2000x: Tales of the Next Millennia,  1999 to 2000

A blank verse version of the story of Antony and Cleopatra focusing on the last hours of their lives. Although the words are mainly those of John Dryden, the story has been transplanted from Egypt to Venus in a far future time. Terran empire dominates. Antony, a general and local Terran commander on Venus, has gone local and thrown his support behind his mistress, Cleopatra, the long-time ruler of Venus. Octavius gathers his forces and prepares to wrest control from both Antony and Cleopatra.

An extremely abbreviated version of the William F. Nolan tale. A dying spaceman who has spent more than one-half his life in space, struggles to cheat death and find a way to keep the last promise he ever made to his parents: to return to see them one last time before he dies.

The District of Northern Illinois has cut itself out of all systems and and has pledged to remain disconnected until the Aërial Board of Control (ABC) take over and administer it directly. Every Northern Illinois freight and passenger tower is out of action; all District main, local, and guiding lights have been extinguished; all General Communications are dumb, and through-traffic has been diverted. No reason has been given, but unofficially the Mayor of Chicago has complained of 'crowd-making' and 'invasion of privacy'.

Reading Link: "As Easy as ABC", in the collection A Diversity of Creatures by Rudyard Kipling, available at Project Gutenberg.

A short, short story about two vampires who, fleeing persecution in their own time, use a time machine to travel into the future where, they hope, mankind will have forgotten all about vampires, and they will be free to dine unhindered.

Terran refugees on a foreign planet live on a preserve where they are protected from the native Tlic race, but can still be bought, sold and traded for political favours. One of the services most sought after from the Terrans is that they act as host mothers in a complex breeding process.

Reading Link: "Bloodchild", by Octavia Butler, available at The Washington Post.

Bob Wilson, a college student typing his PhD thesis on time travel, is startled to discover a strange man step through a time gate into his dorm room. The man is unshaven, looks like he has been in a brawl, has one heck of a shiner, a swollen lip... and looks oddly familiar.

"This story was produced in 1982. Dreyfuss and Cordis Heard (John Heard’s sister) were recorded in NY. Engineer Richard Fairbanks and I finished it in Chicago. It won a couple of awards on its first airing. When the NPR commission of 2000x came along 16 years later, it gave me a chance to take Bootstraps out of mothballs." -- Yuri Rasovsky as quoted from Radio Drama Revival

A post-holocaust tale of a priest's son whose rite of passage is to venture to the forbidden ruins left by the long-departed gods.

Reading Link: "By the Waters of Babylon", by Stephen Vincent Benét, available at Project Gutenberg Canada.

A short, short story in which a scientist travels into the future with notepad, camera, and tape recorder and returns to tell all that he has seen.

A humorous short, short story about a collector gathering up an intelligent rock that doesn't want to be collected.

This story takes place in the 26th century, after 500 years of industrial oligarchy. The rulers of that time view the working-class as little more than 'herd-animals' and enforce that status by ruthlessly stamping out all literacy. The ember of rebellion, however, has not been completely extinguished and 'story-tellers' evolve to keep the spirit of freedom alive.

Reading Link: "A Curious Fragment", available in the collection The Chinago and Other Stories by Jack London, available at Internet Archive.

Scander, a convicted criminal who has spent the last 70 years in prison, is desperate to escape. He begins a correspondence with an unsuspecting Earthling by means of the Interstellar Correspondence Club and begins to lay his plans...

In 1826, saddened by the deaths of her husband and Lord Byron, and pondering the death of the Romantic political ideals for which they stood, Mary Shelley wrote a dystopian novel entitled The Last Man. A few years later, T.H. Lister published a response which offered a more positive vision: a prosperous world due to the marvels of technological achievement. The response was published in 1829 in the literary magazine The Keepsake and provides a glimpse into life 300 years hence—a world of automaton note-writers, steam-powered porters, and rapid transportation. The glimpse is provided as a polite conversation among three socialites from the year 2130 discussing art, music, dancing, literature (both current and archaic), military campaigns, literacy, news, and agricultural production.

