Casual Shorts & the ISFdb Top Short Fiction # 49: Desertion by Clifford D. Simak

Simak, Clifford D. "Desertion." Astounding Science Ficion, November 1944.

This article is part of my attempt to read all the 155 stories currently (as of 1 November 2022) on the ISFdb's Top Short Fiction list. Please see the introduction and list of stories here. I am encouraging readers to rate the stories and books they have read on the ISFdb.

"Desertion" at the ISFdb

ISFdb Rating:   8.67/10

My Rating:        7/10

"Four men, two by two, had gone into the howling maelstrom that was Jupiter and had not returned."

Kent Fowler leads the Dome No. 3 Jovian Survey Commission, one of a handful of outposts located on Jupiter. He is responsible for having sent four men into Jupiter's atmosphere. These four men have not returned. He is now about to send a fifth man, young and confident Harold Allen, to find out what happened to his predecessors, knowing that Allen will also likely not return.

Humans have explored much of the solar system. They are able to visit the different planets with the help of a converter, a machine that transforms human individuals into aliens, mimicking the beings native to the planet they are exploring, and thus allowing humans to function in the alien environment. Yet while this process has helped them visit the planets in their solar system, there is something about Jupiter that is different, as the converted men do not return.

And it is Fowler's duty to find a way to get humans out of the domes and onto the surface, in the stormy planet atmosphere. Converter operator Miss Stanley accuses Fowler of essentially murdering these men for the advancement of science, and of his career. Yet despite the guilt of selecting which men should risk themselves to be converted and sent into the unforgiving atmosphere, Fowler feels he must press on.

"Desertion" is a hard science fiction story, focusing not on human development in the distant future, but on the Jovian landscape, detailing its chemical rains and colourful skyline, a "soupy maelstrom" as it was understood in 1944. Yet the story is more about humanity, about our unfailing drive amid a universe that teaches us that human needs are essentially inconsequential. A very good story. Without spoiling it, the story can imply that the individual  need outweighs the collective, at least when faced with eternity. Likely not the author's intent, but the idea is inherent in the characters' fates.

"Desertion" is among the stories included in Simak's acclaimed collection City.

For more of this week's Wednesday Short Stories, please visit Patti Abbott's blog.