_ABOARD THE SPACESHIP SUPERIOR, Nov. 6 (UPI)--This former Ohio town,
adapted for space travel, took off for the asteroid belt today after
transferring 2,878 of its citizens to a convoy of buses bound for a
relocation center. The other 122 of its previous population of 3,000
chose to remain aboard to pioneer the birth of the tenth planet of the
solar system--Neworld._
_Neworld, named by the United Press International correspondent
accompanying the survivors of the burned-out planet of Gorel-zed, will
become the second known inhabited planet in the solar system...._
* * * * *
"Just a minute, Alis," Don said.
"No, sir, Sergeant-General Donald Cort, sir. Not a minute longer. You
tell him now."
"All right. Sir," Don Cort (Gen., temp.) said to Frank Fogarty,
Secretary of Defense, "has the mission been accomplished?"
Don and Alis were in the back seat of an army staff car that was leading
the bus convoy.
"Looks that way, son. Our best telescopes can't see them any more. I'd
say Neworld was well on its way to a-borning."
Alis Garet, her arms around Don and her head on his shoulder, spoke
directly into the transceiver. "Mr. Fogarty, are you aware that I
haven't had a single minute alone with this human radio station since
I've know him? This is the most inhibited man in the entire U. S. Army."
"Miss Garet," the Defense Secretary said, "I understand perfectly. When
I was courting Mrs. Fogarty I was a pilot on the Meseck Line.... Well,
never mind that. Mission accomplished, General Cort, my boy."
"Then, sir," Don said, "Sergeant Cort respectfully requests permission
to disconnect this blasted invasion of privacy so he can ask Miss Alis
Garet if she thinks two of us can live on a non-com's pay."
The driver of the staff car, a sergeant himself, said over his shoulder,
"Can't be done, General."
Fogarty said, "Don't be too anxious to revert to the ranks, my boy. I'll
admit the T/O for generals isn't wide open but I'm sure we can
compromise somewhere between three stripes and four stars. Suppose you
take a ten-day delay en route to Washington while we see what we can do.
I'll meet you in the White House on November sixteenth. The President
tells me he wants to pin a medal on you."
"Yes, sir," Don said. Alis was very close and he was only half
listening. "Any further orders, sir?"
"Just one, Don. Kiss her for me, too. Over to you."
"Yes, sir!" Don said. "Over and out."
* * * * *
RICHARD WILSON, a part-time novelist, is a full-time newsman for an
international press service (Reuters). He is the author of two
previous books and several dozen short stories in science-fiction
magazines since 1940.
He finds time for his fiction writing at night and on week ends in
the attic workroom of his century-old ex-farmhouse exactly 35 miles,
as the odometer on his Volkswagen computes it, from Times Square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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