Size Matters
“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.” As Luke Withers busied himself chopping and neatly stacking enough wood to last the long cold night, just as his Pop had taught him, he stopped from time to time to think about the odd statement that professor-type at the fort dropped on the the assembled crowd last week. Fort Cottonwood sat on the Platte River in Western Nebraska, serving as defense, and a supply depot, for the unending stream of hopeful settlers moving West to Oregon in mid-nineteenth century America. Anyone could easily draw an attentive group of pilgrims and half-drunk soldiers for a few minutes if their speech was colorful enough. And given the universal curiosity about the mysterious night skies, Professor Booth’s lecture about space assured that a large group of tired and bored travelers eagerly attended.