The rat in the maze

The Rat in the Labyrinth (orig .: Szczur w labyrincie , 1957) is a science fiction short story by the Polish author Stanisław Lem , which was first published in German in the anthology Die Ratte im Labyrinth (1971). In this story, two men experience strange things that may have been caused by an extraterrestrial species.

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Two campers, Robert and Carol, watch a meteorite strike at an advanced hour . From Carol, the narrator, there is nothing unusual about that. However, Robert wants to investigate the impact site immediately. After nightly philosophizing about possible extraterrestrial life, they decide to look for the meteorite crater the next morning.

With a boat they steered towards the point of impact towards a strange, thick fog. A little later, an unknown current sucks them into a cave system. The walls look like the inside of a living being. Fish and other organic substances glow fluorescent.

Robert panics more and more because they have discovered glass images of some fish and even of themselves. When they discover other living people who are duplicates of them, Robert kills his counterpart in the affect . It later turned out that they were trapped in a time warp and the past Robert killed the future.

Since Carol is found floating alone and unharmed on the bank, there are no witnesses to this incident. Nobody believes him except his former teacher Prof. Gadshill. Together they come to the conclusion that it must have been the last attempt at communication by a dying alien life form.