Subject: File: "FSFNET VOL01N3" being sent to you

From: Revised List Processor (1.5m) <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1988 08:45 CST

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            +-+--+-+--+-+     VOLUME ONE                    NUMBER THREE
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            |           |      BITNET Fantasy-Science Fiction Fanzine
         ___|___________|___ X-Edited by 'Orny' Liscomb (NMCS025@MAINE)

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                                    CONTENTS
         Editorial                            Orny
         Flyby                                Fiction by Jim Owens
         Featured Author: TANITH LEE          Orny
         The Narret Chronicles                Fiction by Mari A. Paulson

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                                   Editorial

     Well, folks, welcome to issue three of FSFnet!  After last issue's slump,
  we have got some  real treats for you with some  excellent fiction.   I must
  thank Jim  Owens (J1O @  PSUVM)  for most  of this  issue - his  loyalty and
  productiveness...   well...   if  only  all readers  were  so  avid  and  so
  talented...
     I must again remind  you that FSFnet is a fanzine,  and  that I must have
  submissions for  it to continue.    I know that  many of you  have commented
  about sending things in,  but haven't found the time.   Please do...  FSFnet
  needs your support to continue.
     Also,  it has come  to my attention that many people  are having problems
  reading FSFnet onto  their disks.   VAX users  want DISK DUMP CLASS  N,  IBM
  users want SENDFILE,  and so forth.   I would like to hear from people as to
  which format  they consider most desirable.    And thank you for  putting up
  with any inconvenience due to this problem, past or future.
     One more thing before I send you off  into space...  Issue four will be a
  special tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, famous author of horror, particularly the
  Cthulhu mythos.   If you have anything that might be acceptable, please send
  it in!   As always, letters are welcome,  as is almost anything I can get my
  hands on!
     But I  grow long-winded,  and I would not presume to detract from the two
  wonderful pieces of fiction in this issue, so READ ON!
                             Orny <NMCS025 @ MAINE>

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                                     FLYBY

     The asteroid flashed past, turning slowly. He could feel the power in the
  twin-spool behind  him.  He knew,  however,   that there were  more powerful
  engines in the warship behind him.
     "Easy run." Elein had said as she pulled him to the booth. "Just lure the
  ships out to the Belt and they pay our way back!"
     The Paixites needed ships,  he knew.  But  they needed the men even more.
  The Paixites were  not wimps.  They held  more power than the  rest of space
  combined.  They just  weren't takers.  They were  more likely to give  you a
  planet than to try to take yours.  They had a fantastic,  outgoing way about
  them, an attitude unmatched for niceness.  Without that,  mankind would have
  been in trouble.  Some, however, saw niceness as weakness.   Ever since they
  had appeared in human  space they had been the target of  many a siege,  and
  were under one now by a group whose sole interest in life was the acqusition
  of other people's goods.  The pay was good, however,  and the the assignment
  easy.  Besides,  he had wanted to fly the VAS Butterfly for many months now.
  Ever since  it came out all  he had heard  was how fast and  maneuverable it
  was. And here was the chance. So he signed up, took off within the hour, and
  now here they were.
     "Greg, you got ..."
     The transmission was cut off as  he reacted,  swinging around and heading
  for a nearby point of light he knew to  be a large asteroid.  As he did,  he
  caught sight  of the  capture ship  swinging around  in a  larger arc  in an
  attempt  to keep  up with  him.  The  men flying  it had  one concern:   the
  electronics in the tail  of his little ship.  If they could  get his ship in
  range of their tractor field...
     Even as  he watched,   he saw one  of the large  vessels slide  up behind
  Elein's ship.  Even  as he yelled for  her to evade,  she  hit her emergency
  boosters.  They  pushed her forward  - just far enough  for the nose  of the
  Butterfly to escape. But the rest of the ship was still in the capture jaws,
  which slammed shut,  neatly severing the cockpit from the rest of the craft.
  The life compartment,  with Elein in it,  drifted off to one side,  like the
  head of a fish out of a shark's mouth.
     He had  little time  to reflect on  how long Elein  could survive  on the
  little bit of emergency air provided in the cockpit, because even as he dove
  around  the asteroid  it's surface  came alive  with sparks  and flashes  of
  light.   It only took a  moment to realize  that  he was  being fired  upon.
  Apparently the  pirates had  caught all of  the other  nine craft,   and had
  decided that this last  one wasn't worth the effort,  and  that now all they
  had to  do was eliminate  it.  He felt like  screaming.  Instead he  hit the
  emergency  thrusters  and  rounded  the asteroid  marginally  ahead  of  the
  pursuit.
     He flashed past a pinnacle, and then straightened out his flight,  hoping
  to loose his followers.   Then,  to his surprise,  he saw,   just ahead,  th
  Paixian transport  ship,  it's  landing bay wide  open,  it's  landing field
  activated and waiting.  All he had to do was reach it,  as fast as possible,
  and he was safe.  No weapon could  reach him,  they would cancel his immense
  velocity, they would protect him. A little further...
     500 meters  out the plasma  bolt from the pirate  ship caught him  in the
  engine.  It vaporized it's way through the composite hull,  and slammed into
  the ship's skeleton. Even as it ignited the fuel, the shock wave reached the
  cockpit  and  split the  canopy.   Milliseconds  before  the heat  from  the
  exploding engines could reach him,  Greg was  blasted out into vacuum by the
  exploding ejection seat bolts.
     "Greg..."
     He opened his eyes. The light was bright. Heaven?
     "Greg..."
     He turned his head. If this was heaven they sure had modern landing bays.
  He was hanging  upside down in what  could only be a  Paixian landing field,
  staring at a pair of feet that could only belong to one person.
     "Elein, why aren't I dead?"
     "You blew it right in front of the  landing field.  You passed out on the
  last 100 meters through the void before you hit the field."
     Greg rolled to his feet.  Standing behind Elein at a respectable distance
  was the Paixian who had hired them.
     "Congratulations Greg.  You survived the longest.   In fact,  you are the
  first person in history  ever to bring any part of his  ship to the delivery
  point."
     Greg followed the pointed finger. There lay the assembled wreckage of his
  ship.
     "Am I to take it you can salvage that?"
     "No, of course not. Why would we want to? It's you we really wanted after
  all, someone who would fulfill his contract without turning back, regardless
  of what gauntlet they had to run."
     "And I did it, eh?" There was little left of the ship but shards.
     "Yes. After all, it's the attitude we want, not merely the product."
                            Jim Owens  <J1O @ PSUVM>

