"Dear Pen Pal" is a humorous epistolary science-fiction story by the Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, originally published in the Winter 1949 issue of The Arkham Sampler.
| "Dear Pen Pal" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by A. E. van Vogt | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Arkham Sampler |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | Winter 1949[1] |
The story was republished (as "Letter from the Stars") in the July 1950 issue of Out of This World Adventures, as well as in the 1957 Ace Double The Earth in Peril / Who Speaks of Conquest? One of van Vogt' most popular short pieces, it has since appeared in many collections and anthologies[2] such as Destination: Universe! and Far Boundaries, the most recent being 2010's The Arkham Sampler: A Facsimile Edition.
Plot
editThe story takes the form of a one-sided correspondence between Skander, an alien, to an unnamed human (whose replies are not presented.) In his initial letter, Skander spends some time describing himself and his home planet in the constellation Auriga, whose intelligent lifeforms are long-lived, highly radioactive, and chromium-based, thriving at a temperature of around 900 degrees Kelvin. Skander admits that he intercepted the human's application to the pen-pal program, but justifies his act by the assertion that he is lonely and in need of conversation, due to serving a lengthy prison sentence for conducting an illegal scientific experiment which is implied to have harmed many of his fellow Aurigans. Oddly anxious to see his pen pal, he sends the human several photographic plates that can be triggered by simply thinking a mental command at them.
In the penultimate letter, Skander gleefully reveals that the "photographic plates" (which have just been activated) are actually a form of consciousness-transfer device, and that his intent has always been to switch bodies with the human, thereby evading the balance of his prison sentence. His plan is to skip from body to body for the next thirty years, only returning to his own at the end of his sentence. He intends to maroon the human's consciousness in the last body he hijacks, contemptuously noting that this will be a beneficial trade, as humans are - by Aurigan standards - fairly short-lived.
The last letter is from the unnamed human - now occupying Skander's body - to Skander, now in the human's body. The human had immediately suspected that Skander had an ulterior motive and had revealed the plates to Earth authorities, who analyzed them and uncovered their true purpose. However, the human voluntarily chose to see the scheme through. He drily notes that Skander will by now have discovered that the human body he has taken over has been paralyzed since birth and has a heart condition; he closes with the hope that Skander enjoys what little time he has left.