Small step for man essentially inspiring a work of science fiction (5,5)

'science fiction' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'small step for man essentially inspiring a work' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is located in the answer.
'step' could be 'pace' (pace is a kind of step) and 'pace' is present in the answer.
'man' could be 'r' (abbreviation for rook, a chess piece or 'man') and 'r' is located in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
'work' could be 'op' (abbreviation for opus) and 'op' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?