Reading Link: "A Dialogue for the Year 2130: Extracted from the Album of a Modern Sibyl", by T.H. Lister, available at Romantic Circles -- archived 2017.

On a long train ride, a man discusses with a stranger the odd 'consecutive dream' he has been having for the past month—a dream of a dark future in which he must choose to live with the woman he loves, or return to a life of dirty politics so as to prevent the onslaught of global war. It is one or the other; there is no middle ground. The dream is so vivid, so lifelike, that he can't even be sure it is a dream. Mightn't it be something else?

Reading Link: "A Dream of Armageddon", in the collection Twelve Stories and a Dream by H.G. Wells, available at Project Gutenberg.

22-year old Perdita has joined the Cyclists, and the rest of the family are determined to stop her from ruining her life! Well, except for her mother who thinks she has a right to ruin her life. After all, it's a question of personal sovereignty and that's what made The Liberation possible in the first place, wasn't it?

The State no longer executes those it finds guilty of treason. Instead, it transports them back in time and proclaims them 'fair game' in sanctioned Hunts. David Black has been found guilty of treason. He has been transported to a large American city in the mid-20th century. Five hundred hunters have also arrived. It doesn't matter that David Black was framed. It doesn't matter that those who framed him will be the quickest to the hunt. It doesn't matter because: the hunt is about to begin.

A strong, self-centred man becomes frustrated and impatient with his compliant wife, at about the same time that he, coincidentally, meets an attractive, independent woman.

A short speculative piece about what Americans might find (in a thousand years) when they travel to Europe on that one-week vacation they've saving for. Presented as a newsreel travelogue.

Reading Link: "In a Thousand Years", in the collection What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, available at Project Gutenberg.

A prophetic glimpse into the life of a business tycoon in the year 2889. The tycoon in question is Francis Bennett, the owner of the Earth-Harold news service and a pioneer in the field of telephonic journalism.

Reading Link: "In the Year 2889", by Jules and Michel Verne, available at Project Gutenberg.

A micro-story about a mad scientist who works late in his laboratory trying to grant the essence of life to inanimate objects, with surprising results.

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door." Aliens who have no concept of natural death have wiped out humanity, literally to the last man and woman, whom they put in a zoo as public curiosities.

"Once, the creatures of the forest held a great convention and appointed a commission consisting of the most illustrious scientists among them to go forth, clear beyond the forest and out into the unknown and unexplored world to verify the truth of the matters already taught in their schools and colleges and also to make discoveries." -- Mark Twain

Reading Link: "Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls", in the collection Sketches New and Old by Mark Twain, available at Project Gutenberg.

Note: Nancy Cartwright is popularly known as the voice of Bart Simpson. -- webmaster

In this story, nuclear physicist Sir Peter Perfrement postulates that a stable isotope of fluorine is possible. His intellectual nemesis, Dr Frankenberg, strongly objects. To prove his point, Sir Peter creates a batch of Fluorine 80+ which is stable, in that it won't react with other elements, but is radioactive. If a critical mass of Fluorine 80+ were confined in certain difficult-to-create conditions, it could explode with enough power to destroy the planet. That, of course, could never happen.

Note: fluorine is an extremely reactive element that does not exist naturally on Earth except as compounds with other elements. Early efforts to isolate fluorine were dangerous and often resulted injury or death. -- webmaster

In the remote future—when the Earth's surface has become virtually uninhabitable and humanity has retreated underground to die a slow death under the guidence of the Machine—a woman's son declares his intention to violate the fabric of civilization by venturing to the surface. An early 20th century classic of science fiction by E. M. Forster, written as a retort against H.G. Wells' faith in the wonders of a technology-driven future.

Reading Link: "The Machine Stops", in the collection The Eternal Moment and Other Stories, available at Project Gutenberg.

Thirty thousand years ago—in the late 20th century—great fissures opened in the Earth's crust releasing a steady, but slow, flow of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The result was catastrophic. Now mankind struggles to survive, ignorant of fire and metal, the uses of stone and wood, and with a vocabulary of only a few hundred labial sounds that convey no abstractions and refer to few concrete things. This is the story of Burl and his voyage away from his tribe, through the carboniferous landscape of "The Mad Planet".

