What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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...Who Needs Enemies?
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. scifi: short: aloof advanced aliens & human studying solar flares in a far system, when suddenly...[s]
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This sounds interesting. Best of luck in finding it so I can read it too!
Bystander, by Alan Dean Foster. Available in his collection "Who Needs Enemies". "Bystander" (1978) Chapman was dispatched as sole crew on the rescue ship sent to evacuate the Abraxis colony to escape its flare-prone star. He's just a backup to the tertiary backups, so when the ship awakens him early, he is himself in mortal peril. As if the upcoming freak flare weren't enough, a mysterious Dhabian spacecraft is pacing his ship - those aliens who ordinarily refuse to have anything to do with humanity.
That sounds totally correct, thanks!
organizing, nothing to see here.
short story?
Terran ship is traveling to a far planet? (or is there specifically to investigate the flare) but the sun in the system is doing weird stuff, and is going to flare and crisp everything.
There happens to be an advanced alien ship in the same system (the solar shenanigans are scientifically interesting?)
They radio the human craft, and ask if the single human pilot is going to be aim for the comet (which he had not detected?) that they might be able to hide behind... but it's far away. It's not known precisely when flare will happen, and the aliens have a faster drive... They ask if he's going to try and make it, and if they should leave room for him to maneuver to share the shadow. He says yes.
Turns out that terran will most likely be unable to make it in time, and he passes out (heat? too many G forces?).
He wakes up with his ship behind the comet in close proximity to the aloof alien vessel. He spends the time during the flare investigating the advanced race's ship (they normally have little to do with humanity, since humanity has inferior technology). (They refuse his hails?).
As the flare dies down, and they're moving out. He asks them (again?) why they moved him, etc.
They eventually reply (view spoiler)[that they did not move him - and had to do fancy maneuvering in order to stay w/the comet. And, as he's telling this story to someone else, who reassures him that he made very valuable studies of the advanced alien race - he punchlines the end of the story... that he spent 21 (?) hours of the flare studying the wrong alien. (hide spoiler)]