I recall many years ago reading a (possibly short) story that involved an inscrutable alien craft arriving in orbit around earth that stripped a day's-worth of memories from everyone it passed by, so that from an individual's point of view they were going back in time.    Once they realised what was happening they left notes for themselves.  The military tried to mount an attack but they kept forgetting where they were up to.  Divorcees found themselves back in love. A sort of SF horror story.  What was the story?
121337
I'm trying to track down a short scifi story I once read. It was about an alien probe scanning the world and accidently erasing 2 days of everyone's memory. So when everyone wakes up on Monday, they're surprised to find that it's actually wedenesday. Each morning everyone has to re-learn current events to get up to speed. Slowly the world has to rely on retirees as the younger generation forget everything and revert to a younger age.  Any ideas ?
31176
I'm trying to remember the name of a short story I read about 25 years ago or so. I'd also like to know of any collections it appeared in.   The details I recall involve a family who are embarking on a hyperspace journey. To undertake this journey you have to be put to sleep. One of the children pretends to be asleep, and when the jump is complete the child has gone insane. From the child's point of view the jump lasted for an eternity while in reality it was only a few seconds.
15983
I am looking for information on a short story that was written probably in the late 60's early 70's. This was part of a short story collection; I can't be certain but it was possibly edited by Groff Conklin.  The story is told from the point of view of the aliens who meet human explorers on a planet they have both landed on. We can tell because of the description that the narrators provide of the humans. I remember specifically they thought the humans skin was ugly - too thin, they could see parts of the circulatory system through the skin.  The aliens are entranced with the human's hydroponic system, have never seen anything like it. The don't explicitly use the term 'hydroponics' since they've never see one before, but evidently food is in short supply and they really need something like this. The aliens, though, have this really cool pop-up survival tent that incorporates life support, power, etc. The humans and aliens swap hydroponics for the tent. Each think they've taken advantage of the other.  At the end, both high-tail it off the planet fearing the others will realize they've been ripped off and change their minds. The final line, said by the alien, is something like "The way they're behaving would make you believe that they - not we - have committed the perfect crime."
117487
I'm looking for the title of a Sci-Fi story (probably pre-1990) where a group is sent off into deep space and I believe unbeknownst to them it's a one-way journey.  In the course of the journey they all become very intelligent, they make psychoactive drugs from the plants on board, I recall that they discovered it's a one-way journey to test the affects of space travel, and they redesign/refit their engines and return to Earth.  Lame recall, sorry, that's all I got. Any help appreciated.
100411
Another story I read a few years ago that is likely to be from the 70s or 80s.    This one involves a pilot crashing his ship on an unknown planet. The crash was caused by an alien creature who resides in a metal pyramid on the planet's surface. After the impact, a message is played back to the pilot, constructed from his own audio logs. It tells him that all technology has been taken from him and challenges him to survive. With each passing day, the once civilized man more closely resembles an animal, driven by instinct. However, he is able to retain his sense of reason and begins formulating a plan to penetrate the force-field surrounding the pyramid and to infiltrate the structure itself. When he first catches a glimpse of the alien (referred to as "the Other"), he becomes frightened and runs. Later, he conquers his fear and resolves to return to the pyramid to confront the Other. The Other, although physically more powerful, is terrified by the vicious animal that has somehow bypassed the pyramid's defenses. In the end, the pilot is repeatedly smashing the Other's skull in with a rock, long after the alien's demise.
105016
Looking for help to find a science fiction short story about a man send to the past to serve his sentence, and at the end when he is happy, married and successful, his is recaptured by a co-worker who in reality is an undercover time detective looking for him, and he is sent to Hiroshima (or Nagasaki) one hour before the bomb and the short story ends there.  I read this short story about 15 years ago in a science fiction anthology whose title I do not remember, out of the Salt Lake City library and Google is not of any help.
118288
Plot Details/Summary  I'm afraid this is going to be one of those longshot questions.  I remember reading this story, but I can only recall a few details.  The setting is a new world in which human beings, now capable of FTL travel, have settled.  I believe the protagonist is a male, and he has a love interest as well.     The basic plotline is, soon after the first colonist from the ship begin living on the planet, strange mutations begin taking place.  People are becoming brute-like, and (IIRC) are reverting to earlier states of evolution.  I remember the protagonist, fearing contagion or some other planet-borne threat, orders the remaining colonist and crew to stay aboard the ship, which is still in orbit.  His love interest is one of the people ordered to stay aboard.  The revelation that comes late in the story is that it is not the new planet that is causing the mutations.  It's far worse than that.  It is that Man has reached the end of his evolutionary possibilities.  Not just on the colony world, but aboard the ship, back on Earth, and on every other planet, spaceship, etc. where human beings are.  Some deep genetic trait in all human beings has been tripped, and it's humanity's inescapable collective fate to de-evolve back into its primate roots.  I recall a line near the end of the story where the protagonist realizes no one aboard the orbiting ship is capable of operating the vessel anymore, and no more people could come down to the surface.  Not that it would make a difference.  Publication Details  I think this one came out in the 1970s or 1980s.  I read in a sci-fi mag of some sort, I'm almost 100% certain of that.  Can't remember anything else about it, unfortunately.  Again, this one is going to be a longshot.
