The Search

by A. E. van Vogt

Release: January 1943
Format: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

When salesman Ralph Carson Drake tries to recover his missing memory of the past two weeks, he discovers he had interactions with three people: a woman named Selanie Johns who sold remarkable futuristic devices for one dollar, her father, and an old gray-eyed man who is feared by Selanie and her father.

Van Vogt combined this with two other stories and a little fix-up material for his 1970 publication of Quest for the Future.

— Michael Main

The Palace of Immortality was built in an eddy of time, the only known Reverse, or Immortality, Drift in the Earth Time Stream

DEBUT

“The Search,” Astounding, January 1943.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

Dutch translation:
[ex=bare]“Sporen in de tijdstroom” | Travels in the stream of time[/ex], in De volmaakte wens by A. E. van Vogt (Bruna, 1976).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by René Stolzenbach
French translation:
[ex=bare]“La quête” | The quest[/ex], in Au-delà du néant / Destination univers by A. E. van Vogt (OPTA, June 1969).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Michel Deutsch
German translation:
[ex=bare]“Die Suche nach dem Gedächtnis” | The search for memory[/ex], in Bis in die Unendlichkeit by A. E. van Vogt (Moewig, December 1964).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by H. W. Mommers
A. D. Krauß
Italian translation:
[ex=bare]“La ricerca” | The search[/ex], in Destinazione Universo by A. E. van Vogt (Editrice Nord, November 1979).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Sandro Pergameno
Italian translation:
[ex=bare]“‘Otto giorni prima’” | “Eight days before”[/ex], in Cosmo 95, 15 March 1962.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by F. Jachino
Japanese translation:
[ex=bare]消されし時を求めて | In search of time to be erased | “Kesareshi toki wo motomete”[/ex], in 1940 年代―星ねずみ, edited by 中村融 [Nakamura Tohru] and 山岸真 [Yamagishi Makoto] (河出書房新社, November 2000).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by 伊藤典夫
Romanian translation:
[ex=bare]“Căutarea” | The quest[/ex], in Destinația Univers by A. E. van Vogt (Editura RAO, 1994).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by A. E. van Vogt
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Cristina Duță

7 translations

DERIVATIVE WORKS

Quest for the Future by A. E. van Vogt, (Ace Books, July 1970).

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1600 to 1699: early western America, in 1650
Circa AD 1940 to 1949: starting time, in the USA during World War II

Timeline Models

Outside of Time: The Palace of Immortality, in “an eddy of time.”

Time Travel Methods

Innate Time Travelers: “They can go through time at will. [. . .] There are [. . .] about three thousand of them. They were all born over a period of five hundred years beginning in the twentieth century; the strangest thing of all is that every one of them originated in a single, small district of the United States, around the towns of Kissling, Inchney and particularly in an infinitesmal farming community called Piffer’s Road.”

Themes

Cannot Return to Time Where You Already Exist: “If instead of entering the trailer, you walked off down the road to resume your life, in one week you would reach the time where your earlier self was in the hospital. You would vanish, disintegrate.”
Fix History!: “[The Possessors] are trying to do something about the terrible mistakes of Man and Nature. They’ve made a marvelous science of their great gift, and they use it like beneficial gods.”
Long Life: The backward aging in the Palace of Immortality makes the Possessors effectively immortal.
Technology and Science from the Future: the bottomless pens and other gadgets
Time Corps: the Possessors
Unusual Aging: “You’ll have to stay more at the palace, reversing your age, while I go to Earth and add a few years to mine.”

Fictional Tags

Parallel Universes or Dimensions: We have no idea how to classify the “probability worlds” much less the “personal probability worlds” and the “almost perfect 290A,” so let’s just call them parallel universes for now.

Groupings

Astounding · Analog (periodical)

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From outside the trailer on Piffer’s Road near Inchney, after unsuccessfully searching the trailer for Selanie ⋙ to one week later, at a nearby location where two weeks of Drake’s memory were erased by Possessor Drail McMahon. Note: From Drake’s point of view, this was his first of five travels through time in the story, which began sometime during World War II.
From the hotel in Inchney, after traveling by train back to Inchney, taking a bus out to Piffer road, finding no sign of the trailer, and hitchhiking back to Inchney ⋙ to the Palace of Immortality, in an eddy outside of normal time. Note: the second time Drake was waylaid by a Possessor.
From the Palace of Immortality, the next day ⋙ to the trailer again, just after Drake had exited the trailer and been transported through time for the first time. Note: This leg of his journey was voluntary after Price and Selanie explained what’s what.
From the trailer, circa 1943 ⋙ to the trailer, 1650. Note: Drake, Selanie, her father, and the entire trailer travel back and get stuck in 1650.
From the trailer, 1651 ⋙ to the trailer, at an unspecified future time. Note: Even though it “took a year long,” Drake and Selanie are trained in time traveling by Selanie’s father, and they all return to the future to start Drake’s time as a Possessor.