the vertigo hook
By Richard Ashby
Anyone still in doubt as to who won the Civil
War ought to read this story. It gives a
definite if entirely unsuspected answer.
Even among those who accept time travel as at least a theoretical possibility, there exists a tendency to regard this unseen fourth dimension as something which moves back and forth along a single track. However, now and again some ingenious soul arises with a suggestion that time may move in other directions as well. Not since Murray Leinster's memorable "Sidewise in Time" have we met such a scramble as this.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Fantastic Universe October-November 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
It was a long way in time and dimension from his friendly home seas and the Irritant was hungry and ill-humored. The voids about him looked cold, unrelieved by any twinkling of tasty intellect. Not even the flicker of an edible consciousness for eons around. Crossly the Irritant baited a line and cast it in all directions. The bait was a tangled skein of thoughts about Conflict. The hook, a hard and slender curve of sharpened Vertigo.
He began trolling through the blankness of Time....
The Major in Air Corps blues pulled a bound sheaf of papers from his smart brief and slid them across the table. "Of course, Ed, my say-so can pet pretty damn lost between here and the Pentagon but I think you're a cinch for the job."
He plucked the short cigarette from between his thin lips and snubbed it out in the overflowing petri-dish that served as an ashtray. "And"—Major Hall cocked a speculative eye at his friend—"I can't think of a better way for you to get this joint out of the red."