Prime Commandment

Form: Short story

Year: 1958

Publication history:

• 1958 : Science Fiction Stories January 1958 (m) ,
• 1969 : Dimension Thirteen (pb) , Ballantine, 215 pp.
• 1971 : Eva en de Dreieentwintig Adams () , Bruna (Netherlands), 156 pp., ISBN 90-229-9008-7 (in Dutch "Eerste Gebod")
• 1982 : World of a Thousand Colors (hc) , Arbor House
• 1983 : World of a Thousand Colors (tpb) , Priam, 329 pp., 493-3
• 1984 : World of a Thousand Colors (pb) , Bantam, 331 pp., ISBN 0-553-24059-5
• 2000 : Fictionwise (ol) , Fictionwise
• 2000 : Alexandria Digital Literature (ol) , Alexandria Digital

Three hundred years ago, a colony ship crash landed on Beta Andromedae XII. The survivors made do with what they had, and fortunately the planet was warm and bounteous. As generations passed, a religion grew out of the story of the Ship crashing and the founding of World. Then comes another colony ship, this one promised the uninhabited world of Beta Andromedae XII for themselves. It's a group of puritanical Christians who left Earth to escape the influence of unholy sinners. They see only three choices: 1. Go back to Earth; 2. Convert the savages; 3. Kill them.