James White, 1955: "The Star Walk," "Boarding Party," and "Dynasty of One"

I recently enjoyed James White's 1963 story "Counter Security" in its appearance in Groff Conklin's 13 Above the Night.  Then I read a 1982 interview of White by Darrell Schweitzer that appears in Richard Geis' fun zine Science Fiction Review in which White offers lots of information on his career and his relationships with and opinions of John W. Campbell, Jr., John Carnell, Michael Moorcock and Bob Shaw; I found White to be a likable guy with interesting stuff to say.  So today let's explore White's early career by reading  three stories printed in British magazines edited by Carnell in 1955, the year of the launch of the first nuclear submarine, approval of the Salk polio vaccine, and the opening of the Tappan Zee Bridge, which I have fond memories of riding across numerous times during the New York period of my life (this landmark has since been destroyed and replaced.)

"The Star Walk" 

"The Star Walk" debuted in Carnell's New Worlds and does not seem to have ever been reprinted.  I suppose we could call it a forgotten story, but not for lack of merit--"The Star Walk" is a well-crafted noirish action adventure tale full of cool futuristic weapons and vehicle and a plot propelled by the desperate desires of White's characters, each of whom has a believable personality and is driven by a multiplicity of motives.  There's even something of a paradigm-shift/sense of wonder ending!  Thumbs up for "The Star Walk!"

Mankind has developed FTL star ships and colonized scores of planets.  But there is no FTL communication, so messages between planets have to be carried by ships, which is expensive, FTL travel consuming lots of fuel.  Couriers, known as C-men, make good money carrying news and the latest technical developments and scientific discoveries between colonized systems--these tapes are so valuable that their ships are armed with the latest force fields and energy and missile weapons.  Even so, a ruthless organized crime group led by the ruthless and ambitious Sundberg is always trying to catch C-vessels and seize their tapes and sell them cut rate on the black market or by impersonating legit C-men.  Sundberg's agents are especially active on the edges of human civilization, where the relatively poor frontier worlds crave news and new data even more than do the planets near the center of settled space, have to pay more for tapes and have less ability to pay, and where the central government has much less ability to enforce the law.

Our main character is a former C-man, 38-year-old Carmichael, who lost his job thanks to the skullduggery of an unknown party that left him stranded on one of the most backward of frontier worlds for years; the whole time he has been in agony, missing the life aboard a space ship that he loved.  C-men are all highly intelligent individuals who have received extensive training in useful skills, and so Carmichael quickly rose within the hierarchy of the sparsely populated colony and is today engaged to the attractive daughter of the colony's top administrator--Carmichael will probably be appointed admin himself some day.  But these big-fish-in-a-small-pond achievements don't mean he doesn't wish he was still navigating the ether in his own space ship!

As our story begins a C-ship arrives but the C-man inside it, 23-year-old Carlsen, acts suspiciously.  Then another such ship lands on the other side of the colony, its crew claiming to be Courier Inspectors chasing a renegade, but these guys also act suspiciously.  One of these ships, at least, is commanded by a dangerous rogue courier or a murderous thug in the employ of Sundberg!  But how to tell which, if either, is a legitimate C-man?  For his part, Carmichael sees a chance to seize Carlsen's spaceship himself when the C-man is revealed to be severely injured--sure, that is stealing, but Carmichael'd love to get off this inhospitable rock and back into space with tapes that can make him rich, and if Carlsen is a criminal it's not really stealing, is it?  A complication arises when Carmichael's 19-year-old fiancé Evelyn, who has medical training, seems to be falling in love with the mysterious--but younger!--Carlsen while tending the man's wounds!  Another wrinkle--Evelyn's father is desperate to get the two courier ships off his planet because if they start shooting their ray cannon and atomic missiles at each other the colony he is responsible for might get wiped out in the crossfire!  

White offers us a love triangle, moral dilemmas, mysteries, and battles and chases on the planet surface and in space, and handles all these elements entertainingly.  It turns out that there is a lot more at stake than Carmichael's ability to get off the crummy colony and keep his girl--a new version of the FTL drive, one that uses less fuel and so will revolutionize the galactic economy and permit colonization of other galaxies, has been invented, but its adoption relies on Carmichel making the right decisions and leveraging his skills as a spaceman to foil the bad guys and prevent an interstellar war from erupting that might make the evil Sundberg dictator of humanity!

