Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Sentry of the Sky
    Sentry of the Sky
    Sentry of the Sky
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    Sentry of the Sky

    By Evelyn E. Smith

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    There had to be a way for Sub-Archivist Clarey to get up in the world—but this way was right out of the tri-di dramas. Interstellar intrigue t its finest! Evelyn E. Smith is best known as the author of the Miss Melville mysteries. From 1952 to 1969 she wrote dozens of science fiction and fantasy short stories that appeared in magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy, Super Science Fiction, and Fantastic Universe. Her stories were witty, well written, often humorous, and always unforgettable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateSep 21, 2021
    ISBN9781649741615
    Sentry of the Sky
    Author

    Evelyn E. Smith

    Evelyn E. Smith (25 July 1922 – 4 July 2000) was an American writer of science fiction and mysteries, as well as a compiler of crossword puzzles.

    Read more from Evelyn E. Smith

    Related to Sentry of the Sky

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Mouldy Mandarins

      Nov 25, 2021

      ONCE BRITISH IMPERIAL AMBITION coloured the map of the globe pink. Now it must surely be largely green with envy, as there are so many things in Britain for the rest of the world to covet: our judges, our police, our BBC, our NHS, of course, and perh

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Clues To ROMANCE

      May 4, 2021

      The Clues To ROMANCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Gillian Anderson

      Dec 15, 2022

      Gillian Anderson
      14 min read

    • Article

      The PROMISE

      Aug 18, 2021

      The PROMISE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Hey! Good looking

      Jan 5, 2022

      Hey! Good looking
      4 min read

    • Article

      How George V Won The War

      Sep 2, 2021

      How George V Won The War
      8 min read

    • Article

      SAPPHIRE & STEEL

      Aug 14, 2019

      SAPPHIRE & STEEL
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cyberpunk 2077

      Mar 21, 2023

      Cyberpunk 2077
      5 min read

    • Article

      Utter Luna(r)cy

      Jan 6, 2022

      @JORDANFARLEY Billed as a mix of Independence Day and 2012, the premise of Roland Emmerich’s latest disaster-piece is simple and suitably unhinged: the moon is knocked from its orbit and hurtles towards Earth on a collision course with mankind. But w

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Mystery Of The Falls

      Aug 27, 2021

      PERHAPS the most obvious example is Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay’s Gothic pastoral about a group of girls who venture to the top of a mountain and fall into a kind of metaphysical sleep. But it’s as much a tradition, the story of uncertain wo

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Professor’s Wife

      Sep 1, 2020

      The Professor’s Wife
      8 min read

    • Article

      Portrait Of An Artist

      Jan 6, 2022

      Portrait Of An Artist
      6 min read

    • Article

      Watching The Detectives

      Dec 30, 2020

      Watching The Detectives
      5 min read

    • Article

      FAST, FAMOUS & FURIOUS!

      Mar 10, 2022

      IT WON’T surprise anyone who has ventured out on the highways and byways of Britain recently to learn that Road Rage statistics are on the UP. Pressures of a global pandemic, the economic downturn and massive hikes in the cost of living have transfor

      9 min read

    • Article

      Parallel Lives Lost: K Chess’s ‘Famous Men Who Never Lived’

      Feb 13, 2019

      Famous Men isn’t quite a sci-fi novel, but something more like its inverse—a book less concerned with alternate universes than their absence. The post Parallel Lives Lost: K Chess’s ‘Famous Men Who Never Lived’ appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Laughing STOCK

      Jul 17, 2020

      Laughing STOCK
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Mystery Of The Winter Dress

      Mar 23, 2022

      The Mystery Of The Winter Dress
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lights! Camera! Traction!

      Aug 3, 2023

      Lights! Camera! Traction!
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Future

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Future
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Bargain

      Dec 10, 2022

      “Which one of you owns G2V3889?” Cygnus glided through a luminescent star field suspended in the center of an otherwise dark, oblong studio, then turned in a slow circle to survey the twenty Agents surrounding him. “Come on, speak up.” Vega shuddered

      16 min read

    • Article

      Opening Round

      Jan 4, 2022

      In 1898 the French army introduced the world to a fearsome new piece of artillery: the Canon de 75 modèle 1897. French soldiers quickly dubbed it the Soixante-Quinze (“Seventy-Five”) in a nod to its 75mm bore, and in time the gun would become commonl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Wise old Mrs Merrow

      Jul 27, 2020

      Littlesea was everything the description said: a white stone cottage with beams and higgledy-piggledy walls and steps away from a tiny quay in a private bay. It would have been the perfect spot for honeymooners had it not had just the one single bed

      8 min read

    • Article

      In Conversation With ELLY GRIFFITHS

      Sep 28, 2023

      This year, bestselling author Elly Griffiths retired her most famous character – for now. Set in Norfolk, the Ruth Galloway series blends intricate plots, great characters, vivid landscapes and a much-loved heroine. Elly has also written standalone c

      2 min read

    • Article

      A-list Case Study No.1: Gary Neville

      Aug 4, 2022

      IN RECENT YEARS, former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has become one of the Woke Mob’s loudest critics of our green and pleasant government. Capitalising on his vast social media profile, Sky pundit Neville regularly tweets his displeasure

      2 min read

    • Article

      Abrama’s End Game

      Jul 10, 2024

      Content Disclosure: Hate Speech Abrama had been summoned to the Grand Temple by one of the more fascinating outsiders, the paladin Sir Gödel. Between stone pillars, the crowd bustled with the trailing cloaks of shadow elves, the glimmering pauldrons

