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There was Al Webber, an amiable, soft-spoken little man who owned a fleet of small ion-drive cargo ships that plied the spacelines between Earth and Mars, and who also exported dreamdust to the colony on Pluto, where the weed could not be grown. Seven or eight others showed up occasionally at Hawkes' apartment.
Alan shuddered. He had seen dreamdust addicts in the advanced state withered palsied old men of forty, unable to eat, crippled, drying up and nearing death. All that for a year's pleasure! "Johnny used to be a starman," Hawkes said suddenly. "That's why I picked him for our little stunt tonight. I thought it was about time I introduced you two." Alan's eyes widened. "What ship?" "Galactic Queen.
A dreamdust peddler came wandering through the Enclave one night and let me have a free sniff. Generous of him." "And you became an addict?" "Five minutes later. So my ship left without me. That was eleven years ago, Earthtime. Alan felt cold inside. It could have happened to him, he thought that free sniff. Byng's thin shoulders were quivering.
Earth was not a pretty world. Life was good if you had the stream running with you, as Hawkes did but for each successful one like Hawkes, how many fought unsuccessfully against the current and were swept away into dreamdust or worse? Steve. He looked down the row for Steve. And then the board lit up again, and for the first time he was playing.
"Number 322 wins a hundred credits," barked the croupier. He walked with a twisted shuffle; his body shook palsiedly. Hawkes had warned him of these, too the dreamdust addicts, who in the late stages of their addiction became hollow shells of men, barely able to walk. He took his hundred credits and returned to his table without smiling. Alan shuddered and looked away.
Byng said, "Take a squint at this capsule, boy. It's dreamdust narcosephrine. That's my kick." He tossed the capsule nonchalantly to Alan, who caught it and held it at arm's distance as if it were a live viper. It contained a yellow powder. "You twist the cap and sniff a little," Hawkes said. "But don't try it unless you hate yourself real bad. Johnny can testify to that." Alan frowned.
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