History Literature / DoesABeeCare

* FasterThanLightTravel: At the end of the story, the alien [[{{Metamorphosis}} transforms into]] a SpaceWhale with the ability to travel at "inconceivable speeds" as it goes home.
-->The [[spoiler:adult Kane]] fled from the human flesh that had protected the larva, and fled the ship, too. It hastened onward, at inconceivable speeds, toward home, from which someday it, too, might set off on wanderings through space to fertilize some planet with its own.

"Does a Bee Care?" has been republished several times:
''Literature/OtherWorldsOtherTimes'' (1969), ''Literature/BuyJupiterAndOtherStories'' (1975), ''{{Magazine/Urania}}'' (issue #697, May 1976), ''Literature/StarStreakStoriesOfSpace'' (1979), and ''Literature/RobotDreamsCollection'' (1986).

"Does a Bee Care?" has been republished several times;

* TheAgeless: The alien has been [[AlienAmongUs living with humanity]] for eight hundred years, without appearing to age beyond a young adult. They are never actually identified as immortal, but they don't know enough about their species to say how long they actually live.

* GeneticMemory: A {{Starfish Aliens|s}}} has been left on Earth, and its ability to hide among the humans and "[[PsychicPowers inspire]]" them to [[ETGaveUsWiFi build a rocket to outer space]] works entirely by instinct. [[spoiler:Kane doesn't know how he even does this stuff, it just comes naturally to him. He even "remembers" where home is.]]

* FinaleTitleDrop: The last line of the story compares a StarfishAlien to a bee, and humanity to a flower.

* GeneticMemory: A StarfishAlien has been left on Earth, and its ability to hide amoung the humans and "[[PsychicPowers inspire]]" them to [[ETGaveUsWiFi build a rocket to outer space]] works entirely by instinct. [[spoiler:Kane doesn't know how he even does this stuff, it just comes naturally to him. He even "remembers" where home is.]]

* ETGaveUsWIFI: A larval alien, left on Earth, [[BeenThereShapedHistory guides human technological development through most of history]] until it has reached the point where he can stow away aboard an early unmanned satellite and thus make his way home. He's no more concerned about where Mankind goes after he leaves than a bee cares about the flower it has just pollinated.

* GeneticMemory: A StarfishAlien has been left on Earth, and its ability to hide amoung the humans and "[[PsychicPowers inspire]]" them to [[ETGaveUsWIFI build a rocket to outer space]] works entirely by instinct. [[spoiler:Kane doesn't know how he even does this stuff, it just comes naturally to him. He even "remembers" where home is.]]

* AlienAmongUs: [[spoiler:Kane is a member of an alien race whose life-cycle involves being [[BizarreAlienReproduction deposited on planets as an ovum]], and when they hatch into their larval form, they [[{{Metamorphosis}} take the shape]] of the dominant intelligent life]], and hide amoung them until they develop spaceflight. Once they get into space, they {{Metamorphos|is}}e again, to their adult form; a SpaceWhale.]]

* BeneathNotice: Kane instinctively knows ways to keep himself unnoticed. The given examples are carrying a wrench and picking up leaves/trash. [[spoiler:This is important to prevent people from noticing that he's TheAgless, and has been

* {{Metamorphosis}}: This story includes an alien [[BizarreAlienReproduction life-cycle]], where an ovum is deposited on a planet, which hatches into a figure [[AlienAmongUs similar to the dominant intelligent life. During this larval stage, it waits until space travel is invented, where they stow away and once in space, they transform into their adult form; a SpaceWhale.

"Does a Bee Care?" is a short story by Creator/IsaacAsimov, first published in the June 1957 issue of the ScienceFiction PulpMagazine ''If'', and follows the bizarre lifecycle of a planet-hopping alien using Earth as their launchpad.

It would later be reprinted in Literature/OtherWorldsOtherTimes, Literature/BuyJupiterAndOtherStories, Literature/RobotDreamsCollection and the 697th issue of Urania.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Kane has influenced pretty much the whole development of physics and engineering on Earth with his PsychicPowers, working on scientists like Newton and Einstein and Thornton Hammer so as to help Earth get space travel. He's taken the form of the human body since it's the most intelligent species on Earth. [[GeneticMemory It's all part of his instinctual drive for reproduction, and he doesn't even understand what he's done.]]
* BizarreAlienReproduction: The story describes an alien whose life-cycle is going to a planet, infiltrating it and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ''[[GeneticMemory all this is done unconsciously on instinct.]]''
->[[spoiler: The ovum spilt him forth at length and he took the shape of a man and lived among men and protected himself against men. And his one purpose was to arrange to have men travel along a path that would end with a ship and within the ship a hole and within the hole, himself.]]

* ETGaveUsWiFi: [[spoiler: Kane, as part of the process of uplifting Earth to space travel, influenced the development of nuclear physics, relativity and Newtonian physics.]]
* FinaleTitleDrop: In the last line
-> [[spoiler: Does a bee care what has happened to a flower when the bee has done and gone its way?]]
* GeneticMemory: [[spoiler: How Kane seems to know what exactly to do to uplift Earth technologically without actually knowing what he's doing.]]
* TheMuse: Thornton Hammer considers Kane his good-luck charm, believing that he’s giving him loads of ideas just by being there.[[spoiler: He’s not wrong. It’s a [[PsychicPowers psychic power]] he has that does it, and [[BeenThereShapedHistory did it to loads of scientists in the past, inspiring Lise Meitner, Einstein and Newton.]] ]]
* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler: Kane has them, as he’s somehow able to influence the minds of those around him, alter their memories, and ‘inspire’ them. It should be noted that the word 'psychic' never appears in the whole story.]]
* StarfishAliens:[[spoiler: Kane, considering his PsychicPowers and his life-cycle, and the fact that he's apparently able to appear as a member of the most intelligent species on the planet he is on.]]

