Unborn Tomorrow

In Short

Unborn Tomorrow is a lighthearted science fiction short story about Simon, a struggling private investigator, and his sharp-tongued secretary, Betty. When a wealthy eccentric named Mr. Oyster offers a fortune to locate a time traveler from the future, Simon refuses the job—only to reveal that he has already lived the assignment. What begins as a cynical scheme to pocket an advance and enjoy a German vacation devolves into a bewildering, time-looping ordeal at Munich's Oktoberfest. Mack Reynolds's story endures as a clever, swift-moving satire on the classic paradoxes of time travel and the unintended consequences of human indulgence.

The Story

The narrative opens in the dreary office of private investigator Simon and his secretary, Betty. Short on cash and nursing a headache, Simon receives a visit from Mr. Oyster, an elderly millionaire convinced that future humanity has unlocked both time travel and eternal youth. Mr. Oyster believes time travelers would naturally congregate at massive, chaotic historical gatherings where strange clothes and unusual accents go unnoticed. He pinpointed Munich's Oktoberfest as the ultimate hiding spot. Desperate to secure the secret of immortality before he dies, Mr. Oyster offers a thousand-dollar advance, a generous daily rate, and a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus if Simon can deliver a genuine time traveler.

To Betty's astonishment, Simon flatly rejects the offer. When pressed for an explanation, he recounts a "funny story" that reveals he has already accepted—and attempted—the mission.

In his account, Simon takes Mr. Oyster's advance money with every intention of enjoying an all-expenses-paid German vacation. Yet upon researching Oktoberfest, he notices odd anomalies: millions of attendees flood a city of less than a million, consuming vast quantities of expensive food and beer that the local wartime economy could hardly support. Arriving in Munich, Simon finds the fairgrounds packed. He meets a bizarre companion named Arth, who carries a "Venusian" pencil, claims to hail from "2183 South Street, New Albuquerque," and admits to being on a personal pilgrimage to sample all seven varieties of festival beer.

As the pair navigate the crowded beer tents, the boundaries of reality begin to blur. Simon wakes up in a futuristic hotel room with opaque windows, only to be given a mysterious pill that knocks him out. He instantly awakens right back in the middle of the previous night's festivities, caught in an inescapable blur of noise, drinking, and temporal confusion.

When Simon finally escapes the fair and flies back to New York, he steps into his office expecting several days to have passed. Instead, he finds Mr. Oyster still sitting in the chair, waiting for his initial receipt. Betty informs Simon that he only walked out the door ten minutes prior.

Simon realizes that the future's temporal authorities actively safeguard the space-time continuum. Whenever a visitor threatens to alter history or reveal their origins, the authorities reset the individual back to the start of their loop. Simon confesses to Betty that he actually attempted the trip three separate times to win the bonus, only for each attempt to be erased—leaving him with three distinct, overlapping, and excruciating hangovers stacked on top of one another.

How It Unfolds

A strange proposition An eccentric millionaire named Mr. Oyster enters a struggling private investigation firm and offers to hire the agent to locate time travelers. He argues that future visitors would naturally conceal themselves in the chaos of Munich's annual Oktoberfest.

The festival scheme Simon takes the cash advance intending to enjoy a fraud-funded vacation, but clues in tourist statistics suggest Oktoberfest is indeed filled with millions of unaccounted-for visitors. He flies to Germany and wanders into the bustling beer tents on the fairgrounds.

An unusual companion At a crowded table, Simon encounters a strange man named Arth who uses a pencil from Venus and claims to be visiting from the year 2183. The two embark on a heavy drinking tour across the festival's various brewery tents.

Lost in the loop After passing out in a futuristic room with automated windows, Simon is given a strange pill and suddenly wakes up back at the beginning of the previous night's revelry. He loses his luggage, struggles with timeline errors on his flight ticket, and flees back to New York.

