<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

"Doorway Into Time" is a 7500-word short story by C. L. Moore, about an alien that collects artifacts and people from around the galaxy. The story was first published in the September, 1943 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

An alien creature, very old and bored with life, keeps a museum of beautiful artifacts which it has collected over its lifetime, from many different worlds. The alien wants to hunt again, to find something to add to its collection, but it has become jaded, and it wants the hunt to be dangerous. It uses its “doorway” to search for something worthy to hunt, and finds a human woman that would be suitable.

She is with a man, who is experimenting on a new weapon which shoots lightning. The girl is named Alanna, and the man is named Paul, and they are stunned when a black void appears in their room. Alanna screams, but she is pulled into the black void mid-scream. Paul grabs the weapon and follows her into the void. They appear in a mysterious, alien room. They venture out of the room and look around, finding many alien artifacts, and they think this may be some kind of a nightmare. The alien creature comes, and Paul tries his lightning weapon against it. The weapon has little effect, except to anger the alien. It chases the two back into the first room, and then throws the two of them back into the vortex, along with the lightning. The alien does not know if they survived, but is disappointed that they were not dangerous after all.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 5 (1943).

To see specific information, such as anthologies including Doorway Into Time, please click the Doorway Into Time category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Doorway Into Time, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page.