Pierre-Paul Durastanti

narrator, translator
Novelette

Paycheck

Apparently, Jennings agreed to work as a specialized mechanic for two years at Rethrick Construction, having his memory wiped at the end in return for 50,000 credits—except instead of a bag full of credits, the memory-wiped Jennings is left holding a bag of seven trinkets and no idea why he would have agreed to such a thing. —Michael Main
But the big puzzle: how had he—his earlier self—known that a piece of wire and a bus token would save his life? He had known, all right. Known in advance. But how? And the other five. Probably they were just as precious, or would be.
Black-and-white pointillism illustration of two policemen running down a street with skyscrapers on the horizon.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Time Patrol 1

Time Patrol

In the first of a long series of hallowed stories, former military engineer (and noncomformist) Manse Everard is recruited by the Time Patrol to prevent time travelers from making major changes to history. (Don’t worry, history bounces back from the small stuff.) —Michael Main
If you went back to, I would guess, 1946, and worked to prevent your parents’ marriage in 1947, you would still have existed in that year; you would not go out of existence just because you had influenced events. The same would apply even if you had only been in 1946 one microsecond before shooting the man who would otherwise have become your father.
A man climbs a spiraling ramp up the side of a rocket while holding a blaster on two men below.
  • Eloi Bronze Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

Himself in Anachron

Tasco Magnon, time traveler, decides to take his new bride on his next trip through time—a quest to find the mythical Knot in Time—where the two of them get trapped, and only one can return.

After Smith’s death in 1966, the story was completed by his wife, Genevieve Linebarger, and sold to Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Vision, but that anthology was endlessly delayed. So in 1987, a translated version of the story was published in a French collection of Smith’s stories, and that was the first published version (although we’ve listed it as an English story, since that’s how it was written). The English version was finally published in Smith’s 1993 complete short science fiction collection by NESFA. By then, Ellison’s rights to the story had expired, although that didn’t stop him from suing NESFA. —Michael Main
‘Honeymoon in time,’ indeed. Why? Is it that your woman is jealous of your time trips? Don’t be an idiot, Tasco. You know that ship’s not built for two.
Spaceships float around a giant structure capped by a skull with spikey hair.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel