Call me joe, p.82
Call Me Joe,
p.82
* * *
Long, long afterward, air locks linked and she bade him good night. “Until tomorrow,” she said.
“Many tomorrows, I hope.”
“And I hope. I promise.”
He watched the way she had gone until the locks closed again and the ships parted company. A little drunkenly, not with alcohol, he returned to the saloon for a nightcap.
“Turn off that color thing,” he said. “Give me an outside view.”
The ship obeyed. In the screen appeared stars, and the cloud from which stars were being born. “Her sky,” Laure said. He flopped on to the couch and admired.
“I might as well start getting used to it,” he said. “I expect I’ll spend a lot of vacation time, at least, on Kirkasant.”
“Daven,” said Jaccavrie.
She was not in the habit of addressing him thus, and so gently. He started. “Yes?”
“I have been—” Silence hummed for a second. “I have been wondering how to tell you. Any phrasing, any inflection, could strike you as something I computed to produce an effect. I am only a machine.”
Though unease prickled him, he leaned forward to touch a bulkhead. It trembled a little with her engine energy. “And I, old girl,” he said. “Or else you also are an organism. We’re both people.”
“Thank you,” said the ship, almost too low to be heard.
Laure braced himself. “What did you have to tell me?”
She forgot about keeping her voice humanized. The words clipped forth: “I finished the chromosome analysis some time ago. Thereafter I tried to discourage certain tendencies I noticed in you. But now I have no way to avoid giving you the plain truth. They are not human on that planet.”
“What?” he yelled. The glass slipped from his hand and splashed red wine across the deck. “You’re crazy! Records, traditions, artifacts, appearance, behavior—”
The ship’s voice came striding across his. “Yes, they are human descended. But their ancestors had to make an enormous adaptation. The loss of night vision is merely indicative. The fact that they can, for example, ingest heavy metals like arsenic unharmed might be interpreted as simple immunity. But you will recall that they find unarsenated food tasteless. Did that never suggest to you that they have developed a metabolic requirement for the element? And you should have drawn a conclusion from their high tolerance for ionizing radiation. It cannot be due to their having stronger proteins, can it? No, it must be because they have evolved a capacity for extremely rapid and error-free repair of chemical damage from that source. This in turn is another measure of how different their enzyme system is from yours.
“Now the enzymes, of course, are governed by the DNA of the cells, which is the molecule of heredity—”
“Stop,” Laure said. His speech was as flat as hers. “I see what you’re at. You are about to report that your chromosome study proved the matter. My kind of people and hers can’t reproduce with each other.”
“Correct,” Jaccavrie said.
Laure shook himself, as if he were cold. He continued to look at the glowing fog. “You can’t call them nonhuman on that account.”
“A question of semantics. Hardly an important one. Except for the fact that Kirkasanters apparently are under an instinctual compulsion to have children.”
“I know,” Laure said.
And after a time: “Good thing, really. They’re a high-class breed. We could use a lot of them.”
“Your own genes are above average,” Jaccavrie said.
“Maybe. What of it?”
Her voice turned alive again. “I’d like to have grandchildren,” she said wistfully.
Laure laughed. “All right,” he said. “No doubt one day you will.” The laughter was somewhat of a victory.
Want to read more?
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Coming soon! — More ebooks and more NESFA Press hardcovers.
Superlative SF currently available from the NESFA Press in hardcover format
The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson: (Six volumes)
1. Call Me Joe
2. The Queen of Air and Darkness
3. The Saturn Game
4. Admiralty
5. Door to Anywhere
6. A Bicycle Build for Brew
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: (Six volumes)
1. Threshold
2. Power & Light
3. This Mortal Mountain
4. Last Exit to Babylon
5. Nine Black Doves
6. The Road to Amber
Early works by Lois McMaster Bujold:
Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior's Apprentice
The Vor Game
Ethan of Athos
Brothers in Arms
Falling Free
Borders of Infinity
Other interesting and popular works:
The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short SF of Cordwainer Smith
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson
Silverlock by John Myers Myers
War and Space by Lester del Rey
Robots and Magic by Lester del Rey
Flights of Eagles by James Blish
Works of Art by James Blish
Magic Mirrors by John Bellairs
Expecting Beowulf by Tom Holt (trade paper)
Years in the Making by L. Sprague de Camp
The Mathematics of Magic by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
From These Ashes by Fredric Brown
A New Dawn: The Don A. Stuart Stories of John W. Campbell, Jr.
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About the Author,
Artist, and Publisher
Poul Anderson was born in Pennsylvania in November, 1926. His first story, “Tomorrow’s Children,” was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1947 while was still in college. In 1953 he married Karen Kruse and occasionally published stories with her and with Gordon Dickson — though mainly publishing stories under his own name. Poul and Karen have a daughter, Astrid, who is married to Science Fiction writer Greg Bear.