The temporal hangover Simon returns to his office to discover no time has passed at all, realizing the future enforces the space-time continuum by resetting intruding events. Having tried and failed three times, he is left with three cumulative hangovers and refuses to ever try again.

The People

• Simon wants a paid vacation and enough cash to keep his failing detective agency afloat. What stands in his way is the disorienting reality of time travel, which frustrates his attempts to profit off the future. By the end, he shifts from a cynical opportunist to a thoroughly exhausted man who vows never to mess with time travel again.
• Betty wants to get paid her weekly salary and hungers for the romance and excitement of true detective work. What stands in her way is her boss's reluctance and the absurd nature of their client's request. She ends up amazed and frustrated, realizing they came face-to-face with the biggest discovery in human history only for Simon to abandon it.
• Mr. Oyster wants to cheat death by using his vast wealth to locate a time traveler who holds the secret to eternal youth. What stands in his way is the absolute secrecy enforced by future authorities and Simon's refusal to help him. He ends up storming out in annoyance, convinced he has been mocked, leaving behind a small fee.
• Arth wants to fulfill a lifelong dream of sampling all seven classic brands of Oktoberfest beer. What stands in his way is his low alcohol tolerance and his tendency to blab about his home era of 2183. He ends up relying on futuristic medicine to manage the chaos before sending Simon back into the reset loop.

In Its Own Voice

"If you could go back a few thousand years, the things you would wish to see would be a Roman Triumph, perhaps the Rites of Dionysus, or one of Alexander's orgies."

Mr. Oyster explains to Betty why historic, chaotic festivals are the ideal hiding places for visiting time travelers.

"Where did five million people come from to attend an overgrown festival in comparatively remote Southern Germany?"

Simon begins to realize on his flight that the incredible attendance numbers for Oktoberfest defy logical explanation.

"They just can't allow anything to come back from the future and change the past."

Simon explains to Betty why his repeated efforts to bring back proof or money were systematically erased by future temporal safeguards.

What It's Really About

At its core, the story uses a playful science fiction premise to explore human greed, short-term indulgence, and the fundamental immutability of time. Mr. Oyster seeks to buy immortality with wealth, while Simon attempts to exploit a client's eccentricity for a free vacation. Both men are thwarted by a universe that refuses to be manipulated for personal gain.

The narrative also critiques the absurdities of tourist culture and hedonism. The future travelers do not visit the past to impart wisdom or prevent historical tragedies; instead, they travel back simply to get drunk at a legendary festival. The plot suggests that human nature changes very little over the centuries, remaining driven by simple pleasures, self-interest, and the pursuit of a good party.

Why Read It Today

Unborn Tomorrow is a swift, entertaining read that will appeal to fans of classic Mid-Century sci-fi, comedic time-travel paradoxes, and sharp, pulpy dialogue. Mack Reynolds delivers a story that moves with breezy efficiency, pairing grounded 1950s detective tropes with high-concept temporal mechanics.

The piece feels less like a dry theoretical exercise and more like a snappy theatrical sketch. Readers will enjoy the warm banter between Simon and Betty, as well as the absurd logic of using Oktoberfest as a chronological crossroads.

While the story contains light period artifacts—such as the casual portrayal of heavy daytime drinking and traditional 1950s gender roles in an office setting—these elements are mild and typical of its era. The writing remains accessible and unburdened by dense jargon or sprawling length. It leaves you with a clever realization: even if time travel were invented tomorrow, humanity would probably just use it to find a better party—and suffer the exact same hangovers.

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<Elicitation label="Analyze Mack Reynolds's contributions to 1950s pulp sci-fi" query="What are the key themes and style characteristics of Mack Reynolds's science fiction works from the 1950s and 1960s?"/> <Elicitation label="Compare this to other classic time-travel paradox stories" query="How does the time loop mechanism in Unborn Tomorrow compare to other classic short stories about time travel paradoxes?"/> </ElicitationsGroup>