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"Solar Plexus" is a 5000-word short story by James Blish, about a human mind that has been hardwired into a spaceship. The story was first published in the September, 1941 issue of Astonishing Stories.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Brant Kittinger is an astronomer doing research on an isolated station in the outer solar system. A ship approaches, but he cannot raise it on the radio. He soon hears a tapping on the hull of his station, which he assumes is someone trying to get into the station. He opens the airlock, but finds only a tube running to the other ship. He goes to the other ship, and finds no one there, except for a disembodied voice, which says it is the ship he is in. That ship is called the Astrid, and the voice explains that the Astrid’s owner, Murray Bennett, had been conducting experiments in connecting the human brain up to a computer-controlled spaceship. When the government tried to shut down the research program, Bennett had transferred his own mind over to the Astrid computer, and the voice of the Astrid now tells Kittinger that it is the voice of both the ship and Murray Bennett. It/he says that it lacks direction and purpose, and asks Kittinger what avenue of research it should now pursue. Kittinger instructs the ship to return to a government base and give itself up, so the ship orders Kittinger to a holding cell.

There Kittinger encounters another prisoner, a government pilot named Powell who had been captured by the Astrid earlier. Kittinger then devises a plan of escape. He kicks the walls of the ship, to confirm that the Astrid can feel it. Then he and Powell find the auto-pilot and smash it. Kittinger explains:

“When I kicked the wall, I wanted to make sure that he could feel the impact of my shoes. If he could, then I could be sure that he hadn’t eliminated the sensory nerves when he installed the motor nerves. And if he hadn’t, then there were bound to be pain axons present, too.”

“But what has the autopilot to do with it?” Powell asked plaintively.

“The autopilot,” Brant said, grinning, “is a center of his nerve-mesh, an important one. He should have protected it as heavily as he protected the main computer. When I smashed it, it was like ramming a fist into a mans’ solar plexus. It hurt him.”

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 3 (1941).

To see specific information, such as anthologies containing Solar Plexus, please click the Solar Plexus category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Solar Plexus, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page.