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He had a bitter picture of the whole solar system without a free mind in its whole extent that is, if another gigantic blowup didn't happen first... Nelsen didn't see Ramos' new bubb, nor did he see him leave for Saturn and its moons. The guy had avoided him, and gone secretive. But over a year later, the news reached Nelsen at Post Eight.
He wasn't even around, anymore, when you beauties got caught. They come and they go." "But you were around, Tiflin!" "Maybe not. Maybe I was twenty million miles off." "Like hell!" Nelsen gritted his teeth, grabbed Tiflin's shoulder, and swung his gloved fist as hard as he could against the thin layer of rubber and wire over Tiflin's stomach. He struck three times. "Damn you!" Nelsen snarled.
He kept thinking angrily of Art Kuzak, getting a little overstuffed, it seemed. The hunkie kid, the ex-football player who had become a big commercial and industrial baron of the Belt. Easy living. Cuties around. And poor twin Joe just another stooge... Nelsen went into the office, his fists clenched overdramatically. "I'm taking a leave, Art maybe a long one," he said. Art Kuzak stared at him.
A kitchen, a terrace, a place for a garden, a place for kids, even... With a few personal touches, you've got it made. Better than the house trailer my dad used to hook onto the jalopy when I was ten... My Alice likes it, too, Chief that's the real signal! Tell your pals Kuzak that this is the Idea of the Century." Frank Nelsen kind of thought so, too, just then.
But how else would it be for a youngster born in the Belt, while being sent in the old colonial pattern to the place that his parents regarded as home? "Those jokers," Nelsen scoffed. "They're pulling your leg! It just isn't so, Davy. Anyhow, during the trip, the big bubb will be spun fast enough, so that we will get used to the greater Earth-gravity. Let me tell you something.
Thank you, take care of yourself, and we shall hope to see you somewhere within the next few months. Your sincere friends, David and Helen Lester." A lot of nerve, Nelsen thought first. But he tried to grin engagingly at the kid and almost succeeded. "We're in luck, Dave," he said. "I'm going to Minneapolis, too. I'm afraid of a lot of things. What are you afraid of?"
After several hours of bumping over rugged country, with the tractor's headlights blazing through the star-topped blackness, they reached a solid trail over a mare. Then they could zip along, almost like on a highway. There were other rough stretches, but most of the well selected route was smooth. Half the time, Nelsen drove, while Gimp rested or slept.
There wasn't much question that that would work out, too. Home, comfort, and a kind of life not too unfamiliar? In the light of detached logic and observation, that was going fine, too. In the main, people were adjusting very quickly and eagerly. Perhaps too quickly. That was where Nelsen always got scared, as if he had become a nervous old man. The Big Vacuum had a grandeur. It could seem gentle.
They all lay down at last, except Frank Nelsen, who moved around, clipping the nuclear battery into one Archer for a minute, to freshen the air, and then into another. It was the only trick or gimmick that they found. After a while, Lester made the rounds, while Nelsen rested. They got a few more miles by swapping batteries in quick succession.
And there'll be a freight-bubb cluster, or something, for me to join up with, and follow you Out..." Nelsen and Ramos left Gimp Hines before he boarded the winged skip-glide rocket that would take him below. Parting words flew back and forth. "See you... Take care... Over the Milky Way, suckers..." Then they were standing off from Mars and its two moons.
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