"Trouble with the Natives" (short story): When aliens visited a little English village!

Frustration of alien colonists. Good humor.

Story summary (spoiler).
A galactic survey ship that reports to equivalent of the ministry of tribal affairs (of galactic government) lands on earth - near an English village. Among the mostly tentacled crew are two humanoids - deficient alien creatures with only one pair of legs, arms & eyes! They don't quite look human, but are effectively disguised as such - given the advanced ET technology.

These two are to make contact with human authorities. They have learned English & human manners by listening to BBC broadcasts over a period of time.

The story is of their adventures through the village, as every attempt at contact is frustrated. Because they are totally inappropriately dressed, BBC mannerism doesn't work in this village, & totally naive application of their learnings about humans.

Similar scenarios in movies.
I am not aware of this in Hollywood, but I have seen at least two Hindi films that have very similar plot. But rather than aliens landing, it is Yam & Chitragupt (see below) that land on earth, & get frustrated in their contacts with earthlings - in scenes very similar in spirit to those in this story.

For those not familiar with lores of India: Yam, also called Yamraj, is the god of death, & also the warden of hell. Chitragupt is the heavenly accountant - the one who keeps a register that records your good deeds & bad ones.

Fact sheet.
Trouble with the natives, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Humor
First Published: 1951
Rating: B

See also.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None" (A): Very similar & hilarious story (but longer) - only imperialists from earth try overlording another human inhabited world.
   
2. Michael Flynn's "Eifelheim" (B): This novel, among the finalists for Hugo Awards 2007, is about the aliens' visit to a German village - in fourteenth century.
   
3. "History Lesson" & "Rescue Party" both have scenes where ETs conclude naive things about humans by looking at, respectively, a movie & a portrait. In this story, aliens get similar miscues by watching television & listening to radio.
4. Tentacled aliens as dominant alien species was also the case in "Rescue Party".
5. Galactic survey ships looking for primitive intelligent races are rather common in Clarke's stories. But the aliens running them usually want to help still undeveloped life farms, rather them treat them as aboriginals.

This story has also been published under these titles.

1. "Three Men in a Flying Saucer"

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Reach for tomorrow"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Of Time and Stars"

"Rescue Party" (short story, free): First of Clarke, also mother of all his stories

According to Clarke's opening remarks in the story collection "Reach for Tomorrow", "Rescue Party" is not only his first published story, but shares the roots with another story - "History Lesson". Also see the note on first story near end of this article.

After reading it, I am getting a feeling that this also is the mother story of all of Clarke's life. Just too many ideas in his later stories already appear here! And it must be among the most influential science fiction stories by anyone; see Influences section below.

Full text of this story is available online (link via Sf Signal & Free SF Reader). I've not read this online version.

Story summary (spoiler).
This doomsday story is set in about 2200 AD.

Sun is about to blast, & will take earth & rest of solar system with it. A kind of galactic administration of aliens not aware of the existence of humans suddenly learns two facts:

1. That our Sun will burst - less than 10 hours before the event.
2. That it contains a world inhabited by intelligent beings. It seems - these beings discovered radio 200 years back, & one of their transmissions has just been intercepted by a alien station 200 light years from earth.

There is a ship of galactic administration just about a billion miles of earth. It is entrusted with the job of rescuing what intelligent creatures it can from the doomed earth. It will have just about 4 hours on earth, after accounting for the time needed to reach it & then to escape.

Will they be able to help humans?

Influences.
I enumerate here those of Clarke's stories that carry influences from this story. Note that I haven't probably read even half of his total work - so this list will likely expand in future!

