He's allowed to choose either an alien or Terran game. Of course it is absolutely unlikely that any commonly-known game could be played long enough for rescuers from Terra to reach him. The aliens possess an enshrined tradition that everyone to be terminated is entitled to a final game - a palliative to the afterlife not unlike our custom of a last meal.Īs Taylor learns, the challenge is to make that final game last as long as possible. The aliens are sufficiently annoyed to classify Taylor as a spy, but civilized enough to have formal procedures for ending his unwelcome visit. Wayne Taylor is a Terran interstellar scout who has crash-landed on a heretofore unknown alien planet. This is Now Inhale by Eric Frank Russell. The story ends with his rescuer inviting him to relax, saying they have tiddlywinks aboard if he wants. Eventually he is rescued, having kept his sanity after opponent after opponent has lost theirs. So every day for a couple of years he has to continue to play Tiddlywinks. Infuriated, the aliens change the rules so that the game has to be one recognized on their own planet, but the old rules still apply to the Terran.

They confront the protagonist about this and he explains that there are indeed monks back home who play the game, believing that once the game has completed, the universe will end. If anything, they were disappointed, because they were expecting something new and unusual from an Alien.Īfter a few days, they realize that something is wrong, do the calculations, and realize that the game will take literally billions of years to complete. It seemed a mindless children's game, something that could be wrapped up quickly. The aliens have never heard of it but went along with it. You have to transfer all of the hoops to other rods in such a way that they go in order from largest to smallest. It's something like- you have three rods, with a series of hoops of different sizes on two of them. So he introduces the aliens to a version of the game Tiddlywinks. The Terran knew it was a matter of time until he was found and rescued. There had to be a way to win and lose, a definite ending.

It had to be a real game, played somewhere by people, not just something you made up The government also broadcasts it, because people love to watch folks quite literally playing for their lives.īut there were rules (I remember these, there might have been one or two more): Win or lose, they are still put to death, but particularly skillful players can use it as a means of extending their lives. They view themselves as civilized, and allow the to-be executed to play one game of their choice before death.

The protagonist lands on an alien world and they decide to execute him. Trying to remember a short story that I think was written by Eric Frank Russell.

Balsas tyruose by Eric Frank Russell