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An expedition from Earth to Mars discovers a deserted city, the remains of an advanced civilization that died out 50,000 years before. The human scientists recover books and documents left behind, and are puzzled by their contents. Without the Martian equivalent of the Rosetta Stone, how will they ever be able to translate the language of this lost civilization?

Originally published in the February 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, this story was later collected in Federation and anthologized in Prologue to Analog, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr., Great Science Fiction Stories About Mars, edited by T. E. Dikty, Apeman, Spaceman: Anthropological Science Fiction, edited by Leon E. Stover and Harry Harrison, Mars, We Love You: Tales of Mars, Men, and Martians, edited by Jane Hipolito and Willis E. McNelly, Where Do We Go from Here?, edited by Isaac Asimov, and The World Turned Upside Down, edited by Eric Flint, Jim Baen, and David Drake.

Read this story for free at the Gutenberg Library link above.

The Paratime series of several stories dealing with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories. It uses that ability to trade for goods and services that their exhausted Earth cannot provide. Stories included are: He Walked Around the Horses, Police Operation, Last Enemy, Temple Trouble, Genesis, Time Crime.

Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of Paratime alternate history tales.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1981) - essay by John F. Carr
• He Walked Around the Horses - (1948) - novelette
• Police Operation - (1948) - novelette
• Last Enemy - (1950) - novella
• Time Crime - (1955) - novella
• Temple Trouble - (1951) - novelette

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1983) - essay by John F. Carr
• Time and Time Again - (1947) - short story
• The Mercenaries - (1950) - novelette
• Dearest - (1951) - short story
• Hunter Patrol - (1959) - novelette with John J. McGuire
• Flight from Tomorrow - (1950) - novelette
• Operation R.S.V.P. - (1951) - short story
• Genesis - - (1951) - novelette
• The Answer - (1959) - short story
• Crossroads of Destiny - (1959) - short story
• Day of the Moron - (1951) - novelette

Table of Contents:

• Four-Day Planet - (1961) - novel by H. Beam Piper
• Lone Star Planet - novel by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire (variant of A Planet for Texans 1958)

Read Four-Day Planet for free at Project Gutenberg.
Read Lone Star Planet for free at Project Gutenberg.

Gunner Cade

The Emperor had no more devoted Armsman than Gunner Cade. In this warped civilization of murder and death, Cade fought as he was expected to, killed as he was expected to, destroying enemy after enemy until he himself was shot down in honorable battle.

But Cade did not die. After weeks of unconsciousness, he awoke to find he was a fugitive, the object of a world-wide manhunt. Why was it so important to silence him? What undiscovered secret did he possess as he desperately fled over the earth and into outer space?

Crisis in 2140

Black market in forbidden knowlegde.

The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number or alternate time dimensions. Their aim was to keep the existence of the alternate Earths a secret and prevent these Earths from mixing and destroying each other.

But the TIme Police made mistakes sometimes, and they made a big one when a seemingly ordinary Pennsylvania State Trooper named Calvin Morrison from the Fourth Level, Europo-American, Hispano-Columbian subsector, was accidently switched into the Aryan Transpacific sector, Stypon's House sector.

In just a few weeks, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvan, and was masterminding a campaign that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky-high.....

Star Born

When Raf Kurbi's Terran spaceship burst into unexplored skies of the far planet Astra and was immediately made welcome by the natives of a once-mighty metropolis, Kurbal was unaware of three vital things:

One was that Astra already harbored an Earth colony--descended from refugees from the worl of the previous century.

Two was that these men and women were facing the greatest danger of their existence from a new outburst of inhuman fiends who had once tyrannized Astra.

Three was that the natives who were buying Kurbi's science know-how were those very fiends--and their intentions were implacably deadly for all humans, whether Earth born or STAR BORN.

A Planet for Texans

When the whole ornery state of Texas took off for a new planet more to their liking, New Texas was the result: a rough-and-tumble world where everyone packs a gun and it's legal to shoot politicians (if they deserve it)! But now these rugged and independent space pioneers are the targets of an expansive race of aliens. Is the Solar League's new ambassador tough enough to steer them back to Earth's embrace

The four-armed reptilian natives of the planet Uller revolt against the chartered company from the Terran Federation which rules them.

Fenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hour days and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killing cold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: tough enough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. When that kind of person discovers he's being cheated of wealth he's risked his life for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.

Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, "The Junkyard Planet", with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real, or just an old rumor? And if they find it will it save them, or tear them apart?

After a galaxy-wide war had left the planetary federation in ruins, every surviving civilized world was on its own. And that was a perfect setup for the marauders from the far-out rim. Trask was one of those dreaded Space Vikings, a warrior spaceman with a crew and a ship that struck terror to a thousand worlds. But Trask had a special personal interest in sourging the stars - he wanted to draw upon himself the fire of a certain enemy - a renegade planet-wrecker with a yen for empire-building

The ultimate source of Piper's future history, this collection contains:

• Omnilingual
• Naudsonce
• Oomphel in the Sky
• Graveyard of Dreams
• When in the Course

Collected here for the first time anywhere are four of the best stories by one of the Grand Old Masters of science fiction.

• Empire: The Edge of the Knife
• A Slave is a Slave
• The Ministry of Disturbance
• The Return (with John J. McGuire)
• The Keeper

When the Zarathustra Company takes over a supposedly uninhabited planet, reaping it for all that it is worth, Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector, and his family of Fuzzies are determined to save this world from utter destruction.

The pendarvis decision had declared the Fuzzies to be intelligent beings - guaranteed them protection and security. But just how much were those assurances worth?

The friendship between human Jack Holloway and the small, golden-furred creatures of the planet Zarathustra has a profound impact on both Holloway and the Fuzzies.