Project Gutenberg 2008-03-27 Public domain in the USA. 105 Sevcik, Al A Matter of Magnitude Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "A Matter of Magnitude" by Al Sevcik is a science fiction short story written in the late 1950s. The narrative revolves around the massive spaceship named Senator Joseph L. Holloway, affectionately known as Big Joe, which is commanded by the awe-struck six-star Admiral Heselton. The story explores themes of technological hubris and the unexpected outcomes of intergalactic interactions, delivering a commentary on perception and scale. The storyline unfolds as Admiral Heselton and his crew aboard Big Joe receive a mysterious transmission from an alien ship that remains undetectable by their radar and optical equipment. In a tense exchange, the admiral realizes that the aliens can see Big Joe clearly, while his own crew is entirely unaware of their presence. As the aliens express annoyance at the sight of the heavily armed battleship, Heselton faces an embarrassing truth: their powerful vessel is dwarfed by an alien craft that is much smaller, measuring only an inch and a half in length. Ultimately, this encounter forces the crew to retreat, highlighting the irony of their situation and the limitations of their technological superiority. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories Space ships -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 38620 38629 2024-09-10T13:50:04.475482 2023-09-11T06:55:12.209315 text/html text/html 34708 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 13703 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 61420 2024-09-10T13:50:07.427485 application/epub+zip 60418 2024-09-10T13:50:05.615542 application/epub+zip 60418 2024-09-10T13:50:04.889492 application/epub+zip 151042 2024-09-10T13:50:08.876488 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 144356 2024-09-10T13:50:06.966515 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 144527 2022-09-11T12:44:22.724618 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 32629 32528 2024-09-10T13:50:04.289556 2023-09-11T06:55:12.048321 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 32499 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 12642 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 18519 2024-09-10T13:50:09.008441 application/rdf+xml 13908 2024-09-10T13:50:05.228482 image/jpeg 3763 2024-09-10T13:50:05.060464 image/jpeg 62822 2024-09-10T13:50:04.480486 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