Fast Contact (short story)

Fast Contact was the third story in the anthology True Stories.

Plot
Benny is hired by Opi to find out when the people of Gormiscon first had contact with off-worlders at the Blood Plains, using a mat field to recreate people from Corviscon's past to be discreetly interviewed. After getting little information from Victor, Gustan Hanver tries to warn her off going to the Blood Plains, telling her the legends of Succubi and Incubi and their half-breed children. She next meets Renner, who tells her that great-grandmother was on the Plains when the off-worlders visited and runs away after laughing about Gus, despite the fact that they could not know each other.

Opi does not have an explanation for Benny, but refuses to meet her gaze. Suspicious, Benny looks at the machine and finds a small computer inside inside an empty case, behind which is a hidden room where Victor, Gus and Renner are talking. They confess that they are archaeologists who hoped to get funding from the President of the Universe through Benny's endorsement in order to make a real mat field; additionally, they also had a bet to see which of them could seduce her. Suddenly, the field generator activates and several other men appear, apparently from the past.

Benny and Opi struggle with the mat field machine and it stabilises. As the tavern is filled with people from the past, Benny tells Opi that she has succeeded in answering his question; the Blood Plains are not real and Gormiscon never made contact with any off-worlders, but their technology advanced after some of them were brought to the present. Benny sarcastically congratulates Opi on having created a permanent link to the past and Nate has a swig of alcohol, which he says is "God's blood, plain and simple".

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Victor
 * Opi
 * Gustan Hanver
 * Renner
 * Hyston
 * Nate

Continuity

 * Benny is associated with "him". (AUDIO: The Library in the Body, etc.)