Science fiction; Short stories; Space ships -- Fiction
"Now, get to work. And remember--don't let on you know who this Cooper
is. Deodorant's the word!"
I gave him a shove toward the door. He disappeared in a haze of little
pink clouds. And I flopped into a seat, feeling so bad I could have
bawled like a kid, but despising myself for feeling that way.
It was selfish, I guess. Biggs deserved the honor. But somehow--well,
dammit! I sort of hated to see him leave the _Saturn_. We'd had a lot
of fun together, our bunch. Cap Hanson and Chief Garrity, Dick Todd,
the Second, and Wilson, the Third. And Biggs. And me.
* * * * *
Well, things settled down into normalcy, then. The _Saturn_ is a ten
day freighter, which meant that Cooper would have beaucoup opportunity
to judge Biggs' capabilities. So tempus fidgeted, and I fidgeted,
and the Old Man came within two spasms of a nervous breakdown, and
Biggs--as might have been expected--got his nerves on ice after that
first shock and performed his routine duties in ultra-stellar fashion.
My duties were far from exacting. Four times a day I had to contact a
Space Station to check our course, speed, and declination against Solar
Constant. That was just regulation blah, though, because with Biggs
plotting the course, we had about as much chance of getting off the
line as a rural subscriber when a juicy scandal is being discussed.
It was also my job to keep in touch with Lunar III, which daily
interlude--Joe Marlowe being the low scut he is--was the only
disturbing influence in an otherwise languid existence. Understand, I
don't believe for a minute that my gal, Maisie Belle, _was_ out with
him. She's true to me. But it was a dirty trick for him to say she was,
and beside, how the hell did he learn about that birthmark if--?
Oh, the hell with it! The fact is that time passed and pretty soon
it was the sixth day, and in just a few more days we'd dock at Mars
Central and Lt. Biggs would be Capt. Biggs.
Because if I had been idle on this shuttle, my rawboned friend had not.
Cooper had been putting him through a series of strenuous paces to test
his knowledge, ability and resourcefulness. The trajectory computations
had mysteriously disappeared, for instance, and Biggs had to compile a
new set. When he went to use the calculometer, he discovered it to be
accidentally-on-purpose "out of order." So he had to evolve the figures
from his own cranium.
Then there was the false alarm fire in the storage compartments--while
Biggs was on the bridge. And the hypos went on the blink--with Biggs on
duty. And one of the aft jets clogged. Guess who was standing watch at
the time?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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