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                            Featured Author: TANITH LEE

     Tanith Lee is one  of the prolific female FSF authors  of this age.   The
  London librarian's books are in the vanguard of todays literature.  Although
  she has a  devoted following of readers,   her books are not  the kind often
  found on neighborhood bookstore shelves.
     Her style is very unique and mature,  and,  if I may venture a subjective
  opinion,  among the best writings I  have ever read.   Lee deals effectively
  with fantasy, love, horror, ethics, and mystery as well as any author.   Her
  twisting the expected and the traditional can be seen in many of her works.
     Her Flat Earth series,  including  "Death's Master," "Delusion's Master,"
  "Night's  Master,"and,  soon  to  be  released,  "Delirium's  Mistress"  are
  excellent  works  of wonder  and  mystery.    Her Birthgrave  series,   "the
  Birthgrave," "Vazkor,  Son  of Vazkor," and "Quest for the  White Witch" are
  masterworks of science fiction,   combining sexual sophistication,  literary
  maturity, and unique insights into morality.
     "Sung  in  Shadow"  retells  a famous  Shakespearean  tale,   with  Lee's
  typically atypical twists of plot, as "Red as Blood" retells many well-known
  childrens yarns.   But these  works are not for the young  at all!   Perhaps
  Lee's master work, "Cyrion," is an enthralling, captivating work,  following
  episodes in the life  of a wandering legend.   Her tales  are never entirely
  what is expected, and they provide fresh,  mature,  perceptive insights into
  the realm of wonder.
     Although most of Lee's works are published by David Wollheim's DAW Books,
  Lee has also  written two books for  the new Tempo MagicQuest  series,  "the
  Dragon Hoard"  and "East  of Midnight."  The  former is  a wondrous  tale of
  fantasy,  more simplistic than her other works.   The latter is typical Lee,
  full of unexpected twists and deep thought.
     The future seems to hold many new developments for Tanith Lee.  Scheduled
  for  publication  by DAW  are:   "Delirium's  Mistress"  and "the  Gods  are
  Thirsty," and  recently published are "East  of Midnight" and  "the Gorgon."
  For those  who are  interested,  there  is an  excellent interview  with the
  author in Heavy Metal magazine (Nov 84-v8n8).
                             Orny <NMCS025 @ MAINE>

