"Neutron Star" is an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American writer

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are ''Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, ''The Mote in God's Eye'' ...

. It was originally published in the October 1966 issue (Issue 107, Vol 16, No 10) of ''

Worlds of If ''If'' was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn (editor), James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the ...

''. It was later reprinted in the collection of the same name and ''

Crashlander ''Crashlander'' is a fix-up novel by American writer Larry Niven, published in 1994 () and set in his ''Known Space'' universe. It is also a term used in the Known Space universe, denoting a human born on the planet ''We Made It''. Plot summary ...

''.New York: Ballantine, 1994, pp. 8-28, The story is set in Niven's fictional ''

Known Space Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off ''Man-Kzin Wars'' anthologies. The Internet Spec ...

'' universe. It is notable for including a

neutron star A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...

before their (then hypothetical) existence was widely known. "Neutron Star" is the first to feature

Beowulf Shaeffer Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off ''Man-Kzin Wars'' anthologies. The Internet Spe ...

, the ex-pilot and reluctant hero of many of Niven's ''Known Space'' stories. It also marked the first appearance of the nearly indestructible

General Products Pierson's Puppeteers, often known just as Puppeteers, are a fictional alien race from American author Larry Niven's ''Known Space'' books. The race first appeared in Niven’s novella ''Neutron Star''. Biology and sociology The sobriquet "Piers ...

starship hull, as well as its creators, the

Pierson's Puppeteer Pierson's Puppeteers, often known just as Puppeteers, are a fictional alien race from American author Larry Niven's ''Known Space'' books. The race first appeared in Niven’s novella ''Neutron Star''. Biology and sociology The sobriquet "Piers ...

s. The star itself, BVS-1, is featured in the novel ''

Protector Protector(s) or The Protector(s) may refer to: Roles and titles * Protector (title), a title or part of various historical titles of heads of state and others in authority ** Lord Protector, a title that has been used in British constitutional l ...

'' (1973), where it is named "Phssthpok's Star". A prelude to the story is also included in the novel ''

Juggler of Worlds ''Juggler of Worlds'' (2008) is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, a sequel to their ''Fleet of Worlds''. It is set in the Known Space universe. Most of the book revisits earlier stories (the Beowulf ...

''.

Plot summary

, a native of the planet We Made It and unemployed for the last eight months due to a stock market crash, is contracted by a Pierson's Puppeteer, the Regional President of General Products on We Made It, to pilot a General Products-hulled starship, in a close approach about

BVS-1. The Puppeteers want to determine why two previous researchers, Peter and Sonya Laskin, were killed during the previous attempt on a similar mission. Shaeffer has no intention of even attempting the dangerous mission, but agrees anyway – he has other plans. He has the Puppeteers construct what he dubs the ''Skydiver'' to his precise specifications, supposedly to ensure he survives to return with the relevant data. It includes an advanced sensor package, a high-powered thruster, and a high-powered laser. It is thus the only ''warship'' ever constructed by the cowardly and paranoid alien race – a prize beyond value and a perfect means of escape. Desiring to maintain human-Puppeteer relations, an operative of the U.N.'s Bureau of Alien Affairs,

Sigmund Ausfaller This is a list of fictional characters featured in the ''Known Space'' novels by Larry Niven. Individual characters Sigmund Ausfaller Sigmund Ausfaller, a native of Earth, is a member of the Amalgamated Regional Militia ("ARM"), working in the B ...

, explains the situation to them, and has them install a bomb on the ship. Ausfaller informs Shaeffer that if he does not attempt the mission he will be sent to

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Historic ...

