# Short Fiction — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Mack Reynolds.

- [Tourists to Terra](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/tourists-to-terra.md): Captain Foren and his crew manage a luxury cruise ship for wealthy thrill-seekers, who participate in primitive wars for sport. After a tourist is injured at Troy, the Captain decides to move the ship forward in time to 
- [Not in the Rules](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/not-in-the-rules.md): Gladiator Jak Demsi, having survived the Interplanetary Meet's free-for-all, faces a tribunal of judges and diplomats who accuse him of violating the contest's code of honor. He defends his tactics—throwing the emerald t
- [The Martians and the Coys](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/the-martians-and-the-coys.md): Maw Coy brings food to her family's moonshine still, where her simple son Lem dreams of shooting a Martin. Meanwhile, a Martian commander reports to his superior about a failed invasion attempt in Kentucky, where their a
- [Mercy Flight](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/mercy-flight.md): Phil Mooney, a former space-force pilot turned independent space hauler, risks everything to rush a critically ill eight-year-old girl, Lillian Marshall, from Luna to Earth for emergency medical treatment after her paren
- [Halftripper](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/halftripper.md): The narrator, a spaceman in a Mars bar, encounters a halftripper—a victim of space cafard—and an old man named Joseph. Joseph shows compassion for the halftripper, prompting a discussion on salvation and inner peace. The
- [The Cosmic Bluff](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/the-cosmic-bluff.md): Jak Dempsi, the Solar System Gladiator Champion, grapples with his inflated ego and the impending fight against a Centaurian gladiator, on which the fate of the Solar System depends. His manager warns him that his champi
- [Dogfight—1973](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/dogfight-1973.md): A pilot (Jerry) engages in a high-speed aerial dogfight with an enemy ace, Dmitri, but is shot down after misidentifying the enemy's aircraft model. After the simulation, he faces ribbing from a fellow pilot, Bill Dickso
- [Potential Enemy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/potential-enemy.md): Markham Gray, a veteran journalist, is traveling from Triton to Earth when he spots an unidentified craft. The ship's captain, Roger Post, initially prepares to attack but hesitates after receiving a peaceful telepathic 
- [Off Course](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/off-course.md): The chapter details the arrival of Dameri Tass, a bumbling alien collector from Carthis who mistakenly lands on Earth, believing it to be a member of the Galactic League. After a period of confusion and political wrangli
- [The Galactic Ghost](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/the-galactic-ghost.md): An alien spacecraft lands on Earth, telepathically announcing that the planet will be destroyed in five years and that only a thousand colonists can be saved. Global chaos ensues as nations, races, and groups vie for rep
- [Happy Ending](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/happy-ending.md): The chapter follows the last dictator, Mr. Smith, in his solitary exile on Venus after his defeat in a solar system-wide war. He struggles with isolation, paranoia, and obsessive hatred for the native kifs (ant-like crea
- [After Some Tomorrow](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/after-some-tomorrow.md): In a post-apocalyptic clan society, Alan, the sole husband of the Wolf clan, faces a contentious assembly where he argues for radical social and reproductive reforms—including merging with rival clans and accepting steri
- [Unborn Tomorrow](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/unborn-tomorrow.md): Simon Pond, a private detective, is approached by an eccentric elderly client, Mr. Oyster, who wants to hire him to find time travelers and learn the secret of eternal life. Mr. Oyster believes time travelers would be fo
- [The Good Seed](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/the-good-seed.md): Calvin Mulloy, a survey engineer on the planet Mersey, crash-lands his homemade sailplane on a small island during a flash storm. Stranded and facing rising waters, he encounters a sentient plant with whom he debates lif
- [Summit](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/summit.md): At a summit meeting between the leaders of two rival blocs, President James Donlevy and Marshal Vladimir Ignatov (Vovo) meet privately to negotiate. Their conversation reveals the deep economic and political dependencies
