Search Worlds Without End

Table of Contents:

• Shadows in the Sun
• The Shores of Another Sea
• Unearthly Neighbors

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Mid-September 1983. The story can also be found in the anthology Cities in Space (1991), edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr and the collection Far From This Earth: Selected Stories Volume 2 (2003).

Dr. Robert Nye, a nuclear physicist working at White Sands Missile Range has finally finished his space-time travel machine after 20 years of research. On the eve of its maiden voyage to Ancient Rome, Dr. Nye's nephew Mark is trapped inside and sent back in time to the year 50,000 BC when a nearby rocket test explosion sends him careening into the controls. When Mark arrives at his destination he must survive the two weeks it takes the space-time machine to recharge for the return trip with nothing but a few matches, a pocket knife, and a 6-shot .45 revolver.

A baboonery in Africa becomes a laboratory for terrifying extraterrestrial experiments.

The anthropologist's dream...

Monte Stewart was an extremely intelligent, somewhat contentious anthropologist with a sense of humor and a nonconformist approach to life. As an expert in his field, he was chosen to approach the first apparently human-like form of life ever to be encountered on another planet.

Here was the chance he had been waiting for all his life --- an opportunity to make contact, to investigate, to ascertain the facts about an altogether new man-like species, with the added knowledge that the peace of the worlds depended upon the establishment of friendly relations.

But Stewart and his team of experts couldn't get to first base. They tried for weeks --- then vicious unreasoned tragedy struck their camp.

What had gone wrong?

Who were these 'people'?

Why had they attacked the humans?

Stewart had failed in his mission; but for his own peace of mind he had to discover the answers, and he had to do it alone.

Anthropologist Paul Ellery discovers that the small Texas town of Jefferson Springs is actually an imitation of small-town America created by the aliens who now offer him a chance to explore the universe.

Volume 1 of selected stories, published posthumously. Twenty stories here, more in volume 2, "Far from this Earth."

Table of Contents

• Introduction (Howard Waldrop)
• Blood's a Rover
• The Land of Lost Content
• The Ant and the Eye
• Artifact
• Any More At Home Like You?
• Rewrite Man
• The Edge of Forever
• The Boy Next Door
• A Star Above It
• The Mother of Necessity
• Night
• Technical Advisor
• Between the Thunder and the Sun
• The One That Got Away
• Transfusion
• Guardian Spirit
• The Gift
• To Whom It May Concern
• A Stick for Harry Eddington
• Old Four-Eyes

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Priscilla Olson)
• Stardust
• Let Me Live in a House (Friend to Man)
• Field Expedient
• Transformer
• If Now You Grieve a Little (Hardly Worth Mentioning)
• Anachronism
• North Wind
• Pilgrimage
• The Wind Blows Free
• Of Course
• Rite of Passage
• Didn't He Ramble?
• Second Nature
• Ghost Town
• End of the Line
• Just Like a Man
• Far From This Earth
• King of the Hill
• Meanwhile Back on the Reservation
• A Lake of Summer

They were visitors from out of space.

They had slept for 15,000 years. But they were men. Nevertheless it was a fantastic experience for Wes Chase to discover them while on a casual fishing trip.

It was a long time before they were able to explain to Wes why they were on earth and what they needed. It was even longer before Wes conquered his horror and decided he could help them in their mission to bring peace to the universe.

When Wes finally found the daring answer to their problems, he realised that he would have to leave his own life behind and go with them into the future and the winds of time.