Project Gutenberg 2010-04-14 Public domain in the USA. 66 Stockham, Richard Hunter, Mel 1927 2004 Hunter Perfect Control Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Perfect Control" by Richard Stockham is a science fiction short story published in the early 1950s. The narrative takes place in a future where space travel is a reality, exploring themes of adaptation and psychological impacts of prolonged isolation in space. The story follows Colonel Halter as he attempts to persuade the crew of the derelict starship Alpha to return to Earth after spending nearly seventy-five years in deep space. The plot unfolds as Colonel Halter communicates with the aging crew aboard the Alpha, who have become deeply accustomed to life in space, and are reluctant to abandon their existence. Through tense exchanges, Halter learns about their psychological adjustments and their fears regarding life on Earth, which have left them scarred by memories of conflict and violence. Each member, while initially resistant to returning, ultimately reveals aspects of their humanity and contributions to science and art, which are valuable to society. The climax reveals the captain's struggle with control over the crew and the ship's fate, but as the story progresses, the crew's desires for purpose and connection lead them toward a path of reintegration into society, highlighting the importance of community and engagement with the world. (This is an automatically generated summary.) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31985/31985-h/images/cover.jpg en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 66870 66879 2024-09-13T12:38:52.097602 2023-09-14T06:48:33.765333 text/html text/html 63015 2010-04-14T11:29:16 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 275987 2010-04-14T11:29:16 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 272482 2024-09-13T12:38:54.330176 application/epub+zip 271528 2024-09-13T12:38:52.521671 application/epub+zip 66713 2024-09-13T12:38:52.288611 application/epub+zip 311721 2024-09-13T12:38:55.883118 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 303306 2024-09-13T12:38:54.101147 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 100016 2022-09-14T15:53:17.314830 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 57826 57723 2024-09-13T12:38:51.905651 2023-09-14T06:48:33.601331 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 57741 2010-04-14T11:29:16 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 22108 2010-04-14T11:29:16 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 18822 2024-09-13T12:38:56.027078 application/rdf+xml 26291 2024-09-13T12:38:52.363602 image/jpeg 4574 2024-09-13T12:38:52.326601 image/jpeg 289398 2024-09-13T12:38:52.133630 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