1. Expand this story a bit, & you get "The Songs of Distant Earth". Another very similar story is "The Star".
2. Alien ship in question is a cylindrical one, with kilometer scale dimensions. Its elaboration will yield "Rendezvous with Rama". Plus the ships in its 3 sequels.
3. "History Lesson" is similar in that Sun is changing in a way that dooms earth. But rather than exploding, it cools - to turn earth into an icy wasteland. But both the response of humans to the event, & story ending, are very different.
4. In "History Lesson", aliens begin drawing funny conclusions about humans by interpreting the scenes in a movie reel. Something very similar happens here; early in their search on earth, they find a portrait of a man & begin wondering how the poor bipeds managed with just 4 limbs & 2 eyes - may be they have more eyes in the back not visible in this primitive 2D portrait!
   
5. There is a brief mention of a black rectangle that gives the illusion of having infinite depth. This reminded me of the various Monoliths (TMAs) in Space Odyssey series.
6. Tentacled aliens in this story might have morphed into octospiders seen in various Rama sequels.
7. Galactic administration entrusted with their duties by powers beyond the beginning of time reminds me of the end of "Rama Revealed". The powers beyond the beginning of time also appear to be indistinguishable from Brahma, the Creator, of Hindu Trinity (other two are Vishnu - the Executive, & Shiva - the Destroyer; these two don't have any avatars here).
8. While beginning operation rescue humans on earth, these tentacled aliens carry a paralyzer because they will likely have to do forcible evacuations because of lack of time. In "Rama Revealed", octospiders actually use paralyzers when they "kidnap" a woman.
   
9. Galactic survey ship, & the survey administration, here is very similar in concept to the one in "Encounter at Down".
10. Aliens keeping a watch on development of earthlings, among other promising beings across galaxy, is found in Space Odyssey series, & in "The Sentinel".
11. Benign aliens helping intelligent beings everywhere in galaxy is an idea you also find in "2001 A Space Odyssey". Though its sequels somewhat dilute it.
12. Anti-gravity devices mentioned here are also seen in "3001 The Final Odyssey", but with a different application - to power a spaceship.
    

I am also aware of some stories by Issac Asimov that have ideas very similar to those in this story:

1. You find Issac Asimov's Gaia here, as Palador; one of his Foundation sequels - "Foundation's Edge" - introduced it; another of his novels - "Foundation & Earth" - further developed it. Another of Asimov's novels - "Nemesis" - also has a planet scale hive intelligence. Palador in this story is very similar to Gaia, not the one in Nemesis.
2. The idea of a Sun blasting, & rescue of an entire planet, is also the theme of Asimov's novel "Currents of Space".
3. Galactic administration described here could have been Asimov's Empire, though Clarke doesn't really elaborate the administration part. And Asimov's Empire was of human origin, & his stories on the subject focused mostly on the politics.
4. I recall more than one of Asimov's sequels to Foundation series that had anti-gravity devices, though in different applications - as an ordinary elevator & a spaceship.

Trivia.
You get a feeling of the age of the story when you see mentions of "vacuum tubes" (as in computers), or of cupboards full of some 5 million punched cards! But they don't hamper readability.

Is it really the first story by Clarke?
When I originally wrote this article, I had referred to Clarke's "Reach for Tomorrow". Here is the quote: '"Rescue Party", which was written in 1945, was my first published story'. The publication actually happened a year later, in 1946.

I now (on 25 August 2007) hold in my hands "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke". And here is the quote from introduction to first story in the book - "Travel by Wire!": "'Travel by Wire!' was my first published story."

Actually, the later appears right. "Travel by Wire!" was published in 1937 in Amateur Science Fiction Stories; "Rescue Party" was first published May 1946 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction.

Based on Clarke's other remarks introducing "Travel by Wire!", he seems to think this was published in one of the fan magazines while "Rescue Party" was in a mainstream publication; also that Travel is probably of lower quality than his later works. I actually find Travel to be among his best stories.

Fact sheet.
Rescue Party, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Science fiction
First published: 1946 (in "Astounding Science Fiction")
Rating: A

Series: "Rescue Party" (A), "The Songs of Distant Earth" (A)

Collected in.

