"Early Bird" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

short story written in 1973 by

Theodore R. Cogswell Theodore Rose Cogswell (March 10, 1918 – February 3, 1987) was an American science fiction author. Profile During the Spanish Civil War, Cogswell served as an ambulance driver for the Republicans as part of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. His ear ...

and

Theodore L. Thomas Theodore Lockard Thomas (April 13, 1920 – September 24, 2005) was an American chemical engineer and patent attorney who wrote more than 50 science fiction short stories, published between the early 1950s to the late 1970s. He also collaborated ...

. The story was first published in '' Astounding: The John W Campbell Memorial Anthology''. It takes place within the same universe as Cogswell's 1952 novel '' The Spectre General'' and features the character Major Kurt Dixon of the Imperial Space Marines.

Synopsis

After the Marines have defeated the

Galactic Galactic is an American jam band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Origins and background Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a ...

Protectorate, the Empire's

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exch ...

routes start being invaded by the Kierans. The Kierans are an alien race that use ships equipped with a seemingly invincible weapon that clouds the brains of the crew of the ships that try to follow them. Major Kurt Dixon is given command of a scout patrol that follows a Kieran ship to its home base, but he is "fogged" and left unconscious. Dixon's ship is equipped with an experimental computer that generates a cybernetic personality to support him on long lonely space patrols. The computer, known as ''Zelda'', manages to land the ship on an uncharted

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a ...

, inhabited by huge organo-metallic creatures that prey on each other with awesome weaponry and computerised defences. Whilst the ship is disabled on the planet, it becomes a part of a

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite- sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually rep ...

process between two of these creatures. The 'sperm' of one creature homes in on the 'egg' laid by another creature. As part of a 'selection of the fittest' process, Dixon and his ship are modified, acquiring vastly improved mental and physical powers. Dixon discovers that he can now out-manoeuvre the Kierans. He realises that the entire patrol fleet can do the same thing; the newly improved fleet then proceeds to defeat the Kierans.

External links

*{{Isfdb title, id=81635 1973 short stories American short stories Science fiction short stories