Billie the Kid
- by Rick Wilber
- Novelette
- Science Fiction, Sports, War
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- “Billie the Kid” by Rick Wilber, Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2021.
In an alternate history leading up to a 1945 atomic bomb in southern California, young Billie “the Kid” Davis grows up in the mid-20th century, playing shortstop better than any of the boys, flying B-25s with her Dad, and eventually—with Moe Berg and the woman-with-many-names—taking on that bomb.
—Michael Main
This is your moment, Billie. Coming up right now. Save the worlds, Billie. Change everything. You can do it.
Tags
(24)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1930 to 1939: when Billie is young
- Circa AD 1940 to 1949: most of the story, although there are parts of Billie’s adult life later in the 20th century that we have not indexed
- Circa AD 2000 to 2099: Eddie’s time and when Billie is old
- Timeline Models
- Sensing Unfamiliar Timelines: Billie, Moe, Eddie, and perhaps some of the others all remember the timeline before it was changed. Billie is confused about why she ended up in a timeline where Moe never left, and this reader is equally confused on that matter.
- Time Travel Methods
- Time Portal: stepping into the closet and the portal
- Themes
- Alternate Histories
- Future Is “Down”: the future is “down the line”
- Future Is “Up”: but it is also “upstream”
- Time Corps: Stern and myBoop sure seem like part of a Time Corps with lotsa rules.
- Time Travel Sickness, Injuries, and Mixed-Up Body Parts: minor nausea
- Real-World Tags
- Fictional Tags
- Groupings
Variants
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- “Billie the Kid” by Rick Wilber, Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2021.