Science fiction short stories

1962

Bimmie says people are stupid. Bimmie says he can help them—but they’re not really worth his trouble, Bimmie says!

1954

The Computer could do no wrong. Then it was asked a simple little question by a simple little man.

1953

One sure way to live dangerously is to become a practical joker. Should you have any doubts about it you might ask Professor Dane.

1955

The tiny spaceship had been built for a journey to a star. But its small, mischievous pilots had a rendezvous with destiny—on Earth.

Thursday 3201. The Neanderthal has just vacated the house, leaving a smeared towel, his musky body odor and a red coral necklace...

1952

Conger agreed to kill a stranger he had never seen. But he would make no mistakes because he had the stranger's skull under his arm.

1953

Doctors had given him just one month to live. A month to wonder, what comes afterward? There was one way to find out--ask a dead man!

1960

The man I searched for could be anybody at all. If I didn’t find him, there’d be nobody at all.

1954

The ultradrive had just one slight drawback: it set up a shock wave that made suns explode. Which made the problem of getting back home a delicate one indeed...

1932

Arvania has stolen the Ziegler plans and formulae. With their acquisition it becomes the most powerful nation on earth.

1931

Undaunted by crazy tales of an indestructible presence on Asteroid Z-40, Harley 2Q14N20 sets out alone to face and master it.

1955

Every strength is a weakness, and every weakness is a strength. And when the Strong start smashing each other's strength... the Weak may turn out to be, instead, the Wise.

1954

Did you ever wonder at the lonely life the bird in a cuckoo clock has to lead--that it might possibly love and hate just as easily as a real animal of flesh and blood? Philip Dick used that idea for this brief fantasy tale. W...

1953

A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way...

1953

A human brain-controlled spacecraft would mean mechanical perfection. This was accomplished, and something unforeseen: a strange entity called... Mr. Spaceship.

1954

A classic satirical look at consumerism. On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt wakes up screaming.

Stephen tells me the wrinkles methodology is a hoax...

1956

Foraminifera 9 is bored, bored, bored - and what better way to relieve boredom than a trip back in time?

1958

Byron has been to Mars. Now he's not supposed to leave New York and New England. For good reason.

1955

I deliberately shot to death Laurence Connaught. So they mean to execute me. Especially because Laurence Connaught had saved my life.

Some things in life can last forever, some of them have to.

1991

This short story originally appeared in Omni April 1991 and was nominated for the Nebula Award.