William Walling - Free Library Land Online - Mystery

Short Stories Complete

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 14:20:43 +0200

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No One Goes There Now

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 14:20:40 +0300

The planet Dan is the prize of the scant few dozen habitable worlds discovered by the inhabitants of Earth in hundreds of years of exploration. The planet is green and lovely, and the Danii are quiet and thoughtful, not revealing themselves at first, but preferring to watch and wait as colonization begins in earnest.

And it is a truly strange culture that begins to develop before them. For human society, still recovering from the interplanetary warfare of 500 years before, has approved the Code Duello as the behavioral norm of Earth’s elite. Under this archaic rule nobles slice it out with swords at imagined slights, ladies ooh and ah, and revival is possible, although almost never requested, in the event of demise—all to bind the aggressive instinct.

All of this the Danii observe in mute horror, disapproving of violence in any form. And when the day comes that they begin to make their displeasure known, the means that they choose provides a chilling and ironic climax that raises several provocative questions about man’s real place in the eternal scheme of things.

The World I Left Behind Me

Tue, 20 Feb 1979 14:20:42 +0300

In THE WORLD I LEFT BEHIND ME an engaging crew, a madcap scheme, and a brilliant technological rationale combine to create a memorable adventure story.

Roger Shore is perplexed when the strange “Mr. Smith” materializes in his laboratory with questions about the development of a faster-than-light vehicle; he is even more surprised when tapes of the exchange record his voice only; and thoroughly astounded when his supervisor reveals the existence of just such a project and invites him to be a member of the Project Demeter team. Interstellar flight a reality!

Inaugurated when Kenneth Chew, rotund and single-minded physicist, makes the atomic breakthrough, Project Demeter attracts an intrepid and endearing crew, including the lovely Dr. Alexis Smith. Their goal: starflight to Alpha Centauri. Their base on the distant planet of Ceres is far from prying eyes on Earth, where growing Third World interests would be most hostile to such profligacy. But its very distance renders the crew more vulnerable to near-fatal interference from a hostile alien force with its very good reasons for ensuring the failure of this bold mission.

For the stakes are far higher than Roger and his comrades even dare imagine. Travel at greater than the speed of light would evidence a technological breakthrough which would qualify Earth for inclusion in an intergalactic assemblage of intelligences.

Olympus Mons

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 06:46:03 +0200

An obscure medical researcher develops Bevvinase, the "miracle enzyme" capable of driving carbon dioxide-to oxygen conversion within the organism, a radical innovation that opens the hostile Martian environment to permanent colonization. Decades later, several hundred Burroughs Enclave denizens are teetering on the brink of becoming a "lost colony" when former intelligence officer and alpinist Jesperson, together with his work-partner Barnes, both deported felons, are among the few hundred "Marsrats" - Mars-rationalized, carbon-dioxide-breathing humans - living within the pressurized, roof-shielded crater housing Burroughs in proximity to the long shadow of the immense Olympus Mons shield volcano and its vast aqueduct system, the sole source of essential water. A minor eruption and ensuing quake causes unknown damage to the aqueduct system, and the ﬂow of water abruptly ceases, while at the same time a brewing earthly economic crisis provides a reason for the enclave's former...