I Want the Stars by Tom Purdom

Release date: August 28, 2020

Subgenre: Space Exploration, First Contact

About I Want the Stars:

 

THEY WANTED THE STARS 

Eight hundred years from now, Earth is a paradise. Humanity has faced its greatest challenges...and won. Every wish is fulfilled. Every need is met. But is that enough? 

Jenorden wants more, wandering the galaxy with his friends as he seeks the answer. He knows his life is missing something. But what? 

And when aliens from another galaxy appear, offering to answer any question and reveal any secret, are their motives sinister… ...or sincere?

 

Excerpt:

 

“All broadcasts are automatically recorded.”
Enrarkal turned to the humans. “I think we should discuss this without an audience.” He touched horns and the picture faded and disappeared.
For a moment no one could speak. Their race, too, had once been divided into rival factions engaged in an arms race which could have ended in extermination. The Eb were at the beginning of a long time of troubles and no one could promise them they were going to survive.
“Revliken is just like a computer,” Roseka said. “He only tells what he’s asked. Emcasa could have died just because he didn’t ask the right questions.”
“After that scene,” Jenorden said, “the Borg had better have proof they know what they’re doing. The Eb can’t even handle the knowledge they have, much less the kind of knowledge they’re trying to get
from the Borg.”
They sat down in their swivel chairs. None of them looked comfortable. Their eyes kept glancing from the screen to the clock.
“This obligates us,” Roseka said. “We have to investigate the Borg. I won’t judge them in advance, and I don’t see how any technologically advanced race could be that stupid, but judging by what we’ve just seen, the Borg could be a menace to every race in the galaxy.”
An hour passed. One by one, they drifted out of the control room. They were worried but they were too alive not to grow bored waiting in front of a blank screen. Veneleo nibbled a buffet in the dining area; Roseka studied some of her observations on the last planet they had visited, and Elinee and Jenorden practiced an ancient duet they had uncovered in the ship’s musical records. All the while a small part of each brain thought about the situation on the fourth planet and waited for news.
“Attention,” the computer said. “Attention. We are receiving a message from the fourth planet.”
In a moment they were all standing in the control room. Elinee switched on the screen and Revliken appeared before them and bent his knees.
“We are ready to leave,” Revliken said. “Do you wish to visit the Borg?”
“Are the Eb going with you?” Jenorden asked.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to teach them?”
“Nothing.”
“What are the Borg going to teach them?”
“The Borg will teach them the answer to their question.”
“Why didn’t you tell Emcasa our conversation with him had been recorded?”
“We cannot interfere,” Revliken said.
“Aren’t you interfering by taking them to the Borg?”
“We don’t consider that interference.”
“Why not?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“Why not?”
“You must ask the Borg.”

 

Amazon | Journey Press

 

About Tom Purdom: 

Hugo finalist Tom Purdom is a science fiction writer who became interested in science fiction and space travel in 1950 and sold his first short story in 1957, two months before he turned 21 and a few months before Sputnik went into orbit. 

He lives in center city Philadelphia where he devotes his leisure time to a round of urban pleasures and entertainments. He grew up in a navy family, living all over the United States, and decided he was perfectly happy staying in one place when he settled in an interesting, livable big city. 

His bibliography includes five novels but he has mostly written novelettes and short stories for the science fiction magazines. In the last thirty years he has written a string of stories that have mostly appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and anthologies such as Gardner Dozois' best of the year books. Fantastic Books has published two collections of his works. LOVERS AND FIGHTERS, STARSHIPS AND DRAGONS contains tens of his Asimov's stories. ROMANCE ON FOUR WORLDS, A CASANOVA QUARTET contains four romps with a future character based on the 18th Century adventurer Giacomo Casanova. 

Tom has self-published some of his Asimov's stories through Amazon, along with a memoir called WHEN I WAS WRITING that takes readers inside his mind and tells how he wrote some of his stories and novels. His work outside of science fiction includes magazine articles and thirty years reviewing classical music events for a variety of offbeat Philadelphia publications.

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