The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Burning Bridge, by Poul William Anderson

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Title: The Burning Bridge

Author: Poul William Anderson

Illustrator: van Dongen

Release Date: September 9, 2007 [EBook #22554]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

THE BURNING BRIDGE

BY POUL ANDERSON

Illustrated by van Dongen

_Usually there are two "reasons" why
something is done; the reason why it
needs to be done, and, quite separate, the
reason people want to do it. The foul-up
starts when the reason-for-wanting
is satisfied ... and the need remains!_

The message was an electronic shout, the most powerful and
tightly-beamed short-wave transmission which men could generate,
directed with all the precision which mathematics and engineering could
offer. Nevertheless that pencil must scrawl broadly over the sky, and
for a long time, merely hoping to write on its target. For when
distances are measured in light-weeks, the smallest errors grow
monstrous.

As it happened, the attempt was successful. Communications Officer
Anastas Mardikian had assembled his receiver after acceleration
ceased--a big thing, surrounding the flagship _Ranger_ like a spiderweb
trapping a fly--and had kept it hopefully tuned over a wide band. The
radio beam swept through, ghostly faint from dispersion, wave length
doubled by Doppler effect, ragged with cosmic noise. An elaborate system
of filters and amplifiers could make it no more than barely
intelligible.

But that was enough.

Mardikian burst onto the bridge. He was young, and the months had not
yet devoured the glory of his first deep-space voyage. "Sir!" he yelled.
"A message ... I just played back the recorder ... from Earth!"

Fleet Captain Joshua Coffin started. That movement, in weightlessness,
spun him off the deck. He stopped himself with a practiced hand,
stiffened, and rapped back: "If you