Jag försöker identifiera en novell som min pappa läste för mig som barn. Han sa att det var från en sammanställning av noveller kring temapokalypsen och tidsresor. Plotlinjen handlar om forskare som hittar ett sätt att skicka saker fram och tillbaka mellan nutiden och framtiden. Historien slutar med en liten staty av en kackerlacka i en rörmokarens outfit som kommer genom maskinen.
"The Figure" , en kort historia av Edward Grendon (pseudonym för Lawrence LeShan ), publicerad först Förvånande Science Fiction , juli 1947 , tillgängligt på Internetarkiv . Om din pappa läste den i en antologi av tidsresor, var det förmodligen Travels Through Time , en 1981-inbunden redigerad av Isaac Asimov , Martin H. Greenberg och Charles G . Waugh .
How far in the future our gadget would operate we had no way of knowing. Lasker said he would not even attempt to estimate "when" the field was active. When the power was turned off, anything that was in the cube of forces would be brought back to the present space-time. In other words, we had a "grab" that would reach out and drag something back from the future.
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The figure on top is standing up very straight and looking upwards. It's dressed only in a wide belt from which a pouch hangs on one side and a flat square box on the other. It looks intelligent and is obviously representing either aspiration or a religious theme, or maybe both. You can sense the dreams and ideals of the figure and the obvious sympathy and understanding of the artist with them. Lasker says he thinks the statue is an expression of religious feeling. Dettner and I both think it represents aspirations: Per adra ad astra or something of the sort. It's a majestic figure and it's easy to respond to it emphatically with a sort of "upward and onward" feeling. There is only one thing wrong. The figure is that of a beetle.
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