Rocket babe
"Youre nuts, kid-boy," Sandy said. "Even if I gave you the ship, what you gonna pay for the work with?" It was enough to assure him of a larger allocation of money, more technicians at his disposal, of a say in the exclusive Presidium Scientific. Well? Come on, what did Mattie Morrison say? Im all agog, he said patiently. The late-afternoon editions had even larger headlines: ASSAULTED TWELVE TIMES IN HOUR SAYS MODEL. There were pictures of the Model, whose name was Wanda Axelrod, the Models roommate, the Model’s parents, a scratch on the Model’s knee and the Model’s High School Chemistry Teacher. There were no pictures of the Sergeant, or J. G., or the TV Actress. Alto folded the note carefully, left the dictaphone on the staircase and walked slowly back to the window. Screaming finally, Kenebuck came up with the back of his knees against the low sill of the open window. For a second his face distorted itself out of all human shape in a grimace of its terror. He looked, to right and to left, but there was no place left to run. He had been pulling the trigger of his slugthrower all this time, but now the firing pin clicked at last upon an empty chamber. Gibbering, he threw the weapon at Ian, and it flew wide of the driving figure of the Dorsai, now almost upon him, great hands outstretched. And if it is? I must get my books and things. The first ten Annuals all concluded with a Summation of the year in science fiction and— increasingly — speculative writing generally, and with a listing of Honourable Mention stories. The Honourable Mentions were dropped from the 11th Annual,for the same reasons—already extensively explained here— that the title was changed this year to read simply SF 12.It would be as absurd, at this point, to attempt to sum up what has happened in speculative writing since the last volume as it would have been to call this collection either an 'Anthology of Science Fiction' or 'The Year's Best' of— well, what? And if it is? The Martins were still up. Mr. Martin was tying brightly colored flies for his new fly rod and Mrs. Martin was reading. They both stiffened when he entered without knocking—alarm playing over their faces like a flickering fire light. He didnt pause, but walked on up stairs without looking at them. She snuggled next to him, and they were quiet, until she said,But Charlie, whatll we do? Dazed, the doctor felt for the swollen lymph nodes and failed to find them. He stared in amazement as the hemorrhages seemed to fade from the childs skin. Thirty minutes later Mary Castle was a pink and glowing little girl, playing happily in the examining room as they waited for the emergency blood-count report. It was impossible, and Dr. Olie knew it, but the blood count had returned to normal. Two days later the child was exuberantly healthy, eating vast quantities of food and demanding to go back to school. Hewas there, right across the aisle from us. I knew it was Mack, not just someone who looked like Mack, because of the way he was trying to duck down into his collar and prevent me from recognizing him. I pointed, and my wifes face went absolutely chalk-white. When it was discovered by American and Russian space probes that there was indeed life on Mars, an immediate foreign ministers conference in Geneva was called to decide what to do about it. The goonies accepted this training in the same joyful exuberance they accepted everything else from man. I never understood it, not until now. Their whole behavior, their whole being seemed the same as greeted the first hunting party.You want us to die, man? For you, we will do it gladly..
