Alan Edward Nourse 25 min read

All Flicker wanted was a chance to make the aliens understand; all they wanted was to kill him while they still could, but there were things about Flicker they hadn't counted on.

Alan E. Nourse's 1953 story is a taut first-contact and military-SF tale of a lone envoy among hostile aliens. Sharp, tense golden-age SF. Read it for a gripping story where a captive's desperate bid for peace hides a secret his captors will regret ignoring.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

25 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Alex Ebel