A Long Way Back by Ben Bova Episode #504
Ben Bova | March 1, 2026-
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A Long Way Back by Ben Bova Episode #504
Ben Bova
A LONG WAY BACK
Episode #504 · Written by Ben Bova · Narrated by Scott Miller
The world below is shattered, its cities scarred by war and its knowledge fading year by year. A small settlement has staked its future on an abandoned satellite designed to beam solar power back to Earth—but someone must assemble it in orbit. Thomas H. Morris is that someone.
Tom is not an engineer. He is a historian chosen because he can be taught through hypnosis and because he can be spared. Alone in space, encased in a failing ship with limited oxygen and no margin for error, he works piece by piece to bring the silent machine to life. The cold creeps in. The batteries fail. The radio crackles with voices that urge him onward. Down below, the settlement believes the satellite will solve everything. Up above, Tom begins to see that power without knowledge is only another fragile illusion.
As the final components lock into place, Tom makes a discovery that changes the mission entirely. With fuel nearly gone and no safe return guaranteed, he must decide not only whether to survive—but what kind of future he is willing to secure for those who sent him into the void. The last maneuver he makes will determine where civilization begins again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Bova (1932–2020) became one of the most significant figures in modern science fiction. He served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact from 1972 to 1978, following John W. Campbell, and won six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor. As a novelist, Bova authored more than 120 books, including the expansive Grand Tour series—Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and many others—which explored humanity’s expansion into the solar system with scientific rigor and political realism. His nonfiction works, such as The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells, influenced aspiring writers for decades. In early stories like A Long Way Back, Bova combined hard scientific detail with sharp ethical tension, focusing not only on technology but on the human decisions that shape its use.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to A Long Way Back by Ben Bova — a vintage science fiction short story about a lone astronaut forced to choose humanity’s future from orbit.
RELATED STORIES
Apocalyptic science fiction is never gentle, and it never arrives without warning. These stories imagine worlds pushed past the point of recovery, where collapse unfolds in slow dread or sudden fire. Civilizations fail, skies darken, and the rules people once trusted no longer apply.
The focus isn’t on the end itself, but on what comes after—scarcity, hard choices, and the thin line between survival and surrender. Technology may linger as a relic, a weapon, or a false promise, while human instincts sharpen under pressure. In these futures, hope is fragile, rebuilding is uncertain, and every decision carries the weight of a world that already fell.
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