United States or Somalia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
So while you're in York City keep your eyes wide and your mouth zippered, and don't turn your nose up at the sordid ways people make their livings." Alan felt his face go red, and he was happy to have the trays of food arrive at that moment, causing some sort of distraction. "Sorry, Max. I didn't mean to sound preachy." "I know, kid. You lead a pretty sheltered life on those starships.
Then, of course, it was dropped automatically; and the next five days were deliciously, deliriously, ecstatically happy days for them both. At the time of this chronicle the status of interstellar flight was very similar to that of intercontinental jet-plane flight in the nineteen-sixties. Starships were designed by humanity's best brains; carried every safety device those brains could devise.
Starships were closed-system cycles, no waste was discarded, but everything was collected in big chemical tanks, broken down to separate elements, purified and built up again into new materials. He threw the paper into the toilet, worked the plastic card back and forth, back and forth until he had wrenched it into inch-wide bits, and threw it after them.
And that's what he gets frustrated about!" Cochrane snapped: "I thought you psychiatrists knew the facts of life, Bill! Dabney's not unusual in my business! He's almost a typical sponsor!" "When you ask me to throw away starships," said Jones coldly, "for a publicity feature, I don't play. I won't take the credit for the field away from Dabney. I sold him that with my eyes open.
Statistically, starships were the safest means of transportation ever used by man; so safe that Very Important Persons used them regularly, unthinkingly, and as a matter of course. Statistically, the starships' fatality rate per million passenger-light-years was a small fraction of that of the automobiles' per million passenger-miles.
They were needed to get it back to Earth, with full knowledge of how to make other starships. Cochrane tried to leave Babs behind, but she would not stay. Bell had loaded himself with a camera and film-tape besides a weapon, before Cochrane even began his organization. Holden was needed for an extra gun. Alicia, tearless and despairing, would not be left behind. Cochrane turned wryly to Jamison.
Crewmen aren't allowed to have liquor aboard starships. Regulation." "Oh, but you're off-duty now!" Alan shook his head a second time; shrugging, MacIntosh took the drink himself and put the unused third glass back in the drawer. "Here's to Steve Donnell!" he said, lifting his glass high. "May he have had the good sense to register his name up here!" They drank. Alan watched.
Boswellister gulped and pointed upwards. "See the Ipplinger starship!" "Aah! Shuddup!" His mother jerked his arm in reproof. "How many times I've gotta tell you not to say, shuddup. Say, SHUT UP! S-H-U-T U-P!" "Aah!" the boy said in disgust. "Everybody knows starships are big rockets!" He'd said the final word; he had no more interest in Boswellister, for the fire engines were coming.
They formed a guild of Spacers, and lived their entire lives on the starships, raised their families there, and never set foot outside their own Enclave during their landings on Earth. They grew to despise Earthers, and the Earthers grew to despise them in turn. There was no logical reason for it, except that they were different. That was enough. But not all Starmen liked being different.
Something back in his mind told him that. But of course it was ridiculous, a quirk of the imagination. There weren't any starships. You're all right, Kieran. You're in a starship, and you're all right. The emphatic assurance came from somewhere back in his brain and it was comforting.
Word Of The Day