Factor, Unknown

by Sam Merwin, Jr.

Release: June 1952
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

In order to save the world, wealthy young Houghton travels back fifty years to set straight his great-uncle’s world-threatening mistakes, but it’s Alison—Houghton’s fiery tempered cousin-once-removed—who has a more genuine interest in saving the future than her father does.

— Michael Main

“This is most extraordinary,” he said in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice, regarding Houghton benignly from the tall white fortress of his collar. “You say that you have come back through time to instruct me how to arrange my affairs so that they will not be instrumental in destroying the world some fifty years hence.”

DEBUT

“Factor, Unknown,” Other Worlds Science Stories, June 1952.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1900 to 1929: AD 1901
Circa AD 1950 to 1959: AD 1952

Time Travel Methods

Time Ships: “My vessel—ship if you will—is back there in the clearing.”

Themes

Fix History!: “You saythat you have come back through time to instruct me how to arrange my affairs so that they will not be instrumental in destroying the world some fifty years hence.”
Meeting or Viewing Ancestors or Descendants: not a direct ancestor, but a great uncle and a cousin (once removed)

Groupings

Other Worlds Science Stories (periodical)

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From the Dwight-Houghton estate (probably), March 1952 ⋙ to the Dwight estate, 15 June 1901 (incorrectly said to be a Friday). Note: Houghton’s initial trip.
From the Dwight estate, Monday, 18 June 1901 ⋙ to the Dwight-Howard estate, March 1952 (presumed). Note: Alison’s jaunt to the future.
From the Dwight-Houghton estate, September 1952 (presumed ⋙ to the Dwight estate, Monday, 18 June 1901, a few seconds after Alison left. Note: Alison returns.
From the Dwight estate, Tuesday, 19 June 1901 ⋙ to the Dwight-Howard estate, Fall 1952, sometime Alison had returned to 1901. Note: Houghton’s first return to 1952.
From the Dwight-Houghton estate, a few days later ⋙ to the Dwight estate, 11 December 1901, midmorning. Note: Houghton comes back to 1901 for Alison.
From the Dwight estate, 11 December 1901, midmorning ⋙ to a lodge near Los Alamos New Mexico, 21 May in an unspecified year of the 1950s when the first H-bomb was tested. Note: Dwight and the countess kidnap Houghton and Alison!