A Death in the House: And Other Stories by Simak Clifford D

Author:Simak, Clifford D [Simak, Clifford D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2016-07-05T07:00:00+00:00

Target Generation

This story was named “Target Generation” when it was submitted, via the author’s agent, to Hugo Gernsback’s new magazine, Science-Fiction Plus, but in August 1953, after it appeared in the fifth issue of that publication under the title “Spacebred Generations,” Clifford D. Simak reversed that change for further appearances of the story, and I have done so for this collection, too.

As “Spacebred Generations,” the story appeared with four footnotes—none of which, I believe, were the author’s idea. Cliff Simak was not in the habit of inserting footnotes into his stories, which makes it significant that the only two stories by Simak to appear in that magazine both appeared with footnotes that did not read in any way like Cliff’s writing, and that most of those footnotes were deleted from subsequent anthology appearances of the stories. And that is particularly thought provoking when one considers the dreary content of the footnotes that accompanied this story: The first was a dreadful explanation of hydroponics, the second was about the importance of written records, the third about the feasibility of having a spaceship run automatically, and the fourth about educational devices. Although all four were signed “The Author,” I am convinced that they were written by Gernsback himself, so I have removed them for this publication. Believe me, you’d thank me for that.

As for the story itself, it may be the most thoughtful of all the generation-ship stories, dealing as it does with a potential problem that most such stories never considered: How do you prevent the passengers from feeling robbed and cheated of a normal life, from going mad with the knowledge that they are no more than carriers of life?

—dww

There had been silence—for many generations. Then the silence ended.

The Mutter came at “dawn.”

The Folk awoke, crouching in their beds, listening to the Mutter.

It had been spoken that one day would come the Mutter.

And that the Mutter would be the beginning of the End.

Jon Hoff awoke, and Mary Hoff, his wife.

They were the only two within their cubicle, for they had no children. They were not yet allowed a child. Before they could have a child—before there would be room for it—the elderly Joshua must die; and knowing this, they had waited for his death, guilty at their unspoken prayer that he soon must die—willing him to die so they might have a child.

The Mutter came and ran throughout the Ship. Then the bed in which Jon and Mary crouched spun upward from the floor and crashed against the wall, pinning them against the humming metal, while all the other furniture—chest and chairs and table—came crashing from floor to wall, where it came to rest, as if the wall suddenly had become the floor and the floor the wall.

The Holy Picture dangled from the ceiling, which a moment before had been the other wall, hung there for a moment, swaying in the air; then it, too, crashed downward.

In that moment the Mutter ended and there was silence once again—but not

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