Poul Anderson won seven Hugos and three Nebulas, and in 1998 was named "A Grand Master" by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. He died in July, 2001.
* * *
Bob Eggleton received the Jack Gaughan Award for best emerging artist in 1988 and proved the wisdom of that choice by going on to win multiple Hugos for best artist. He loves to draw Godzilla, and has also illustrated a number of NESFA Press books. Bob lives with his wife, Marianne Plumridge, an artist in her own right, in Rhode Island.
* * *
The New England Science Fiction Association is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization of science fiction and fantasy fans. Besides publishing, our activities include running Boskone (New England's oldest SF convention) in February each year, producing a semi-monthly newsletter, holding discussion groups on topics related to the field, and hosting a variety of social events. If you are interested in learning more about us, we'd like to hear from you. Visit us at www.nesfapress.org, contact us at info@nesfapress.org or write to us at PO Box 809; Framingham, MA 01701.
Publication History
“Editor’s Introduction” is original to this volume.
“Poul Anderson” by Greg Bear is original to this volume.
“Call Me Joe” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, April 1957.
“Prayer in War” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Tomorrow’s Children” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, March 1947.
“Kinnison’s Band” appeared in Primary Beams, 2001.
“The Helping Hand” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950.
“Clausius’ Chaos” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, October 1980.
“Wildcat” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1958.
“Journey’s End” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1957.
“Heinlein’s Stories” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, October 1980.
“Logic” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1947.
“Time Patrol” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1955.
“The First Love” appeared in appeared in Staves, 1993.
“The Double-Dyed Villains” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction April 1949.
“To a Tavern Wench” appeared in appeared in Staves, 1993.
“The Immortal Game” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1954.
“Upon the Occasion of Being Asked to Argue That Love and Marriage are Incompatible” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Backwardness” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1958.
“Haiku” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Genius” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction December, 1948
“There Will be Other Times” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“The Live Coward” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, June 1956.
“Ballade of an Artificial Satellite” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1958.
“Time Lag” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1961.
“The Man Who Came Early” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1956.
“Autumn” appeared in Staves, 1993
“Turning Point” first appeared in Worlds of If, May 1963.
“Honesty” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“The Alien Enemy” (as Michael Karageorge) first appeared in Analog Science Fiction, December, 1968.
“Eventide” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Enough Rope” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1953.
“The Sharing of Flesh” first appeared in Galaxy Magazine, December 1968.
“Barbarous Allen” first appeared in “The Zed”, Winter 1953.
“Welcome” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1960.
“Flight to Forever” first appeared in Super Science Stories, November 1950.
“Sea Burial” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Barnacle Bull” (as Winston P. Sanders) first appeared in Analog Science Fiction, September 1960.
“To Jack Williamson” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Time Heals” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, October 1949.
“MacCannon” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“The Martian Crown Jewels” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1959.
“Then Death Will Come” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Prophecy” first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1949.
“Einstein’s Distress” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September 1980.
“Kings Who Die” first appeared in Worlds of If, March 1962.
“Ochlan” appeared in Staves, 1993.
“Starfog” first appeared in Analog Science Fiction, August 1967.
Acknowledgments
Two names appear as the editors of this book. While we each did a lot of work, this page is for the many other people without whose labors the book would never have been published.
Technical help was provided by Dave Grubbs, Alice Lewis, Tony Lewis, Mark Olson and Geri Sullivan.
Proofreading was done by Bonnie Atwood, Ann Broomhead, Jim Burton, Gay Ellen Dennett, Pam Fremon, Tony Lewis, Mark Olson, Lis Pfeffer, Sharon Sbarsky, and Tim Szczesuil.
Ann Crimmins and Dave Grubbs independently checked the book for errors previously missed. Many were found.
Alice Lewis then did her magic in producing the dust jacket.
Special thanks to Greg Bear for his introduction to the book and for supplying that wonderful picture of Karen and Poul.
For those interested, the original proposal to Karen Anderson was made at the L.A. Worldcon in 2006. These books do take time to produce.
Rick Katze
Lis Carey
November 2008
Praise for the works of
Poul Anderson
“One of science fiction’s masters.” — Starlog
“Anderson, far more than many newer science fiction writers,
takes the trouble to envision a genuinely strange,
complex future for mankind.” — The Washington Post
“Poul Anderson is science fiction’s premier historian, past,
present, and alternative.” — Detroit Free Press
“Anderson has produced more milestones in
contemporary science fiction and fantasy than any
one man is entitled to.” — Stephen R. Donaldson
Poul Anderson, Call Me Joe
