# Another "Can you identify this Sci-Fi short story?" request
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 23, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930 "2011-11-23T23:16:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Billy-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy-o)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/1 "2011-11-23T23:16:36Z")
I read this story years ago in an anthology that I believe was published in the 70s, and it’s haunted me ever since.
An alien spacecraft is travelling the galaxy, making observations of astronomical phenomena. The come to realize that a star they’ve visited before has become unstable and will soon destroy itself, so they decide to park a safe distance away and collect data on the event. The star, as it turns out, is our sun.
The crew is populated by aliens from a wide variety of planets and cultures, and the Federation to which they belong is _very_ old – millions of years is implied. One of the crew notes that, the last time one of their vessels visited the star tens of thousands of years ago, the third planet was inhabited by some semi-intelligent ape-like creatures. It might be nice to collect a bunch of them before the star dies so they could be resettled on another world, to continue to evolve.
On visiting Earth, the crew is astonished to find that, in their absence, the ape-like creatures developed intelligence, civilization, and space-faring technology. In fact, the planet is deserted, since humans knew the sun was going to die and piled into their own spaceships to escape. There’s a cool adventure sequence where the aliens figure all this out.
Some of the crew are overjoyed to find out that a new sentient species has been discovered, but others are more circumspect, noting that, elsewhere in the universe, species develop civilization and technology much more slowly (over millions of years, not tens of thousands), so their violent tendencies tend to diminish before they develop potentially-destructive technology.
They locate the human fleet that is fleeing the doomed sun and decide to make contact.
In a chilling final scene, one of the crew half-jokingly muses (paraphrased): “I’m a little afraid of these people. What if they decide they don’t like our culture?” Followed by the last line: “In forty years, his little joke didn’t seem quite so funny.” ☹
It’s been one of my most fondly-remembered stories for years. Any ideas on author or title? For a change, I’m pretty sure it’s not Bradbury or Heinlein!
---
### Author:  [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/2 "2011-11-23T23:28:14Z")
I don’t remember the title, but I’m 90% sure it’s Asimov.
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/3 "2011-11-23T23:47:33Z")
Clarke. Give me a minute…
Got it. “Rescue Party.”
[http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747\_\_\_1.htm](http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___1.htm)
---
### Author:  [@Billy-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy-o)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/4 "2011-11-23T23:54:38Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> Clarke. Give me a minute…
>
> Got it. “Rescue Party.”
>
> [http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747\_\_\_1.htm](http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___1.htm)
That’s it!! Thanks, **DrFidelius**. Boy, you guys work fast! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/5 "2011-11-24T00:12:11Z")
Wow, the anthology that story is part of is amazing! Some of the greatest sf stories by the greatest writers of sf. Sadly only the first half-dozen are actually available on the web (maybe the compiler ran into copyright problems?) but what a collection! Clarke, Sheckley, Heinlein, van Vogt, Lieber, and I recognize some classics further down the list, stories by Vance, H. Beam Piper, Tom Godwin (The Cold Equations, fantastic story!), John Campbell (Who Goes There?, the story on which The Thing is based), it’s like a rollcall of all the writers I loved in my youth!
Great link, **DrFidelius**!
---
### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/6 "2011-11-24T00:14:58Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#):
>
> Wow, the anthology that story is part of is amazing! Some of the greatest sf stories by the greatest writers of sf. Sadly only the first half-dozen are actually available on the web (maybe the compiler ran into copyright problems?) but what a collection! Clarke, Sheckley, Heinlein, van Vogt, Lieber, and I recognize some classics further down the list, stories by Vance, H. Beam Piper, Tom Godwin (The Cold Equations, fantastic story!), John Campbell (Who Goes There?, the story on which The Thing is based), it’s like a rollcall of all the writers I loved in my youth!
>
> Great link, **DrFidelius**!
The collection is available on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/World-Turned-Upside-Down/dp/1416520686/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322093645&sr=8-3).
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/7 "2011-11-24T03:00:02Z")
> [@Billy-o](#):
>
> That’s it!! Thanks, **DrFidelius**. Boy, you guys work fast! 🙂
Feh. Over a half hour. Not our best work.
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/8 "2011-11-24T03:08:19Z")
Since I missed the opportunity to identify this, I’ll add one interesting fact - this is the first story that Clarke ever sold.
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/9 "2011-11-24T03:57:34Z")
Here’s a complete list of all the appearances of that story:
[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?40995](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?40995)
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/10 "2011-11-24T04:11:45Z")
Deleted.
---
### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/11 "2011-11-24T14:55:28Z")
> [@Billy-o](#):
>
> They locate the human fleet that is fleeing the doomed sun and decide to make contact.
>
> In a chilling final scene, one of the crew half-jokingly muses (paraphrased): “I’m a little afraid of these people. What if they decide they don’t like our culture?” Followed by the last line: “In forty years, his little joke didn’t seem quite so funny.” ☹
I remember reading this in probably middle school. That last line just seemed to come out of nowhere. Rereading it, it still does.
