The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1 (published 1976)
Time and Again, and Overtime
Time and again, and overtime continued
which position his brother now held. Simple, fast, effective,
and foolproof!
Gentry-Glanf's pseudopod, disguised as a human finger,
released the activating distorter! In the laboratory rose- a
loud whine and a light flashed reminiscent of a super-nova
as Glanf and the time-binding machine disappeared.
***
Shading his eyes with one hand, Professor phoenix Karloff looked
up from his vivisection of a Syrian aqua-aardvark and said
to Adam Rink, the Android: "Bless my garters, what won't
that young fool think of next?"
***
Transported instantaneously to the day of his birth, Glanf
materialized on the front steps of the hospital, slipped inside,
overpowered a lone intern with his portable thalamic-paralyzer, donned the white
uniform, walked boldly into the
baby ward, went directly over to himself-the infant, removed himself from one
crib and substituted his twin
brother for himself, putting himself in his brother's bed.
Then, cackling mirthfully to himself-as-adult in Saturnian
pidgeon-Martian, he reactivated the nuclear stud and before you could say "Wow"
he reappeared in the laboratory
just as Professor Karloff was ending the speech: “that young
fool think of next?"
At that instant his smile of confidence froze. Why had
he returned to the laboratory, if he were the King of the
Galaxy?
How come he was still an insignificant interstellar spy?
Why was he not in the Uranium Chair of the King?
What had gone wrong?
Where was the mixup? Why . . .
I'll tell you why!" shouted Adam the Android (who
was also a telepath), tearing off his human face and revealing the lizard-like
features of the terrible man-eating Plutonian Quaggle-beast: “Because I am
really your twin
brother and I perfected the time-binding machine just
twenty minutes before you did, and I went to our birthplace and switched the
babies first, so you actually put
yourself back to where you were in the first place!"
Then laughing like a moon-mad space pirate, the android-human-Quaggle-beast slid
across the floor on his nineteen
appendages into a teleportation booth, appearing immediately in his Uranium
Chair at the meeting of the Galactic
Council, where he quickly signed a document recommending death for his twin
brother, Professor Aych Gentry, who
was really Rork Glanf.
But Glanf the Ganymedian was not so easily defeated.
Instantly he pressed the stub of the tensor force-field machine and returned to
the past two hours before the preceeding conversation occurred. There he
perfected the
Time Machine, and returned to the present one-half hour
before his twin brother had perfected it, then rapidly
returned to the day of his birth, overpowered the intern,
118
switched the babies, and reappeared in the laboratory just
as Professor Karloff was ending the speech: “that young
fool think of next?"
***
At that instant his smile of confidence froze. Why had
he returned to the laboratory, if he were King of the
Galaxy?.
How come he was still an insignificant inter-stellar spy?
Why was he not in the Uranium Chair of the King?
What had gone wrong?
Where was the mixup? Why . . .
"l'll tell you why!" howled Adam the Android (also a
telepath), tearing off his human face and revealing the
ugly features of the truculent flesh-eating Plutonian
Quaggle-beast.
"Because I, Adam, l am really your twin brother
and I knew you were going to go back in time two hours
before I perfected the Time Machine so I went back four
hours before you went back the second time and then I
returned to our birthplace and switched the babies before
you switched the babies the second time after you had
switched the babies the first time, so you actually put yourself back to where
you were the time before you switched
the babies the second time!"
Then shrieking like an insane spider the human-android-Quaggle-beast slushed
across the floor on his nineteen
tentacles into a teleportation booth, appearing immediately
in the Uranium Chair at the meeting of the Galactic Council, where he signed a
death warrant for his twin brother,
Professor Gentry, who was really Rork Glanf.
But the spy-Professor-Ganymedian was not so easily defeated. Instantly he
pressed the stub of the time binding
machine and returned to the past, six hours before the two
preceding occurrences, perfected the Time Machine, returned to the present
one-half hour before his twin brother
had perfected it the second time, went back to the day of
his birth, overpowered the intern, switched the babies, and
reappeared in the laboratory just as Professor Karloff was
ending his speech: “that young fool think of next?"
***
But his smile of confidence froze. Why had he returned
to the laboratory, if he were King of the Galaxy? What had
gone Wrong? Where was the mixup? Why . . .
"l'll tell you why!" screamed Adam the Android (who
could also read minds), tearing off his face and so on: Because l am really your
twin brother and I knew you were
going to go and so on and on . . ."
***
Those two little babies really got around, hey?
***
P. S. You rascals looking for the part about Earth-Girl
shown in opening illustration-never mind! It was all a hoax
by us foxy editors to make you read story.
