A Matter of Magnitude

"A Matter of Magnitude" by Al Sevcik is a science fiction tale from the late 1950s that follows Admiral Heselton and his crew aboard the colossal spaceship Big Joe. The story grapples with ideas about excessive pride in technology and the surprising results when different civilizations meet. The ship's crew gets a strange message from an alien ship that they cannot find with their technology. The admiral discovers that the aliens can easily see Big Joe, but his own crew cannot detect the aliens. The aliens express their unhappiness at the sight of the armed battleship, the admiral comes to the humbling realization that their enormous ship looks very small to the tiny aliens that are only an inch and a half, forcing them to retreat and proving that technology and size aren't everything.