History Literature / TheColdEquations

Barton, the pilot of an Emergency Dispatch Ship (EDS) dropped from the Hyperspace cruiser ''Stardust'', discovers there's a stowaway on board, a young girl named Marilyn. His ship is taking a load of vaccines to the planet Woden, it has just enough precious fuel to make the deceleration and landing with no reserve, and if they don't land safely, an eight-man survey team will die. The EDS is designed to already be as light as possible, and there is no way to reduce the weight of the ship to compensate for Marilyn's mass. Typical practice as required by regulations is to immediately jettison stowaways. However, the situation is complicated because Marilyn is an innocent who just wanted to see her brother (who is stationed on Woden) and didn't know that stowing away on an EDS would carry a penalty any worse than a stiff fine.

* ShootTheDog: Either Barton spaces Marilyn, or she dies anyway, along with him and eight other people. He spaces her.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: The whole situation could have been avoided by a 30-second pre-launch check. Or, you know, maybe a lock on the door?

* DownerEnding: There's no solution to the problem that does not result in Marilyn having to be executed.

* TooDumbToLive: Subverted. Marilyn ''appears'' to be this for stowing away aboard an emergency vehicle where all stowaways are as a mandatory rule spaced, but apparently civilians aren't made aware of this rule and the only caution she is given is a big UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT! sign. Spelling out for civilians '''why''' they are to keep out probably would have saved Marilyn's life.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Very Hard (with the exception of hyperspace aircraft carriers), as the fuel dilemma is based around the application of the Rocket Equation, which can be simplified to: In space, you need fuel to lift the fuel, and more fuel to lift that fuel, so every gram counts.

->''H amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination.'' To himself and her brother and parents she was a sweet-faced girl in her teens; to the laws of nature she was ''x'', the unwanted factor in a cold equation. Also, ''Film/Stowaway2021'' is based on the same premise.

"The Cold Equations" is a {{Novelette}} by Tom Godwin, first published in ''Magazine/AstoundingScienceFiction'' in 1954, which has been done as a radio play for the ''Radio/XMinusOne'' radio drama of the 1950s, an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', and a 1996 made-for-TV movie for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]].

->''H amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination.'' To himself and her brother and parents she was a sweet-faced girl in her teens; to the laws of nature she was ''x'', the unwanted factor in a cold equation.

* BigBrotherWorship: Marilyn's motive. She has a big brother who works out on the frontier, she only sees him once every few years, and so she saves up money and sneaks aboard a ship she thinks is on its way to where he is. The irony is that even if the Cold Equation hadn't been in play, the shuttle was on its way to a different survey team on an entirely different continent of Woden, not to where her brother was stationed.

** While the Rocket Equation does limit the amount of fuel to be used in the EDS, the idea that a futuristic space shuttle would have fewer fail-safes or backups than a 20th century airplane (modern aircraft are always given a large enough fuel supply that, even if there's a delay due to weather or problems at the landing site, they can typically circle the runway for several minutes, or possibly even hours, regardless of the distance of the trip) is more than a little strange. Either the OSHA does not exist in the future, or someone decided that a shuttle that can literally hold only one person and a small amount of cargo, and just barely enough fuel to get them from point A to point B, is a good idea, something that in the 20th and 21st century would never leave the design phase. Possibly justified in that it's stated the EDS is a small emergency vehicle meant to be disposable, not for regular passenger service. [[note]] It's mentioned that the EDS has ''a little'' extra fuel, which is why Barton can give Marilyn an hour before she has to be spaced. The extra fuel that would be used to maneuver if there were a storm at his destination or some other complication was instead used to prolong the time before deceleration would start and the mass of the ship would have to be reduced in order to safely land. The computations for the changes were made on the main ship's computers and relayed back to the EDS with a combination of disapproval and understanding on their end. [[/note]]

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Every quality about Marilyn [[note]]Her name is a variation on "Mary Cross", a pretty spot-on name for a martyr[[/note]] and every word she speaks is meant to evoke reader sympathy for her. She didn't sneak aboard the shuttle for nefarious reasons, she just wanted to see her brother who is providing for her family with his high-paying job on the frontier. She's not a spoiled rich girl who thinks she can buy her way out of trouble, she's a hardworking girl from a poor family who saved up because she thought she would just get in trouble and have a fine to pay. She even offers to work and cook once they get to Woden for her upkeep.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Every quality about Marilyn [[note]]Her name is basically "Mary Cross", a pretty spot-on name for a martyr[[//note]] and every word she speaks is meant to evoke reader sympathy for her. She didn't sneak aboard the shuttle for nefarious reasons, she just wanted to see her brother who is providing for her family with his high-paying job on the frontier. She's not a spoiled rich girl who thinks she can buy her way out of trouble, she's a hardworking girl from a poor family who saved up because she thought she would just get in trouble and have a fine to pay. She even offers to work and cook once they get to Woden for her upkeep.

