Line #7 Literature/TheGentleVultures


1	[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/super_science_fiction_195712.jpg]]
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3	First published in ''Magazine/SuperScienceFiction'' (December 1957 issue), by Creator/IsaacAsimov. This ScienceFiction ShortStory is set during the (then present-day) UsefulNotes/ColdWar, postulating an alien race acting as CirclingVultures.
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5	[[HumansThroughAlienEyes Hurrians, an alien species]], have set a small [[SpaceBase Moon base]] in secret, and have been waiting for fifteen years, much longer than they ever expected. Captain Devi-en is welcoming an Arch-administrator who is investigating exactly why [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]] hasn't happened on schedule. A couple of theories are ventured, but they need more information.
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7	They [[AlienAbduction kidnap a random hiker]] and interrogate him over the course of several days. The human eats poorly and struggles against confinement, which the Hurrians interpret as the natural result of large-primate competitiveness. Frustrated at the confinement, the human berates the Hurrians for their decision to [[AlienNonInterferenceClause avoid contact]] with species until they've destroyed themselves in [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]] instead of working to [[PreventTheWar prevent war]].
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9	"The Gentle Vultures" was republished four times; ''Literature/NineTomorrows'' (1959), ''Contact'' %DoNotLink% %CarlSaganNovel% (1963), ''Literature/EarthmenAndStrangers'' (1966), and ''Literature/TheCompleteStoriesVolume1'' (1990).
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11	!!"The Gentle Vultures" contains examples of:
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13	* AlienAbduction: We see this from [[HumansThroughAlienEyes the alien perspective]] as the Hurrians select a human hiker, alone in the wilderness, to kidnap and interrogate.
14	* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Frightened of their more dangerous and competitive cousins, when Hurrians discover a new sentient species, they wait until [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves the race nearly kills itself]] with [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]] before making FirstContact and rescuing the survivors [[PlanetLooters for a price]].
15	* AntagonistTitle: The title is a metaphor that describe the alien Hurrians, who kidnapped the Human protagonist because they're tired of waiting for Humanity to self-destruct.
16	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The hitch hiker asks why the Hurrians don't help prevent the war. This eventually leads to the Hurrians leaving the Solar System.
17	* CirclingVultures: The Hurrians are waiting... they've been waiting for fifteen years... waiting for WorldWarIII to devastate the Earth just like it does [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves for every other species]]. An [[AlienAbduction abducted human]] yells at them for [[ScavengersAreScum waiting around until after the wars]] so they can [[PlanetLooters pick through the dead planets]] instead of [[PreventTheWar intervening beforehand]].
18	* EnforcedColdWar: The UsefulNotes/ColdWar has been going on for over fifteen years, and the [[HumansThroughAlienEyes aliens telling this story]] are confused. Normally, [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves large primates will destroy their world]] in [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]], but Earth has somehow avoided this inevitable end. The Hurrians consider [[InvertedTrope inverting this trope]] by exploding a nuclear bomb over a populated area to provoke open warfare.
19	-->"it seems they are having a war; not a real war, but [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar a war]]." -- Captain Devi-en
20	* FasterThanLightTravel: The aliens have been using interstellar travel for a long time, but no explaination for how their ships work is given, only that they fear humanity learning how to build interstellar ships before [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves they destroy themselves]] with [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]].
21	* FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue: Captain Devi-en receives the most description, aimed mostly at giving a sense of the Hurrian appearance. The other two main characters have even less description and the [[SpaceBase Hurrian Moon base]] has absolutely nothing described about its appearance. The story focuses instead on the idea of [[AlienNonInterferenceClause aliens who wait]] until [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]] and then swoop in to fix everything afterwards, [[PlanetLooters for a price]].
22	* FlyingSaucer: This story claims the sightings of [=UFOs=] after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII are the result of Hurrian spaceships not being careful enough to maintain their AlienNonInterferenceClause.
23	* GalacticSuperpower: The Hurrians have helped thousands of species recover after destroying their own planets with [[WorldWarIII nuclear weapons]] and each world [[PlanetLooters pays them tribute]] afterwards, making them the economic rulers of the galaxy. It is assumed that if humanity manages to create [[FasterThanLightTravel interstellar travel]], they will be displaced.