* TheJinx: Inverted by Kane. Thornton Hammer considers Kane his good-luck charm, believing that he’s giving him loads of ideas just by being there.[[spoiler: He’s not wrong. It’s a [[PsychicPowers psychic power]] he has that does it, and [[BeenThereShapedHistory did it to loads of scientists in the past, inspiring Lise Meitner, Einstein and Newton.]] ]]

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Kane has influenced pretty much the whole development of physics and engineering on Earth with his PsychicPowers, working on scientists like Newton and Einstein and Thornton Hammer so as to help Earth get space travel. He's taken the form of the human body since it's the most intelligent species on Earth. It's all part of his instinctual drive for reproduction, and he doesn't even understand what he's done.
* BizarreAlienReproduction: The story describes an alien whose life-cycle is going to a planet, infiltrating it and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ''all this is done unconsciously on instinct.''

* StarfishAliens:[[spoiler: Kane, considering his PsychicPowers and his life-cycle, and the fact that he's apparently able to appear as member of the most intelligent species on the planet he grows up on.]]

It would later be reprinted in Literature/OtherWorldsOtherTimes, Literature/BuyJupiterAndOtherStories, Literature/RobotDreams and the 697th issue of Urania.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Kane has influenced pretty much the whole development of physics and engineering on Earth with his PsychicPowers, working on scientists like Newton and Einstein and Thornton Hammer so as to help Earth get space travel. He's taken the form of the human body since it's the most intelligent species on Earth. It's all part of his instinctual drive for reproduction, [[IdiotSavant and he doesn't even understand what he's done]].

* IdiotSavant: Kane. He doesn't know what he's doing, [[spoiler: but he's directed the development of science and technology on Earth toward space travel, all based on his instincts and drives.]]

* StarfishAliens:[[spoiler: Kane, considering his PsychicPowers and his life-cycle, and the fact that he's apparently able to appear as member of the most intelligent species on the planet he grows up on.]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story, written in 1957, concerns a rocket built for a Lunar flyby by a private corporation.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: [[spoiler: Kane’s species’ life-cycle is going to a planet, infiltrating them and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ''all this is done unconsciously on instinct.'']]
* ComicBookAdaptation: A PerspectiveFlip comic book adaptation focusing on Thornton Hammer was published by Creator/GoldLeafComics in 1976, appearing in ''Questar: Illustrated Science Fiction Classics'' and issue #4 of ''Starstream: Adventures in Science Fiction''.

* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler: Kane has them, as he’s somehow able to influence the minds of those around him, alter their memories, and ‘inspire’ them.]]
* StarfishAlien: Kane, considering his Psychic Powers his life-cycle.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story, written in 1957, concerns a rocket built for unmanned exploration of the Moon. It is apparently run by a private corporation.
* TitleDrop: In the last line
-> [[spoiler: Does a bee care what has happened to a flower when the bee has done and gone its way?]]

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Kane seems to have influenced pretty much the whole development of physics and engineering on Earth with his PsychicPowers, working on scientists like Newton and Einstein and Thornton Hammer so as to help Earth get space travel. He's taken the form of the human body since it's the most intelligent species on Earth. It's all part of his instinctual drive for reproduction, [[IdiotSavant and he doesn't even understand what he's done]].
* BizarreAlienReproduction: [[spoiler: Kane’s species’ life-cycle seems to be going to a planet, infiltrating them and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ''all this is done unconsciously on instinct.'']]
* ComicBookAdaptation: A PerspectiveFlip comic book adaptation focusing on Thornton Hammer was published by Creator/GoldLeafComics in 1976.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Kane is revealed to have inspired a young Einstein and a young Newton.

* PsychicPowers: [Kane seems to have them, as he’s somehow able to influence the minds of those around him, alter their memories, and ‘inspire’ them.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story, written in 1957, concerns a rocket built for unmanned exploration of the Moon. It apparently seems to be run by a private corporation, too.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story, written in 1957, concerns a rocket built for unmanned exploration of the Moon.

* AnimalDisguise: Inverted somewhat in that Kane’s an ‘‘alien in a human disguise’’.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Kane seems to have influenced pretty much the whole development of physics and engineering on Earth with his PsychicPowers, working on scientists like Newton and Einstein and Thornton Hammer so as to help Earth get space travel. It's all part of his instinctual drive for reproduction, [[IdiotSavant and he doesn't even understand what he's done]].

''Does A Bee Care?'' is a short story by Creator/IsaacAsimov, first published in the June 1957 issue of the ScienceFiction PulpMagazine ''If'', and follows the bizarre lifecycle of a planet-hopping alien using Earth as their launchpad.

!! 'Does A Bee Care?' contains examples of:

-> [[spoiler: Does a bee care what has happened to a flower when the bee has done and gone its way?]]

* BizarreAlienReproduction: [[spoiler: Kane’s species’ life-cycle seems to be going to a planet, infiltrating them and influencing the growth of science and technology, and hitching a ride from one of their starships to fertilize other planets. The kicker is that ‘’all this is done unconsciously on instinct.’’