Interstellar travel -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Mr. Winstead sighed and returned to his quarters. At least, on this
ship, he still had a private compartment in which to float his net.
There was even a chair, equipped with a safety belt and folding table,
bolted to the deck. What he did miss was the general dining saloon of
the liner he had taken from Epseri II.
_Still_, he reflected, _travel can't always be luxurious._
He spent some time, after the ship had slipped into stellar drive, in
unpacking his one small suitcase. He found that he had to take his
shaver to the general head to plug it in, but otherwise got along
comfortably enough. One or two of the crew who shared his turn at the
galley counter, in fact, took him for an old space hopper and began to
exchange yarns.
This sort of semi-suspended living passed the four-day hop to the Topaz
system and the extra day necessary for planetary approach. When they
landed, Winstead was the only passenger, either incoming or outgoing,
to show up at the cargo shed designated as the spaceport administration
building.
Here on Topaz IV, the Agency clerk was a part-time man who had to be
called from the mines on the far side of the city. He arrived to find
Winstead dozing on a cot at the end of the shed.
"Billy Callahan," he introduced himself. "They say you're not for the
mines."
"That is correct," answered Winstead, stretching a kink out of his
back. "I have my destination here in these papers ... if you will bear
with me a moment...."
He fumbled out his identification, travel record, and ticket. Callahan,
rubbing his carroty hair with a large, freckled hand, pored over them.
A few minutes of searching through the battered desk that was his
headquarters revealed the official arrival stamp. Its inky smear was
duly added to the record.
"Now for your way outa here," grunted Callahan. "Meanwhile, how about a
cigar, Mr. Winstead?"
"Why--thanks very much."
Winstead regarded the torpedo doubtfully. He wondered upon which planet
the tobacco for it--if it was tobacco--had been grown.
"This might take a little while," said Callahan, applying to the ends
of their cigars a lighter that could have welded I-beams. "It ain't
every day we get a through traveler here. I gotta look up the Galatlas
an' the shipping notices."
He hoisted a bulky catalogue from a side table onto his desk and blew
off a cloud of dust. Winstead seized the excuse to cough out a lungful
of smoke. His host reached out for the ticket.
"Ultimate destination Fomalhaut VIII," he read off. "Say! That ain't
one I ever had to handle before!"
He leafed through the volume for some minutes, reexamined the ticket,
then dug into two or three appendices. He tapped a knobby knuckle
against his chin.
"It don't look to me, Mr. Winstead," he said thoughtfully, "like you
shoulda wound up here at all. Fomalhaut VIII! That's a hell of a way
from here!"
"The clerk at the last spaceport _did_ seem to think there had been a
mistake," Winstead volunteered cautiously.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account