      20 min read

    • Article

      Abrama’s End Game

      May 10, 2021

      Abrama had been summoned to the Grand Temple by one of the more fascinating outsiders, the paladin Sir Gödel. Between stone pillars the crowd bustled with the trailing cloaks of shadow elves, the glimmering pauldrons of paladins, the broad shoulders

      19 min read

    • Article

      Days Of Shattered Faith

      Dec 3, 2024

      Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai and tomorrow’s frontline in the Palleseen’s relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. On the ship, as it tacked in past the sea wall, she was in her coffin

      6 min read

    • Article

      Lace Round the Sky

      Jul 1, 2022

      Lace Round the Sky
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Sentry of the Sky

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Sentry of the Sky - Evelyn E. Smith

      Sentry of the Sky

      by Evelyn E. Smith

      Start Publishing LLC

      Copyright © 2021 by Start Publishing LLC

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

      First Start Publishing eBook edition 2020

      Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      ISBN:

      Sentry of the Sky

      There had to be a way for Sub-Archivist Clarey to get up in the world—but this way was right out of the tri-di dramas.

      Clarey had checked in at Classification Center so many times that he came now more out of habit than hope. He didn’t even look at the card that the test machine dropped into his hand until he was almost to the portway. And then he stopped. Report to Room 33 for reclassification, it said.

      Ten years before, Clarey would have been ecstatic, sure that reclassification could be only in one direction. The machine had not originally given him a job commensurate with his talents; why should it suddenly recognize them? He’d known of people who had been reclassified—always downward. I’m a perfectly competent Sub-Archivist, he told himself; I’ll fight.

      But he knew fighting wouldn’t help. All he had was the right to refuse any job he could claim was not in his line; the government would then be obligated to continue his existence. There were many people who did subsist on the government dole: the aged and the deficient and the defective—and creative artists who refused to trammel their spirits and chose to be ranked as Unemployables. Clarey didn’t fit into those categories.

      Dispiritedly, he passed along innumerable winding corridors and up and down ramps that twisted and turned to lead into other ramps and corridors. That was the way all public buildings were designed. It was forbidden for the government to make any law-abiding individual think the way it wanted him to think. But it could move him in any direction it chose, and sometimes that served its purpose as well as the reorientation machines.

      So the corridors he passed through were in constant eddying movement, with a variety of individuals bent on a variety of objectives. For the most part, they were of Low Echelon status, though occasionally an Upper Echelon flashed his peremptory way past. Even though most L-Es attempted to ape the U-E dress and manner, you could always tell the difference. You could tell the difference among the different levels of L-E, too—and there was no mistaking the Unemployables in their sober gray habits, devoid of ornament. It was, Clarey sometimes thought when guilt feelings bothered him, the most esthetic of costumes.

      *

      The machine in Room 33 extracted whatever information it was set to receive, then spewed Clarey out and sent him on his way to Rooms 34, 35, and 36, where other machines repeated the same process. Room 37 proved to be that rare thing in the hierarchy of rooms—a destination. There was a human Employment Commissioner in it, splendidly garbed in crimson silvet and alexandrites—very Upper Echelon, indeed. He wore a gold mask, a common practice with celebrities who were afraid of being overwhelmed by their admirers, an even more common practice with U-E non-celebrities who enjoyed the thrill of distinguished anonymity.

      Then Clarey stopped looking at the Commissioner. There was a girl sitting next to him, on a high-backed chair like his. Clarey had never seen a U-E girl so close before. Only the Greater Archivists had direct contact with the public, and Clarey wasn’t likely to meet a U-E socially, even if he’d had a social life. The girl was too fabulous for him to think of her as a woman, a female; but he would have liked to have her in his archives, in the glass case with the rare editions.

      Good morning, Sub-Archivist Clarey, the man said mellowly. Good of you to come in. There’s rather an unusual position open and the machines tell us you’re the one man who can fill it. Please sit down. He indicated a small, hard stool.

      Clarey remained standing. I’ve been a perfectly competent Sub-Archivist, he declared. If MacFingal has—if there have been any complaints, I should have been told first.

      There have been no complaints. The reclassification is upward.

      You mean I’ve made it as a Musician! Clarey cried, sinking to the hard little stool in joyful atony.

      Well, no, not exactly a Musician. But it’s a highly artistic type of job with possible musical overtones.

      Clarey became a hollow man once more. No matter what it was, if it wasn’t as duly accredited Musician, it didn’t matter. The machine could keep him from putting his symphonies down on tape, but it couldn’t keep them from coursing in his head. That it could never take away from him. Or the resultant headache, either.

      What is the job, then? he asked dully.

      A very important position, Sub-Archivist. In fact, the future welfare of this planet may depend on it.

      It’s a trick to make me take a job nobody else wants, Clarey sneered. And it must be a pretty rotten job for you to go to so much trouble.

      The girl, whom he’d almost forgotten, gave a little laugh. Her eyes, he noticed, were hazel. There were L-E girls, he supposed, who also had hazel eyes—but a different hazel.

      *

      Perhaps this will convince you of the job’s significance, the interviewer said huffily. He took off his mask and looked at Clarey with anticipation. He had a sleek, ordinary, middle-aged-to-elderly face.

      There was an awkward interval. Don’t you recognize me? he demanded.

      Clarey shook his head. The girl laughed again.

      A blow to my ego, but proof that you’re the right man for this job. I’m General Spano. And this is my Mistress, Secretary Han Vollard.

      The girl inclined her head.

      At least you must know my name? Spano said querulously.

      I’ve heard it, Clarey admitted. ‘The Fiend of Fomalhaut,’ they call you, he went on before he could catch himself and stop the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1