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If You Like This Page... See my cover story in the August Salon magazine, about new surveillance technologies
and some of the stark choices we face in the years ahead. (Government Technology magazine also ran an interview
with me about government accountability and the proposal to
establish an Inspector General of the United
States.) Hear a recent speech (from NPR) about TECHNOLOGICAL NIGHTMARES, by renowned futurist
economist Paul Streetn. Prof. Streetn offers exceptionally wise
perspectives about future threats and opportunities. (I'm biased. He
spends five minutes discussing The
Transparent Society.) Salon Magazine recently ran another of my articles
about popular culture. This one focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic
fantasy, Lord of the Rings, and how that famous trilogy has
played an important role in the long struggle of romanticism against
the modern world. The version on Salon was abridged. The full-length
article can be viewed here.
Now available in bookstores:
The Life Eaters! This lavish 144 page graphic novel
vividly extends one of my classic novellas into a full-length saga
-- a dark but ultimately uplifting tale about an alternate world,
offering chillingly plausible insight to what the Nazis might have
really been up to, during World War II. DC/Wildstorm calls Life
Eaters 'the biggest thing to happen in the graphic novels since
Watchmen or The Dark Knight'! More than a dozen
organizations, spanning a wide spectrum of interest, have lately
engaged me for my specialty -- questioning deep-seated assumptions.
One of these 'unconventional' consultations finally was transcribed
-- a keynote
speech for the Libertarian National Convention (7/02). Beyond
some specifics aimed at that group, you may find the general
perspectives (e.g., about the way people view past and future)
unusual and thought-provoking.
Now available in
bookstores, Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide To David Brin's
Uplift Universe is a fun tour of the many alien races people
enjoyed in books like Startide
Rising and The Uplift
War. I do need to make one correction, however; take a look at
my fiction
errata page.
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home > science
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"Thor Meets Captain
America"
a novella by David Brin
Copyright © 1986 (revised 12/98), by David Brin. All
rights reserved. No duplication or resale without
permission.
5.
"You are a Dane, are
you not?" Chris stood tied to a
pillar in front of a crackling fireplace. The Gestapo official
peered at Chris from several angles before asking his
question. "Danish by ancestry. What
of it?" Chris shrugged under his
bonds. The Nazi clucked. "Oh,
nothing in particular. It is just that I never cease to be amazed
when I find specimens of clearly superior stock fighting against
their own divine heritage." Chris
lifted an eyebrow. "Do you interrogate a lot of
prisoners?" "Oh, yes, very
many." "Well, then you must be
amazed all the time." The Gestapo
man blinked, then smiled sourly. He stepped back to light a
cigarette, and Chris noticed that his hands were
trembling. "But doesn't your very
blood cry out when you find yourself working with, going into battle
alongside, racial scum, mongrels...
?" Chris laughed. He turned his
head and regarded the Nazi
icily. "Why are you
here?" The fellow blinked again.
"See here. I am in charge of intelligence and party doctrinal --
" "You're a jailor. The priests of
the Aesir run everything now. The mystics in the SS control the
Reich. Hitler's a tottering old syphyllitic they won't let out of
Berchtesgaden. And you old-fashioned Nazis are barely tolerated
anymore." The officer sucked at his
cigarette. "What do you mean?" "I
mean that all that racial claptrap was just window dressing. An
excuse to set up the death camps. But the SS would've been just as
happy to use Aryans in them, if that was the only way
to..." "Yes?" The Gestapo man
stepped forward. "To do what? If the purpose of the camps was not
the elimination of impure races, then what, smart man?
What?" There was a brittle,
high-pitched edge to the man's laughter. "You do not know, do you?
Even Loki did not tell you!" Chris
could have sworn that there was disappointment in the officer's
eyes... as if he had hoped to learn something from Chris, and felt
let down to find out his prisoner was just as much in the
dark. No, I wasted a question.
Loki didn't tell me about the reason for the
camps. Chris glanced at the
other man's trembling hands, that had doubtless wreaked more hell on
broken bodies than bore contemplating. All in a cause that was no
longer even relevant to the winning
side. "Poor obsolete National
Socialist," Chris said. "Your dreams, mad as they were, were human
ones. How does it feel to have it all taken over by aliens? To watch
it change beyond recognition?" The
Gestapo man reddened. Fumbling, he plucked a truncheon from the wall
and smacked it in his gloved left
hand. "I will change something
else beyond recognition," he growled. "And if I'm obsolete,
at least I am still allowed the pleasure of my
craft." He approached, smiling, a
thin film on his lips. Chris braced himself as the arm swung back.
