Trends

Trends is a science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov.

It was first published in the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. It was later collected in 1967's Great Science Fiction Stories About the Moon and 1972's The Early Asimov.

Summary[]

Clifford McKenny, looking back from the year 2008, recounts how his boss John Harman was preparing to fly a rocket, Prometheus, to the Moon in 1973. On 14 July 1973, the day before the scheduled flight, a newspaper called the Clarion denounces Harman as an impious blasphemer for daring to profane the heavens with his rocket ship, and warns that if the government won't stop him, "our enraged citizenry may have to take matters into their own hands". The head of the research institute Harman works for tries to dissuade him, arguing that popular opposition to his work is too strong. Harman refuses to listen.

On the day of the flight, after Harman enters Prometheus and prepares to launch it, it explodes, killing 28 members of a mostly hostile crowd led by a powerful evangelist named Otis Eldredge. McKenny learns that his coworker Shelton, an Eldredge follower, sabotaged the rocket. The next day, a mob led by an injured Eldredge converges on the hospital where Harman is recuperating, and is barely kept from lynching him. Within a week, a bill passes Congress making rocket experiments a capital crime, and it becomes clear to McKenny that Harman will not be allowed to leave the hospital. He smuggles Harman out and takes him to his uncle's farm in Minnesota.

Within six months, Harman is preparing to try again. McKenny is sent to Chicago to collect the remainder of Harman's personal fortune, and to recruit a handful of trusted engineers. Over the next five years, Harman oversees the construction of New Prometheus. At the same time, Eldredge's followers gain control of Congress, which establishes the Federal Scientific Research Investigatory Bureau to scrutinize and control all scientific research. Eldredge's death in 1976 does not deter his followers, who continue to restrict scientific research. On 25 March 1978, the FSRIB issues the Easter Edict, forbidding all independent scientific research. A month later, Harman launches New Prometheus and succeeds in making a free return trajectory around the Moon. Harman lands across the Potomac from Washington, DC, and before collapsing, announces that he has been to the Moon. The news of Harman's feat, combined with Eldredge's absence and growing popular discontent at the extreme policies of the FSRIB, causes a reaction against antiscientism, and Harman is acclaimed as a hero.

Characters[]

John Harman – Protagonist and scientist
Clifford McKenny – Narrator and helper
Otis Eldredge – Antagonist and evangelist
Shelton – Saboteur and Eldredge follower

Spaceships[]

Prometheus (sabotaged rocket)
New Prometheus (successful Moon rocket)

Places[]

Earth
- Chicago
  - Harman's research institute
  - Hospital
- Prometheus Launch site
- Minnesota
  - McKenny's uncle's farm
- Washington
  - Potomac River (landing site)
Moon

External Links[]

Full text (pdf - Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1939 issue)