Fox B. Holden 23 min read

'Cap'n Cutlass! Earth merchantman three points starboard!' The pirate Robbin Cutlass, a million-credit bounty on his head, won't let this one pass, even alone against the whole Space Patrol.

Fox B. Holden's 1952 story opens on rousing space-pirate action before its time-travel premise unfolds. Fast, colorful golden-age SF. Read it for a story that begins as swashbuckling space opera and turns into something cleverer than a simple raid.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

23 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).