Hallucination (short story)

Hallucination is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, and has been included in Gold. Hallucination was published and copyrighted in 1995, three years after Asimov died in 1992. As such, it is unclear when the short story was written but its storyline is similar to that of his novel Nemesis.

Plot summary

Hallucination takes place at a time in the future although the exact date or era is not specific. The action takes place on Energy Planet, a rocky earth-like planet orbiting a neutron star in the Milky Way. All characters are human (as are most of Asimov's characters) except the extraterrestrial insectoids. The story is divided into three parts.

Part One: The main character, Sam Chase, a fifteen-year-old, reluctantly arrives on Energy Planet. There he will serve a three-year tour of duty with an unnamed terrestrial military group while receiving training in gravitational engineering. The Central Computer (a successor of Asimov's Multivac) has assigned Chase, who hoped to pursue neurophysiology, to gravitational engineering so he can aid in the military engineers' efforts to harness the energy of the Neutron Star (hence the name Energy Planet). Upon meeting Dr. Donald Gentry on his first day there, Chase learns that people have experienced hallucinations under the Dome.

Part Two: Chase meets the Insects and converses with them.

Part Three: Chase convinces the Commander to respect the insectoids.