# ID the (Sci-Fi?) Short Story, Part MCMVXIII **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410 "2015-02-23T14:05:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/1 "2015-02-23T14:05:12Z")
Assist my failing memory, if you please. I read a short story, possibly sci-fi, and cannot remember the name. I did the same thing with a previous story, and got back the answer (“Piggy Bank”) in something under fifteen minutes, which is kind of scary. Nonetheless, if you are up for a challenge… The story was about a person captured as a POW. He kept saying that the duty of a prisoner was to continue the fight. So he hit on the strategy of making up an imaginary spy, who was sabotaging the foe from behind enemy lines. So he lets the name of the imaginary spy (which I _think_ was the title of the story) slip, and the enemy begins to attribute all kinds of random accidents and crashes to the imaginary spy. I remember a passage where the enemy shows the POW an interrogation of a different POW, who figures out what is going on and stonewalls his response when asked about this imaginary spy and thus confirms in the mind of the enemy that it is all real. The story ends up with the enemy releasing the POW after surrendering, because they cannot figure out how to fight this imaginary spy. Any ideas on the title and author? TIA. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/2 "2015-02-23T14:16:31Z")
This sounds very much like something by Eric Frank Russell, in particular his novel **Wasp** , although the plot differs slightly from your description (for one thing, in length – it’s definitely not a short story). To quote from Wikipedia’s piece on EFR: > [@](#): > > There are two different and mutually incompatible accounts of Russell’s military service during World War II.[3] The official, well-documented version is that he served with the Royal Air Force, with whom he saw active service in Europe as a member of a Mobile Signals Unit. However, in the introduction to the 1986 Del Rey Books edition of Russell’s novel Wasp, Jack L. Chalker states that Russell was too old for active service, and instead worked for Military Intelligence in London, where he “spent the war dreaming up nasty tricks to play against the Germans and Japanese”, including Operation Mincemeat. Russell’s biographer John L. Ingham states however that “there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in his R.A.F. Record to show that he was anything more than a wireless mechanic and radio operator”.[3] Wasp does feature the involved sabotage activities of a lone spy on an enemy world, but there’s nothing about him being a POW at the start or having to improvise – he went to the world with the intent of sabotaging, and only ends up as a POW at the end. It’s possible this might be some other EFR short story. I’d have to look through my collections. Russell is one of the great underappreciated SF writers, as Jack Chalker always maintained. > **[Eric Frank Russell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Frank_Russell)** > > Eric Frank Russell (January 6, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. Up to 1955 several of his stories were published under pseudonyms, at least Duncan H. Munro and Niall(e) Wilde. > Russell was born in... [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?51](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?51) > **[Wasp (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(novel))** > > Wasp is a 1957 science fiction novel by English author Eric Frank Russell. Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld series of fantasy books) stated that he "can't imagine a funnier terrorists' handbook." Wasp is generally considered Russell's best novel. > The title of Wasp comes from the idea that the main character's actions and central purpose mimic that particular insect; just as something as small as a wasp can terrorise a much larger creature in control of a car to the point of causing a ... ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/3 "2015-02-23T14:21:51Z")
It’s Eric Frank Russell but it’s [Next of Kin](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/eric-frank-russell/space-willies.htm) aka **The Space Willies** , not **Wasp** , although there are similarities. The invisible companion is called Eustace, and the POW convinces his captors that every Earthman has one… ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/4 "2015-02-23T15:39:36Z")
Sure sounds like it to me, even though I seem to remember the shorter version title as “Plus X”. “The Space Willies” was the full novel. I must confess that I’ve always loved Russell. The humans were always brass-balled smart asses and the aliens didn’t stand a chance. I would also recommend “Three to Conquer” and “Wasp”. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/5 "2015-02-23T15:48:25Z")
**Next of Kin** was the UK title. Willie is/was common UK slang for penis so I expect the UK publishers would not have been very keen on the US title! ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/6 "2015-02-23T16:35:17Z")
That’s not a valid Roman number. Did you mean MCMLXIII (1963)? Or just “A really big number”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sci-fi-short-story-part-mcmvxiii/713410/7 "2015-02-23T16:55:04Z")
A really big number. Thanks to all for the responses. Regards, Shodan