Reading Link: "The Mad Planet", by Murray Leinster, available at Project Gutenberg.

Centuries of over-breeding by the least intelligent and least capable human beings have weakened the gene pool to the point where only a very few people are capable of producing, creating, or fixing anything. These individuals are hopelessly over-worked, while the rest of the population mooches off their creative talent and productivity. A possible solution to this dilemma arises when a late-20th Century human, John Barlow, is discovered in suspended animation. The leaders of this future Earth re-animate Mr Barlow, hoping he may have some fresh ideas.

A special meeting of the United Haberdashery Corporation board of directors is convened to discuss alarming sales projections and to figure out what can be done about them. The president, however, doesn't accept those projections. And neither does his guest from the American Foundation of Eugenics.

A short, humorous piece about the Y3k bug.

A short, humorous piece about the Y4k bug.

On the brink of World War Three, the West sends envoys to recruit aid from the penal colony on Venus, only to learn a hard lesson in morality from the sub-culture which has evolved out of the brutal living conditions there.

A modern tale inspired by the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic, The Moon Maid. Commander Julian 5th, of the spaceship Barsoom, leads the 1st American Voyage (FAV) to the Red Planet, but is forced to crash-land on the Moon, which he discovers is hollow and inside of which he finds many alien races all vying for political power. It's rather complicated.

Reading Link: "The Moon Maid", by Edgar Rice Burroughs, available at Project Gutenberg Australia.

Characters

Commander Julian 5th, FAV

Heroic, courageous, redoubtable, slightly ineffectual. Has a thing for the princess.

Lieutenant Commander Orthis, FAV

Brilliant, unscrupulous, and obnoxious. A traitor. Has a thing for the princess.

Lieutenant West, FAV

Eager for power; waiting to take over the moment anything happens to the commander. Has a thing for the princess.

Ensign Norton, FAV

Wet behind the ears, but trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly. A real boy scout type.

Nah-ee-lah

Beautiful 'valley-girl' type princess, fer sure. Has a thing for bad boys.

Ga-va-go

Leader of the carnivorous half-man/half-horse race. Has a thing for the princess.

Gapth

Surfer-guy type bear who had a thing for the princess, but, dude, that was a long time ago. Might still be carrying a torch, though.

Ko-tah

Evil nobleman seeking to overthrow the kingdom of Laythe. Has a thing for the princess.

Doc Methuselah and his sidekick Hippocrates cruise the universe in their sleek spaceship Morgue and seek to preserve mankind. While taking a little R&R on the planet Spico, they discover a nefarious plot to swindle immigrants of thier life's savings. As a Soldier of Light, Doc is strictly forbidden to take part in politics of any kind, but when a damsel in distress appears Doc wonders if, perhaps, a slight nudge won't be noticed.

Set in far-future Australia. The technologically-advanced, spiritually-enlightened aboriginal natives of Australia have passed a law to protect the [forgetti], but the new law does not go into effect for another week, which leaves time for one last hunt. Fourteen hard-nosed hunters with fierce eyes, minds like traps, and no compassion have arrived to stalk, pursue and exterminate the last remaining [forgetti], but Tom 'Rynosseros' Tyson and the Bird Club have also arrived, and they plan to disrupt the hunt if they can.

In the distant future, there are no burials; the dead are considered unclean and are incinerated shortly after death. A long-term project to destroy all the old cemeteries—to dig up the old coffins and properly dispose of the remains—is nearly complete, but one corpse, angered at the lack of respect for the dead, objects strongly. Fuelled by hate, he strives to punish those responsible for disturbing his rest, even if it means destroying civilization.

Mad scientist Galloway Gallegher—the greatest inventor since Leonardo da Vinci and Tom Swift—awakes from a drunken stupor to find the owner of Vox-View, Inc. on his doorstep demanding to know if he's figured a way to outsmart Sonatone yet. It seems Galloway was drunk when he accepted the commission and can't remember why he accepted it or how he planned on completing it. He does have a shiny new robot named Joe who sings like a banshee and spends all his time admiring himself in the mirror, but he can't remember why he invented him, either. Does it have something to do with the Vox-View project?

