The Time Snatcher by Randall Garrett - Tampering with events of the past could bring disastrous results in the future. It was why Brek was given a pair of six-guns to catch—The Time Snatcher.
'We're in a hell of a jam, Brek,' the Councillor said. 'If Sagginer isn't stopped, he'll change history. The situation's desperate.'
Time Patrolman Brek Halliday nodded in agreement. It was a tense situation. Time travel, he knew, was possible only so long as the traveller into the past did nothing that would change history significantly; the time-stream itself would straighten out little changes in the past so that overall history would remain the same.
But a big change was something else again. If you stick your finger in a river, there are a few ripples around it, but the flow of the river remains the same. If you build a dam, though....
'When is he?' Brek asked. 'Do we know?'
'Fortunately, yes. He forced one of our operators to use one of the chronokinetic projectors, and then kidnapped her and took her with him. But he didn't know that the power drain was measurable and had been recorded on the meters. We know how much energy he used, so we know how far into the past he went. We've got him pinpointed in the area of the old United States, somewhere between 1880 and 1895.'
'Who was the girl he kidnapped?' Brek asked.
The Councillor smiled apologetically. 'Dori Clayton.'
The muscles of Halliday's jaw tightened. 'I see,' he said stiffly. 'When do I leave?'
'We'll prepare you immediately. It's going to be a touchy job to get both of them out of there, so watch yourself.'
'Don't worry,' Halliday said quietly. 'I'll manage it.' He walked out, eyes hot with rage, thinking of Dori in Sagginer's clutches. His hands slowly clenched and unclenched as he headed down the long hall.
The Alien did not intend to crash land on earth, but he did. The alien tried to communicate with humans, but he could not. The alien did not wish to be captured, and so he wasn't. For over 5 years he roamed, looting and killing as necessary. Why could the combined forces and brains of all the nations on earth not deal with him or it? Well, Earth was faced with a strange problem indeed. They had to have a superman. And there weren't any available. So perhaps one had to be made....
Randall Garrett had this story first published in Astounding Science Fiction September and October of 1959. His twisted sense of humor and gift for the bizarre situation with believable characters shines here. In the not too distant future, Ken Malone, young but promising FBI agent , is given the most important and difficult assignment of his career: find a spy who is stealing information from the Ultra Top Absolute Secret project to develop a non-rocket space ship at Yucca Flats Labs in Nevada. But this is not a normal spy, this spy laughs at the FBI and all attempts to find him or her because they use an unknown new method to steal the information directly from the minds of the scientists. And then of course, there is the Sweet Little Old Lady who is immortal and the stunning nurse and the Las Vegas gangsters and ... well, you had better listen to the story to find out the details.
The irrepressible Science Fiction author Randall Garrett wrote a wide array of short stories for the SF magazines of his day poking fun at many of the then current cherished beliefs, but he had a habit of writing under many different names. These three stories were all published in the 1960's and no matter what the by-line may look like, be assured they were all written by him in his quirky, imaginative and very entertaining style. The three here for your enjoyment are: With No Strings Attached; The Destroyers and In Case of Fire
Any war is made up of a horde of personal tragedies—but the greater picture is the tragedy of the death of a way of life. For a way of life—good, bad, or indifferent—exists because it is dearly loved....or at least that is the theory. Is freedom always a good thing? Is the act of destroying a way of life to spread 'freedom' something that is always wanted or desired, or is it just another brutal way of imposing slavery and a sad life on people who do not have any wish to change.
The peace negotiations between Earth and the Karna were plodding along slowly and the earth seemed to be coming off a poor second best. The war had been horrible but the peace could either be a big boon to earth or a disaster depending on how the treaty was finally worded. Unfortunately the quality of men available to the diplomatic corps had been going down and down as the war continued. Now he had to use the dregs, those with serious mental defects and psychosis to do the best Earth could. So that is exactly what he did. He used their paranoia and obsessions to not only confuse the enemy but to maneuver them without really trying, into a fair and equitable treaty they originally had no intentions of signing. A half beer bottle can be much better in a fight than a whole one. If you know which half to hold tightly. And which to point towards your opponent.
The beautiful girl lying naked and curled in a fetal position on the padded floor was a genius. Or rather had been before suddenly going crazy and then catatonic 3 years before. Jim Lawrence, the chief psychiatrist was responsible for her care and it is understandable that he was upset when five strange, dark men arrived at midnight, pointing guns at him and insisting they be brought to her room. He became even more upset when it was clear that they meant to abduct her by force. Trying to protect his ward, he ends up on another planet and involved in a galaxy wide war to the death. Definitely not another ho-hum day at the hospital!! Lots of excitement and derring-do in this tale complete with our hero managing to save the entire galaxy from domination by an evil empire !. Only Silverberg and Garrett could whip up so much action in so short a story so give it a listen.
Listen to Supermind with a movie-style soundtrack and amplify your audiobook experience.
FBI agent Kenneth Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. He must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it. Someone or something is causing confusion in the U.S. Government, Unions, The Mafia, and other sectors of society and Malone has been given the job of finding the source of the confusion. A good story composed of science fiction and slap stick comedy with a bit of romance thrown into the mix.