** While the Rocket Equation does limit the amount of fuel to be used in the EDS, the idea that a futuristic space shuttle would have fewer fail-safes or backups than a 20th century airplane (modern aircraft are always given a large enough fuel supply that, even if there's a delay due to weather or problems at the landing site, they can typically circle the runway for several minutes, or possibly even hours, regardless of the distance of the trip) is more than a little strange. Either the OSHA does not exist in the future, or someone decided that a shuttle that can literally hold only one person and a small amount of cargo, and just barely enough fuel to get them from point A to point B, is a good idea, something that in the 20th and 21st century would never leave the design phase. Possibly justified in that it's stated the EDS is a small emergency vehicle meant to be disposable, not for regular passenger service. [[note]] It's mentioned that the EDS has ''a little'' fuel, which is why Barton can give Marilyn an hour before she has to be spaced. The extra fuel that would be used to maneuver if there were a storm at his destination or some other complication was instead used to prolong the time before deceleration would start and the mass of the ship would have to be reduced in order to safely land. The computations for the changes were made on the main ship's computers and relayed back to the EDS with a combination of disapproval and understanding on their end. [[/note]]

* SettlingTheFrontier: Gerry Cross and the other colonists Barton is on his way to do are doing this, and in keeping with the trope's description, the dangers colonists face out on the frontier are fierce.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Every quality about Marilyn [[note]]Her name is basically "Mary Cross", a pretty spot-on name for a martyr[//note]] and every word she speaks is meant to evoke reader sympathy for her. She didn't sneak aboard the shuttle for nefarious reasons, she just wanted to see her brother who is providing for her family with his high-paying job on the frontier. She's not a spoiled rich girl who thinks she can buy her way out of trouble, she's a hardworking girl from a poor family who saved up because she thought she would just get in trouble and have a fine to pay. She even offers to work and cook once they get to Woden for her upkeep.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Throwing the girl out the airlock is necessary to get the vaccines to the colony. Barton doesn't want to do it but there is no other way.

Barton, the pilot of an Emergency Dispatch Ship (EDS) dropped from a Hyperspace cruiser, discovers there's a stowaway on board, a young girl named Marilyn. His ship is taking a load of vaccines to the planet Woden, it has just enough fuel to make the deceleration and landing with no reserve, and if they don't get there, 8 colonists will die. Also, there is no way to reduce the weight of the ship to compensate for Marilyn's mass. Typical practice as required by regulations is to jettison stowaways, as these vessels do not have any reserve fuel to allow a safe landing with the extra weight. However, the situation is complicated because Marilyn is an innocent who just wanted to see her brother (who is stationed on Woden) and didn't know that stowing away on an EDS would carry a penalty worse than a stiff fine.

The primary ship informs Barton there is no way the primary ship can retrieve Marilyn (other lives depend on their strict timetable as well), that there's no other ships in the area, and he knows there's no planetary launch available, either. He must reduce the ship's mass, but he lacks the appropriate means to, for example, seriously strip the ship of unnecessary components. (There's nothing on the ship that ''isn't'' necessary.) She can't land the ship either as it's not computer-piloted, so Barton can't sacrifice himself. Barton doesn't like the only choice available, and realizes that he's going to have to live with the thought of what he's going to have to do for the rest of his life.

Failing to reduce the ship's mass -- by spacing Marilyn -- will mean the ship will crash, and Barton, Marilyn and the colonists will die. Marilyn eventually accepts that there is no alternative, so after being able to reach her brother over the radio to say goodbye, Marilyn walks into the airlock, and Barton ejects her into space.

* BigBrotherWorship: Marilyn's motive. She has a big brother who works out on the frontier, she only sees him once every few years, and so she saves up money and sneaks aboard a ship she thinks is on its way to where he is. The irony is that even if the Cold Equation hadn't been in play, the shuttle was on its way to a different group on an entirely different continent of Woden, not to where her brother was stationed.