A large factory on an isolated island creates robots (androids, really) and sells them worldwide. The robots are obedient and can learn to perform tasks, but cannot feel pleasure or passion, they cannot hope, they have no souls. Into this environment comes young Helena Glory, an activist, bent on liberating the robots from the tyranny of their employers.

The classic play from which the word robot was popularized. R.U.R. was first published in 1921, and within two years it had been translated into 30 languages, reflecting, perhaps, the growing frustration workers worldwide were experiencing with their employers during that time. (The Ludlow massacre, for example, took place in 1914.) -- webmaster

Reading Link: "R.U.R. - Rossum's Universal Robots", by Karel Čapek, available at Project Gutenberg.

A future society, enslaved to the tyranny of the schedule, looks for a saviour in the form of a clownish prankster who refuses to punch the state time-clock.

A humorous vignette about a man placed into cryogenic sleep in the hope that medical science will one day be able to repair his body, and his subsequent revival years later.

Excerpt from the galactic journal of sapientology. Features the character Gort Klaatu.

In the 1951 firm The Day the Earth Stood Still, an alien named Klaatu visits Earth with a robot named Gort, but I'm sure you already knew that. -- webmaster

Northwest Smith, a man known and respected in every dive and wild outpost on a dozen worlds, hears a mob approaching and warily backs into a doorway, his hand on his heat-gun's grip. Smith, despite his reputation, is a cautious man. The crowd streams around a corner chasing a berry-brown girl in a tattered garment. Excited yells can be heard. Smith steps between the girl and the crowd, heat-gun drawn, and claims she is his. The crowd backs down. Afterwards, Smith realizes that the oddly beautiful creature is not quite human, and not quite animal. She is Shambleau.

Note: at one point in the written story, Northwest Smith returns to his lodging humming "The Green Hills of Earth"! Robert Heinlein credits the title of this song as being the inspiration for his classic science fiction story of the same name. -- webmaster

Reading Link: "Shambleau", by C.L. Moore, available at Internet Archive.

Scientists trying to correct radio transmission problems with Icarus, a French/Japanese satellite inside the orbit of Mercury, unexpectedly initiate communication with a man who calls himself Temüjin and speaks in an archaic Mongolian dialect common in the 13th century.

Fanny Billingsgate, an 87-year old woman knitting on the porch of her modest, small-town house, is approached by an alien who is taking a survey. "Could you just tell us a little bit about yourself, your core belief system, and how you implement that system?"

Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch is an epic story by George Bernard Shaw consisting of a Preface and an interconnected series of five plays. The premise is that the biological driving force is not Darwinian 'evolution' but Lamarckian 'adaptation'—a process which is controlled through will and necessity. In the second play (The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day), the Barnabas Brothers speculate that if mankind is to save itself, it will be necessary for humans to adapt and extend their lifespan to 300 years. The third play (The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170) begins when this... this thing... has happened. A few people have covertly willed themselves long lifetimes.

Reading Link: "The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170", contained in Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch by George Bernard Shaw, available at Project Gutenberg.

A dystopian tale of the future in which the drug 'anti-gerasone' is used to halt the aging process. The drug eliminates death by old age, as long as those taking the drug continue to take it. As a result, the Earth suffers from massive over-population and the depletion of natural resources.

Reading Link: "The Big Trip Up Yonder", by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, available at Project Gutenberg.

A team of misfit explorers lands on a planet that is one vast living—and frightened—organism.

Scientists have discovered that murderers' brain waves, just before they commit murder, are slightly different from normal brainwaves and that these differences can be measured. Corporate engineers use this knowledge to design flying machines that soar above the city and monitor the brainwaves of every person walking the streets; when abnormal brainwaves are detected the watchbirds sweep into action. Unfortunately, not all murderers exhibit these brainwaves, so the final watchbird design includes learning circuits which allow the watchbirds to expand their definition of murder.

An alien makes an emergency landing on Earth. All he wants to do is fix his spacecraft and leave, but he keeps getting interrupted by humans who want to know what he's doing. If he could just find a good mechanic...