"No Snappy Secretary, No Booze in the Files, No .45 Packed Under the Armpit"

IF YOU'VE BEEN hanging around this weblog for a while, you'll remember how we limelighted some of Edward Wellen's longer works of SF-tec; but he could also produce 
shorter, more-focused stories, such as . . .

"While-You-Wait."
By Edward Wellen (1919-2011).
First appearance: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1979.

Reprints page (HERE).
Short short story (8 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).

     "The man sat seemingly relaxed, sound-bathing. A sunning snake looks relaxed."

Armchair detection taken to a new ultimate: "If man was no match for the computer's speed, the computer was no match for man's tricky mind."

Major characters:
~ Purley:
  "The law would never catch Purley red-handed—or touch-tone-fingered."
~ Albert Uhl:
  ". . . sat down before the visual display. He gave the image a slightly dubious smile, as though suspecting WHILE-U-WAIT relied more on theatrics than on technology. But his 
need appeared greater than his doubt."

Resource:
- Like every piece of technology devised by humanity, computers can have a dark side: cybercrime (HERE).

~ ~ ~

"Finger of Fate."
By Edward Wellen (1919-2011).
First appearance: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1980.

Reprints page (HERE).
Short short story (9 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).

     "You're touching on a national security matter. So buzz off."

Some techno-prophets are predicting a coming era of spiritual machines, perhaps even ones that "come equipped with a built-in sense of justice." Let's hope so . . .

Major characters:
~ The narrator:
  "Serving my client was only half of it. I had to serve justice as well."
~ Thomas Burt, Sr.:
  ". . . was calling me off the case."
~ Pierre Quie:
  ". . . was a public person, and the wire-service morgue photos had him 
living the high life . . ."

Resource:
- You can thank technophilic inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil for both the notion 
and the phrase "spiritual machines" (HERE).

....................

More resources:
- Our latest brush with Edward Wellen wasn't too long ago (HERE); Wellen is also well-known in SFF circles for his "Origins of . . ." series of "non-fact articles" in Galaxy from the '50s and '60s, an example of which ("Origins of Galactic Law") we highlighted several years back (HERE).
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