BooksBarbecue
Back Worlds Enough and Time
Chapters (90)
  1. Title Page
  2. Enter the SF Gateway …
  3. Contents
  4. Author Note
  5. PROLOGUE: TRANSCRIPT
  6. IDENTITIES
  7. YEAR 0.005
  8. EARTHWATCH
  9. A CHANCE TO DREAM
  10. MEETING OF MINDS
  11. GENESIS AND REVELATION
  12. GRAVE IMAGE
  13. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
  14. MANEUVERING
  15. BIG SISTER
  16. THE POWER TO SOOTHE
  17. YEAR 1.00
  18. ABOUT TIME
  19. HAPPY NEW YEAR
  20. TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS
  21. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS INCLINATIONS
  22. IN THE DEAD VAST AND MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
  23. OPTIONS
  24. DRIFTING
  25. DIVIDE AND MULTIPLY
  26. DIONYSUS MEETS GODZILLA
  27. 10
  28. DIDN’T SHE RAMBLE?
  29. YEAR 1.33
  30. LONG-RANGE PLANS
  31. NEW BEGINNINGS
  32. UNTIMELY PLUCKED
  33. BLUES
  34. YEAR 1.88
  35. LABOR-SAVING DEVICE
  36. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE TO THE CRADLE
  37. A MODEST PROPOSAL
  38. ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN
  39. ONE PART HARMONY
  40. TWO PARTS DISCORD
  41. YEAR 3.21
  42. LEAVINGS
  43. REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
  44. TRANSLATING
  45. YEAR 5.71
  46. WATERSHED, BLOODSHED
  47. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
  48. A WOMAN OF DISCRIMINATION
  49. THAT TIME OF YEAR THOU MAYE5T IN ME BEHOLD
  50. CATEGORIES
  51. YEAR 6.26
  52. AULD ACQUAINTANCE
  53. SOWING, REAPING
  54. TEMPERAMENT
  55. BAD SEED
  56. YEAR 8.36
  57. HUSBANDRY
  58. POPULATION EXPLOSION
  59. YEAR 9.88
  60. HOMECOMING
  61. THE BURDENS OF FAITH
  62. YEAR 11.07
  63. GROWING PAINS
  64. LONG-DISTANCE CALL
  65. FOUR NOVELS
  66. AGE 55
  67. IN DREAMS AWAKE
  68. UP TEMPO
  69. JUVENILIA
  70. POOL PARTY
  71. INTERIM REPORT
  72. CHANCES
  73. BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
  74. FINAL APPROACH
  75. AGE 56
  76. DAY ZERO
  77. FIRST CONTACT
  78. LETTER ‘HOME
  79. HOUSEKEEPING
  80. AGE 57
  81. SETTLING, UNSETTLING
  82. THE HUNT
  83. FINAL EXAM
  84. AGE 100
  85. Website
  86. Also by Joe Haldeman
  87. Dedication
  88. EPILOGUE
  89. Author Bio
  90. Copyright
O’HARA: Hello? Okay, I’m here.
SANDRA: Mair! I got you! We only have a hundred seconds—look at this!
(The camera does a jerky pan around 360 degrees, showing lake, grassy swamp, an oddlooking forest with snow-capped mountains in the background, and a shuttle, sitting on its tail, lurched slightly out of plumb.)
O’HARA: Good grief! What happened to the shuttle?
SANDRA: Oh, the ground’s soft. It’s no problem.
O’HARA: No problem? What if it’d fallen over?
SANDRA: Oh, mother. You worry too much. Can you believe those trees?
O’HARA: They look like hands. Claws.
SANDRA: Don’t they? Even with fingernails. Close up, they’re covered with little red things, bugs. Some kind of symbiote, they figure, since all of the trees have them. Did you hear about the helium creatures?
O’HARA: The little balloons. They showed them on the cube.
SANDRA: We found a bigger one, too, about ten centimeters wide. They’re driving the biologists crazy! They can’t figure out where the helium comes from.
O’HARA: That’s what Dan said. It can’t be part of their metabolism because it doesn’t combine with anything.
SANDRA: It looks like they do photosynthesis. Any-how, this big one had kind of green hair all over inside it.
O’HARA: Are you okay, honey? I mean, do you feel all right?
SANDRA: I feel great! A little tired from carrying stuff. Here, look at me—hold the camera, Marko.
(The picture bobs around and settles on Sandra, striking a pose. She’s wearing heavy boots and work fatigues, mud-spattered from the knees down. Sleeves rolled up past her elbows, hair a wild mess under a broadbrimmed hat. Wide belt holding a canteen and bolstered pistol.)
SANDRA: Ta-da! Would you want your daughter on the same planet with this wild woman?
O’HARA: How’s Jakob?
SANDRA: He was fine the last time I saw him, couple of hours ago. He’s on the shit committee, setting up the latrines and a shower down by the water plant.
O’HARA: You’re still doing foundations?
SANDRA: Yeah, we’ll be pouring ‘krete about four days. We might be pouring paths after that, if we can improvise forms from something. It’s pretty muddy.
O’HARA: You can’t just knock the floor forms apart?
SANDRA: No, they’re one piece. Wasn’t that great planning? Look, I’ve got to hand the camera over. Love you, Mair!
O’HARA: Love you too, wild woman. Take care of yourself.

The primary landing party were warned repeatedly to “expect the unexpected,” a rule that applies to almost any situation without being particularly useful. “Expect big sticky things to fall out of the sky” would have been more practical.