Gangsters -- Fiction; Saturn (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Space stations -- Fiction
Ranjit said, "The SPRS? Oh, yeah, you're the ones are always sending
me spacemail. It's about all I ever get, and I appreciate it. I don't
get much mail, out here, and I don't see many people. This fellow here,
Henry, was the first I'd seen in days. I saved Henry's life, or did he
tell you?"
"How wonderful!" Morna exclaimed in awe. "I've never spoken to a Saver
before! Think of it, Joachim! Ranjit saved Henry!"
"That is very nice," Joachim admitted, "but--"
"You're a hero!" Morna cried, seizing Ranjit's hands. "How does it feel
to be a Saver? It must be sublime!" She turned to Henry and grasped his
arms. "How do you feel, Henry? You must almost worship Ranjit! Such a
noble man!"
Ranjit cackled. "Look at him blush! I don't believe he's been around
girls much. Since Joachim don't have no claim on her, Henry, I'd do
some sweet talking if I was your age. I pulled Henry in on a lifeline,
or he'd be falling into the methane by now."
"Isn't that wonderful?" Morna marveled, smiling glamorously.
Joachim said, "Everyone be quiet and allow me to finish! I have come
thirteen hundred million kilometers on a mission, and I intend
to fulfill it! I am Second Vice-President of the Society for the
Preservation of the Rings of Saturn. You, Ranjit, and the people on the
other three stations in the Rings are destroying the most glorious and
inspiring feature of the Solar System! The divine pinnacle of Creation!
A miracle that may be unique in the Universe! You are destroying the
Rings of Saturn for the greedy, selfish purpose of selling fuel to
spaceships!"
"Spaceships got to have fuel," Ranjit said, "and don't talk so loud.
Ice is scarce, you know, unless you want to chase comets. One side of
Iapetus has a sheet, and Titan has some. If you go on in, you'll find
a little on some of the Moons of Jupiter, and a few of the Asteroids
are--"
Joachim said, "You are destroying the Rings of Saturn! This is the
most despicable crime in a long history of the devastation of nature
by greedy men! When you have eventually melted the last crystal of ice
and departed with your hoard, Saturn will spin desolately alone through
the night, shorn of his glorious halo that has been the solace and
inspiration of man since prehistoric times!"
"Not when they never had telescopes, it wasn't very inspiring," Ranjit
said. "I don't see why you're jumping on me, Joachim. I never answered
your letters because there wasn't nothing to say. I just work here.
You'll have to talk to the company to--"
"The Saturnine Fuel and Oxygen Company is headed by stubborn men!"
Joachim said. "They refuse to consider or answer our demands! That
is why I have come to appeal directly to the operators of these
ice-sweepers! You must immediately stop sweeping the Rings into your
tanks! You must tell your superiors that you refuse to destroy the
crowning glory of the Solar System!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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