24	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Hurrians want to know just ''why'' humanity hasn't destroyed itself in a [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]], so they kidnap a hiker to determine this. The hiker's ArmorPiercingResponse to their question causes a ''species-wide'' HeroicBSOD.
25	* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: One of the alien theories on why WorldWarIII didn't happen on schedule is that so soon after humans started manufacturing atomic weapons, we built enough that we knew we would destroy ourselves. This theory is based on humanity's rapid development from [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain industrialization]] to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII weaponized nuclear fission]]. The theory is dismissed on the basis that the result should only be an earlier WorldWarIII, not a cessation of hostilities.
26	* HumansAreSpecial:
27	** Hurrians are special; they are a race of herbivorous primates that claim to have evolved with the cooperative instinct rather than the competitive instinct. Out of the many thousands of species they have encountered since developing interstellar travel, [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves they've all destroyed themselves]] with [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]].
28	** Humanity is the first aggressive species the Hurrians encounter that hasn't blown itself up in [[WorldWarIII a nuclear war]] right after discovering the use of nuclear weaponry. They wait fifteen years in anticipation, confused at the lack of war.
29	* HumansAreWarriors: All large-primates across the galaxy are competitive and aggressive, including humans. The [[HumansThroughAlienEyes aliens telling the story]] are small herbivorous primates, frightened of their more powerful cousins. They realize that if they detonate a nuclear warhead over an inhabited area, humanity will [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves wage the war they've come to expect]], but the thought of violence sickens them. It is assumed that humanity will invent FasterThanLightTravel and the galaxy will [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt never be the same again]].
30	* HumansThroughAlienEyes: This story takes place from the perspective of aliens observing Earth in anticipation of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar becoming WorldWarIII.
31	* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: Hurrians are used to encountering "competitive" hominids (ape descended), who tend to destroy themselves as soon as they get nuclear weapons. They, however, are "cooperative" hominids (monkey descended). Hurrians [[AlienNonInterferenceClause wait until the natives inevitably destroy themselves]] and then help the survivors rebuild their civilization into a subservient cooperative utopia with the violence bred out. They discover Earth just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and watch as the UsefulNotes/ColdWar delays WorldWarIII for more than a decade. They're confused and frightened as [[SubvertedTrope humanity refuses to destroy itself]].
32	* MinimalistCast: Only three characters with dialogue, and an unspecified amount of additional Hurrians and Mauvs, numbering at least five.
33	* NoNameGiven:
34	** The human hiker the Hurrians [[AlienAbduction kidnapped]] isn't named; they refer to him only as "the wild one".
35	** The Arch-administrator who has come representing the Council is never addressed by name, only by titles.
36	* PlanetLooters: The alien herbivorous primates maintain an AlienNonInterferenceClause until a species has destroyed itself in [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]], then it arrives to repair the damage in exchange for a resource that world has in abundance. They don't even do the looting themselves, making the devastated world pay tribute to the Hurrians. They take everything from [[SlaveRace slaves]] to steel, from manganese salts to processed lumber.
37	* ScavengersAreScum: The aliens consider unbalancing the UsefulNotes/ColdWar so that one side is ready to devastate the world through nuclear weapons. Then they'll come to [[PlanetLooters "rescue" the survivors]]. However, when a human that they abduct for information castigates them and compares them to carrion-eaters, they become horrified at the idea of what they're about to do and leave Earth to its own devices.
38	* SlaveRace: The Mauvs are a race of large-primates larger and more powerful than most. Because their world is low in natural resources, the Hurrians take slaves as payment for their efforts in repairing the world the Mauvs devastated in [[WorldWarIII nuclear war]].
39	* SpaceBase: The Hurrians establish a moon base to help observe Earth and prepare for the inevitable WorldWarIII so that they can help clean up afterwards.
40	* WhatTheHellHero: The human calls out the Hurrians for only acting after the war happens instead of helping to prevent it.
41	* WorldWarIII: Since the Hurrians first built ships capable of FasterThanLightTravel, the races they've encountered have always engaged in a world war with nuclear weapons. They've made it their duty to wait until the end of the war and then [[PlanetLooters "rescue" the survivors]].
42	* XenoFiction: This story takes place from the perspective of aliens observing Earth in anticipation of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar becoming WorldWarIII.

Context Literature / TheGentleVultures