Short Fiction · Chapter
Hunter Patrol explained
Major Fred Benson, a U.N.
What happens
Major Fred Benson, a U.N. soldier on his last patrol before rotation, is about to be crushed by a Soviet tank when a blue mist transports him to a future where a group of intellectuals has built a time machine. He learns he is fifty years in the future in St. Louis, now the World Capitol. The group explains that a dictator called 'The Guide' has taken over the world, banning competitive sports and enforcing a doctrine of peace and beauty through sonic weapons and chemical control. Benson is brought before The Guide, who is revealed to be an older version of himself. The Guide stuns Benson with an ultrasonic pistol, but a blue mist appears again, suggesting further temporal displacement.
Themes in this chapter
Time Travel and Temporal Displacement
Benson is transported fifty years into the future by a temporal-spatial displacement field generator, and the chapter explores the paradox of meeting his older self.
Power and Corruption
The Guide, Benson's future self, has become a dictator who uses technology to control society, banning violence and enforcing a doctrine of peace through authoritarian means.
Identity and Memory
Benson confronts his own future identity as The Guide, and the chapter explores how his dreams and experiences have shaped his transformation into a tyrant.
Characters to notice
- Major Fred Benson
The protagonist, a U.N. soldier on his last patrol before rotation, who is transported fifty years into the future by a time machine.
- Allan Hartley
Referred to as 'The Guide,' the older version of Benson who has become a dictator, using sonic weapons and chemical control to enforce peace and beauty.
Key passages
“In the temporal dimension, you are fifty years futureward of the day of your death; spatially, you are about eight thousand miles from the place of your death, in what is now the World Capitol, St. Louis.”
Benson is told he has been transported fifty years into the future and is now in St. Louis, which has become the world's capital.
This establishes the time displacement and the new geopolitical setting.
“The Guide will not allow competitive sports; he says that they foster the spirit of violence.”
The Guide has banned competitive sports because he believes they encourage violence.
This illustrates the authoritarian control The Guide exerts over society.
“The young man—his face was startlingly familiar, somehow—was not killing the old man. Those years of practice with the stun-pistol...”
The Guide recognizes the young soldier as his younger self and uses his practiced skill with the stun-pistol to incapacitate him.
This highlights the paradox of Benson meeting his older self and the role of the stun-pistol in the encounter.