Target Generation

aka Spacebred Generations

Story, first published: Science Fiction Plus, Aug. 1953
as Spacebred Generations


The surviving generations think of the ship as a world, not a mode of transport. The Myth and the Legend of the Ship have become a meaningless religion with "holy pictures" of Trees and Sky and Clouds, and knowledge has been suppressed. The story takes place at the Beginning of the End, when the ship rights itself preparatory to landing. The protagonist acquires the knowledge necessary to land the ship but must reintroduce killing, an outlawed act, to protect this knowledge and save the lives of the others.

Ewald, Robert J.: When the Fires Burn High and the Wind is from the North, p.70