But then the leather curtains parted. A large shadow fell across the
rug. The officer paled and snapped to
attention. Red-bearded Thor nodded
briefly, shrugging out of his fur
cloak. "You may go," he
rumbled. Chris did not even look at
the Nazi as the interrogator tried to meet his eye for the last
time. Chris watched coals in the fireplace until the curtains
swished again and he was alone with the
alien. Thor sat cross-legged,
joining Chris in contemplating the flames. When he used his hammer
to prod the logs, heat brought out fine, glowing designs in the
massive iron head. "Fro sends word
from Vineland... from the sea thou callest Labrador. There has been
a slaughter of many brave men. Those cowards tools -- 'submarines'
-- did frightful harm to our fleet. But in the end, Fro's tempests
were masterful. The landing is
secured. Chris controlled a sinking
feeling in his stomach. This was expected. Worse would come this
winter. Thor shook his head. "This
is a bad war. Where is the honor, when thousands die unable even to
show valor?" Chris had more
experience than most Americans in holding conversation with gods.
Still, he took a chance by speaking without
permission. "I agree, Great One.
But you can't blame us for
that." Thor's eyes glittered as he
inspected Chris. "No, brave worm. I
do not blame you. That you have used your flame weapons as little as
you have speaks well for the pride of thy leaders. Or perhaps they
know what our wrath would be, if they were spent
wantonly." I never should have
been allowed on this mission. I know too much, Chris realized.
Loki had been the one to overrule High Command and insist that Chris
come along. But that made him the only one here who knew the real
reason the H-bombs had been kept
leashed. Dust from atom blasts, and
soot from burning cities -- those were what Allied High Command
feared, more than radiation or Nazi retaliation. Already, from
limited use of nuclear weapons so far, the weather had chilled
measurably. And Aesir were much
stronger in winter! Scientists verified Loki's story, that careless
use of the Allied nuclear advantage would lead to catastrophe, no
matter how badly they seared the other
side. "We too prefer a more
personal approach," Chris said, hoping to keep the Aes believing his
own explanation. "No man wants to be killed by powers beyond his
understanding, impossible to resist or fight back
against." Thor's rumble, this time,
was low laughter. "Well said, worm.
Thou dost chastize as Freyr does, with words that reap, even as they
sow." The Aes leaned forward a
little. "You would earn merit, small one, if you told me how to find
the Brother of Lies." Those gray
eyes were like cold clouds, and Chris felt his sense of reality
waver as he looked into them. It took an effort of will to tear his
gaze away, replying with a dry
mouth. "I... don't know what you're
talking about." The rumbling
changed tone, deepening. Chris felt a rough touch as Thor brushed
his cheek with the leather-bound haft of his great war
hammer. "Loki, youngling. Tell me
where the Trickster may be found, and you may yet escape your doom,
you may even find a place by my side. In the world to come, there
will be no greater place for a
man. This time Chris steeled
himself to meet the hypnotic pools. Thor's eyes seemed to reach
hungrily for his soul, as a magnet might call to native iron. Chris
fought back with a savage heat of
hatred. "Not... for all the
Valkyries in your pathetic alien pantheon," he whispered, half
breathless. "I'd rather run with
wolves." The smile vanished. Thor
blinked, and for a moment Chris thought he saw the Aesir's image
waver just a little, as if... as if Chris were looking through a
man-shaped fold in
space. "Courage will not save thee
from the wages of disrespect, worm," the shape warned, and
solidified again into a fur-clad
giant. All at once, Chris was glad
to have known O'Leary. "Don't you
dig it yet, daddyo? I don't fucking believe in you! Wherever you're
from, baby, they probably kicked you
out! "You Aesir may be mean enough
to wreck our world, but everything about you screams that you're the
dregs, man. Leaky squares. Probably burned out papa's stolen saucer
just gettin' here!" He shook his
head. "I just refuse to believe in you,
man." The icy gray eyes blinked
once. Then Thor's surprised expression faded into a deathly cool
smile. "I did not ken your other
insults. But for calling me a man, you shall die as you seem
to wish, before the morning
sun." He stood and placed a hand on
Chris's shoulder, as if emparting a friendly benediction, but even
that casual touch felt viselike. "I
only add this, small one. We Aesir have come invited, and we
arrived not in ships -- even ships between the stars -- but instead
upon the wings of Death itself. This much, this boon of knowledge I
grant thee, in honor of your
defiance." Then, in a swirl of furs
and displaced air, the creature was gone, leaving Chris alone again
to watch coals flicker slowly and turn into ashes.
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