The Comet Doom story
The world's scientists are confident that an approaching comet poses no danger to the Earth, but three oung men discover otherwise.
9 total · 5 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| anti-gravity technology | major | On a unpopulated island in Lake Ontario, the cyborgs constructed a machine that they were going to use to neutralize the sun's gravitational influence on Earth. As a result, the Earth would fall under the gravitational pull of the passing comet and get whisked off into interstellar space. There was a detailed analogy drawn between the sun's gravitational pull on Earth and a ball being swung around and around at the end of a long cord. The machine was, by analogy, going to be used to "cut the cord". |
| attack from outer space by a genocidal enemy | major | A race of comet dwelling cyborg plotted to whisk the Earth away out of its orbit and use the planet for natural resources. |
| cyborg | major | Coburn, Hanley, and later Marlin stumbled on a party of be-tentacled cyborgs on an unpopulated island in Lake Ontario. The cyborgs were essentially brains cased inside be-tentacled metal bodies. |
| depletion of a vital natural resource | major | The comet cyborgs were running out of the natural resources they required to perpetuate their civilization, and resolved use the Earth to keep them going for a long while. |
| sacrifice to prevent mass death | major | In the end, Coburn and Hanley gave their lives to stop the cyborgs from completing their plan to whisk the Earth away out of the solar system and use it as a source of natural resources. |
| nuclear fission power | minor | The cyborgs were actuated by atomic power. |
| panspermia | minor | Svante Arrhenius, the first person to advance the theory of radiopansperima, was mentioned by name in the story and his theory articulated. |
| problem of language and meaning | minor | Coburn and Hanley taught the cyborg leader English in order to be able to communicate with it. |
| solar sail spaceship | minor | The cyborgs flew to Earth in "four great cones" that were "driven through space by light-pressure". |