Here is a small collection of very short science fiction vignettes with criminous elements. If you can endure the typos (e.g., "gynos" for "gyros"), smudgy text, and stilted prose but still go with the flow, you might enjoy some of them:
"The Telepathic Murder."
By Dan Corliss (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, February 1950.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online HERE.
. . . "The thought impact was almost physical. Something happened within me. . . . I shot him four times." . . ."Murder Moon."
By John Weston (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, March 1950.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online HERE.
. . . Blackie cradled the slim barrel of the rifle in his bulky plasto-gloves. A touch of the side button and a searing lance of flame would lash out from the muzzle—to crisp, Blackie thought, the tall figure of the man for whom he waited. . . ."Do Unto Others . . ."
By Lee Owens (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, April 1950.
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online HERE (scroll to page 161).
. . . Morland glanced at the calendar. The rocket was due in seven more days. He'd collected enough soron to make him happy for a long time with the credits it'd bring. He was going to get out of this swamp once and for all. . . ."The Dopesters."
By Lee Owens (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, May 1950.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online HERE (scroll to page 158).
". . . We prefer to say we'd like to assist you. Our chemists have done an excel-lent job." The man was all suavity, all coolness, as if he was discussing a straight business proposition rather than a rocket race fix. . . ."Magnetic Bomb!"
By Lee Owens (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, July 1950.
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online HERE.
. . . As he passed the cargo chambers holding the powerful drug destined for the government medical agency, he felt almost despairing. Not only would that disappear along with their eight months' work, but the vicious criminal world would get its hands on the most powerful and potent maddening drug known to man throughout the System. . . ."Shanghaied . . ."
Same author and issue.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online HERE (scroll to page 158).
". . . Don't try anything funny and you'll get paid just like the rest of the officers and crew. Act up and. . ." He left the implied threat unfinished. . . ."Venusian Claim-Jumper."
By Lee Owens (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, December 1950.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online HERE.
. . . She laughed, a short ironic, bitter laugh. "If you raise that gun a centimeter, I'll have you blown to shreds." . . ."Shanghaied Into Space!"
By Lee Owens (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, February 1951.
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online HERE (scroll to page 129).
. . . "You men should know you're aboard the Ceres II," he said calmly. "You're signed as navigator—" he pointed a finger at one, "and you're engine gang—and you're—" this was me, "—assistant to Scotty on the engines." . . ."Terran Treachery Trips Luna."
By Charles Recour (real name: Henry A. Bott, ?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, January 1952.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online HERE (text especially hard to read).
. . . An uneasy feeling gripped me. For some reason I sensed everything wasn't all right. . . ."The Girl Was a Ziller!"
By John Weston (?-?) (FictionMags list HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, January 1952.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online HERE.
. . . Zilleen is the System's most savage and insidious drug! This girl was either a peddler or a smuggler and certainly a user. . . .
Category: Criminality on the High Frontier
No comments:
Post a Comment