78403
This was a small hardback book I read in the UK in the late eighties. No memory of the cover.  Some kind of space war and a long lived alien female escapes the conflict in her starship, her side had lost.  An evil enemy that she needs to trap so she gets (I think) human  DNA from space dust and sets up on a habitable planet. The story then gets like episodic and looks at the world every couple of generations while she hides out there.  Plants bud on the world and people pop out from big seedpods, the population listens out for babies crying and rescue them.  There are legends of the 'Earth mother’ who secretly guides them to become high tech.   In reality she is creating attractive food bait for the bad aliens.  I think an early human and her are attracted to each other and she (maybe) gives him long life or (maybe) uses reincarnation to keep seeing him.  Edit:- the name 'Rimstalker' has just now popped up in my brain!
107543
The only thing I remember about the story (or possibly novel) was that the main character (and possibly some of his colleagues) could temporarily speed up.  I think it took a toll on them, and they needed a period of recovery afterwards.  It was probably a story by a very good writer.   I understand the need to give you more to work with.  I just remembered this a few minutes ago when I read this question on English Language and Usage   Possibly I will remember more after my subconscious works on it.  It was almost certainly a man.  The story is probably from 15 to 25 years ago, maybe more.  Most of the SF I read was from Analog; some was from Galaxy and F&amp;SF.  In other words, it definitely was not from a comic book or a TV series.  The character was a good guy.  I think something had altered him so he could flip into the hyperspeed state at will.
45959
Trying to recall a short story I read decades ago. As best I recall, in an desperate effort to defeat humanity in a war they are losing, aliens send piloted bombs back in time to destroy the Earth before life has started. Miscalculation causes destruction of planet into asteroid belt and creates conditions for life on Earth.  The story was from perspective of a genetically engineered pilot of the bomb as it flew back in time to its suicidal goal.   I think the title was simply 'T' - the name of the pilot of the bomb - but trying to search internet for a title like that is not working out too well. Even tried 'shortest title for a story'.
60434
Okay, similar questions to this have been asked before, but not about the particular short story I am trying to find.  It was in an anthology of short sci fi stories, possibly award winning ones or at least someone's compilation of favourites. (I think)   It was a long time ago, maybe 1970s or 80s, so the story could date back to even the 1960s for all I know, but probably the 1970s.  It was the funniest story about time travel where a person meets incarnations of himself, that I have ever read. It was either derivative of 'By His Bootstraps' or the other way around, but my recollection is that this story was funnier.  Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me and it WAS 'By His Bootsraps', but I am almost certain that it wasn't, because when I read that recently it seemed unfamiliar and not as funny.  In the one I am trying to recall, the guy is also bemused and irritated by the behaviour of other incarnations of himself, like the Heinlen story, but the repartee between versions of himself and his extreme frustration is much more hilarious.  I have a vague recollection that he is in a spaceship during the story, but not absolutely sure. There seemed to be a lot of clambering around, ladders, bulkheads, etc, unlike the Heinlen story.  I'm almost certain it isn't any of the commonly suggested stories and I'm quite sure it wasn't a short film where he shoots his older self, or a full length novel. Someone will have read it and (un)remembered it fondly like me, I feel sure!
102910
Story about a sentient star system, possibly in f&amp;sf anthology from 50s or early 60s. I know this is a long shot, but I hope someone will know of this story.  I believe it was called "Darkness or into the darkness". End of the story had it spinning off a galaxy, (possibly ours?).
29349
I may have encountered this short story in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Human explorers encounter an alien spacecraft. Aliens are cautiously friendly, but then tell the humans about an ancient, brilliant and cruel race of beings that conquered and destroyed every civilization they encountered. They were finally defeated and destroyed, or so it was thought, but their home world was never found. It turns out that this powerful, vicious race was in fact, Earthlings.
5594
Don't remember the exact start to the story, but it went something like "walking along a path" or something, and when he hears what sounds like a shotgun blast behind him, he then feels something strike him in the butt. He passes out, and when he awakens, he discovers that the "shotgun blast" was actually a miniature spaceship that exploded and shot miniature aliens into his body. The aliens prove to be very beneficial because they clean up all the toxins and other poisons in his body. They can be transmitted through kissing or sexual activity.  Any help with the name of the story would be greatly appreciated.  Dan
26305
I read a short story, can’t remember if it was part of a larger narrative or just on its own.  It was about a crew that was taking a bunch of space tourists to a planet that had plants with seeds in glass-like structures that make certain sounds. The main character in this story feels connected to this planet because there’s a Valley of Sound, where there’s a large number of these glass plants that make all sounds imaginable.  People can almost pick out a loved one’s voice for instance. I absolutely love this concept but can’t for the life of me remember what the story/book was called!
20704
So my dad told me about a short story he had once read. It must be older like before 1986. It is about two men who traveled through space and found a dead planet. On it was what he calls a super museum. They set it up as a heritage/legacy for those in the universe that were intelligent enough to find it. As a twist it turns out that this planet is actually earth and that the men must have traveled to the future. (Kind of like planet of the apes)  I have found a few topics that looked similar. But it's not resurrection bij a.e van Vogt.(because they know it is earth they are visiting) Although this seems very similar. He also says it is not all the way back from michael Shaara.   Anybody have any idea? If it helps, the story was translated to Dutch and was in a book with other stories as well. I don't know if they were from one author or various. It has been bugging me for years as my dad always told me the story moved him deeply and as I love science fiction I would love to read it. Just found this site so thought to give it a go.thanks in advance!
28647
I read in an old sci-fi anthology a very short story, about two sentient clouds/jets of energy having a conversation and one of them eventually remembering it used to be a human being. The story was about 2 pages long and from an anthology from around the 50's if I had to guess.  Any idea on the name of the story?