Longevity -- Fiction; Older people -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space flight -- Fiction
Wyckoff took up, "There will be two more turnovers, the first within a
couple of hours, I expect. You've just been through one and know what
to do as far as remaining in your cabins with a good supply of solid
food in your kits and plenty of packaged water. As Mr. Avery expresses
it, we shall have to run to catch up with our course, so there will
be acceleration, too. The gravitators will be switched on again
immediately after turnover, but, since acceleration may be intermittent
the ship may seem bumpy until a constant acceleration has been reached.
All of you who are not essential crew or involved with food service or
care of animals had better go for rations at once and then strap into
your bunks with a sedative and maybe a good book. Food services go hand
out ration packs and report back here. Crew members still in the hall
meet with Mr. Avery by the stage." He paused for breath. "And before
you walk not run to the nearest food hatch," (tension in the Great
Saloon was a new thing, alert, responsive), "let's have three rousing
cheers for a better man with a calculator than any on earth! Hip!
Hip!..."
"Hoo-ray!" Deafening.
"Hip!... Hip!..."
"Hoo-ray!"
The third cheer was a wave of noise that had no beginning but dimmed
suddenly when a woman near the captain folded her hands and bowed her
head. The crowd followed the example like one being.
Avery, too, bowed his head for a moment, fierce triumph fading from
his face; then he strode down the floor to the stage as the throng
moved in orderly departure to the doors around the room, a man here and
there following him.
Tim Daneshaw grasped Sam Wyckoff's hand with a quick, friendly shake.
"_Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be_," he quoted musingly;
and both men followed the little line leading the way to Avery and
action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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