- [Revolution](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/revolution.md): Paul Koslov infiltrates a revolutionary meeting in Leningrad, eavesdropping on discussions about overthrowing the Soviet regime. He debates political theory with Ana Furtseva, who explains a new system of representation 
- [The Coordinator's Charge](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i.md): The Coordinator briefs Academician Amschel Mayer and Dr. Leonid Plekhanov on their mission as the first team to guide the primitive colonies on Rigel's planets, Genoa and Texcoco, into the Galactic Commonwealth. He empha
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ii.md): The expedition members debate the best method to industrialize the two planets, Genoa and Texcoco, within fifty years. Amschel Mayer proposes splitting the group to try both free competition and planned economy approache
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iii.md): The Earth team, led by Leonid Plekhanov and Joe Chessman, lands their spacecraft in the central plaza of Texcoco's capital city, which they rename Tula. They observe a society reminiscent of the Aztecs, with pyramids and
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iv.md): Amschel Mayer convenes a secret meeting of the twenty most powerful merchants on Genoa, revealing his plan to break the feudal barons' stranglehold on trade and industry. He demonstrates a printing press and introduces t
- [The Conference of the Divided Teams](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/v.md): Ten years after the expedition's division, Amschel Mayer and Leonid Plekhanov meet aboard the Pedagogue to debate their competing approaches to planetary development—Mayer's capitalist, city-state model for Genoa versus 
- [The Valley of Decision](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vi.md): On the planet of the Tulans, the Earth team and Khan Reif prepare for a decisive battle against Mynor's rebel and nomad army. Despite Leonid Plekhanov's cautious orders to withdraw, Joe Chessman and Barry Watson commit t
- [The War Decision](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vii.md): Amschel Mayer learns that two of his operatives, Dean and Rosetti, have been executed as witches by the Temple on the western continent. Enraged, he decides to abandon his gradualist approach and launch an intercontinent
- [The Decade's Reckoning](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/viii.md): At the ten-year mark, the Earth teams from Genoa and Texcoco meet aboard the Pedagogue to compare progress. The Genoese team, led by Amschel Mayer, reports industrial expansion and educational advances, while the Texcoca
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ix.md): As Texcoco teeters on the brink of revolution, Barry Watson, Dick Hawkins, Natt Roberts, the aging Reif, and his son Taller confront Joe Chessman in his office. They demand immediate reforms and a scapegoat to pacify the
- [The Fortieth Year Conference](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/x.md): At the forty-year mark of the Earth teams' mission, the Genoese and Texcocan delegations meet aboard the Pedagogue. The conference is marked by drunkenness, mutual recriminations, and revelations of purges and financial 
- [XI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xi.md): At the forty-year meeting of the Earth teams on Genoa and Texcoco, the delegates from both planets present their progress reports and engage in a heated ideological debate. The Texcocans, led by Barry Watson, boast of th
- [Chapter XII: The Reckoning at Rigel](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xii.md): Fifty years after the Pedagogue first orbited Rigel, the Earth teams from Texcoco and Genoa meet with the local leaders, only to be confronted by a united underground that has secretly advanced their own civilization. Th
- [Combat](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/combat.md): Hank Kuran, under the alias Henry Stevenson, joins a Progressive Tours trip to the Soviet Union to make contact with the Galactic Confederation. He meets fellow American Charity Moore and engages in ideological debates w
- [Medal of Honor](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/medal-of-honor.md): Don Mathers, holder of the Galactic Medal of Honor, confronts the moral burden of his undeserved decoration. He rejects a bribe from a corrupt corporation, kills Max Rostoff in self-defense, and confesses his fraud to th
- [I'm a Stranger Here Myself](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i-m-a-stranger-here-myself.md): The narrator, calling himself Rupert, sits at the Café de Paris in Tangier and meets Paul, a fellow expatriate. They discuss the possibility of aliens secretly living on Earth, disguised as humans. The conversation range
