Two Timer

This sharp, compact collection opens with a professor demonstrating a time machine that can send small objects a few minutes into the past or future. What begins as a tidy scientific experiment quickly raises unsettling questions about cause and effect, free will, and the fragile logic of reality. The story’s brisk pace and sly humor make every second count.

A second vignette follows a weary infantryman standing guard on a distant planet, far from home and deep in a bitter interstellar war. He faces an enemy described as monstrous and alien, while the familiar hardships of military life—cold, mud, hunger, and fear—remain unchanged across the stars. Together, these concise science-fiction tales offer clever ideas, vivid situations, and endings best approached without advance warning.