1. "Reach for tomorrow"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"
4. "The Sentinel (collection)"
5. "More Than One Universe"
6. David Drake, Jim Baen, & Eric Flint (Ed)'s "The World Turned Upside Down"
   

"Encounter at Down" (short story): Another precursor to "2001 A Space Odyssey"

While there are differences, there can be no doubt this story, originally published as "Encounter in the Down", inspired the first story in "2001 A Space Odyssey". Note that second story in 2001 was inspired by "The Sentinel".

A much better version of this story that actually marries it with the first story in "2001 A Space Odyssey" appears in Clarke's "The Lost Worlds of 2001" under the title "First Encounter".

Key premise in the story is: neither earth nor humans nor other familiar life forms on earth are an evolutionary oddity; indistinguishable stuff must exist at hundreds of places in the galaxy.

Story summary (spoiler).
A (mother) spaceship that is a kind of aircraft carrier is doing a Galactic Survey in "the loosely packed stars at rim of the Milky Way". One of the actual survey crafts mothership contains is loose nearby (just 100 light years from mothership) with 3 occupants. Some background conversation tells us there is trouble in their home world, & the ship might be called back home in a hurry for more important use than purely scientific pursuits they are presently involved in.

OK - so the survey craft enters a star system, skips a gas giant while heading inwards, & comes upon a promising planet. The only problem is: this planet could have been their own home planet - so similar it is to their home world.

They land at a place that future locals will label Babylon, next to a good sized river. A robot is sent out to survey the land. From the description, this robot appears to me to be rather primitive for a race that considers 100 light years nearby. Robot is remotely controlled by one of the 3 occupants using a "keyboard".

After preliminaries, they notice a path through the grass. While path itself could be a favorite of any animal, this is a lead. They decide to cautiously follow it. And behold - what they see is a village of smart bipedals just like them, only leading a much simpler life! There is some amazement, but nothing really tricky; they already know of a 100 other worlds in galaxy where the pattern repeats.

Contact is made with one of the village hunters in a rather common sensical way, without frightening him, & in bits over several days. While not making contact, the ship surveys rest of the world, finds many other communities, all at the same relatively low level of technology development.

End is a parting from the local contact, & some rather high tech gifts to him (that will be lost in a generation). There is regret on the part of surveyors of not being able to help these beings leapfrog technologically in a few generations what they would themselves do in 100,000 years (or is it million, I forget). And there is wistful recognition, as the ship is taking off, on the part of local of being the only one of his kind that has met gods.

All through the story, I was not very sure whether the occupants of ship were humans, or primitives on the world they landed! There are only two clues - the place where they landed will in future be called Babylon, & the surveyors were operating thousands of light years from their home world in the general area of "the loosely packed stars at rim of the Milky Way". Draw your own conclusions.

There is a minor inconsistency that can be ignored; may be it was modern knowledge in the year 1953. Humans as we know appeared on earth about 35 thousand years back; at least 28,000 years back, they were still essentially cave dwellers. I am not a expert on primitive history, but villages must have appeared much later. Yet this story talks of either 100 thousand or million years (I don't recall correctly) to comparable level of development - may be the space farers are talking of their level of development! If evolutionary history of earth is any guide, our descendants a 100,000 years down will probably look as similar to us as we look to chimpanzees.

Still, it's not a bad read.

A note on various titles of this story.
This quote from "The Lost Worlds of 2001" provides some interesting information: 'An editor at Ballantine Books gave it the ingenious title "Expedition to Earth" when it was published in the book of that name, but I prefer "Encounter in the Dawn." However, when Harcourt, Brace and World brought out my own selection of favorites, The Nine Billion Names of God, it was mysteriously changed to "Encounter at Dawn."'

Fact sheet.
Encounter at Down, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Fantasy
First published: 1953
Rating: B

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Expedition to Earth"
3. "Of Time and Stars"
4. "Across the Sea of Stars"
5. "More Than One Universe"

"The Sentinel" (short story): Yet anoher ET beacon

A very average aliens' story. The story is set in sometime in 1990s (now we know, of course, that he was too optimistic).