- [Gun for Hire](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/gun-for-hire.md): Professional assassin Joe Prantera is transported from his own era to a future utopia where crime and violence have been eliminated. Two citizens, Lawrence Reston-Farrell and Warren Brett-James, recruit him to assassinat
- [Freedom](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/freedom.md): Colonel Ilya Simonov confronts the erosion of Party ideology and growing dissent within the Soviet Complex. After a tense encounter with a defiant biologist in Prague, Simonov reports to his superior Kliment Blagonravov 
- [Ultima Thule](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ultima-thule.md): Ronny Bronston returns to Earth disillusioned after discovering that the elusive revolutionary Tommy Paine is actually a front for Section G, the organization he works for. Commissioner Metaxa and Sid Jakes explain the t
- [Farmer](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/farmer.md): Joe Mauser, a former soldier turned farmer, reflects on his life and the societal structures that have shaped his identity. He grapples with his place in a world divided by class and power, contemplating rebellion and th
- [Chapter I: The Tuareg and the Reporter](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i.md): Johnny McCord, a field agent for the Sahara Reforestation Commission at Bidon Cinq, deals with a crisis when Tuareg nomads and their goats damage his eucalyptus transplants. He argues with his superior Mellor about the l
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ii.md): At the remote outpost Bidon Cinq in the Sahara, Johnny McCord, Derek Mason, and Pierre Marimbert of the Sahara Reforestation Commission discover that twenty-two of forty checked solar-powered pumps have been dynamited, t
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iii.md): Johnny McCord and Hélène Desage discuss the Sahara Reforestation Commission's efforts to reclaim the desert through irrigation, reforestation, and modern technology. McCord defends the project against Desage's skepticism
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iv.md): Johnny McCord deals with the fallout from the destruction of Tuareg livestock by his men, while French reporter Hélène Desage confronts him over the ethics of the Sahara Reforestation project. The chapter explores tensio
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/v.md): Johnny McCord confronts Hélène Desage and Captain Mohammed Mohmoud about their sabotage of the Sahara Reforestation Commission's pumps. Through careful deduction and recorded evidence, he exposes Desage's plot to discred
- [Status Quo](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/status-quo.md): Larry Woolford investigates the Movement, a revolutionary group challenging the social-label system, and interviews Professor Voss about status labels and their societal impact. He learns of Frank Nostrand's absurd recor
- [Mercenary](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/mercenary.md): Joe Mauser, a professional soldier, signs up for a high-tech vacuum tube transport system to reach a new war zone, highlighting the commodification of warfare and the alienation of the mercenary.
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i.md): Captain Joe Mauser, a veteran mercenary from the Mid-Lower caste, signs up with Vacuum Tube Transport for an upcoming fracas against Hovercraft. He meets Baron Malcolm Haer and his son Balt, who question his low rank des
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ii.md): Joe Mauser signs up with Baron Haer's Vacuum Tube Transport forces, receives an acting rank of major and command of a cavalry squadron. He navigates recruitment processing, gives a Telly interview with Freddy Soligen, an
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iii.md): Joe Mauser engages in a philosophical and political discussion with his new orderly, Max Mainz, about social mobility, the stratified caste system, and the illusion of democracy in their society. Joe reveals his own orig
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iv.md): Joe Mauser, accompanied by his batman Max Mainz, changes into civilian clothes and heads to the airport for an aerial reconnaissance of the upcoming fracas reservation. Along the way, he critiques the illusion of 'People
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/v.md): Joe Mauser meets with Baron Haer and his family, including the rebellious Nadine Haer, who criticizes the status society and the military fracases as modern circuses. Joe secures Baron Haer's support for his caste upgrad
- [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vi.md): Joe Mauser reflects on his evening with Nadine Haer, realizing he is in love with her while she focuses on discussing societal evolution and class divisions. Their debate covers the ossification of society, the perpetuat
