Project Gutenberg 2007-11-26 Public domain in the USA. 179 Leinster, Murray 1896 1975 Jenkins, Will Jenkins, William Fitzgerald Fitzgerald, William Jenkins, Will F. A Matter of Importance Produced from Astounding Science Fiction September 1959. Reading ease score: 76.9 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "A Matter of Importance" by Murray Leinster is a science fiction novella originally published in the late 1950s. The story revolves around the routine operations of space police who respond to emergencies in an interstellar setting, particularly focusing on the incident involving the passenger ship "Cerberus". As the plot unfolds, the narrative explores themes of duty, identity, and the complexities of handling unexpected situations in a futuristic universe where interactions with alien cultures and the remnants of past conflicts shape the actions of its characters. The plot follows Sergeant Madden, who is preparing to retire but is suddenly thrust into a critical mission when the "Cerberus" sends a distress signal. His son’s fiancée is aboard the ship, heightening the stakes personally for him. As Madden investigates the strange circumstances surrounding the ship's disappearance, it leads him to uncover the presence of the Huks, an alien race that had previously clashed with humanity but seems to have re-emerged. The sergeant navigates a blend of routine policing and extraordinary circumstances, ultimately leading to a negotiation with the Huks that seeks to establish a new understanding between the two species while ensuring the safety of the "Cerberus" and its passengers. The story culminates in an exploration of cooperation and the often blurred lines between perception and reality in interspecies relations. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 111264 111267 2024-10-10T09:11:07.805787 2023-09-10T11:34:07.599808 text/html text/html 108470 2007-11-26T14:47:30 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 180930 2007-11-26T14:47:30 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 259436 2024-10-10T09:11:14.028765 application/epub+zip 257927 2024-10-10T09:11:10.952755 application/epub+zip 99393 2024-10-10T09:11:09.658753 application/epub+zip 373792 2024-10-10T09:11:16.170777 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 364224 2024-10-10T09:11:13.128744 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 176218 2022-09-11T06:23:47.651838 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 101758 101638 2024-10-10T09:11:07.399775 2023-09-10T11:34:07.278778 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 101693 2007-11-26T14:47:30 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 37954 2007-11-26T14:47:30 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20087 2024-10-10T09:11:16.305708 application/rdf+xml 13842 2024-10-10T09:11:10.203733 image/jpeg 3909 2024-10-10T09:11:09.928744 image/jpeg 253055 2024-10-10T09:11:07.826742 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia