Don Thompson 22 min read

A beautiful girl floats in a windowless metal room where Wayne Brighton drifts in, and calmly explains her orders: she's supposed to seduce him so he'll tell 'em something. If only she knew what.

Don Thompson's 1959 story mines wry comedy from a bungled alien interrogation. Light, funny first-contact space opera. Read it for a droll tale where the captors, the honey trap, and the prisoner are all equally baffled about what's supposed to happen next.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban