The Imaginary (Asimov)
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The Imaginary is a short story by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was intended as a sequel to Homo Sol, but was rejected by editor John Campbell who had requested it and eventually retired by the author. It was published in 1942 in Super Science Stories.
Whilst psychologist Tan Porus, is on leave from Arcturus University, two of his students carry out a potentially dangerous experiment on a squid that Porus has been using for research. The experiment goes badly wrong, and the creature starts to emit a 'death field' of radiation that starts to expand uncontrollably and can potentially kill all animal and plant life. Porus is urgently recalled from his home planet and devises a method of stopping the expansion, using mathematical theory. He volunteers to try the method himself, and succeeds in destroying the field.
| The Early Asimov |
| The Callistan Menace | Ring Around the Sun | The Magnificent Possession | Trends | The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use | Black Friar of the Flame | Half-Breed | The Secret Sense | Homo Sol | Half-Breeds on Venus | The Imaginary | Heredity | History | Christmas on Ganymede | The Little Man on the Subway | The Hazing | Super-Neutron | Not Final | Legal Rites | Time Pussy | Author! Author! | Death Sentence | Blind Alley | No Connection | The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline | The Red Queen's Race | Mother Earth |
