Kortfattningen "Bakom" av Jack Williamson matchar din beskrivning perfekt. (Historien publicerades först i Förvånande Science-fiction , maj 1940 , tillgängligt på Internetarkiv . Du kan ha läst det på en georgisk översättning av Asimov-Greenberg-redigerade antologin Stora Science Fiction Stories Volym 2, 1940 -do något av det andra innehållet verkar bekant?) Med tanke på punkten:
En man har skapat en supervapen för ett imperium.
Empire är Astrarchy, grundat av rymdpirater, baserade på asteroidbältet och böjda på att erövra hela solsystemet:His voice was injured and defiant. "But, so far as I'm concerned, the Astrarchy is just as respectable as such planet nations as Earth and Mars and the Jovian Federation. And it's a good deal more wealthy and powerful than any of them."
Tense-faced, the Martian girl shook her dark head. "Don't blind yourself, Bill," she begged urgently. "Can't you see that the Astrarch really is no different from any of the old pirates? His fleets still seize any independent vessel, or make the owners ransom it with his space-patrol tax."
She caught an indignant breath. "Everywhere—even here on Mars—the agents and residents and traders of the Astrarchy have brought graft and corruption and oppression. The Astrarch is using his wealth and his space power to undermine the government of every independent planet. He's planning to conquer the system!"
Supervapnet är en bild för rymdskeppsvapen:
Beneath those thrusting eyes, Brek Veronar flinched. "Thank you, Gorro," he gulped—he was among the few privileged to call the Astrarch by name. "Later, perhaps. But the torpedo guide isn't finished. And I've several ideas for improving the autosight. I'd much prefer to stay in the laboratory."
For an instant, the short man's smile seemed genuine. "The Astrarchy is indebted to you for the autosight. The increased accuracy of fire had in effect quadrupled our fleets." His eyes were sharp again, doubtful. "Are further improvements possible?"
Brek Veronar caught his breath. His knees felt a little weak. He knew he was talking for his life. He swallowed, and his words came at first unsteadily.
"Geodesic analysis and integration is a completely new science," he said desperately. "It would be foolish to limit the possibilities. With a sufficiently delicate pick-up, the achronic detector fields ought to be able to trace the world lines of any object almost indefinitely. Into the future—
He paused for emphasis. "Or into the past!"
Men en dag, en annan kamp, innan han trycker på knappen, händer något. När han vaknar är fartyget skadat, imperiet förlorat, alla i chock.
"The Queen is disabled. Reaction batteries shot away, and main power plant dead. Repair is hopeless. And our present orbit will carry us far too close to the sun. None of our ships able to undertake rescue. We'll be baked alive."
"How were we beaten?" demanded Brek. "I can't understand!"
:"Marksmanship," said the tired Astrarch. "Tony Grimm has something better than your autosight. He shot us to pieces before we could find the range." His face was a pale mask of bitterness. "If my agents had employed him, twenty years ago, instead of you—" He bit blood from his lip. "But the past cannot be changed."
Brek was staring at the huge, silent bulk of the autosight. "Perhaps"—he whispered—"it can be!"
Han kommer ihåg och bestämmer att en händelse i sitt förflutna hade påverkat denna kamp. För år sedan skrev den tjejen ett brev till honom och bjudde in honom till en fest (eller rendezvous). Så hade hans vän mer tid att lära sig och utvecklat ett liknande men kraftfullare vapen som hjälpt upprorna att vinna striden. Han föreslår att använda energin kvar för att göra en förändring i det förflutna och få den tjejen att skriva ett brev till sin vän, inte till honom, vilket ger honom en fördel i tid.
"What's this?" rasped the anxious Astrarch. "A schoolgirl writing a note—what has she to do with a space battle?"
Brek scanned the fiery symbols. "She was deciding the battle—that day twenty years ago!" His voice rang with elation. "You see, she had a date to go dancing in Toran with Tony Grimm that night. But her father was giving a special lecture on the new theories of achronic force. Tony broke the date, to attend the lecture."
As Brek watched the motionless image in the cube his voice turned a little husky. "Elora was angry—that was before she knew Tony very well. I had asked her for a date. And, at the moment you see, she has just written a note, to say that she would go dancing with me."
Brek gulped. "But she is undecided, you see. Because she loves Tony. A very little would make her tear up the note to me, and write another to Tony, to say that she would go to the lecture with him."
The Astrarch stared cadaverously. "But how could that decide the battle?"
"In the past that we have lived," Brek told him, "Elora sent the note to me. I went dancing with her, and missed the lecture. Tony attended it—and got the germ idea that finally caused his autosight to work better than mine.
"But, if she had written to Tony instead, he would have offered, out of contrition, to cut the lecture—so the analyzers indicate. I should have attended the lecture in Tony's place, and my autosight would have been better in the end."
The Astrarch's waxen head nodded slowly. "But—can you really change the past?"
Brek paused for a moment, solemnly. "We have all the power of the ship's converters," he said at last. "We have the high-frequency achronic field, as a lever through which to apply it. Surely, with the millions of kilowatts to spend, we can stimulate a few cells in a schoolgirl's brain. We shall see."
Men i den sista sekunden innan han fortsätter ser han på en klocka hans gamla vän och den tjejen (kärlek från förflutna) begav honom för länge sedan. Hans känslor tillåter inte honom att göra det. Så lämnade han sitt förflutna orört.
Two minutes! Brek looked down at the jeweled chronometer on his wrist. For a moment he had an odd feeling that the design was unfamiliar. Strange, when he had worn it for twenty years.
The dial blurred a little. He remembered the day that Tony and Elora gave it to him—the day he left the university to come to Astrophon. It was too nice a gift. Neither of them had much money.
He wondered if Tony had ever guessed his love for Elora. Probably it was better that she had always declined his attentions. No shadow of jealousy had ever come over their friendship.
"Minus one—"
This wouldn't do! Half angrily, Brek jerked his eyes back to the screen. Still, however, in the silvery sodium clouds, he saw the faces of Tony and Elora. Still he couldn't forget the oddly unfamiliar pressure of the chronometer on his wrist—it was like the soft touch of Elora's fingers, when she had fastened it there.
Suddenly the black flecks in the screen were not targets any more. Brek caught a long gasping breath. After all, he was an Earthman. After twenty years in the Astrarch's generous pay, this timepiece was still his most precious possession.
His gray eyes narrowed grimly. Without the autosight, the Astrarch's fleet would be utterly blind in the sodium clouds. Given any sort of achronic range finder, Tony Grimm could wipe it out.
Brek's gaunt body trembled. Death, he knew, would be the sure penalty. In the battle or afterward—it didn't matter. He knew that he would accept it without regret.
Till slut säger han till imperiums admiraler att de inte kan göra någonting mer, eftersom deras förlust har återspeglas i tid och kan inte ändras.
"Once you told me, Veronar, that the past could be changed. Then I wouldn't listen. But now—try anything you can. You might be able to save yourself from the unpleasantness that my men are planning."
Looking at the muttering men, Brek shook his head. "I was mistaken," he said deliberately. "I failed to take account of the two-way nature of time. But the future, I see now, is as real as the past. Aside from the direction of entropy flow and the flow of consciousness, future and past cannot be distinguished."
"The future determines the past, as much as the past does the future. It is possible to trace out the determiner factors, and even, with sufficient power, to cause a local deflection of the geodesics. But world lines are fixed in the future, as rigidly as in the past. However the factors are rearranged, the end result will always be the same."