# Dr. Gordy — Short Fiction character guide

> Dr. Gordy in Short Fiction by Frederik Pohl.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Gordy, Dr.

**First appearance:** 0000-asteroid-of-the-damned

## Snapshot

A former Pasadena physicist tending a stubborn garden at the end of the world, Dr. Gordy has traded equations for carrots and watches the ants with something like hope.

## Who they are

Salva Gordy once taught mathematics and physics in Pasadena; now he scratches a living from a plot of mutated soil, sharing his table with a ragged stranger who turns out to be an old student. He carries the quiet guilt of a man who helped build the weapons that ended things, and he meets the new world with a scientist's curiosity rather than despair—examining soft-bodied ants, noting failed crops, wondering aloud whether humanity has had its chance. His wary hospitality and his willingness to speculate about what comes next make him the story's moral center, the last man still taking notes.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/v)

The prison medic who arrives to treat Flock, insisting on entering the Greensleeves with his intern despite the danger.

## Links

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