Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ta ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION ‘I ain’t never seen so much goin’ on as down on the flats lately. You guys sure baby them ships! Ain’t no machine should have to be babied like that, no, sir! Take my truck; put gas and oil in her and lube her every time I’m in town, and she runs like a rabbit. What’s the matter with you boys? Can’t — you design your rocket ships like that?” “Some day,” Pete told him, “when they’ve built as many spaceships’ as cars. Considering everything, the Penny’s just a Model-T.” “Biggest Model-T I ever saw!” “Sure, and lots more to go wrong with it,” Stan explained. “Would you ride in it without knowing that everything’s going to work?” The rancher replied with a grin, “I wouldn’t ride it in the first place! When you boys gonna get it off the range?”’ ‘A couple days or so,” Pete told him, lost in the expanse of a big leather chair and enjoying it immensely. ‘““Depends on how the final checks go. Are we in your way down there?” ‘“Shucks, no! Somebody could run off with a couple thousand acres, and I wouldn’t miss it for three months. But be sure and lemme know when you're gonna leave, willya? I ain’t never seen a rocket ship fly, and I ain’t gonna miss this chance!” “Sure. You can have a front-row seat,” Stan promised him, “‘after all the cooperation you’ve given us.’ “You guys don’t owe me nothin’,” Cortinez said frankly. “You built me a hard-top road in here, remember?” “Hello, Stan. Good evening, Pete.”” Rosie’s voice suddenly fell on them. Stan looked up, then got to his feet. He had never seen Rosie before except in her Levis. Now she wore a bright yellow squaw dress, and she had on make-up for the first time Stan could recall. He stood there looking at her for a moment before he remarked with a smile, “You know, Rosie, it’s a shame that someone like you has to waste that out in the middle of this desert.” “I don’t consider it wasted,” she replied. “Besides, you'll learn this country’s full of surprises.” Late evening found Rosie and Stan on the long verandah overlooking the basin. Cortinez had taken Pete down to the sheds in search of “something the boys make. from cactus juice which ain’t got no federal stamp on the bottle.”’ They sat watching the thousand lights across the valley around the Pendray. It was a cool, quiet evening such as often comes in New Mexico after the heat of the day passes. There was no moon; stars were spattered across the sky like sand on a black blanket. Stan noticed them and remarked, ‘“There’s only one place where I’ve seen more stars: outside the atmosphere. You'd never think there could be as many stars.” “Some day I want to see it,”’ Rosie said quietly. “I always knew it was something beautiful and worth-while, but all my information and experience has been secondhand. You’ve actually done it, and knowing you has helped me prove one of my personal theories.” “About what?” “About space flight. Most people see it as merely our desire to explore THE PLAINS OF SAN AUGUSTINE 73 and satisfy our curiosity. As a woman and as a biologist, I see it a little differently : it’s something we have to do.” This took Stan aback. ““Have to do? Why?” “Why did animal life come up out of the ocean? Go back and ask that first fish that threw itself ashore and foundered around on the tidal flats. He couldn’t give you a good reason. He just had to come out of the water and live there, and his problems living on the land make our space flight problems look simple. He came out of the ocean for the same reason we went into space. It’s not free will. Call it evolution if you want, but it’s something we don’t understand.” Stan shook his head slowly, a smile on his face. “Watch what happens to your theory in a few days after you’ve watched the Penny take off. If you think about it, watch the faces of the men. But more important, see it and feel it yourself. It’s a tremendous experience, a sensation of unlimited force and power—enough to break free of this world. It does things to you. It’s very similar to the strange fascination men found in the sea, the Tailway engine, and flight in the air. We don’t have to do it; we want to do it.” “You love your job, don’t you, Ham?’ “If that’s a nickname, I won’t object,” job. I wouldn’t do anything else.”’ “Why?” “You ask the damnedest questions! I’ve never really thought about it.” “You must have.’ “No, when I was a kid and played Space Patrol in the streets with the gang,” he admitted, “I knew that when we blasted loose from this world, I’d go along.” He paused a moment, then flipped his cigarette out on the lawn and turned to face her, ““This is no kind of a conversation to have on a night like this.” ‘Don’t get wise, rocketeer,”’ she advised him in a low voice. “This rancher’s daughter hasn’t been out in the sticks all her life. Besides, this is a night for talking. Nights like this are.the reason I keep coming back to the ranch. I keep running back here to escape time. Away from here, it’s always, ‘Hurry up, please, it’s time; hurry up, please, it’s time.’ Time stands still here; this country is immune to time. Vll admit I like to run from time occasionally, just as we all run from things. What are you running from, Ham?” “Me? I’m not running from anything.” “But you are. It sticks out all over you. Your love of space flight isn’t desire for conquest; you’re trying to escape from something, Ham. Is it loneliness; do you find your kind of people out there, lonely people running from the same thing? What is it?” “Tm just doing my job,” he said quietly and emphatically, “because I like it, because it’s been a dream for centuries, because nothing’s spoiled out there yet. Don’t go trying to read things into my personality, Rosie, because you really don’t know me very well at all.” with-the heart ofa poet, a maa wth 9oaees ALL oaths he remarked. “Sure, I love my om