There and Back Again by Clifford Simak, summary

The work remains a standalone book, separate from any series. Earth’s civilization in the eightieth century has conquered the galactic expanse thanks to the labor of disenfranchised androids and robots. An Earth scout returns from a closed star system with an inhuman metabolism and a philosophical doctrine of universal equality in the face of Destiny. This knowledge threatens to destroy the foundations of human dominance in time and space. The novel was created in 1951.

Arrival from the Sixty-first Swan

Asher Sutton’s ship landed smoothly on the runway of the North American spaceport. The hull was riddled with deep holes, the engines long since inoperative. The pilot miraculously survived. The inhabitants of a distant star system rebuilt the traveler’s body, gifting him with a second internal organism and a disembodied symbiote, Johnny, for direct manipulation of cosmic energy.

Department of Investigation Chief Christopher Adams sat on the terrace at dusk. An unknown visitor from the future warned the official of the arrival of a dangerous agent and demanded the immediate elimination of the cosmonaut. The traveler brought a manuscript of a treatise in a forgotten stellar language. A medical panel of experts confirmed the pilot’s presence of a second heart and an impenetrable mental shield.

The information robot reminded Sutton of the current laws of the mandatory dueling code. Renowned marksman Jeffrey Benton challenged the returning scout. A mental impulse of the scout’s inhuman rage instantly paralyzed the attacker’s consciousness the moment Benton raised his antique pistol, so the fired bullet only grazed his opponent’s hand, causing a fatal shock. The winner, by law, received a third of the slain duelist’s property, a hunting asteroid, and the android Herkimer.

The Family Chest and the Time War

A delegation from the Android Equality League unsuccessfully asked Sutton for a signature on a petition. Soon, an android lawyer delivered an antique chest from the robot Buster to the room. The loyal servant had purchased his freedom after four thousand years of service and departed to explore a virgin planet on the edge of the galaxy. Among the old belongings was a sealed envelope from 1987 bearing a stamp from Bridgeport, Wisconsin.

Ancestor John Sutton described in a letter a visit by a time machine to a pasture. The author enclosed a blood-stained wrench and mentioned a farmhand named William Jones. Outside, Sutton escaped a militant ambush thanks to Herkimer’s help. The android tranquilized him and delivered him and his companion, Eve Armor, to the asteroid they inherited.

At the mountain chalet, the fugitives were met by armed revisionist emissaries Case and Pringle. The guests told them of the invention of a mechanical "time brain" and a massive war to alter historical events. Trevor’s corporation sought to rewrite the past and declare Destiny an exclusive human privilege to justify eternal cosmic expansion. Sutton flatly refused to sell the draft treatise. Case shot the author twice in the chest.

The scout’s body absorbed the heat from the ship’s reactor and regenerated its torn tissue. Asher, revived, dispatched his enemies with his bare hands. A distorted edition of "This Is Destiny" with numerous racist footnotes was discovered among Case’s belongings. The scout decided to travel to the twentieth century to preserve historical truth.

A Decade in Wisconsin

That night, the fugitive secretly entered Adams’s country residence. The scout won the right to one call from the chief at dice, throwing two sixes through sheer force of will. Information provided the coordinates of Bridgeport on the Wisconsin River. The pilot transported the chronoplane to July 4, 1987.

Near the riverbank, the traveler encountered old Cliff, drinking a strong drink from a jug. The scout climbed into the pasture and encountered the chronoplane of revisionist Arnold Dean. Dean snatched a wrench and dealt Asher a crushing blow to the skull. The Wisconsin River current buried the grounded ship in sand, and a broken chain holding the hatch key ruined the pilot’s hopes of a quick takeoff.

Sutton hired himself out to his ancestor as a farmhand under the name William Jones. For ten long years, the wanderer tilled the fields, chopped firewood, and built log fences. Physical labor brought peace to his soul. During his leisure hours, Asher developed the abilities of a second organism, learning to merge with the minds of field mice, birds, and livestock.

Old John Sutton completed his letter for posterity in 1997. The time loop closed. A Revisionist agent named Gus appeared on the night road. Asher read the spy’s thoughts, tracked the camouflaged chronoplane down a forest ravine, and ordered the crew to fly to the eighty-fifth century.

The Corporation and the Secret of the Cradle

Trevor, the head of the corporation, received his guest in his luxurious apartments. The executive tossed crumpled pieces of paper into an inkwell and outlined a grand plan for the subjugation of all galaxies in the universe for millions of years to come using corporate structures. Humanity required an unwavering faith in its own cosmic divine destiny. Sutton’s treatise was intended to serve as an ideological battering ram to mobilize society.

Sutton refused to declare Destiny the privilege of one biological race. Trevor declared his interlocutor a traitor to humanity and threw him out. Near the hills, mercenaries gassed the scout.

Asher woke up in Eva Armor’s house with a plastic covering over his face and an android brand on his forehead. Herkimer’s temporary disguise protected the fugitive from the Department’s search engines. A breathless courier ran into the courtyard with news of the impending collapse of the Cradle — a secret chemical incubator for creating artificial humans without humiliating marks. Herkimer recognized the infiltrator and threw a knife at the provocateur’s throat.

Sutton was enraged by his allies’ distrust and dealt Herkimer a crushing punch to the face. The outburst of anger exposed the deep psychological chasm between natural humans and laboratory creatures. The traveler left the shelter.

Copying the Mind and the Path to the Stars

Asher visited the archival service and recorded the coordinates of the robot Buster’s planet near the Tower stars. Reflecting on a park bench helped break the deadlock.

That evening, the intelligence officer returned to Eva with a plan to crush the revisionists. She confessed that she had grown up among artificial beings and considered herself part of their race. Sutton proposed using a laboratory analyzer to create multiple mental duplicates of his brain. These duplicates would gain the ability to inhabit the minds of the corporation’s leaders and thwart any sabotage in time.

The apparatus’s light beams recorded every single molecule of the Earth scout’s complex nervous system, while an invisible chorus of voices from previous generations resounded in the darkness, accusing the author of betraying humanity’s ancient biological heritage. Sutton boarded the starship and set course for Buster, seeking to complete the true manuscript in the silence of a distant world. Eva Armor remained on the launch pad, mourning the impossibility of following her beloved.