Years ago, engineer Bill Webster abandoned Earth for the employ of the piratical Astrarch far beyond the orbit of Mars; now the Astrarch is aiming the final blow at a defeated Earth, and Bill wonders whether the gun sights he invented can spot—and change!—events in the past.
Michael Main
The tracer fields are following all the world lines that intersected at the battle, back across the months and years. The analyzers will isolate the smallest—hence most easily altered—essential factor.

Tags

(11)

Variants

(1)
  1. “Hindsight” by Jack Williamson, Astounding, May 1940.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jack Williamson

Translations

(4)
  1. French.
    “Le renègat” by Jack Williamson, in L’âge d’or de la science-fiction, unknown editors (OPTA, December 1965).
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jack Williamson
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Pierre Billon
  3. French: alternative title of “Le renègat.”
    “Regard en arrière” by Jack Williamson, in Histoires de voyages dans le temps, edited by Jacques Goimard, Demètre Ioakimidis, and Gérard Klein (Le Livre de Poche, 1975).
  4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jack Williamson
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Pierre Billon
  5. German.
    “Späte Einsicht” by Jack Williamson, in Die besten Stories von 1940, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (Moewig, December 1980).
  6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jack Williamson
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Eva Malsch
  7. Russian.
    “Взгляд в прошлое,” as by Джек Уильямсон, in Саргассы в космосе, edited by Владимир Маркович [Vladimir Markovich] ( Общество книголюбов, 1992).
  8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jack Williamson as by Джек Уильямсон
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by А. Тетеревникова