SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: WANDERERS OF TIME

"Wanderers of Time" by "John /Wyndham" (John Wyndham Lucas Parked Benyon Harris)  (firsr published in Wonder Stories, March 1933, as by John Benyon Harris; reprinted in Tales of Wonder and Super Science, Winter 1941; published as a chapbook (American Fiction #6) under the title  Love in Time as by "Johnson Harris," November 1945; published in collection Wanderers of Time by John Benyon Harris, reprinted as by "John Wyndham" in 1980 and 2002; original Wonder Stories reprint available at Faded Page, 2022)

In 1941 Roy Saber was in love with Betty Morden, but Betty vanished mysteriously that year.  For ten years Roy was racked with guilt and uncertainty over Betty's fate.  But in 1951 Roy invented a time machine.  He could go back to 1941 and rescue Betty before she vanished to whatever fate awaited her.  when Roy got back to 1941, he was spied upon by a "pompous little man" who could upset Roy's plans, so Roy pulled a gun on him and tied hi up before he went off to find Betty.  Betty was uncertain about this new Roy, who was a bit older, had some gray hair, and wore clothes of a completely different fashion than she had known, and she was hesitant to go with Roy, who was in such a rush he did not have time to give an explanation.  Back at the time machine, Roy discover his prisoner had escaped and had gone to fetch the police, who were just coming over the hill.  Roy shoved Betty into the time machine, and followed, closing the door just as police bullets began to hit the machine.  He pulled the switch and vanished into time, hooping the bullets had not damages the machine's mechanisms.  Roy never figured that the reason Betty had vanished in the past was because Roy had gone back in time and kidnapped her.

Anyway, the bullets did affect the mechanism and Roy and Betty found themselves flung into the far future into the middle of a vast bleak desert.  There they met a strange looking man,  only four feet tall, who was another stranded time traveler.  H e was Del Two-Forty A and he had arrived from the year 10,402 to this unknown time eons in his future, where the sun was larger and redder and where the solar system seemed to be dying.  Then five twenty-foot red rectangular machines approached and the trio his behind some rocks as the machines sprouted giant tentacle that tossed Roy's time machine aside and then went on.  They were then followed by a large group of silvery ovoid machines, also with tentacles, which spotted Betty, who was wearing a red dress.  The tentacles grabbed the trio before Del had a chance to fire a tubular hear ray at them.  They tore off Betty's dress and began to carry the trio across the desert, with Betty in her underclothes.  These machines/robots/beings/whatever had a severe dislike for the color red, which was also the color of the sun, remember?  Nothing more was made of Betty's state of undress in the story, but I imagine it was enough to get the minds of some young readers of 1933 to begin churning.  

The trio were carried for a long time until they reached a strange =looking building on a hill at the edge of a green area.  There they were cast into a cell (also strangely built) with fellow time traveler-prisoners.  Two of these prisoners -- Kal Two Eleven A and Ril Three Thiorty-Two A -- turned out to be Del's assistants, who worked for twenty year after Del had vanished, trying to perfect a time machine to go after Del; these two were also short, strangely-shaped humans like Del.  Hale Lorrence and Julian Tyne were travelers from 3920.  An attractive girl of about twenty-four was Jessica Tree; she caame from the year 2200.  there were also three rather frightened created creatures with small heads and massive bodies who were known as Numen; they came from the far distant future and had been engineered to to heavy manual tasks, and were not very bright.

Their captors did not speak or (at first) try to communicate with their prisoners.  Water was provided but no food.  After lengthy attempts to communicate, the prisoners were able to get their captors to bring them some fruit to eat.  During this process it became somewhat clear of the evolutionary history of the world.  First was the age of dinosaurs, then the age of man (now evidently extinct), followed the age or age of other beings unknown, finally to the age of whatever rules this world of ovoid machines.  And what are the machines?  It turns out they are vehicles for a hive mind of ants, with hundreds of thousands of ants occupying each machine.  Whether each hive mind acts on its own or if it is controlled by another force is unclear.  What is clear, however, is that outside of  their machine, the ants become murderous.  When  one of the machines shatters, a swarm of hungry, deadly ants emerge and begin to attack thee prisoners.  On of the Numen is destroyed before the other prisoners manage to escape, discovering the the hill on which they were held prisoner was nothing more than a giant ant hive.

As they make their escape, they meet Jim Hollis, another stranded time traveler (from Detroit this time, we are not told when), who leads them to the safety of a cave in the hills.

How can this diverse group of time wanderers get back to where they came?  What is the secret of the ants?  Is there some force controlling them?  And was about the red rectangular machines -- what sort of creatures inhabit in them?

And let's talk about Betty, the girl Roy thought he loved.  Betty turned out to be a thoughtless, selfish bitch -- something one in the throes of young love might (and often does) blindly overlook.  1951 Roy realized quickly that 1941 Roy was deluded about Betty, who was a real piece of work.  Such are the ways of love and,  hey, there's always Jessica Tree...  Betty manages to escape in a time machine with Hale Lorrence, another poor excuse for protoplasm.  We wish them well, but what will be their fate?

This tale is a notch above the usual Science fiction fare of 1933.  Far  more thought seems to have gone into this one than many of its contemporary tales.  What are often cookie-cutter characters are given more depth, and far more thought has been given to the plot.  What at first appears o be a pedestrian tale became something far greater , thanks to the author's skill.  There is still the super-science and the wild gosh-wow imagination of the period but the writing is far more sophisticated.  There are also sections that telegraph genre tropes of the future, something which made me smile.

Wyndham published his first science fiction story in 1931, and "Wanderers of Time" was the sixth story of his to appear.  He went to be recognized as one of the greatest British science fiction writers of the twentieth century producing such classics as The Midwich Cuckoos (Village of the Damned), The Daay of the Triffids, The Crysalids (Re-Birth), The Kraken Wakes (of the Deeps), and The Trouble with Lichen).  For the rue science fiction fan, he is essential reading.