by Noel Loomis
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories October 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The galactic patrol cruiser Parsec was coasting—as she had beenfor eight months. At a speed of roughly twelve to fifteen light-minutesan hour, she had been patrolling the Pass—that vast cosmic voidbetween the II Milky Way Supergalaxy and the I Supergalaxy of Andromeda.
The Parsec was so immense that a man could die in one end andbe buried in space, and those on the other end wouldn't know ituntil they read it in their daily Space Traveler. She was a41.261 A.D. model, only four years old, and aside from fuel she wastheoretically capable of sustaining herself in space for a thousandyears—which is just what young Lt. Jim Braniff was afraid she wasgoing to do.
Lt. Stevens, his roommate, came stamping in from the sixth watchslapping his hands.
"Cold outside!" He wiped the fog from his glasses. "Must be nearlyfreezing. Hear they had a strike in the Heating Corps. The Old Manbetter step in and settle that before it gets serious."
Lt. Braniff sighed wearily. "Oh, he'll step in and tell them to go backto work or go without food. Sometimes I think the Old Man hasn't anyfeelings at all."
Stevens stared at him. Stevens was a handsome, dark-haired,glossy-eyebrowed young man who always seemed to be imbued with therecklessness of space.
"Homesickness eating on you again?" He snorted. "Why don't you go takea walk? There are some very nice girls over in the Kitchens."
"It's too far," Braniff said listlessly.
"You can catch a ride on the truck—if you want to." Stevens tossed histrim space jacket on the bed. "You might as well quit mooning over thatwife and kid of yours. It'll be ten years yet before we get back toEarth."
"Do you really think it will be that long?" Lt. Braniff, to tell thetruth, was horribly homesick. He was almost so homesick that he didn'tcare if Stevens knew it.
He got up and paced the floor while Stevens washed his face. Four yearsfrom home, and six years to go! They had spent three years and fourmonths getting to the Pass, and they were to patrol it for three years.Suddenly he felt he couldn't stand it.
"I've got to get promoted," he said aloud. "That's the only answer. IfI could get to the rank of captain by the time we get back, I couldrate a job at home—back on Earth."
Stevens looked up, his black eyebrows dripping water. "Don't expect meto sit back and wait for you to be made a captain. After all, I can usethe money—and the rank."
Braniff knew it. He also knew that Stevens was two years older andthree years more experienced—and, if he wanted to face the truth, alot tougher. Stevens would inevitably get the first chance, unless theadmiral should unaccountably soften, and Braniff saw no hope of that.
That very day Admiral Gorthy had given him a dressing-down for failingto report a tube burned out in the detector. It was a spare tube in thealternate circuit of the tenth stage of amplification, but the grizzledold admiral had threatened to keep him a lieutenant the rest of hislife.
Why couldn't the admiral be human? Just because he didn't haveany family back home, he didn't have to be so tough.
"I gave orders for you to inspect those tubes every day. That meansevery twenty-four hours. And quit mooning. If everybody were to be likeyou, we'd never get home."
But everybody wasn't as lonesome as Lt. Braniff. His only daughter wasnow three years old and he