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vii.md): On Election Day, Joe Mauser and his orderly Max Mainz enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere in Kingston, visiting an Upper-class bar where they encounter Balt Haer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Warren, and Soviet observer Colone
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/viii.md): At Baron Malcolm Haer's field headquarters in the ruins of a Bearsville farmhouse, tensions rise as Joe Mauser interrupts a staff meeting to claim he can locate Marshal Cogswell's forces. Despite skepticism and mockery f
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ix.md): Joe Mauser and Max Mainz prepare to use a glider for reconnaissance over the military reservation, despite the scrutiny of Sov-world attaché Colonel Arpàd. Joe argues that gliders are pre-1900 technology and thus permiss
- [The Glider Revolution](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/x.md): Marshal Stonewall Cogswell and his staff observe a silent glider deployed by Baron Haer's Vacuum Tube Transport forces, realizing it provides perfect reconnaissance and revolutionizes warfare. Cogswell concludes he canno
- [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xi.md): Major Joseph Mauser visits the Haer family to discuss his arrangement with the late Baron, only to discover that Balt Haer has inherited the title and that the family's fortunes have shifted due to poor investments. Nadi
- [Subversive](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/subversive.md): Frank Tracy, an agent of the Bureau of Economic Subversion, investigates and shuts down Freer Enterprises, an organization that sells unbranded, cheap goods to undermine the US economy. He interrogates its leaders, inclu
- [The Common Man](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/the-common-man.md): Don Crowley reveals his plan to form the Common Man Party, funded by insider trading and supported by shady political operatives. He coerces Dr. Braun, Ross Wooley, and Patricia O'Gara into producing more of their invisi
- [Frigid Fracas](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/frigid-fracas.md): Joe Mauser scouts the frozen terrain of the Aztec plateau, observing the alien ship and the chaotic, multi-national Earth teams preparing for battle. He notes the lack of discipline, the primitive weapons, and the overwh
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i.md): Major Joseph Mauser, a Mid-Middle Caste mercenary, drowns his frustrations in a Middle Caste Military Club after a recent fracas. Freddy Soligen, a cynical Telly news reporter, confronts him, arguing that Mauser's path t
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ii.md): Joe Mauser and Nadine Haer argue over social mobility and caste systems in a high-end restaurant. Their debate is interrupted by a drunken former boxing champion who attacks Joe. Joe swiftly defeats the man using brutal 
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iii.md): Freddy Soligen has a tense conversation with his teenage son Sam about caste, religion, and ambition. Freddy criticizes the complacency of People's Capitalism and explains that true upward mobility is only possible throu
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/iv.md): Joe Mauser confronts his publicist Freddy Soligen about a staged fight with a former boxing champion, expressing frustration with the publicity campaign that has made him a celebrity but not advanced his caste status. Fr
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/v.md): Joe Mauser visits Nadine Haer at her home, where he encounters her brother Balt Haer, who is hostile and condescending. Philip Holland discusses historical cycles of ruling class self-perpetuation, comparing Roman specta
- [The Marshal's Predicament](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vi.md): Joe Mauser visits Marshal Stonewall Cogswell, who is recruiting officers for an upcoming trial by combat between the United Miners and Carbonaceous Fuel. Cogswell reveals he is caught short of gliders and trained reconna
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/vii.md): Joe Mauser visits Freddy Soligen's home and meets his son Sam, a novitiate in Category Religion. They debate the ethics of military and religious categories, with Joe defending mercenary combat as a chosen profession whi
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/viii.md): Major Joe Mauser meets Dr. Nadine Haer at the Agora Bar, where their ongoing debate over status and caste intensifies. Joe reveals he has taken another mercenary commission for Stonewall Cogswell to advance his promotion
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ix.md): Marshal Stonewall Cogswell briefs his staff on a battle plan that mirrors the Battle of Chancellorsville, but with a strategic reversal of feints and attacks. He assigns Major Joe Mauser to monitor a crucial defile and o
