ReVISIONS

Table of Contents

 

 

DISCOVERIES THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD—

Timing and knowledge can make all the difference. Down through the time line of our world there have been any number of moments and events that could have changed the whole course of history. The fifteen stories included in
ReVisions
more than live up to the name of this volume, looking at a number of scientific discoveries, and exploring how different history might have been if certain of these discoveries had never occurred, or if they had happened earler, or in another culture.

What if:

These are just a few of the fascinating “what ifs” you'll find in
ReVisions
.

More Imagination-Expanding Anthologies Brought to You by DAW:

 

SPACE, INC.
Edited by Julie E. Czerneda.
Here are fourteen tales of the challenges, perils, and responsibilities that workers of the future may have to face—from a librarian who could determine the fate of an alien race . . . to a pair of space mechanics assigned a repair job for a species that despises humankind . . . to a ballet instructor who must find a way to tailor human dance forms for multilimbed sentient beings. . . . Includes stories by James Alan Gardner, Isaac Szpindel, Josepha Sherman, Nancy Kress, Robert J. Sawyer, Tanya Huff, and more.

SPACE STATIONS
Edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers.
Fourteen top chroniclers of the day after tomorrow—including Timothy Zahn, Alan Dean Foster, Robert J. Sawyer, Julie E. Czerneda, Jack Williamson, and Gregory Benford—offer stories of space stations, both human and alien. From space stations linked only by a black hole . . . to a long obsolete space fort that is about to be caught in its first and only battle . . . to a space station AI that must choose between obeying its programming and saving a human life . . . to a first contact space station café where the alien owner knows the value of a good trade . . . here are unforgettable tales of the perils, profits, and adventures that await us in space.

CONQUEROR FANTASTIC
Edited by Pamela Sargent.
From Michelle West, Pamela Sargent, Jack Dann, Ian Watson, George Zebrowski, and their fellow visionaries come thirteen tales of “what might have been” if history had taken different paths. The stories included in this volume range from the ancient world to the modern, from legends to historical people . . . from Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Saladin to the Native American leader Metacomet, an Aztec princess, Napoleon, Hitler, John Wayne, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the Kennedys.

Copyright © 2004 by Julie E. Czerneda, Isaac Szpindel, and Tekno Books.

eISBN : 978-1-101-16685-7

 

All Rights Reserved.

 

 

DAW Book Collectors No. 1032.

 

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA).

 

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

 

 

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Nearly all the designs and trade names in this book are registered trademarks. All that are still in commercial use are protected by United States and international trademark law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Printing, August 2004

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
—MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.

 

 

S.A .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction
© 2004 by Julie E. Czerneda and Isaac Szpindel.

The Resonance of Light
© 2004 by Geoffrey Landis.

Out of China
© 2004 by Julie Czerneda.

Site Fourteen
© 2004 by Laura Anne Gilman.

Silent Leonardo
© 2004 by Kage Baker.

A Call from the Wild
© 2004 by Doranna Durgin.

Axial Axioms
© 2004 by James Alan Gardner.

The Terminal Solution
© 2004 by Robin Wayne Bailey.

The Ashbazu Effect
© 2004 by John G. McDaid.

A Word for Heathens
© 2004 by Peter Watts.

A Ghost Story
© 2004 by Jihane Noskateb.

The Executioner's Apprentice
© 2004 by Kay Kenyon.

Swimming Upstream in the Wells of the Desert
© 2004 by Mike Resnick and Susan R. Matthews.

Unwirer
© 2004 by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross.

When the Morning Stars Sang Together
© 2004 by Isaac Szpindel.

Herd Mentality
© 2004 by Jay Caselberg.

 

 

 

 

G
EORGE Santayana, the Spanish-American philos opher and novelist, is famous for having penned the oft-quoted statement, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” While this is often interpreted as a warning, it can also be considered an invitation to create a better future by learning from the mistakes of the past. Indeed, Santayana himself may well have borrowed from the past words of the Greek dramatist Euripides, who wrote, “Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.”

Whatever the case, it is clear both dramatists and philosophers recognize the continuum that is time. Past, present, and future—interdependent and part of each other. Science fiction has been acknowledged as the literature of the future, but that future is built on our past as much as on our present.

The past. Our history is a tapestry of events, social and political. Within the weave is scientific development and technological invention, sometimes as a background, sometimes to the forefront, as during the Industrial Revolution. In turn, these sciences and technologies are influenced intimately by the geography, politics, and timing of their occurrence. Most significantly, they are influenced by human nature.

We glimpse history through its records, interpreted by present-day minds. We acknowledge the impact of that aspect of our past through laws, treaties, customs, and traditions. Yet the science and technology we employ today has a history as well, which should be understood. Our sciences and methods may be objective, but the ways in which we have discovered and applied them are not.

Science and technologies are tied to their discovery times and places, to their inventors and innovators. They are fluid and dynamic, a living process subject to change, influence, and time, as much as the historical actions of empires still impact the political framework of today's world.

Science fiction, while not always predictive of the future, has certainly taken an informed and interested look at its possible direction. It is only fitting, then, that we apply that same speculative tool back on itself and ask
what if
scientific or technological discoveries had happened differently, in different cultures or times. Where would we be now? Where would we be going? The stories you will read in this anthology consider many variables, both historic and scientific, to answer that question. More so, they answer it in ways that, whether subtle or overt, are essentially provocative. Why? Because they force us to examine and accept responsibility for ourselves, for our scientific discoveries, and for the consequences of those discoveries.

For there is one evocative and compelling question raised by an alternate science history anthology such as this: of all the complex variables that have shaped the new and increasingly scientific world around us, does human nature remain the only constant?

—Thomas Gray, 1750

—Nikola Tesla, 1897

 

 

W
HEN I think of Nikola Tesla, I see the pigeons. He was always surrounded by pigeons. I think, sometimes, that the pigeons were his only real love, that he lavished upon his pigeons the romantic affection that we ordinary mortals have for the opposite sex. Certainly he had a way with them. He would whistle, and they would come, from nowhere, surrounding him like an electrical aura, fluttering like the iridescent discharge from an ethereal fire.

“Pigeons,” I once told him, “are the scourge of the city, spreading filth and disease. They are no more than rats with wings.”

That was, I think, back in 1912 or '13, before the long shadow of coming war stole across the world, and we could gaily talk about pigeons. Nikola Tesla looked at me with eyes of fire, with that intensity of soul that I have seen in no other man, before or since. “Surely you are but teasing, Katharine,” he told me, “yet some things should not be taken in jest. Look at them! Ah, they soar on wings of angels.” He was silent for a moment, watching, and then continued, “Do you believe, then, that men are so pure? The scourge of cities—would you not say that for every disease that pigeons spread, men spread a plague? The scourge of man is most certainly man, Kate, and not the harmless pigeon. Do doves slaughter doves in vast wars, would you say? Do they starve one another?”