Looking för en historia där all sjukdom och sjukdom har eliminerats

"Helt oflexibel" av Robert Silverberg , först publicerad i Fantastic Universum , juli 1956 ; utskrift på New Worlds Science Fiction # 72, juni 1958 finns på Internetarkivet . Här är en sammandrag från Majipoor.com :

It's a nifty little time-travel paradox story. In the 28th Century, the Earth has been rid of disease, so germ-ridden time travelers from the past are quarantined at a prison on the moon where they can't infect the world's unprotected population.

Tar plats i en framtid där all sjukdom och sjukdom har eliminerats och lämnar människor med svaga immunförsvar. Huvudpersonen ansvarar för att skicka alla tidshoppar från det förflutna till en månkoloni för att förhindra spridning av sjukdom.

"But can't I live on Earth and stay in this space suit?" the time-jumper asked, panicky now that he saw his interview with Mahler was coming to an end. "That way I'd be sealed off from contact at all times."

"Please don't make this any harder for me," Mahler said. "I've explained to you why we must be absolutely inflexible about this. There cannot—must not—be any exceptions. It's two centuries since last there was any occurrence of disease on Earth. In all this time we've lost most of the resistance acquired over the previous countless generations of disease. I'm risking my life coming so close to you, even with the space suit sealing you off."

Rejäl bakåt i tiden antas omöjligt när en tidshoppare som hävdar att den har en dubbelriktad enhet är fast.

"Took this away from our latest customer," Fournet said. "He told the medic who examined him that it was a two-way rig, and I thought I'd bring it to show you."

Mahler came to full attention quickly. A two-way rig? Unlikely, he thought. But it would mean the end of the dreary jumper prison on the Moon if it were true. Only how could a two-way rig exist?

Den här tiden hoppar ser väldigt ut som huvudpersonen men skickas ändå till månkolonien.

The guards brought the jumper into Mahler's office. He was fairly tall, Mahler saw, and young. It was difficult to see his face clearly through the dim plate of the protective space suit all jumpers were compelled to wear, but Mahler could tell that the young time-jumper's face had much of the lean, hard look of Mahler's own. It seemed that the jumper's eyes widened in surprise as he entered the office, but Mahler was not sure.

Huvudpersonen tinkers med sin enhet, hoppar bakåt i tid,

He picked up the time-jumper's rig and examined it. A two-way rig would be the solution, of course. As soon as the jumper arrives, turn him around and send him back. They'd get the idea soon enough. Mahler found himself wishing it were so; he often wondered what the jumpers stranded on the Moon must think of him.

[. . .]

He touched his left hand gingerly to the indicated place. There was a little crackle of electricity. He let go, quickly, and started to replace the time-rig on his desk when the desk abruptly faded out from under him.

försöker återvända till sin tid och konfronteras med en duplikat av sig själv och skickas till månkolonin trots att han förklarar att han ställer en dubbelriktad enhet.

Suddenly Mahler saw the insane circle complete. He recalled the jumper, the firm, deep-voiced, unafraid time jumper who had arrived claiming to have a two-way rig and who had marched off to the Moon without arguing. Now Mahler knew who that jumper was.

But how did the cycle start? Where did the two-way rig come from in the first place? He had gone to the past to bring it to the present to take it to the past to—

His head swam. There was no way out. He looked at the man behind the desk and began to walk toward him, feeling a wall of circumstance growing around him, while he, in frustration, tried impotently to beat his way out.

It was utterly pointless to argue. Now with Absolutely Inflexible Mahler. It would just be a waste of breath. The wheel had come full circle, and he was as good as on the Moon. He looked at the man behind the desk with a new, strange light in his eyes.