Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

SHARE OUR WORLD 59 and led her out of the room. He was moving with an awkwardness and intenseness very strange for him. Chang’s mind registered this in full detail. It was true that she was occu- pied by her own thoughts, but they were about Tim Balch. She noticed how, as soon as they'd got to a de- serted reach of corridor, Balch slowed, squeezed her hand, and struggled visibly to calm himself down. It did not surprise her that when he spoke it was in his usual light tone. “Chang Kwei-T’ao,” he said, “‘what do you think? Do you think you could bear my children?” She said coldly, “I thought some- thing like that was—”’ He broke in, “I’m not trying to do the unexpected, Chang. I’m not try- ing to startle you. I just want you to. marry me.” Chang bit her lip and tried to come out with a more considered reply. “Tim... after the colonists have begun arriving on Four, what will you do then?” She waited tensely. “Huh? Why do you ask? I mean, ‘that’s a long time from now.” “T want to know.” “Tl tell you, then. As soon as it’s possible I’m going to get myself in- cluded on another exploring ship. And I’m going to keep on searching from star to star as long as I can.” Chang felt a long way away from him; it seemed odd that her voice was right here, and speaking so levelly. “By the time you can get back to the Procyon system you'll be a good deal older. And how do you know they'll have the resources back there to sup- port more exploring?” “I won’t be too old—thirty-five, forty, forty-five. And I’m supposed to have good qualifications for exploring. And I have experience now. That other point I’ve worried about. Ex- ploring parties have been few and far between in the past. But they’ll come oftener and oftener now. Techniques of non-velocity travel are being im- ‘proved all the time, and they'll be improved faster.” Chang interrupted him: “You just want to explore! You enjoy exploring, so you want to keep on. Is that all you want? Don’t you have any more feel- ing for what we’re doing than that?” She was speaking heatedly now. “We’re not here to enjoy ourselves. We're here for the sake of Four, for the sake of people. People are going to come and live here! It’s not just a game. There’s . . . there’s content.” She looked up at Balch. She did not understand the half-smile on his face. Balch didn’t answer until they had reached the end of the dim corridor and turned to walk slowly back. Then he said, “Sure, there’s content to it, Chang. But you don’t have a long enough perspective.” (Chang started, and hoped he hadn’t noticed.) “People are going to come here to live, sure. After they come here, they’re going to go other places. Planet after planet! The whole galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, maybe farther! More and more people, a trillion, a trillion tril- lion; more lives, more science, more of everything human! And somebody’s always going to go first. “Maybe you've heard this idea before; well, I believe it. There will be some people who just explore. Specialists. The people who go first.” “And Tim Balch is one of them.” “Why not? As you say, I like it. I think I’m good at it.” “And that is more important than this one planet.” “More important. Yes. Are you disappointed in what I said, Chang? Why?” *“No, I’m not. Quite the reverse.” Chang was grateful to him for the silence that followed. They walked Cconnicloooks.c© in