Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition

Recoil by George O. Smith

This novelette concerns an experimental electron gun developed by Walt Franks at Venus Equilateral relay station to blast meteors threatening spaceships in transit. Franks, acting director while Don Channing honeymoons on Mars, collaborates with Jim Warren to test the superpowered weapon—a thirty-foot tube six feet in diameter, vastly enlarged from standard oscilloscope designs.

When a meteor appears, Franks powers the gun to maximum capacity, draining station power. Despite escalating output, the electron beam proves ineffective against the target. Under electrical strain, components fail catastrophically: insulators arc, anodes short, and the tube warps on its gimbals, destroying the apparatus. Franks accepts the failure philosophically, comparing it to early radio experimentation. The second meteor alarm immediately follows, with systems still attempting to track targets despite the damage—situating the narrative as technical problem-solving science fiction exploring weapons physics in space.