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"Time Wants a Skeleton" is a 20,000-word story by Ross Rocklynne, about a man who sees a skeleton that is eons old, and then realizes that, through time travel, that skeleton belongs to someone he knows. The story was first published in the June, 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

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

Tony Crow is a policeman pursuing two fugitives. He chases them to an asteroid, where his ship crashes, as does theirs. In a cave on the asteroid, Tony is horrified to see a human skeleton with a ring on its finger, and Tony knows, somehow, that this skeleton existed before the human race, but he cannot explain how he knows that. Tony exits the cave, lays in wait for the fugitives (named Yates and Braker), and then captures them. Another ship is on the asteroid, doing geological research, and Tony hitches a ride on that ship, bringing his two prisoners with him.

The research ship is headed by Professor Overland. He is accompanied by his daughter, Laurette, and her fiance, Erle Masters. Overland has been trying to research the origins of the asteroid belt, and the asteroid on which they found Tony and his prisoners was labeled “1007”. But while guarding his prisoners, Tony is shocked to notice that one of the prisoners, Braker, is wearing a ring exactly like the ring on the skeleton in the cave. He tells Overland, and, curious, Overland turns the ship around and heads back to Asteroid 1007. When it arrives, the ship’s engines malfunction, and the ship crashes on a planet. They soon realize that there are no planets in the vicinity, and that the ship’s engines must have thrown them back into the past, to a time just before this planet broke up and became the asteroid belt. They soon see that another planetoid is on a collision course with this one, and realize that this is the collision that will break apart the planet, creating the asteroid belt, including asteroid 1007, on which they had originally met. They also quickly realize that the skeleton Tony had seen in the cave must have been Braker, or else someone else from the ship wearing Braker’s ring.

They set about repairing the ship, hoping to complete the repairs before the two planets collide. Meanwhile, everyone onboard knows about the ring and the skeleton, and they are all worried about whose skeleton it is. The two criminals, Yates and Braker, become paranoid, as does Erle Masters, who is also jealous of the attraction that Tony feels for Laurette. Someone pushes Tony over a cliff (he does not see who), but he survives, and finds the cave where he first saw the skeleton, Tony tries to put everyone's fears to rest by throwing the ring into a river. The ring is later rediscovered when they eat some fish from the river, and the ring is inside. When finally they finish the repairs on the ship (just before the collision), they empty the ship of all unneccesary weight, to prepare for takeoff. But the ship is still overweight, so they draw lots to see who stays behind. Laurette draws the short straw, but then a skuffle ensues, and Yates pulls a gun on them, forcing Tony to stay behind on the planet.

The ship takes off. Tony finds the cave where he found the skeleton, realizing now that the skeleton must have been his own. He looks for the ring (which Laurette had buried on the planet), but he cannot find it. Hours later, Laurette shows up, with the ring. They hide in the cave, and survive the breakup of the planet and the formation of asteroid 1007. The ship then returns to the asteroid, and Tony leaves the cave, alone, and sneaks up on their position, to hear their conversations. Tony hears Professor Overland speculate that the breakup of the planet has flung them back into their own time, and Braker and Yates explain that they returned to the asteroid to see whose skeleton it was—Laurette or Tony. They all meet in the cave, and the skeleton is now inside, with the ring on it. Tony fears that it is Laurette’s skeleton, until Laurette shows up. She says she knows now whose skeleton it is. She says it is “Amos”—a skeleton presented to Professor Overland by his university colleagues as a Christmas present, and included in the ship’s stores because his colleagues knew he would still be on this expedition at Christmastime. When they repaired the ship and dumped all unnecessary cargo overboard, the Christmas present, “Amos”, had gone overboard as well. Laurette had then slipped the ring onto the skeleton’s finger. Tony later figures out that when he originally discovered the skeleton in the cave, the later Tony (from after the breakup of the planet) had been in the cave at the same time, but in the back of the cave; that is how he instinctively knew that the skeleton had existed before the human race, and that accounted for his feeling of horror at seeing the skeleton, since his counterpart had believed that the skeleton belonged to Laurette.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 3 (1941).

This story was part of the author's "Darkness" series of stories. The other titles were Daughter of Darkness, Abyss of Darkness, and Revolt of the Devil Star.