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Blind Alley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Empire Series |
| Genre(s) | science fiction short story |
| Released in | Astounding Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Street & Smith |
| Media Type | Magazine |
| Released | March 1945 |
| Preceded by | Pebble in the Sky |
| Followed by | Prelude to Foundation |
Blind Alley is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in the collection The Early Asimov (1972).
Although the story postulates a race of intelligent non-humans, it is set in the Foundation universe, during the era of Trantor's Galactic Empire.
Contents |
The few remaining members of an intelligent non-human alien race have been removed from their dying planet and transferred to a human-occupied planet Cepheus-18 (hence their name of Cepheids given to them). The planet is intended to be utilised as a combination zoo, laboratory, and reservation for the creatures, and they are being studied, without too much success, by a scientific group that regards them as little more than experimental animals.
The Civilian Supervisor, a career member of the Imperial administrative service, attempts to improve conditions for the creatures, using his working knowledge of the Imperial bureaucracy. By submitting reports and encouraging others to submit reports, he manages to cause a spaceship to be delivered with the intention of having the Cepheids study it. In fact, as he intended, the Cepheids commandeer the ship and depart the galaxy to find a new world of their own.
The author utilises a turgid long-winded bureauocratic style of phraseology for the many memoranda that are a part of the story; this was based on that in use by the US Navy, his employers at the time.
The aliens' predicament in a human-dominated galaxy is similar to the eventual fate of humans in the alternative futures of The End of Eternity. It does however have a different ending — the Cepheids are encouraged to steal a spacecraft and head for an independent life in the Magellanic Clouds.
In Foundation and Earth, we are told that no human ship has ever penetrated the Magellanic Clouds, nor the Andromeda Galaxy or other more distant galaxies. It is not known whether Asimov intended to make a link between those novels and this short story.
In the 'Second Foundation' trilogy, a series of books authorised by the estate of Asimov, a race of Aliens within the Foundation Universe is mentioned who appear to be in circumstances similar to the Cepheids, although they are not mentioned by name.
| Preceded by: | Included in: | Series: |
Followed by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pebble in the Sky |
The Early Asimov |
Empire Series Foundation Series |
Prelude to Foundation |
| The Early Asimov |
| The Callistan Menace | Ring Around the Sun | The Magnificent Possession | Trends | The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use | Black Friar of the Flame | Half-Breed | The Secret Sense | Homo Sol | Half-Breeds on Venus | The Imaginary | Heredity | History | Christmas on Ganymede | The Little Man on the Subway | The Hazing | Super-Neutron | Not Final | Legal Rites | Time Pussy | Author! Author! | Death Sentence | Blind Alley | No Connection | The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline | The Red Queen's Race | Mother Earth |