An MP3 version of this story is available online (link via SF Signal & Free SF Reader).

Story summary (spoiler).
A local expedition off one of the permanent human bases on moon stumbles upon a machine on earth side of lunar surface that is found to be a beacon planted by ETs. Measurement of the depth of cosmic dust around the beacon dates it to a time before there was any kind of life on earth.

Not only has the machine stayed there all these eons, it appears to be still in perfectly working condition. And it is shielded in ways that frustrates examination by curious humans. So the foolish human adventurers blast through it with some kind of atomic fuse - only to discover the interiors totally beyond their grasp.

Story ends with this speculation: The ETs must have planted many such beacons across the galaxy near worlds that promise intelligent life in future. And ETs probably assumed that the curious explorers will do something foolish - switching off of beacon is probably a signal to them that it's time they come & have a look. So the smarter of the humans await the arrival in fear - for the ETs are an old race, & old are normally jealous of the young!

Note there is another Clarke story where ETs plant a beacon on moon to monitor evolution of intelligence on earth: the second of the four stories in "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Note (12 April 2007): According to this Wikipedia article, this story was 'written in 1948 for a BBC competition but first published in 1951 under the title "Sentinel of Eternity"'.

Collected in.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Expedition to Earth"
3. "Of Time and Stars"
4. "Across the Sea of Stars"
5. "The Sentinel (collection)"
6. "More Than One Universe"
7. "The Lost Worlds of 2001"
   

See also.

1. "What Goes Up": An industrial accident on earth creates a field very similar to the shield protecting the alien beacon on moon in Sentinel.

Fact sheet.
The Sentinel, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Fantasy
First published: 1951
Rating: C
Listed in Contento's Top Ten Most Reprinted Stories.

"2001 A Space Odyssey" (novel): On human origins & gods

This novel from mid-1960s must easily be among the better science fiction works. Comprises of essentially four different stories carefully linked together, but each could independently exist.

Story summary (spoiler).
First story doesn't last long, but has an outstanding plot that can be basis for a series of novels - if you drop the ET component & may be do a bit more research.

It portrays life 3 million years ago in a colony of apes that are on the verge of discovering stuff that will turn their descendants into humans.

I particularly liked it because it deals with a period of human history about which I have never read another story. And it offers rich tapestry on which to write more stories - though I am not aware if any have been written in 40 years that this book has been around.

But for Clarke, this first story is just a method of introducing ET (extra-terrestrial intelligence - intelligent beings that are not of earthly origin). In this case, an ET surveyor chooses these apes, among a lot of other animals, to slightly nudge them towards a path that will lead to intelligent species; all experiments fail except humans.

There is another Clarke story, published over a decade earlier, that touches on this theme: "Encounter at Down". But I personally find the version in 2001 far more interesting.

Incidentally, Clarke actually marries this story with "Encounter at Down" in a far better variant of the story titled "First Encounter" in "The Lost Worlds of 2001".

Second story is of space flight & of human colonization of moon. Much of the story deals with travel aspects of this subject; ETs enter in later part.

Colony on moon has been doing a local magnetic survey , & find an anomaly - a physical location that has intense magnetic field. They eventually discover an unexplainable object that is obviously not of natural origin. It can also not be human origin because it dates back 3 million years - humans as we know them appeared only 30,000 years back.

When this object is exposed to sunlight accidentally, a major electromagnetic disturbance results that apparently is a signal; simultaneously, the signal is also observed by ships widely dispersed through solar system.

Note there is an earlier short story too where ETs plant a beacon on moon to monitor evolution of intelligence on earth: "The Sentinel". When introducing Sentinel in "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke", he mentions that Sentinel "is the starting point of 2001: A Space Odyssey".

There are two aspects of this story that you find in "Rescue Party", the mother of all Clarke stories:

1. Essentially benign aliens keeping a watch of development of intelligent beings everywhere in galaxy. And helping them where they can.
2. Black monolith in this story also appears in all 3 sequels of this novel. I was reminded of it by the black rectangle of apparently infinite depth in the control room of the alien ship in Rescue Party.
   

