The Discarded

"The Discarded" (1959) is a short story by Harlan Ellison.

A television adaption, directed by Jonathan Frakes aired on August 25, 2007 as an episode of "Masters of Science Fiction".

Plot summary

This summary is based on the television adaptation.

The story concerns a spaceship full of people infected with an illness from Earth which causes disfiguring mutations. An ambassador from Earth travels to the ship and reveals that the illness has spread on Earth. A cure would require the blood of the outcasts aboard the orbiting ship. He also promises the outcasts that they will be able to go home afterwards.

There is an argument and the leader of the outcasts, who opposes all dealing with the earth people who cast them out, is accidentally killed in a scuffle. His successor is the main proponent of returning to earth.

After having extracted the required blood samples and returned to Earth, the ambassador docks back on the ship of the infected. The infected are filled with hope and glee, while a 3-way marriage ceremony occurs between 2 male and 1 female infected. As the ambassador enters the main room where the infected wait with their luggage, his face is that of disapproval, as many more newly infected people enter the ship from behind him. The leader of the infected ship cries out in disappointment, realizing his error in trusting the ambassador, something the previous leader warned the infected, before being struck dead by this leader.

The scene then proceeds to the main living quarters, just as the story began, with the sound of banging, and blood splatters on the window. The "leader" is committing suicide by repeated self injury to the head, just as an unidentified infected member did at the beginning. His body is then disposed of by command of the new "leader". The moral depicted shows that no good can come without trust and unity, something that the very first "leader" preached, by instructing his fellow infected to refuse to help the "Earthlings", because of how they exiled them in the first place.

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