A creditable piece of entertainment that I really enjoyed.

"Boarding Party"

Like "The Star Walk," "Boarding Party" is a good action adventure story full of future weapons and other technology, featuring space ships and space battles, populated by characters with personality who have to navigate conflicting goals and inclinations, and ending with a society-wide paradigm shift.  Thumbs up!

Earth is at war with mysterious aliens whose ships are big globes that shoot little globes at Terran vessels; these projectiles mess with the molecular structure of Earth machinery and kill people by damaging their nervous systems.  Actual alien individuals have never been seen, just these ships.

Our main character, a little like the hero of "Counter Security," is something of a slacker or underachiever.  He is the head medical officer of Earth's most powerful battleship, but robots do all the doctoring--he hasn't touched a human patient in two years!--and he spends all his spare time in his room listening to music, not learning the ins and outs of the battleship and bonding with the other crew members, like the other, more dedicated and conscientious officers do.

Three alien globes attack the battleship, and the ship is pretty much wrecked, though the captain of the ship does figure out some valuable info on the aliens.  The battleship has lost its ability to achieve FTL speeds and bring that data to Earth, but maybe its life boat can!  The captain has a desperate plan for some of the vessel's survivors to escape in the life boat, and it requires the protagonist to get over his psychological issues (not only is he lazy compared to the other space naval officers, but he isn't very brave) and accomplish some pretty difficult tasks in the treacherous passageways and on the shattered surface of the crippled warship.  In the climax to the story, our hero (again like the main character of "Counter Security") becomes the first human to make contact with the aliens--the war is all a misunderstanding!  The aliens are energy creatures--those globes aren't ships, but people!--and what the humans have been taking for attacks are in fact catastrophically unsuccessful efforts to communicate that proved incompatible with the materials of which human space ships and space suits are made--the aliens never meant to hurt anyone.  The war is over!  

"Boarding Party," after its initial appearance in New Worlds, was reprinted in the 1982 White collection Futures Past.  

"Dynasty of One"

"The Star Walk" and "Boarding Party" are action adventure stories in which psychology and ideas play a big role; "Dynasty of One," a much shorter story, is all ideas and psychology.

Tate's father, a great inventor, centuries ago invented longevity treatments able to keep cats and dogs alive forever if administered on a regular basis.  But when applied to a human, these treatments have additional radical effects.  They give you a high IQ and a perfect memory.  Awesome!  Or maybe not!  The treatments also put you through a horrific ordeal--in three seconds you relive every thing you did in your life, and with your super IQ you realize all the blunders and immoralities you committed, how they hurt people and disgraced yourself!  This experience is so harrowing that only one man upon whom the treatment has been tested has resisted the pressure and escaped death from overwhelming guilt--Tate is that man!  

Tate has been alive for hundreds of years, getting the treatment every forty years.  With his superbrain he developed a FTL drive and Earth subsequently became a benevolent space empire with many nonhuman races under its authority--Tate, of course, is Emperor of this empire.  As a relatively good man, he is able to survive the ordeal of the longevity treatment, but it is still a tough ride every four decades--as Emperor he has committed some boners which have led to millions of deaths.  As the story begins Tate feels the stress of leadership is getting to him--will he survive today's treatment or finally succumb to guilt?

There's not a lot of plot to "Dynasty of One."  Tate survives yet another treatment, and afterwards receives good news--some aliens have survived the treatment themselves, survivors of a race who severely suffered due to one of Tate's errors.  Tate takes this as evidence the people of the galaxy are progressing due to his efforts, and this, I think, means he will suffer less guilt and continue to survive treatments indefinitely.  Presumably the day will come when every intelligent being in the galaxy is honest and pacific, and Tate's benevolent dictatorship will be unnecessary.

Moderately good.

"Dynasty of One" premiered in Carnell's Space Fantasy and would also reappear in Futures Past.

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As I guess I have told my loyal readers many times, I love stories in which guys put on spacesuits and face the hazards of vacuum and zero gee and wield ray guns, and stories about immortality.  So these three White stories are right up my alley.  More importantly, White does a good job handling these classic SF themes and incorporates into the stories engaging characters.  Quite good; I expect to read more White in the future.