Project Gutenberg 2006-05-08 Public domain in the USA. 152 Piper, H. Beam 1904 1964 Piper, Henry Beam Piper, Horace Beam The Answer Produced from Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, December, 1959 Wikipedia page about this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_(short_story) Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Answer" by H. Beam Piper is a science fiction short story originally published in the late 1950s. It delves into the repercussions of nuclear conflict and the psychological effects of past traumas on its characters. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where two scientists reflect on the events of a nuclear war that devastated their respective nations and the importance of their current scientific experiment. In the narrative, Lee Richardson and his colleague Alexis Pitov prepare for a scientific experiment involving a negamatter missile that they hope will yield crucial insights into the fundamental structures of matter. As they confront their shared histories and the horrors of the past—specifically, a missile that had annihilated their cities—they discuss the catastrophe of the Auburn Bomb that had catalyzed their loss. Throughout the experiment, they wrestle with the weight of their collective guilt, embers of distrust from their former rivalry, and the ominous possibilities of their current research. The story culminates in an unexpected revelation about the nature of their experiment and the haunting connections to their previous traumas, emphasizing themes of regret, redemption, and the enduring consequences of human actions. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 72.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Science Fiction Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 53115 2025-08-08T04:07:33.694001 text/html 49553 2006-05-08T07:30:50 text/html 86687 2025-08-08T04:07:37.372999 application/epub+zip 85349 2025-08-08T04:07:35.240009 application/epub+zip 85349 2025-08-08T04:07:34.235021 application/epub+zip 155167 2025-08-08T04:07:38.910122 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 147637 2025-08-08T04:07:36.773023 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 123945 2022-09-08T16:00:14.852447 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 47101 2025-08-08T04:07:33.451050 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 47013 2006-05-08T07:30:50 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 19040 2025-08-08T04:07:42.145999 application/rdf+xml 10974 2025-08-08T04:07:34.718027 image/jpeg 2998 2025-08-08T04:07:34.475004 image/jpeg 19176 2006-05-08T07:30:50 application/octet-stream application/zip 18231 2006-05-08T07:30:50 application/octet-stream application/zip 84967 2025-08-08T04:07:33.699045 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia