deduce that the device is a relay unit for a wireless power transmission system. The Martian relay becomes the basis for power transmission networks throughout the Solar System.Off the Beam
Channing is on board the Ariadne when a meteor strike leaves it crippled and off course. He is able to turn the ship into a signalling device, and Franks on Venus Equilateral, anticipating him, is able to work out a means of receiving his signal and tracking down the ship.The Long Way
While negotiating with Terran Electric's hardnosed chief lawyer Mark Kingman for a licence on Carroll and Baler's Martian power transmitter, which they had sold to TE, Channing works out a way to use the transmitter to harness solar energy. Channing cuts a deal with Kingman allowing Terran Electric to operate the solar power tube on planetary surfaces while Venus Equilateral operates it in space. It turns out, though, that an atmosphere blocks the tube's reception, so it can't operate on the surface of any inhabited world.Beam Pirate
When the engineering staff of Terran Electric use a Martian power transmitter to create a faster-than-light communicator, Kingman uses it to manipulate Venus Equilateral's stock price in an effort to gain a controlling interest in the company. When Venus Equilateral independently reproduces the FTL communicator, Channing discovers Kingman's plot, and manipulates him back.Firing Line
After escaping from prison, Hellion Murdoch teams up with Kingman. Kingman will use Terran Electric's research lab to create energy weapons, and Murdoch will mount the weapons in his ship, the Black Widow, and blackmail interplanetary commerce. When news of Murdoch's escape reaches Venus Equilateral, Channing realizes the station will be his first target. The station's staff design a set of missiles that will home in on the Black Widow, and they succeed in destroying it. Kingman is able to hide his association with Murdoch.Special Delivery
Wes Farrell, now employed at Venus Equilateral, uses the Martian power transmitter to construct a matter transmitter. Kingman sues on behalf of Terran Electric, arguing that the matter transmitter is essentially a power transmitter, and thus falls within Terran Electric's licence. Channing successfully argues that the device is not a transmitter by using it as a matter duplicator, to create multiple copies of the judge's antique watch.Pandora's Millions
Now that it is possible to duplicate money and precious metals, an economy based on scarcity collapses. The people of the Solar System must fall back on barter, and those too poor to buy matter duplicators are left to their own devices. It is not until the staff of Venus Equilateral invents a material that cannot be duplicated that a monetary system can be re-established.Mad Holiday
Use of the matter duplicator allows the staff of Venus Equilateral to invent a method of instantaneous communication. Since line-of-sight is no longer necessary for communication, Venus Equilateral itself is obsolete, and the staff prepare to abandon the relay station. Meanwhile, Kingman sneaks aboard the station, rigs a power transmitter to lower the station's temperature to absolute zero, and kidnaps Walt Franks and Christine Baler, leaving them to freeze to death. Not knowing of the new instantaneous communication, Kingman assumes that the station has stopped relaying messages because of his sabotage, and he sues to gain VE's communications franchise for Terran Electric. Following a Christmas party set against the backdrop of the station's falling temperature, the Channings and Farrell rescue Franks and Baler, and the entire staff of VE departs, leaving Kingman to try to maintain the frigid station alone.The External Triangle
Twenty-seven years after "Mad Holiday", the Channing and Franks families live on a thoroughly terraformed Pluto, and the Channings' daughter Diane is married to the Franks' son Jeffrey. Don Channing, Walt Franks and Jeffrey Franks get together to try to come up with a teleportation device that will allow original objects, and not just their duplicates, to be transmitted across interplanetary space. They succeed in teleporting mice from Pluto to Triton, but the mice only live for five minutes. The plot thickens when Diane Channing Franks' newborn twins need urgent treatment for a blood disorder, and only the teleport can get them that treatment. Don Channing finally realizes that the teleport system was inverting the mice, and that their inverted hemoglobin was unable to carry oxygen, leading to their deaths. By teleporting an object twice, the inversion is cancelled out, so the twins are saved by teleporting them to a hospital on Earth via a relay on Triton.Epilogue: Identity
350 years after the invention of the matter duplicator, the technology has been improved to the point where human beings can be duplicated, and it is common medical practice for surgeons to test their surgical procedures on duplicates of their patients before operating on the originals. As a result, the greatest insult that can be offered to a person is to claim that they are a duplicate rather than the original (the slang expression is "dupe"). This is the reason identical twins such as Calvin and Benjamin Blair tend to hate each others' guts, as Cal and Benj do.Cal Blair hates space travel, and he's not very keen on surgery either, which is why his relationship with Tinker Elliot, a spacefaring surgeon, has never blossomed into marriage. When the long-lost electronic key to Hellion Murdoch's hidden treasure finds its way into Blair's hands, though, he winds up deeply involved in both. Cal, a cryptographer
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
, uses his skills to decipher the key, build a device that will allow him to use it to find Murdoch's treasure, and travels to Venus to locate it. His nasty brother Benj kidnaps Elliot and follows him, intent on gaining the treasure for himself. Elliot suffers a serious spinal injury when Benj's aircraft crashes in the Venusian swamps, and Cal must defeat his twin in a duel using three-foot soldering irons before he can help her. With Benj disposed of, Cal learns that Murdoch's treasure is actually a database of Murdoch's illegal medical experiments. Overcoming his deep aversion to surgery, Cal uses Murdoch's treasure to repair Elliot's spinal injury and save her life.