Letar efter sci-titel om android som vaknar med inget minne, men måste döda sin mänskliga dubbel. Om han misslyckas tar en annan sin plats. 1960-talet?

Det här är ett långt skott, men det kan vara en förvirrad påminnelse om noveletten "God natt, herr . James " aka " Puudlyens natt " av Clifford D. Simak . Du kan läsa den på Internetarkiv .

Letar efter historia om en mänsklig android som vaknar utan minne

Han har lite minne men det finns tomma fläckar. Han vet till exempel att han heter Henderson James. (Egentligen är han en android duplikat av Mr James.)

He became aware from non-remembering.

He came alive from nothing.

[. . .]

His name was Henderson James and he was a human being and he was sitting somewhere on a planet that was called the Earth. He was thirty-six years old and he was, in his way, famous, and comfortably well off. He lived in an old ancestral home on Summit Avenue, which was a respectable address even if it had lost some of its smartness in the last twenty years or so.

[. . .]

His name was Henderson James and if that were true, why was he here? Why should Henderson James be sitting on the slope of an embankment, listening to the wind in the trees and to a sobbing whistle and a barking dog? Something had gone wrong, some incident that, if he could but remember it, might answer all his questions.

There was a job to do.

men med ett uppdrag, att döda sin mänskliga dubbel.

I Simaks berättelse skapades android-duplikat för att döda, inte den verkliga mr. James, men en farlig utomjordisk varelse som heter puudly :

The puudly had escaped and that was why he was here, hiding on the front lawn of some unsuspecting and sleeping citizen, equipped with a gun and a determination to use it, ready to match his wits and the quickness of brain and muscle against the most bloodthirsty, hate-filled thing yet found in the galaxy.

Any puudly was dangerous. It was not a thing to harbor. In fact, there was a law against harboring not only a puudly, but certain other alien beasties much less lethal than a puudly. There was good reason for such a law, reason which no one, much less himself, would even think to question.

And now the puudly was loose and somewhere in the city.

James grew cold at the thought of it, his brain forming images of the things that might come to pass if he did not hunt down the alien beast and put an end to it.

Efter att ha tagit bort puudly , upptäcker android-duplikat att han är en duplikat, och så sätter han ut för att döda och ersätta den verkliga mr James så att han, dubleten, kan leva :

He walked to a chair and sank into it, spent with the knowledge of how events had so been ordered that now finally he was safe, safe beyond all question.

Soon he would have to change into other clothes, hide the gun and the clothes that he was wearing. The staff would ask no questions, of course, but it was best to let nothing arouse suspicion in their minds.

Om han misslyckas (som andra har), vaknar en annan och tar upp samma uppdrag.

Nej, det finns bara en dubblett, och det finns ingen andra chans, eftersom puudly håller på att buda:

For the puudly would bud. It was long past its time for the reproductive act and there were bare hours left to find it before it loosed upon the Earth dozens of baby puudlies. They would not remain babies for long. A few hours after budding they would strike out on their own. To find one puudly, lost in the vastness of a sleeping city, seemed bad enough; to track down some dozens of them would be impossible.

So it was tonight or never.

Target är en corporate power exec.

Den delen matchar inte. I Simaks berättelse är det ursprungliga målet ett främmande monster; Det andra målet, den verkliga mr. James, är inte en maktexek utan en vetenskapsman:

Henderson James. Thirty-six. Unmarried. Alien psychologist. An official of this zoo. And an offender against the law for having secured and harbored an alien being that was barred from Earth.

Läs runt mitten av 60-talet.

Simaks berättelse, publicerad i Galaxy Science Fiction , mars 1951 , återtrycktes i flera antologier och samlingar, inklusive Alla fällor från jorden och andra Berättelser (1962), Tiden med oändligheten (1963) och Puudlyens natt (1964).