- [The Glider Gambit](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/x.md): Joe Mauser and Freddy Soligen prepare for a reconnaissance mission in a sailplane during a fracas, smuggling a machine gun past neutral observers. Joe must evade enemy glider pilots to deliver a critical message to Marsh
- [XI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xi.md): Joe Mauser, recovering in a military rest home, receives a visit from Stonewall Cogswell, who informs him of the International Disarmament Commission's harsh ruling against him for mounting a gun on an aircraft. Joe is s
- [XII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xii.md): Freddy Soligen returns home after the crash and the subsequent courts-martial, only to discover that his son Sam has switched categories and enlisted as an infantryman in the Chrysler-Ford fracas, inspired by his father'
- [XIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xiii.md): Joe Mauser, recovering from injuries on auto-crutches, receives a visit from Nadine Haer. She brings flowers and candy, and they discuss his expulsion from the Category Military and the ruling against gliders that also a
- [XIV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xiv.md): Nadine Haer drives Joe Mauser to a government building, where they meet Philip Holland and Frank Hodgson. Joe is recruited into a secret organization aiming to change the socioeconomic system. His first assignment is to 
- [Chapter XV: The Proletarian Paradise](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xv.md): Joe Mauser is introduced to Lieutenant Bela Kossuth of the Sov-world's Pink Army. During a ride to a banquet, Kossuth explains the Sov-world's class structure, the role of the Pink Army, and the ongoing punitive expediti
- [XVI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xvi.md): Joseph Mauser, ostensibly a military attaché at the West-world Embassy in Budapest but secretly on a mission for Philip Holland, settles into embassy life while Nadine Haer enthusiastically embraces local Hungarian cultu
- [XVII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xvii.md): Joe Mauser and Max Mainz visit a cabaret in Buda called the Bécsikapu, where they encounter three Soviet officers. A confrontation escalates when Joe throws wine at one officer and knocks out another, leading to a hasty 
- [XVIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xviii.md): Joe Mauser is challenged to a duel by Sándor Rákóczi, a renowned swordsman and marksman, after a nightclub altercation. General Armstrong and Nadine Haer reveal that the duel is likely a political frame-up to eliminate J
- [XIX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xix.md): Joe Mauser receives two Bowie knives for his upcoming duel with Sándor Rákóczi, selecting one with a James Black stamp. Nadine Haer pleads with him to flee to London, but Joe refuses, arguing that the organization's miss
- [XX](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xx.md): Joe Mauser engages in a formal duel with the Hungarian Sov officer Sándor Rákóczi, a televised spectacle. Despite being outmatched in speed and agility, Joe uses a thrown Bowie knife to wound his opponent fatally, winnin
- [XXI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xxi.md): Recovering from his duel with Captain Rákóczi, Joe Mauser is visited by General Armstrong and later by Lieutenant Colonel Bela Kossuth. Armstrong confirms Rákóczi's death and reveals that the Party knows of Mauser's miss
- [XXII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/xxii.md): Joe Mauser returns to Greater Washington with Nadine Haer and Max Mainz after being expelled from the Sov-world. He reports to Phil Holland and Frank Hodgson, revealing that the Sov-world has its own underground revoluti
- [Spaceman on a Spree](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/spaceman-on-a-spree.md): Joe Mauser, a professional soldier in a future stratified society, is recruited by the Vacuum Tube Transport Company for a high-stakes war game on an alien planet. He navigates a complex social hierarchy, confronts the c
- [The Gold Watch](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/i.md): Seymour Pond, the last trained space pilot, retires after his mandatory six trips, leaving the Department of Space Exploration desperate. Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux debate how to lure hi
- [The Trap is Sprung](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_36_se/chapters/ii.md): Si Pond, a retired space pilot, prepares for a lavish night out in Manhattan, spending his savings on luxury and entertainment. He meets Natalie Paskov, who manipulates him into gambling away his fortune. Meanwhile, Acad

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