Malcolm Jameson's "Brimstone Bill" (novelette, humor, free): Crooks are useful too!

A part of the story deals with sound engineering - how high frequency, inaudible, sounds affect us. I've no idea if there is any truth in that part.

Story summary.

A corrupt politician in high office collects protection money from a little world called Juno in asteroid belt. He maneuvers a spaceship returning home, with a lot of unspent sailors' salary, to land here for hull cleaning, a process that will ground the ship for a month, giving town ample time to clean the purses of the crew.

But ship captain has a weapon up his sleeve...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1942.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Malcolm Jameson.

Malcolm Jameson's "Alien Envoy" (short story, first contact, free): Friendly aliens want a trade treaty

While the official message of the story is: meetings between humans & aliens with completely different body chemistry & bodily needs need not be of conflict & can be of cooperation, somewhere there is also a message about military might not giving the option to the weak to not sign the treaty. Humans are the weak here.

Story summary.

Ursan are the alien invaders of Sol. They've been coming in for decades now, & it's only human attackers on them who have suffered casualties. They mine radium from gas giants; radium is ... sort of ... a vitamin to them - & one they don't have enough of.

Now finally, human military has hit one of their lone ships. Investigations will reveal it has a survivor, & that that survivor is their ambassador with a treaty offer - give us unlimited access to Jupiter & Saturn that are like our natural habitat, & you can have smaller terrestrial worlds in our system.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1944.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Caveat: Scans of this story are of somewhat poor quality. Not so poor as to be unreadable, but bad enough to be an irritant.
Rating: B.

Malcolm Jameson's "When is When?" (short story, time travel, free)

This must be among the most illogical stories I've seen from Campbell-edited Astounding/Analog. The only redeeming part is the quote below. Someone familiar with history of Europe & Americas in 16th century may enjoy it a little more, but basic premise remains illogical.

Story summary.

Pope Gregory III decreed that the date following 4 October 1582 would be 15 October, with intervening dates gone in a time hole. OK - Pope had some arcane reasons to change the calender.

Different countries accept this date change at different times, sometimes two factions in a country accept this at different times.

These human-administered dates, & conflicts within the countries, change the behavior of mother nature's Time itself!! So time travelers to missing dates vanish in the void of no time, depending on target country! And a smart alec figures this out & gets it fixed by traveling to past & influencing Pope to restore the calender - hence rescuing the stranded.

Quotes.

1. "Company rules, like the army regulations, covered every conceivable thing in the minutest detail. If a fellow learned them all & took care to never break a one - well, he never got in trouble, but likewise he never got far. Smash a rule & one of two things invariably happens. You either get kicked out, or somebody pins a medal on you."

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: C.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Time travel in fiction; fiction from 1940s.