* EmotionsVsStoicism: Explored. On Earth people have achieved sedentary comfort and can afford to indulge tawdry displays of emotion like MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome. But out in the frontier where mankind is still exploring and conditions are much more hostile, only those who are or achieve the mindset of TheStoic survive long and those who make a living out on the frontier accept that there are certain... well, ''cold equations'' that cannot be bent or exempted because of sentiment. The reactions of Marilyn's family nicely highlight this: her parents, being from Earth, are predicted to hate Barton and not understand why he killed their daughter, while Marilyn's brother Gerry is reached and, despite his horror, understands at once that Marilyn is doomed and that no one can save her.

* InformedAttribute: Many of the issues raised on the "Headscratchers" page boil down to the fact that the ship is ''stated'' to be a bare-bones emergency delivery vehicle, but has many features (an airlock, a closet big enough for a stowaway to hide in, a cabin big enough to walk around in) that simply don't square with that label.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A secondary theme of the story. Barton is fully prepared to jettison the stowaway before he realizes it's a girl, and he spends a fair bit of time afterward angsting about what he will have to do solely because of Marilyn's gender. He states flat-out that he would have no issue with jettisoning a male, regardless of their age or reasons or the promise they had ahead of them, but because Marilyn is ''not'' of the expendable gender he does everything in his power to spare her, and when he realizes he can't, treats her graciously (gives her time to prepare, connects her with her brother so they can say goodbye) in a manner he certainly wouldn't have treated a male.

** While the Rocket Equation does limit the amount of fuel to be used in the shuttle, the idea that a futuristic space shuttle would have fewer fail-safes or backups than a 20th century airplane (modern aircraft are always given a large enough fuel supply that, even if there's a delay due to weather or problems at the landing site, they can typically circle the runway for several minutes, or possibly even hours, regardless of the distance of the trip) is more than a little strange. Either the OSHA does not exist in the future, or someone decided that a shuttle that can literally hold only one person and a small amount of cargo, and just barely enough fuel to get them from point A to point B, is a good idea, something that in the 20th and 21st century would never leave the design phase. [[note]] It's mentioned that the pod had a ''little'' fuel, which is why there was a certain amount of time before the girl had to be spaced. The extra fuel that would be used to maneuver if there were a storm at his destination or some other complication, was instead used to prolong the time before deceleration would start, the amount of time Marilyn had to live. The computations for the change were made on the main ship's computers and relayed back to the EDS with a combination of disapproval and understanding on their end. [[/note]]
** It's mentioned that the flight in question is an emergency flight being conducted at the absolute outer limit of the spacecraft's fuel range, with very little margin for error. Of course, this still doesn't excuse the total lack of a preflight inspection (as even the most cursory one would still have found the girl before takeoff), so OSHA still has lots of citations to hand out here. [[note]] At the same time, real life disasters such as the one that befell the Challenger show that such measures [[RealityIsUnrealistic are taken all the time.]] In that case, the Challenger's design flaw had been known about, but ignored because it had never caused a problem to the mission before. There is a reason why [[NoOSHACompliance this trope]] has a RealLife section on its page. However, missing a girl hiding in a closet would definitely be noted as a problem. [[/note]]

* ShootTheDog: Either Barton spaces Marilyn, or she dies anyway, along with him and six other people. He spaces her.

* TooDumbToLive: Subverted. Marilyn ''appears'' to be this for stowing away aboard a shuttle where all stowaways are as a mandatory rule spaced, but apparently civilians aren't made aware of this rule and the only caution she is given is a big KEEP OUT sign. Spelling out for civilians '''why''' they are to keep out probably would have saved Marilyn's life.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Every quality about Marilyn and every word she speaks is meant to evoke reader sympathy for her. She didn't sneak aboard the shuttle for nefarious reasons, she just wanted to see her brother. She's not a spoiled rich girl who thinks she can buy her way out of trouble, she's a hardworking girl from a poor family who saved up because she thought she would just get in trouble and have a fine to pay. She even offers to work and cook for her upkeep.

* BigBrotherWorship: Marilyn's motive. She has a big brother who works out on the frontier, she only sees him once every few years, and so she saves up money and sneaks aboard a ship she thinks is on its way to where he is. The irony is that even if the Cold Equation hadn't been in play, the shuttle was on its way to a different group.

