Scrimshaw

"Scrimshaw" by Murray Leinster is a science fiction novella written in the mid-20th century. Set on the far side of the Moon, the story explores themes of memory recovery and human resilience in extreme environments. The narrative follows Pop Young, a man who, after losing his family to a brutal crime, seeks to recover the lost memories of his past while performing his duties as the caretaker of a mining colony. The story revolves around Pop, who endures the harsh conditions of the lunar surface while grappling with fragmented recollections of his wife and children, who were murdered by a man named Sattell. As Pop attempts to piece together his lost memories, he discovers that being near Sattell triggers vivid flashes of his past, leading to a powerful yet haunting portrayal of his journey. When a red-headed thief attempts to rob Pop of the valuable diamonds extracted from the mine, the tension escalates, culminating in a dramatic explosion. Ultimately, Pop's determination to reclaim his memories transforms his pain into creativity, and he begins to use a unique material discovered in the wreckage for his artistic endeavors, signifying hope and the possibility of healing. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Murray Leinster was a pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of genre fiction, particularly of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.