Roger D. Aycock 20 min read

Inventor Doc Maxey never meant the Di-tube as a weapon, and he'll be damned if he'll let the two generals and their squad of MPs turn it into one, but for once the browbeating goes the other way.

Roger D. Aycock's (Roger Dee's) 1953 story is a wry first-contact and social-SF tale. Fun, clever golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where a stubborn inventor, his device, and an alien encounter upend a delegation of military brass, in a witty golden-age piece, its title winking at Burns, about science, war, and who really holds the cards.

In its time

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

Reading it

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