The Meteor Girl

by Jack Williamson

Release: March 1931
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

When a meteor lands on the beachfront airfield of our narrator and his partner Charlie King, Charlie realizes that it provides a space-time portal through which they view the death-at-sea of Charlie’s ex-fiancée.

— Michael Main

A terrestrial astronomer may reckon that the outburst on Nova Persei occurred a century before the great fire of London, but an astronomer on the Nova may reckon with equal accuracy that the great fire occurred a century before the outburst on the Nova.

DEBUT

“The Meteor Girl,” Astounding, March 1931.

VARIANTS

2 English variants

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1930 to 1939: presumed time period

Timeline Models

Foretold or Seen Future Is Not Set in Stone
Viewing the Future: The Valhalla probably hasn’t sunk at all! We were looking into the future!

Time Travel Methods

Time Rifts: the field of the meteorite

Themes

Save “Lois”!: Charlie wants to save his ex-fiancée, Virginia.

Groupings

Astounding · Analog (periodical): March 1931
Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From a Florida beach at an unknown time ⋙ to the same beach, 12 hours and 40 minutes later. Note: It’s only the viewing apparatus that’s actually pulled through time.