User:DoctorWho42/The Plutonian Drug

"The Plutonian Drug" is a short story by American author Clark Ashton Smith and first published in the September 1934 of Amazing Stories.

Publication history
According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Plutonian Drug" was first published in the September 1934 issue of Amazing Stories. It was included in Lost Worlds (1944), The Outer Reaches (1951), The Time of Infinity (1963), and the February 1966 issue of Amazing Stories.

Plot
Dr. Manners tells his guest the advances in pharmacology due to space exploration. His guest is the sculptor Rupert Balcoth who is less knowledgeable on the subject. For example, selenine derived from fossils on the moon has cured cancer. The doctor shows his guest a drug called plutonium which allows the user to perceive their immediate past and future as physical space. He offers a sample to Balcoth as the effects might make an impression on his art. While Balcoth has an appointment to keep, the doctor notes the effects are temporary. Thus Balcoth imbibes in the plutonium. As he perceives the recent past and his upcoming appointment, Balcoth realises his visions ends on a street and beyond is darkness. As the effects subside, Dr. Manners recommends taking another route. While he considers it, Balcoth instead takes his planned route but is knocked out by a thug. The blow proves fatal and his timeline ends.

Reception
In the 1998 book Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years, E. F. Bleiler commented "an excellent revivification of an otherwise threadbare motif."