, and that if he attempts to escape in the ship the bomb will be detonated within a week – well before he could even reach another planet, let alone find a buyer for the ship. Shaeffer, realizing he is trapped, agrees to fly the mission. The ''Skydiver'' reaches the neutron star, and the ship's autopilot puts the ''Skydiver'' into a

hyperbolic orbit In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, a hyperbolic trajectory or hyperbolic orbit is the trajectory of any object around a central body with more than enough speed to escape the central object's gravitational pull. The name derives from the fa ...

that will take 24 hours to reach

periapsis An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary (astronomy), primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two ...

with BVS-1, passing a mile above its surface. During the descent Schaeffer notices many unusual things: the stars ahead of him began to turn blue from

Doppler shift The Doppler effect or Doppler shift (or simply Doppler, when in context) is the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who d ...

as his speed increases enormously; the stars behind him, rather than being red-shifted, were blue too as their light accelerated with him into the

gravity well The Hill sphere of an astronomical body is the region in which it dominates the attraction of satellites. To be retained by a planet, a moon must have an orbit that lies within the planet's Hill sphere. That moon would, in turn, have a Hill sp ...

of the neutron star. The nose of the ship is pulled towards the neutron star even when he tries to move the ship to view his surroundings. As the mysterious pull exceeds one Earth gravity, Shaeffer accelerates the ''Skydiver'' to compensate for the unknown X-force until he is in

free fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on i ...

(though the accelerometer registers 1.2

gees Gees is a village in the Netherlands and it is part of the Coevorden municipality in Drenthe. Gees is an ''esdorp __NOTOC__ An ''Angerdorf'' (plural: ''Angerdörfer'') is a type of village that is characterised by the houses and farmsteads b ...

). Shaeffer eventually realizes what the X-force is: the

tidal force The tidal force is a gravitational effect that stretches a body along the line towards the center of mass of another body due to a gradient (difference in strength) in gravitational field from the other body; it is responsible for diverse phenomen ...

. The strong tidal pull of the neutron star is trying to force the ends of the ship (and Shaeffer himself) into two separate orbits. Shaeffer programs the autopilot in a thrust pattern that allows him to reach the

center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

of the ship in effective free-fall, though he nearly fails to do so. The ship reaches periapsis where tidal forces nearly pull Shaeffer apart anyway, but he manages to hold himself in the access space at the ship's center of mass and survives. After returning to We Made It, Shaeffer is hospitalized (he has received a sunburn by starlight blue-shifted into the ultraviolet) for observation at the Puppeteer's insistence. While explaining tidal forces to the Puppeteer, Schaeffer realizes the alien had no knowledge of tides, something that would be elementary for a sentient species living on a world with a moon. The Puppeteers are extremely cautious when dealing with other races, and keep all details about their homeworld secret. When Schaeffer mentions that he can tell reporters the fact that the Puppeteer's world has no moon, the Puppeteer agrees to give Shaeffer a million stars (a fortune in galactic currency) in return for his silence. Shaeffer asks the alien how he likes being blackmailed for a change.

Notes

*In the story "

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

", included as framing story for the ''

'' collection, Schaeffer is told that the Puppeteers were well aware of the tidal effect. The actual motive for them paying for Shaeffer's silence was that if they did not, he would realize this. By paying him, they could both shut him up and disseminate false information about the Puppeteer homeworld. *In the "Afterthoughts" section of the ''

Tales of Known Space ''Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven'' is a science fiction collection by American writer Larry Niven, collecting thirteen short stories published between 1964 and 1975 (all in Niven's ''Known Space'' future history) along with sev ...

'' collection, Niven writes: "I keep meeting people who have done mathematical treatments of the problem raised in the short story 'Neutron Star' ... Alas and dammit, Shaeffer can't survive. It turns out that his ship leaves the star spinning, and keeps the spin."

Reception

"Neutron Star" won the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

for Best Short Story and ranked #30 in the ''LOCUS'' Magazine Readers Poll, All-time Best Novellette.

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...

criticized "Neutron Star" for assuming that tidal forces produced by gravity would be forgotten, and that a crewed ship would not be the first to explore a neutron star. Reviewing the collection ''

Neutron Star A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...

'',

Algis Budrys Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), John ...

said that the story was "in itself worth the paperback price of admission".

References

External links

*
''Neutron Star''
in ''If'' at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Larry Niven Known Space stories Fiction set around neutron stars Short stories by Larry Niven Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works 1966 short stories Works originally published in If (magazine) cs:Neutronová hvězda (Niven) it:Stella di neutroni (racconto)

Plot summary

Notes

Reception

See also

References

External links