Third story is also of space flight - to one of the moons of Saturn (Japetus, also called Iapetus).

Much of the story is a description of the ship, passage off asteroid belt, around Jupiter, arrival at Saturn, & going in orbit around target moon.

This story also includes 3 other common plot elements - I have previously seen 2 of them used in Clarke's other work, third is from Asimov's novels.

1. A spaceship with a rotating cylindrical element to create artificial gravity.
2. Moving human passengers long distance in space by putting them in hibernation.
3. HAL, a robot, or rather an AI, that behaves remarkably like Asimov's robots, except that it can harm humans.

Robot is controlling the ship that is carrying 5 human passengers. 3 of them are in hibernation, 2 are awake. There is a winded juvenile plot of governmental secrecy that is behind 3 sleeping & 2 awake - they have been given different information, & must not communicate with each other till arrival at Saturn.

Midway through the voyage, some anomalous behavior is observed in robot's functioning. There is talk that robot might be shut down. Robot doesn't want to die! So it decides to kill the two humans that are awake.

Robot contrives a technical fault & kills one. Other is suspicious & wants to awaken the sleeping 3. Robot tries killing them all, but our hero survives, & kills robot instead. I found this part rather mundane - better suited for a Cartoon Network show for kids.

OK - so the hero revives the ship with help from command control on earth. Then he is told the mission objective. ET beacon that went off 2 years back on moon had sent its signals clearly for the targeted moon of Saturn. This moon has also been an astronomical oddity, ignored till now. Our hero will have to investigate & learn what he can.

After arriving on target, hero finds a structure that is clearly not natural, & looks like a bigger version of moon beacon. He decides to land & investigate.

There is a remark in "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke" when introducing the short story "Breaking Strain": "'Breaking Strain' was one of the stories incorporated into the film and novel, 2001." Presumably, the accident scene in this third part was inspired by this.

Forth story is of his landing, & is essentially fantasy mixed with religion. As he approaches beacon, it opens to let him. And takes him on a tour of stars with wonderful sights. ETs in question are actually indistinguishable from Hindu concept of Brahm - universal mind or energy. Our hero eventually merges into this brahm, yet retains his individuality - something many in India will identify as moksha, the ultimate purpose of human existence according to preachings of many Hindu sects.

Last paragraph gives a hint of sequel - where this Star Child revisits earth, & is wondering what he should do with it!

See also.

1. "Space Odyssey series summary".
2. A discussion of HAL, the AI in third story, but primarily from the point of view of the movie version - its origins, & ideas that drove its design, & some future gazing in AI. Of the two interviews listed - with Arthur Clarke & Marvin Minsky - only one with Clarke is available online when I checked it last (note - it's quite long).
   
3. Lewis Padgett's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves": Idea of teaching via smart toys is at the heart of this classic, too. But here, the alien artifacts inadvertently end up in the hands of human children - with unexpected results
   
4. "Influences" section of "Rescue Party".
5. Robert Heinlein's "Ordeal in Space" (1948): The plot element where a spaceman falls off the spaceship, in third part, comes from this older story by Heinlein. This spaceman will be recovered 1000 years later, in "3001 The Final Odyssey", without many psychological troubles! Another very good & off-beat alternative version of this is Clarke's "Maelstrom II".
   
6. Robert Reed's "Eight Episodes" (2006), nominated for Hugo Award 2007 in short story category, is a variant of the sentinel part of this story.
7. Ted Chiang's "Story Of Your Life" (1998): Alien artifacts appear all over modern world to enable humans to talk to aliens. But this story is less about aliens than about language & cognition.
   
8. All stories with religion as a theme.

Fact sheet.
2001 A Space Odyssey, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1968 (was written during 1964-1968, published in 1968, according to Clarke's introduction to "2010 Odyssey Two")
Rating: A (mostly for plot of first story; story #2 & 3 are B; #4 is C).