
Illustrated by MARCHETTI
On a deserted Earth where the climate is scorching and the streets are empty, a lone man named Robert drifts through a world run by obedient machines. He spends his days playing tennis against relentless robot opponents, lounging in a private pool, and commanding a legion of service bots to tend to his sprawling mansion. The contrast between his opulent, automated life and the silence left by humanity’s exodus creates a strange, almost melancholy elegance.
Even in this high‑tech solitude, Robert craves contact. He flips through channels on his television robot, waiting for the occasional flicker of a familiar voice. When the enigmatic Jack finally appears, masked by a filtered transmission, the brief conversation awakens both curiosity and a lingering sense of rivalry. An unexpected invitation to a televised event hints that the quiet routine may soon be disrupted.
Language
en
Duration
~30 minutes (29K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-06-10
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1918–1997
A prolific American science-fiction writer, he built a long magazine career on brisk, idea-driven stories that appeared throughout the pulp and digest era. His work mixes adventure, humor, and classic mid-century genre imagination.
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