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                             "THE NARRET CHRONICLES"
                                  BOOK THE LAST

     It was a night just like any other night on Amrif,  nothing at all out of
  the ordinary.   The sky  was dark white,  and the stars  were all glimmering
  bright black.   High pressure systems over this solitary ocean were the norm
  for this  desert world.   Since the  desert wasn't conducive to  normal life
  forms,  the people of this third planet  in the Narret System lived in giant
  floating cities, and satellite suburbias connected by an intricate system of
  channelways.
     Samo Ht was skimming along in his Hydrocar, thinking about the lecture he
  was going to give to his class, when Cyri,  a familiar cons tellation caught
  his eye.   "Oh Cyri, when woulds't thou lower thy head.   When woulds't thou
  drop thy weary DASER,  and end thy warring ways."  He quoted the famous line
  from Steadywound the ancient poet.   Whatever  did Bill Steadywound see in a
  constellation as old as Cyri?   He  asked himself True,  there was something
  romantic about the old asterism,  but the legend about how Cyri had cut down
  400 desert creatures  with a single charge  fro m his Dark  Amplification by
  Stimulated Emission of Radiation gun  gave him shudders.   "How disgustingly
  advanced" Samo  thought to himself.  "Oh,   well,  that's what  the future's
  about, as for now: Backward and downward."
     Samo  Ht glanced  out  the  window of  his  Hydrocar  again.   This  time
  something else caught his eye.  "Ah ha, the Dusty Lane!" Samo exclaimed "My,
  it's exceptionally  clear tonight.   Humh,  I  guess I'll have to  close the
  observatory before class tonight..."
     "...so class we have an entire system here:  the nucleons,  which consist
  of the neuterons  and the negatrons and orbiting shells  of particles called
  positrons.   Remember that the atom in  its resting state is always balanced
  in charge,  and  the total number of  positrons always equals the  number of
  negatrons.  Any questions?  Yes, Lexia?"
     "Dr. Ht, what happens to the atom if it gets excited?  Will the positrons
  go flying off and leave the atom negatively charged?"
     "That's exactly  right Lexia.   The resulting  charged atom is  called an
  ion.  You'll learn more about ions in the next lower course."
     Just then the green light on the Vidcom came on.
     "Well class it looks like your luck ran out again.  Class dismissed."
     Samo knew that when  the green light came on,  it could  mean only one of
  two things,  and both of them spelled  trouble.   The light meant that there
  was an incoming  wave transmission,  and the transmissions  always came from
  one of two  sources.   Either it was  some stupid-ass general,  a  clerk who
  messed up  and shattered an  important document,   (since this was  a desert
  world, all records were kept on diamond etched glass plates) usually some of
  his inreproducible research,  or it was a lower ranking private ordering him
  on an important  mission.   Fortunately the former didn't  happen too often,
  and something told him that this time it would definitely be the latter.
     It  was  only  a  matter  of  millicentons  before  his  suspicions  were
  confirmed, and the image of the planet's commanding officer,  Private Stark,
  formed from a solitary centered dot, to a horizontal line, to a circle,  and
  finally a tubular hologram on the Vidcom. Samo saluted.
     "No time for formalities, Sgt. Ht." the commander bluntly began. "There's
  an inter-planetary crisis,  involving all nine planets of The Narret System.
  It deals with Trivia-Antitrivia  reactions,and we need you to be  one of our
  foremost experts on the subject. There's an emergency
        conference being held on the Planet Sunaru in one On. We're calling in
  our lowest minds on this one.  Your orders  are to report to the Central Sea
  on Sunaru in exactly 95 centons. Any questions?"
     "Yes, does this at all concern our counter-planet sir?"
     "Unfortunately, yes it does.  They're playing God again.  And you know as
  well as I do what that could mean.  If that's all, you better get going' you
  now have 94.5 centons."
     "Yes, that's all.  Thank you sir."
     "Thank ME?  Bad luck to YOU, Sergeant. Stark out."
     "Well, no time to close the observatory now. Got to get going."
                                 Mari A. Paulson

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