Type Story
Date 1951-02
Tags time travel, science fiction, causal loop

And It Comes Out Here

  • ... and It Comes Out Here

A man is visited by a traveler from the future--and older version of himself, who takes him in his time machine to the future to steal an atomic generator which history records as his invention. He hasn't got the talent to create such a device--or a time machine, for that matter. His older self speculates that perhaps he did invent the thing, and the time machine, at some point, and this causal loop is how things eventually settled out.

It's a bit novel, in that the whole story is the older man telling his younger self what will happen, but ultimately what will happen is very little. The story leaves you wondering what is going to happen next, but it doesn't give you any basis for answering that question. The device of the time loop is used well enough, though of course it's not new.

Name Role
Lester del Rey Author

Relations

Relation Sources
Contained in
  • Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1951 (1951-02)