The Cold Equations

The 1950s were a golden age for science fiction writing. Americans had become increasingly interested in science for a number of reasons, including the explosion of the atom bomb at the end of the Second World War and the ensuing arms race with Cold War rival, the Soviet Union. These nuclear weapons developed since the Second World War could kill on an unprecedented level and made the possibility of nuclear holocaust increasingly real. Science fiction at this time entered high-technology fantasy lands while it simultaneously expressed concerns about the inhumane objectivity of science. Additionally, the Soviet Union’s portrayal in the American media, as a ruthless totalitarian regime that was the opposite of American democracy, also played a role in how writers like Godwin conceived the harsh laws of the space frontier.

A tension between the scientific calculation of an action that will benefit the majority, and the right of a personable individual to err and be forgiven, lies at the heart of “The Cold Equations.” On discovering that he has a stowaway in his ship, the nameless pilot barely has to steel himself to jettison the rule-breaker, who purports to sacrifice seven other lives for this misadventure. However, when the stowaway turns out not to be a foolhardy man, as the pilot expects, but a teenage girl who stowed herself away with no other motive than to see her beloved brother, he is flummoxed. While he knows all along that the cost of her mistake will be her death, the facts of her gender, her good intentions, and her obliviousness to the severity of the punishment for her crime makes the situation a trickier moral dilemma. Marilyn Cross and Gerry, the brother she longs to see, are named while the pilot is not. This indicates that while they operate as individuals, the pilot is a cog in the space frontier’s machine “where the lives of men could be as fragile and fleeting as sea foam tossed against a rocky shore” (Location 8738). This simile expresses humanity’s intense vulnerability on the space frontier, which is controlled by cold, unknowable forces. Their only defense against this are calculations and not the empathy that governs much of life on Earth.

The cold equation that gives the story its title is the one made by some distant technician, who calculates that based on the girl’s weight and the ship’s deceleration, she has 57 minutes to live. It is also 57 minutes for the pilot to become humane and switch off the communicator, so that the words of the girl in her final hour are not heard by others. He grants her the opportunity to say her goodbyes by writing to her parents and calling Gerry. In the process, he learns about the girl and her dependence on Gerry, whom she relies upon for the financial assistance that her parents are unable to provide. Gerry also protects her from harsh realities. This is illustrated in the anecdote in which Gerry pretended that her run-over kitten, Flossy, “was gone for just a little while, for just long enough to get herself a new fur coat,” in order to spare Marilyn the grief of absolute loss (Location 8923). While such gestures are possible during an earthly childhood, where a new cat can be purchased, Gerry can do nothing to save Marilyn now that she has come of age and subjected herself to the ways of the space frontier.

While Marilyn initially protests that death is an unreasonably harsh punishment, she quickly moves to accept her fate, as do the pilot and her brother, both of whom are seasoned space-farers. The latter part of the story is about making the best of a tragic situation. As the pilot extends Marilyn’s life as long as he can, she and Gerry declare their love, say goodbye, and coax each other into a charade of bravery. Still, after the phone call finishes and she is finally jettisoned, the scientific pilot is subject to the Gothic sensation that he is being haunted by a presence “that still sat small and bewildered” speaking the words “I didn’t do anything to die for—I didn’t do anything” (Location 9011). A form of role-reversal takes place, as Marilyn is forced to become rational and the pilot is swayed by his emotions.