impossible-acceleration
Donald observes spacecraft accelerating at speeds and directions that defy known physics, challenging his professional understanding of spaceflight.
1 chapter across 1 book
The Wanderer (1965)Fritz Leiber
In this chapter, Paul Hagbolt is abruptly transported into an alien saucer filled with a breathable, perfumed atmosphere and exotic flowers, where he is captured and mentally probed by a mysterious green and violet tiger-like creature. Meanwhile, Donald Merriam pilots the spaceship Baba Yaga as it is unexpectedly intercepted and escorted by two unknown saucer-shaped craft exhibiting null-gravity and impossible acceleration, leading to a tense approach toward the Wanderer planet's surface. The chapter explores the disorienting experience of alien technology and the limits of human understanding of physics and space travel.