NO RETURN FROM ELBAAUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
Twenty years ago the short-short story, usually about a thousand words in length, was more prevalent than it is now, for reasons unknown to me. I always liked the form. The idea, of course, is to have a snap ending that surprises or amuses the reader. This first appeared in Fantastic magazine in 1953. Then editor, Howard Browne, who is now one of Hollywood’s top scriptwriters, liked it so much that he paid the unheard of, in those days, rate of four cents a word.
—Mack Reynolds
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The Omnipotent entered and answered their salute as he had in the old days—as though there were still fleets under his command instead of this single space scout—planets still under his thumb, instead of the single tiny asteroid which lay before them.
His voice w
