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Updated: June 26, 2025
Now the Valhalla was back on Earth again for a short stay. On Earth, starmen congregated at the Enclaves, the cities-within-cities that grew up at each spaceport. There, starmen mingled in a society of their own, without attempting to enter the confusing world outside. Sometimes a Spacer broke away. His ship left him behind, and he became an Earther. Steve Donnell had done that.
"But there's been steady research on a hyperdrive, hasn't there? Ever since Cavour, I thought." "On and off. But they don't take it very seriously and they don't get anywhere with it. If they'd really put some men to work they'd find it and then there wouldn't be any more Enclaves or any Fitzgerald Contraction, and we starmen could live normal lives."
"He's just in the city on leave, Hines. His ship blasts off in a couple of days and he figures to be on it. But he's trying to track down his brother, who jumped ship nine years back." MacIntosh nodded. "I suppose you drew a blank in the big room downstairs?" "Yes." "Not surprising. We get these ship-jumping starmen all the time up here; they never do get work cards, it seems.
The starmen had only a brief stay on Earth, with just the shortest opportunity to go down to the Enclave, mingle with starmen from other ships, see a new face, trade news of the starways. It was almost criminal to deprive them of even a few hours of it. Well, a dance was the second best thing. But it was a pretty distant second, he thought, as he pushed himself up out of the pneumochair.
Photonic relays clicked; the metal door swung lightly out and they headed through it after Kelleher gave the go-ahead. Alan and the others set grimly about their work, chopping away at the ice. They fell to vigorously. After a while, they started to get somewhere. Alan grappled with a huge leg of meat while two fellow starmen helped him ease it into a crate.
You're 300 years old and still 17 at the same time. They can't understand that. These people don't like starmen very much. The people in this city aren't ever going to see the stars, Alan. Stars are just faint specks of light that peek through the city haze at night. They're terribly, terribly jealous of you and this is the way they show it." "Jealous? But why?
MacIntosh jotted down the data Alan gave him and transferred it to a punched card. "I don't remember any spacers of that name," he said, "but nine years is a long time. And we get so many starmen coming up here to take out Free Status." "You do?" "Oh, fifteen or twenty a year, at least and that's in this office alone. They're forever getting stranded on leave and losing their ships.
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.
"It's not luxurious," he told Rat. "But at least it's a room. It's a place to stay." The medics started coming around that evening, checking to see that none of the newly-arrived starmen had happened to bring back any strange disease that might cause trouble.
We have to stay isolated even from the other starmen in the Enclave until we've all had medical checkups." "Do they require every ship landing to go through this?" "Yep. Nuisance, isn't it? So the word has come from your father that since we can't go round visiting until we've been checked, the Crew's going to have a dance tonight when we touch down." "A dance?" "You heard me.
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