* IdiotPlot: Originally intended as a subversion of '50s tropes about scientists, that point is now lost on most readers and instead one wonders why the ship was designed to work with ''only'' the exact amount of fuel needed, and how Marilynn was able to sneak onboard (see NoOSHACompliance and SwissCheeseSecurity below).

* TakeAThirdOption: The fact that there isn't one is the entire point. The story was written to be a [[http://zoo.nightstar.net/viewtopic.php?p=335078#p335078 subversion]] of early [[TheFifties 1950s]] ScienceFiction and its omnipotent men of ''SCIENCE!'' optimism.

"The Cold Equations" is a {{Novelette}} by Creator/TomGodwin, first published in ''Magazine/AstoundingScienceFiction'' in 1954, which has been done as a radio play for the ''Radio/XMinusOne'' radio drama of the 1950s, an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', and a 1996 made-for-TV movie for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]].

The primary ship informs Barton there is no way the primary ship can retrieve Marilyn (other lives depend on their strict timetable as well), that there's no other ships in the area, and he knows there's no planetary launch available, either. He must reduce the ship's mass, but he lacks the appropriate means to, for example, seriously strip the ship of unnecessary components. (There's nothing on the ship that ''isn't'' necessary.) She can't land the ship either as it's not computer-piloted, so Barton can't sacrifice himself. Barton doesn't like the only choice available, and realises that he's going to have to live with the thought of what he's going to have to do for the rest of his life.

* ColdEquation: This is the trope namer: the ship can handle X weight and has Y fuel and no amount of technobabble or heroic spirit is going to balance the equation when Marilyn is added in.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Throw the girl out the airlock is necessary to get the vaccines to the colony. Barton doesn't want to do it but there is no other way.

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: Barton notes that "On Earth [Marilyn's] plight would have filled the newscasts...Everyone, everywhere, would have known of Marilyn Lee Cross and no effort would have been spared to save her life." In space, however, there's no room for that kind of emotion.

* TakeAThirdOption: The fact that there isn't one is the entire point. The story was originally [[http://zoo.nightstar.net/viewtopic.php?p=335078#p335078 subversion]] of early [[TheFifties 1950s]] ScienceFiction and its omnipotent men of ''SCIENCE!''.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: The whole point of the story is to avert this trope.
* ColdEquation: The Trope Namer.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Throw the girl out the airlock to get the vaccines to the colony.

** It's mentioned that the flight in question is an emergency flight being conducted at the absolute outer limit of the spacecraft's fuel range, with very little margin for error. Of course, this still doesn't excuse the total lack of a preflight inspection (as even the most cursory one would still have found the girl before takeoff), so OSHA still has lots of citations to hand out here.
** At the same time, real life disasters such as the one that befell the Challenger show that such measures [[RealityIsUnrealistic are taken all the time.]] In that case, the Challenger's design flaw had been known about, but ignored because it had never caused a problem to the mission before. There is a reason why [[NoOSHACompliance this trope]] has a RealLife section on its page.

** While the Rocket Equation does limit the amount of fuel to be used in the shuttle, the idea that a futuristic space shuttle would have fewer fail-safes or backups than a 20th century airplane (modern aircraft are always given a large enough fuel supply that, even if there's a delay due to weather or problems at the landing site, they can typically circle the runway for several minutes, or possibly even hours, regardless of the distance of the trip) is more than a little strange. Either the OSHA does not exist in the future, or someone decided that a shuttle that can literally hold only one person and a small amount of cargo, and just barely enough fuel to get them from point A to point B, is a good idea, something that in the 20th and 21st century would never leave the design phase. [[note]] It's mentioned that the pod had a ''little'' fuel, which is why there was a certain amount of time before the girl had to be spaced. The extra fuel that would be used to maneuver if there were a storm at his destination or some other complication, was instead used to prolong the time before deceleration would start, the amount of time Marilyn had to live. The computations for the change were made on the main ship's computers and relayed back to the EDS with a combination of disapproval and understanding on their end [[/note]].

"The Cold Equations" is a {{Novelette}} by Creator/TomGodwin, first published in ''{{Magazine/Astounding}}'' in 1954, which has been done as a radio play for the ''Radio/XMinusOne'' radio drama of the 1950s, an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', and a 1996 made-for-TV movie for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]].

"The Cold Equations" is a short story by Tom Godwin, first published in ''Astounding'' in 1954, which has been done as a radio play for the ''Radio/XMinusOne'' radio drama of the 1950s, an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'', and a 1996 made-for-TV movie for the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]].