---
### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/12 "2011-11-24T15:54:49Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#):
>
> Wow, the anthology that story is part of is amazing! Some of the greatest sf stories by the greatest writers of sf. Sadly only the first half-dozen are actually available on the web (maybe the compiler ran into copyright problems?)…
Actually, the link is to a site maintained by the publisher’s ebook retailer, as advertizing for the book. You can purchase an ebook copy of the collection for all of $6.00, in damned near any format you can name: Mobi/Kindle/Palm; EPUB/Nook/Stanza; Sony LRF; Rocketbook; RTF; MS Reader; and HTML. All DRM-free w/ unlimited downloads. [Here you go.](http://www.webscription.net/p-476-the-world-turned-upside-down.aspx)
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/13 "2011-11-24T20:36:12Z")
The last line didn’t seem so out of nowhere when the story first appeared in _Astounding_ (edited by John Campbell) in 1946. Campbell loved stories which assumed that the human race was the roughest, toughest, bravest, most intelligent, etc. race in the universe. This is why, for instance, Isaac Asimov decided that there would be no other intelligent beings in the galaxy besides humans in his Foundation series. It wasn’t that Asimov thought that it was likely that there were no other intelligent alien races. It was just that he didn’t want to get into an argument with Campbell about why the people of Earth didn’t dominate the Foundation. Clarke probably didn’t really care much for the premise that humans were the most intelligent race in the galaxy either. Much of his fiction supposed that there were many alien races equal to or better than humans and that perhaps they would all join into a overall cosmic mind or some such. Clarke probably knew that he couldn’t slip such a premise past Campbell though and decided to humor Campbell in this story.
---
### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/14 "2011-11-24T20:47:02Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#):
>
> Actually, the link is to a site maintained by the publisher’s ebook retailer, as advertizing for the book. You can purchase an ebook copy of the collection for all of $6.00, in damned near any format you can name: Mobi/Kindle/Palm; EPUB/Nook/Stanza; Sony LRF; Rocketbook; RTF; MS Reader; and HTML. All DRM-free w/ unlimited downloads. [Here you go.](http://www.webscription.net/p-476-the-world-turned-upside-down.aspx)
That’s fantastic. Probably the best return you’d get for 6 bucks anywhere!
---
### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/15 "2011-11-25T19:15:12Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> The last line didn’t seem so out of nowhere when the story first appeared in _Astounding_ (edited by John Campbell) in 1946. Campbell loved stories which assumed that the human race was the roughest, toughest, bravest, most intelligent, etc. race in the universe. This is why, for instance, Isaac Asimov decided that there would be no other intelligent beings in the galaxy besides humans in his Foundation series. It wasn’t that Asimov thought that it was likely that there were no other intelligent alien races. It was just that he didn’t want to get into an argument with Campbell about why the people of Earth didn’t dominate the Foundation. Clarke probably didn’t really care much for the premise that humans were the most intelligent race in the galaxy either. Much of his fiction supposed that there were many alien races equal to or better than humans and that perhaps they would all join into a overall cosmic mind or some such. Clarke probably knew that he couldn’t slip such a premise past Campbell though and decided to humor Campbell in this story.
Thanks for the context, and about how it impacted Foundation also. That seemed a little odd too.
(I know one (at least) of the later Foundation books by other authors backfilled an explanation for that. The main three, though, were silent on that as far as I remember. Someone can correct me if there was a line or two about that.)
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/16 "2011-11-25T22:04:32Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#):
>
> Thanks for the context, and about how it impacted Foundation also. That seemed a little odd too.
>
> (I know one (at least) of the later Foundation books by other authors backfilled an explanation for that. The main three, though, were silent on that as far as I remember. Someone can correct me if there was a line or two about that.)
The main three by Asimov were silent on the subject. One of the later Foundation books by Asimov connected the absence of aliens with the non-Foundation novel “The End of Eternity” - and Asimov wrote a short story “Blind Alley” [Blind Alley - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Alley) about a Galactic Empire bureaucrat who helps an alien race get out of the galaxy safely. You’re right that the non-Asimov written later Foundation novels are much more explicit about why there are no aliens in the galaxy
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/17 "2011-11-26T02:30:49Z")
There are also aliens in this funny Asimov short story - one of my favorites: [Victory Unintentional - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Unintentional)
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/18 "2011-11-26T16:03:27Z")
Note though that Asimov said specifically that “Victory Unintentional” was a noncanonical story for the Foundation/Robots series since it includes aliens and can’t be integrated with the rest of the series. Furtermore, “Victory Unintentional” wasn’t published in a Campbell-edited magazine. “Blind Alley” could possibly be a canonical story, since it implies that there may have been aliens who left the galaxy.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-can-you-identify-this-sci-fi-short-story-request/603930/19 "2011-11-27T00:09:29Z")
The later Lucky Starr books tie in tangentially to the robot series, too (at least, they have positronic robots which obey the Three Laws), and while officially humans in those books know of no intelligent aliens, unofficially the protagonist finds that that ain’t necessarily so.