United States or Uruguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It isn't as bad as you think, Babe," Jones said. "Stars are much thicker here we're in the center somewhere than around Sol. The probability is point nine plus that any emergence would put us less than point four light-years away from a star. A couple of them show disks. I haven't measured any yet; have you, Doc?" "Yes. Point two two, approximately, to the closest." "So what?" Deston demanded.
Deston stepped over to the board and flipped a switch. The communicator came on. Since everything aboard a starship is designed to fail safe, they were, of course, in normal space. On the visiplates hundreds of stars blazed in vari-colored points of hard, bright light. "Baby Two acknowledging," Deston said. "First Officer Deston and three passengers. Deconned to zero. Report, please."
Just walking across a stage, she'd bring down the house and stop the show cold in its tracks." "O. K., O. K., don't blow a fuse," Deston said, resignedly. "I know. You'll love her undyingly; all this trip, maybe. So bring her up, next watch, and I'll give her a gold badge. As usual." "You ... how dumb can you get?" Eddie demanded. "D'you think I'd even try to play footsie with Barbara Warner?"
At least, he devoted more time to the expectant mothers, even to the point of supervising Deston and Jones in the construction of a weirdly-wired device by means of which he studied and photographed the unborn child each woman bore. He said nothing, however, until Barbara made him talk.
The face of a platinum-blonde beauty appeared on the screen beside Jones'. "And am I glad to see you, Barbara, even if I did just meet you yesterday! I didn't know whether I'd ever see another girl's face or not!" "Let's cut the chat," Deston said then. "Herc, give me course, blast, and time for rendezvous ... hey! My watch stopped!" "So did mine," Jones said.
Not even the least little bit?" "Of course not," and Deston very evidently meant just that. "I am. I can't help but be. Why aren't you?" "Because Doc isn't, and he knows his stuff, believe me. He can't lie any better than a three-year-old, and he's sure that all four of you are just as safe as though you were in God's lefthand hip pocket." "Oh that's right. I never thought of it that way.
"Theodore Warner Deston is going to be born on Newmars, where he should be," Barbara had said, and Deston had agreed. "But suppose she's Theodora?" Bernice had twitted her. "Uh-uh," Barbara had said, calmly. "I just know he's Theodore." "Uh-huh, I know." Bernice had nodded her spectacular head. "And we wanted a girl, so she is. Barbara Bernice Jones, her name is. A living doll."
And, as long as they lived or until the Procyon made port, all responsibility rested: First, upon First Officer Deston; and second, upon Second Officer Jones. Therefore Theodore and Bernice Jones came aboard Lifecraft Two, and Deston asked Newman to flit across to Lifecraft Three. "Not me; I like the scenery here better."
For one hour before the Procyon's departure from Earth and for three hours afterward, First Officer Carlyle Deston, Chief Electronicist, sat attentively at his board. He was five feet eight inches tall and weighed one hundred sixty-two pounds net. Just a little guy, as spacemen go.
Deston thought for a moment. "Found a big new field, didn't they? In South America somewhere?" "Just the biggest on Earth, is all. And not only on Earth. He operates in all the systems for a hundred parsecs around, and he never sinks a dry hole. Every well he drills is a gusher that blows the rig clear up into the stratosphere. Everybody wonders how he does it.
Word Of The Day